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Cloud Volumes ONTAP licensing

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Several licensing options are available for Cloud Volumes ONTAP. Each option enables you to choose a consumption model that meets your needs.

Licensing overview

The following licensing options are available for new customers.

Capacity-based licensing

Pay for multiple Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems in your NetApp account by provisioned capacity. Includes the ability to purchase add-on cloud data services.

Keystone Subscription

A pay-as-you-grow subscription-based service that delivers a seamless hybrid cloud experience for HA pairs.

The previous by-node licensing model remains available for existing customers who have already purchased a license or who have an active marketplace subscription.

The following sections provide more details about each of these options.

Note Support is not available for the use of licensed features without a license.

Capacity-based licensing

Capacity-based licensing packages enable you to pay for Cloud Volumes ONTAP per TiB of capacity. The license is associated with your NetApp account and enables you to charge multiple systems against the license, as long as enough capacity is available through the license.

For example, you could purchase a single 20 TiB license, deploy four Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems, and then allocate a 5 TiB volume to each system, for a total of 20 TiB. The capacity is available to the volumes on each Cloud Volumes ONTAP system deployed in that account.

Capacity-based licensing is available in the form of a package. When you deploy a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system, you can choose from several licensing packages based on your business needs.

Note While the actual usage and metering for the products and services managed in BlueXP are always calculated in GiB and TiB, the terms GB/GiB and TB/TiB are used interchangeably. This is reflected in the Cloud Marketplace listings, price quotes, listing descriptions, and in other supporting documentation.

Packages

The following capacity-based packages are available for Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

For a list of supported VM types with the following capacity-based packages, refer to:

Freemium

Provides all Cloud Volumes ONTAP features free of charge from NetApp (cloud provider charges still apply).

  • No license or contract is needed.

  • Support from NetApp is not included.

  • You're limited to 500 GiB of provisioned capacity per Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

  • You can use up to 10 Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems with the Freemium offering per NetApp account, in any cloud provider.

  • If the provisioned capacity for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system exceeds 500 GiB, BlueXP converts the system to the Essentials package.

    As soon as a system is converted to the Essentials package, the minimum charge applies.

    Any other systems that have less than 500 GiB of provisioned capacity stay on Freemium (as long as they were deployed using the Freemium offering).

Optimized

Pay for provisioned capacity and I/O operations separately.

  • Cloud Volumes ONTAP single node or HA

  • Charging is based on two cost components: storage and usage (I/O).

    You will not be charged for I/O related to data replication (SnapMirror), backups (SnapVault), or NDMP.

  • Available in the Azure Marketplace as a pay-as-you-go offering or as an annual contract

  • Available in the Google Cloud Marketplace as a pay-as-you-go offering or as an annual contract

  • Add on any of NetApp's cloud data services at extra cost

Essentials

Pay by capacity for Cloud Volumes ONTAP in a number of different configurations.

  • Choose your Cloud Volumes ONTAP configuration:

    • A single node or HA system

    • File and block storage or secondary data for disaster recovery (DR)

  • Add on any of NetApp's cloud data services at extra cost

Professional

Pay by capacity for any type of Cloud Volumes ONTAP configuration with unlimited backups.

  • Provides licensing for any Cloud Volumes ONTAP configuration

    Single node or HA with capacity charging for primary and secondary volumes at the same rate

  • Includes unlimited volume backups using BlueXP backup and recovery, but only for Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems that use the Professional package.

    Note A PAYGO subscription is required for BlueXP backup and recovery, however no charges will be incurred for using this service. For more information on setting up licensing for BlueXP backup and recovery, see Set up licensing for BlueXP backup and recovery.
  • Add on any of NetApp's cloud data services at extra cost

Edge Cache

Provides licensing for Cloud Volumes Edge Cache.

  • The same capabilities as the Professional package with business continuity and data protection for a distributed enterprise

  • Intelligent edge caching through a small-footprint Windows VM at each location

  • One edge node with every 3 TiBs of capacity purchased

  • Available in the Azure Marketplace as a pay-as-you-go offering or as an annual contract

  • Available in the Google Cloud Marketplace as a pay-as-you-go offering or as an annual contract

Consumption models

Capacity-based licensing packages are available with the following consumption models:

  • BYOL: A license purchased from NetApp that can be used to deploy Cloud Volumes ONTAP in any cloud provider.

    Note that the Optimized and Edge Cache packages are not available with BYOL.

