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Licenses and subscriptions

Manage BYOL licenses for Cloud Volumes ONTAP

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Bring-Your-Own License (BYOL) is a charging model in Cloud Volumes ONTAP, in which you pay for capacity consumption through a license that you purchase directly from NetApp instead of through marketplace subscriptions. Manage your BYOL licenses in the NetApp Console to ensure that your Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems have valid licenses with the required capacity. For more information, refer to Licensing for Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

NetApp recommends capacity-based licensing for all new deployments. If you have an existing license using the previous-generation node-based model, you must convert it to capacity-based licensing. For instructions, see Convert a Cloud Volumes ONTAP node-based license to a capacity-based license.

Note PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) subscriptions from your cloud provider's marketplace aren't available for private-mode deployments. In private mode, NetApp provides BYOL licenses directly. Node-based licenses are available only for existing private-mode deployments and can't be newly deployed. NetApp has restricted the purchase, extension, and renewal of node-based licenses in private mode since June 25, 2025. If you have an existing node-based license, you must convert it to capacity-based licensing.

For new private-mode deployments, use capacity-based licensing instead. See Deploy Cloud Volumes ONTAP in private mode.

Manage PAYGO subscriptions

The Licenses and subscriptions menu enables you to view details about each of your PAYGO Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems, including the serial number and PAYGO subscription type. PAYGO subscriptions from your cloud provider's marketplace are available only for capacity-based licensing.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. In the Subscriptions tab, view details in the table about each of your PAYGO subscriptions.

Manage BYOL licenses

Manage licenses that you purchased directly from NetApp by adding and removing system licenses and extra capacity licenses.

Note NetApp has restricted the purchase, extension, and renewal of BYOL licensing. For more information, refer to Restricted availability of BYOL licensing for Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

BYOL licensing for Cloud Volumes ONTAP now includes both node-based licenses and capacity-based licenses purchased directly from NetApp.

For capacity-based BYOL licenses, the license is associated with your Console account rather than a single Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. Each system receives its own serial number, but multiple systems under the same account draw from the same shared capacity pool and can share the underlying license.

For node-based BYOL licenses, this pooling doesn't apply. Each Cloud Volumes ONTAP system requires its own dedicated system license, and licenses aren't shared across systems. However, if you delete a system, you can transfer it to a new system. For more information, see Learn about Cloud Volumes ONTAP node-based BYOL.

Add unassigned licenses

Add a BYOL license to the Console so that you can select the license when you create a new Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. The Console identifies these licenses as unassigned.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. Select the Licenses tab.

  5. Click Unassigned.

  6. Click Add Unassigned Licenses.

  7. Enter the serial number of the license or upload the license file.

    If you don't have the license file yet, refer to the section below.

  8. Click Add License.

Result

The Console adds the license. The license will be identified as unassigned until you associate it with a new Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. After that happens, the license moves to the BYOL tab in Licenses and subscriptions.

Exchange an unassigned license

If you have an unassigned license for Cloud Volumes ONTAP that you haven't used, you can exchange it by converting it to a NetApp Backup and Recovery license, a NetApp Data Classification license, or a NetApp Cloud Tiering license.

Exchanging the license revokes the Cloud Volumes ONTAP license and creates a dollar-equivalent license for the service:

  • Licensing for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA pair is converted to a 51 TiB direct license

  • Licensing for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP single node is converted to a 32 TiB direct license

The converted license has the same expiration date as the Cloud Volumes ONTAP license.

View walkthrough of how to exchange unassigned licenses.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. Select the Licenses tab.

  5. Click Unassigned.

  6. Click Exchange License.

    A screenshot of the Exchange License option that appears on the Unassigned license page.

  7. Select the service that you'd like to exchange the license with.

  8. If you're prompted, select an additional license for the HA pair.

  9. Read the legal consent and click Agree.

Result

The Console converts the unassigned license to the service that you selected. You can view the new license in the Data Services Licenses tab.

Obtain a system license file

In most cases, the Console can automatically obtain your license file using your NetApp Support Site account. But if it can't, then you'll need to manually upload the license file. If you don't have the license file, you can obtain it from netapp.com.

Steps

  1. Go to the NetApp License File Generator and log in using your NetApp Support Site credentials.

  2. Enter your password, choose your product, enter the serial number, confirm that you have read and accepted the privacy policy, and then click Submit.

    Example

    Screen shot: Shows an example of the NetApp License Generator web page with the available product lines.

  3. Choose whether you want to receive the serialnumber.NLF JSON file through email or direct download.

Update a system license

When you renew a BYOL subscription by contacting a NetApp representative, the Console automatically obtains the new license from NetApp and installs it on the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. If the Console can't access the license file over the secure internet connection, you can obtain the file yourself and then manually upload the file.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. Select the Licenses tab.

  5. In the BYOL tab, expand the details for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

  6. Click the action menu next to the system license and select Update License.

  7. Upload the license file (or files if you have an HA pair).

  8. Click Update License.

Result

The Console updates the license on the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

Manage extra capacity licenses (node-based licenses only)

This procedure applies to node-based licenses only. Capacity-based licenses draw from a shared capacity pool and don't require separate extra capacity licenses.

You can purchase extra capacity licenses for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP node-based BYOL system to allocate more than the 368 TiB of capacity that's provided with a system license. For example, you might purchase one extra license to allocate up to 736 TiB of capacity to Cloud Volumes ONTAP. Or you could purchase three extra capacity licenses to get up to 1.4 PiB.

The number of licenses that you can purchase for a single-node system or HA pair is unlimited.

Add capacity licenses

Contact your NetApp representative to purchase an extra capacity license. After you purchase the license, you can apply it to a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. Select the Licenses tab.

  5. In the BYOL tab, expand the details for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

  6. Click Add Capacity License.

  7. Enter the serial number or upload the license file (or files if you have an HA pair).

  8. Click Add Capacity License.

Update capacity licenses

If you extended the term of an extra capacity license, you'll need to update the license in the Console.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. Select the Licenses tab.

  5. In the BYOL tab, expand the details for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

  6. Click the action menu next to the capacity license and select Update License.

  7. Upload the license file (or files if you have an HA pair).

  8. Click Update License.

Remove capacity licenses

If an extra capacity license expired and is no longer in use, then you can remove it at any time.

Steps

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Administration > Licenses and subscriptions.

  2. Select the Overview tab.

  3. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP tile, select View.

  4. Select the Licenses tab.

  5. In the BYOL tab, expand the details for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

  6. Click the action menu next to the capacity license and select Remove License.

  7. Click Remove.

Change between PAYGO and BYOL

Note This applies to standard-mode deployments only, since PAYGO isn't available in private mode.

Converting a system from PAYGO to BYOL licensing (and vice versa) isn't supported. If you want to switch between a PAYGO subscription and a BYOL subscription, then you need to deploy a new system and replicate data from the existing system to the new system.

Steps

  1. Create a new Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

  2. Set up a one-time data replication between the systems for each volume that you need to replicate.

    Learn how to replicate data between systems

  3. Terminate the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system that you no longer need by deleting the original system.

    Learn how to delete a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

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