The base license that is provided with your system includes the
use of its basic functions. However, extra licenses can also be purchased to expand the
capabilities. Each system model or software version supports different licensing options and
types of licensing. The management GUI displays options that are available to your specific
model and software version. Verify the licensing support for your model or software
version to determine additional requirements for support. Administrators are responsible for
purchasing extra licenses and configuring the systems within the license agreement, which
includes configuring the settings of each licensed function on the system.
The system supports differential, capacity,
and key-based licensing. For example, with external virtualization differential licensing charges
different rates for different types of storage, which provides cost effective management of capacity
across multiple tiers of storage. Licensing for these functions are based on the number of storage
capacity units (SCUs) purchased. With other functions, like remote mirroring and FlashCopy®, the license grants a specific number of terabytes
of capacity for that function. Key-based licenses require an authorization code and key to be
downloaded to the system before the function can be used.
Differential licensing is the
term used to refer to the measurement of external virtualization and compression licenses, where
different types of storage are charged at different rates.
Differential licensing uses a storage capacity unit (SCU)-based license scheme. For each SCU, a
client is entitled to manage different amounts of usable capacity based on a storage category
classification.
Table 1 identifies the
storage categories and SCU ratios for each category.
Table 1. Supported SCU licenses, drive classes, and ratios
| License |
Drive Classes |
SCU
Ratio |
| SCM |
Storage Class Memory (SCM) devices |
1 SCU equates to 1.00 TB usable of Category 1 storage |
| Flash |
All flash devices, other than SCM drives |
1 SCU equates to 1.18 TB usable of Category 1 storage |
| Enterprise |
10K or 15K RPM drives |
1 SCU equates to 2.00 TB usable of Category 2 storage |
| Nearline |
Nearline Serial ATA (SATA) drives |
1 SCU equates to 4.00 TB usable of Category 3 storage |
provides an
example of how SCU licensing might work based on category types.
Table 2. Example of SCU usage
| Storage category |
TB usable |
SCU
ratio |
Total SCUs |
| 1 |
42 |
1.18 |
35 |
| 2 |
400 |
2.00 |
200 |
| 3 |
800 |
4 |
200 |
| Totals |
1242 |
|
435 |
The system supports the following licensed functions:
- External Virtualization
- Enter the total number of storage capacity units (SCUs) you are licensed to virtualize across
tiers of storage on your system. The system supports virtualization licensing for different tiers of
storage. A license can be purchased for a specific quantity of storage capacity units (SCU) which
can be used to virtualize a designated number of tebibytes (TiB) of storage. The used capacity for
each tier can be monitored to learn how the virtualization license is distributed across the
following tiers of storage:
- Storage Class Memory
- Storage Class Memory storage uses persistent memory technologies that improves endurance and
speed of current flash storage device technologies. The Used SCU value indicates the amount of SCU
that this tier has used of the total number of licensed SCUs. The system converts that information
into the Used TiB value.
- Tier 0 Flash
- Tier 0 flash contains high performance tier 0 flash drives. The Used SCU value indicates the
amount of SCU that this tier has used of the total number of licensed SCUs. The system converts that
information into the Used TiB value.
- Tier 1 Flash
- Tier 1 flash contains high performance tier 1 flash drives. The Used SCU value indicates the
amount of SCU that this tier has used of the total number of licensed SCUs. The system converts that
information into the Used TiB value.
- Enterprise Tier
- The enterprise tier contains Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives. The Used SCU value indicates the
amount of SCU that this tier has used of the total number of licensed SCUs. The system converts that
information into the Used TiB value.
- Nearline Tier
- The nearline tier contains nearline SAS drives. The Used SCU value indicates the amount of SCU
that this tier has used of the total number of licensed SCUs. The system converts that information
into the Used TiB value.
- FlashCopy
- The FlashCopy function copies the contents of a
source volume to a target volume. The FlashCopy function
is also used to create cloud snapshots of volumes in systems that have transparent cloud tiering
enabled. The used capacity for FlashCopy mappings is the
sum of all of the volumes that are the source volumes of a FlashCopy mapping and volumes with cloud snapshots.
- Remote Mirroring
- The remote-mirroring function configures a relationship between two volumes. This function
mirrors updates that are made to one volume to another volume. The volumes can be in the same system
or on two different systems. The used capacity for Global Mirror and Metro Mirror is the sum of the
capacities of all of the volumes that are in a Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationship. Both
master and auxiliary volumes are counted.
- Compression
- Enter the total number of storage capacity units (SCUs) you are licensed for using the
compression function on the system. With the compression function, data is compressed as it is
written to disk, saving extra capacity for the system. A compression license can be purchased for a
specific quantity of storage capacity units (SCU) which can be divided among different tiers of
storage.
Note: Real-time compression remains an optional license for some system models to
create compressed volumes within standard pools.
The used capacity for each tier can be
monitored to learn how the compression license is distributed across the following tiers of storage:
- Storage class memory (SCM)
- Tier 0 Flash
- Tier 1 Flash
- Enterprise
- Nearline