  • PAYGO: An hourly subscription from your cloud provider's marketplace.

  • Annual: An annual contract from your cloud provider's marketplace.

Note the following:

  • If you purchase a license from NetApp (BYOL), you also need to subscribe to the PAYGO offering from your cloud provider's marketplace.

    Your license is always charged first, but you'll be charged from the hourly rate in the marketplace in these cases:

    • If you exceed your licensed capacity

    • If the term of your license expires

  • If you have an annual contract from a marketplace, all Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems that you deploy are charged against that contract. You can't mix and match an annual marketplace contract with BYOL.

  • Only single node systems with BYOL are supported in China regions.

Changing packages

After deployment, you can change the package for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system that uses capacity-based licensing. For example, if you deployed a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system with the Essentials package, you can change it to the Professional package if your business needs changed.

Pricing

For details about pricing, go to NetApp BlueXP website.

Free trials

A 30-day free trial is available from the pay-as-you-go subscription in your cloud provider's marketplace. The free trial includes Cloud Volumes ONTAP and BlueXP backup and recovery. The trial starts when you subscribe to the offering in the marketplace.

There are no instance or capacity limitations. You can deploy as many Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems as you'd like and allocate as much capacity as needed, free of charge for 30 days. The free trial automatically converts to a paid hourly subscription after 30 days.

There are no hourly software license charges for Cloud Volumes ONTAP, but infrastructure charges from your cloud provider still apply.

Tip You will receive a notification in BlueXP when the free trial starts, when there are 7 days left, and when there is 1 day remaining. For example:
A screenshot of a notification in the BlueXP interface that states there is only 7 days remaining on a free trial.

Supported configurations

Capacity-based licensing packages are available with Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.7 and later.

Capacity limit

With this licensing model, each individual Cloud Volumes ONTAP system supports up to 2 PiB of capacity through disks and tiering to object storage.

There is no maximum capacity limitation when it comes to the license itself.

Max number of systems

With capacity-based licensing, the maximum number of Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems is limited to 20 per NetApp account. A system is a Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA pair, a Cloud Volumes ONTAP single node system, or any additional storage VMs that you create. The default storage VM does not count against the limit. This limit applies to all licensing models.

For example, let's say you have three working environments:

  • A single node Cloud Volumes ONTAP system with one storage VM (this is the default storage VM that's created when you deploy Cloud Volumes ONTAP)

    This working environment counts as one system.

  • A single node Cloud Volumes ONTAP system with two storage VMs (the default storage VM, plus one additional storage VM that you created)

    This working environment counts as two systems: one for the single node system and one for the additional storage VM.

  • A Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA pair with three storage VMs (the default storage VM, plus two additional storage VMs that you created)

    This working environment counts as three systems: one for the HA pair and two for the additional storage VMs.

That's six systems in total. You would then have room for an additional 14 systems in your account.

If you have a large deployment that requires more then 20 systems, contact your account rep or sales team.

Notes about charging

The following details can help you understand how charging works with capacity-based licensing.

Minimum charge

There is a 4 TiB minimum charge for each data-serving storage VM that has least one primary (read-write) volume. If the sum of the primary volumes is less than 4 TiB, then BlueXP applies the 4 TiB minimum charge to that storage VM.

If you haven't provisioned any volumes yet, then the minimum charge doesn't apply.

For the Essentials package, the 4 TiB minimum capacity charge doesn't apply to storage VMs that contain secondary (data protection) volumes only. For example, if you have a storage VM with 1 TiB of secondary data, then you're charged just for that 1 TiB of data. With all other non-Essentials package types (Optimized, Professional, and Edge Cache), the minimum capacity charging of 4 TiB applies regardless of the volume type.

Overages

If you exceed your BYOL capacity or if your license expires, you'll be charged for overages at the hourly rate based on your marketplace subscription.

Essentials package

With the Essentials package, you're billed by the deployment type (HA or single node) and the volume type (primary or secondary). Pricing from high to low is in the following order: Essentials Primary HA, Essentials Primary Single Node, Essentials Secondary HA, and Essentials Secondary Single Node. Alternately, when you purchase a marketplace contract or accept a private offer, capacity charges are the same for any deployment or volume type.

BYOL

If you purchased an Essentials license from NetApp (BYOL) and you exceed the licensed capacity for that deployment and volume type, the BlueXP digital wallet charges overages against a higher priced Essentials license (if you have one and there is available capacity). This happens because we first use the available capacity that you've already purchased as prepaid capacity before charging against the marketplace. If there is no available capacity with your BYOL license, the exceeded capacity will be charged at marketplace on-demand hourly rates (PAYGO) and will add costs to your monthly bill.

