Licensed functions
The base license that is provided with your system includes the use of its basic functions. However, the following extra licenses can be purchased to expand the capabilities of your system. 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 uses enclosure-based licensing, where functions are licensed according to the number of enclosures in a system that are permitted to use a licensed function.
- The FlashCopy function copies the contents of a source volume to a target volume. For the FlashCopy function, the number of licenses must be equal to the total number of control enclosures, expansion enclosures, and any enclosures in any virtualized storage systems.
- The remote-mirroring function configures a relationship between two volumes. Updates that are made by an application to one volume are mirrored on the other volume. The total number of enclosures must include the enclosures on external storage systems that are licensed for virtualization plus the number of control and expansion enclosures that are part of your local system. For example, if the system is made up of one control enclosure, one expansion enclosure, and one virtualized storage system that is itself made up of two enclosures, then four licenses are required. The license settings apply only to the system on which you are configuring license settings. For remote-mirroring partnerships, a license is also required on any remote systems that are in the partnership.
- The Easy Tier responds to pools that have a mixture of flash, enterprise, and nearline storage in any combination. The system automatically and nondisruptively moves data between the MDisks to optimize performance. For the Easy Tier function, the number of licenses must be equal to the total number of control enclosure, expansion enclosures, and any enclosures in any virtualized storage system. For example, if the system is made up of one control enclosure, one expansion enclosure, and one virtualized storage system that has two enclosures, then four licenses are required.
- The system does not require a license for its own control and expansion enclosures. However, a license is required for each enclosure of any external storage systems that are being virtualized. For example, if the system is made up of one control enclosure, one expansion enclosure, and one virtualized storage system that is itself made up of two enclosures, then two licenses are required. The system does not require an external virtualization license for external enclosures that are only being used to provide managed disks for a quorum disk and are not providing any capacity for volumes.
- The compression is a separately orderable license that is set on a per enclosure basis. One license is required for each control or expansion enclosure and each enclosure in any external storage systems that use virtualization. With the compression function, data is compressed as it is written to disk, saving extra capacity for the system.
In addition to these enclosure-based licensed functions, the system also supports encryption through a key-based license. Key-based licensing requires an authorization code to activate encryption on the system. Only certain models of the control enclosures support encryption. During system setup, you can select to activate the license with the authorization code. The authorization code is sent with the licensed function authorization documents that you receive after purchasing the license. These documents contain the authorization codes that are required to obtain keys for the encryption function that you purchased for your system. Encryption is activated on a per system basis and an active license is required for each control enclosure that uses encryption. During system setup, the system detects any SAS attached enclosures and applies the license to these enclosures. If additional control enclosures are added and require encryption, additional encryption licenses need to be purchased and activated.