Here's an example. Let's say you have the following licenses for the Essentials package:

  • A 500 TiB Essentials Secondary HA license that has 500 TiB of committed capacity

  • A 500 TiB Essentials Single Node license that only has 100 TiB of committed capacity

Another 50 TiB is provisioned on an HA pair with secondary volumes. Instead of charging that 50 TiB to PAYGO, the BlueXP digital wallet charges the 50 TiB overage against the Essentials Single Node license. That license is priced higher than Essentials Secondary HA, but it's making use of a license you have already purchased, and it will not add costs to your monthly bill.

In the BlueXP digital wallet, that 50 TiB will be shown as charged against the Essentials Single Node license.

Here's another example. Let's say you have the following licenses for the Essentials package:

  • A 500 TiB Essentials Secondary HA license that has 500 TiB of committed capacity

  • A 500 TiB Essentials Single Node license that only has 100 TiB of committed capacity

Another 100 TiB is provisioned on an HA pair with primary volumes. The license you purchased doesn't have Essentials Primary HA committed capacity. The Essentials Primary HA license is priced higher than both the Essentials Primary Single Node and Essentials Secondary HA licenses.

In this example, the BlueXP digital wallet charges overages at the marketplace rate for the additional 100 TiB. The overage charges will appear on your monthly bill.

Marketplace contracts or private offers

If you purchased an Essentials license as part of a marketplace contract or a private offer, the BYOL logic does not apply, and you must have the exact license type for the usage. License type includes volume type (primary or secondary) and the deployment type (HA or single node).

For example, let's say you deploy a Cloud Volumes ONTAP instance with the Essentials license. You then provision read-write volumes (primary single node) and read-only (secondary single node) volumes. Your marketplace contract or private offer must include capacity for Essentials Single Node and Essentials Secondary Single Node to cover the provisioned capacity. Any provisioned capacity that isn't part of your marketplace contract or private offer will be charged at the on-demand hourly rates (PAYGO) and will add costs to your monthly bill.

Storage VMs

  • There are no extra licensing costs for additional data-serving storage VMs (SVMs), but there is a 4 TiB minimum capacity charge per data-serving SVM.

  • Disaster recovery SVMs are charged according to the provisioned capacity.

HA pairs

For HA pairs, you're only charged for the provisioned capacity on a node. You aren't charged for data that is synchronously mirrored to the partner node.

FlexClone and FlexCache volumes

  • You won't be charged for the capacity used by FlexClone volumes.

  • Source and destination FlexCache volumes are considered primary data and charged according to the provisioned space.

Keystone Subscription

A pay-as-you-grow subscription-based service that delivers a seamless hybrid cloud experience for those preferring OpEx consumption models to upfront CapEx or leasing.

Charging is based on the size of your committed capacity for one or more Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA pairs in your Keystone Subscription.

The provisioned capacity for each volume is aggregated and compared to the committed capacity on your Keystone Subscription periodically, and any overages are charged as burst on your Keystone Subscription.

Supported configurations

Keystone Subscriptions are supported with HA pairs. This licensing option isn't supported with single node systems at this time.

Capacity limit

Each individual Cloud Volumes ONTAP system supports up to 2 PiB of capacity through disks and tiering to object storage.

Node-based licensing

Node-based licensing is the previous generation licensing model that enabled you to license Cloud Volumes ONTAP by node. This licensing model is not available for new customers and no free trials are available. By-node charging has been replaced with the by-capacity charging methods described above.

Node-based licensing is still available for existing customers:

  • If you have an active license, BYOL is available for license renewals only.

  • If you have an active marketplace subscription, charging is still available through that subscription.

License conversions

Converting an existing Cloud Volumes ONTAP system to another licensing method isn't supported. The three current licensing methods are capacity-based licensing, Keystone Subscriptions, and node-based licensing. For example, you can't convert a system from node-based licensing to capacity-based licensing (and vice versa).

If you want to transition to another licensing method, you can purchase a license, deploy a new Cloud Volumes ONTAP system using that license, and then replicate the data to that new system.

Note that converting a system from PAYGO by-node licensing to BYOL by-node licensing (and vice versa) isn't supported. You need to deploy a new system and then replicate data to that system. Learn how to change between PAYGO and BYOL.