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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 High Availability (HA) pairs.

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).

Essentials

You can pay by capacity 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

For more information, see Charging for capacity-based licenses.

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

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 pay-as-you-go (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, refer to Set up licensing for BlueXP backup and recovery.

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

How to get started

Learn how to get started with capacity-based licensing:

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.

Learn more about NetApp Keystone.

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.

How to get started

Learn how to get started with a Keystone Subscription:

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. By-node charging has been replaced with the by-capacity charging methods described above.

NetApp has planned the end of availability (EOA) and support (EOS) of node-based licensing. After the EOA and EOS, node-based licenses will need to be converted to capacity-based licenses.

For information, refer to Customer communique: CPC-00589.

End of availability of node-based licenses

Beginning with 11 November, 2024, the limited availability of node-based licenses has been terminated. The support for node-based licensing ends on 31 December, 2024.

If you have a valid node-based contract that extends beyond the EOA date, you can continue to use the license until the contract expires. Once the contract expires, it will be necessary to transition to the capacity-based licensing model. If you don't have a long-term contract for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP node, it is important to plan your conversion before the EOS date.

Learn more about each license type and the impact of EOA on it from this table:

License type Impact after EOA

Valid node-based license purchased through bring your own license (BYOL)

License remains valid till expiration. Existing unused node-based licenses can be used for deploying new Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems.

Expired node-based license purchased through BYOL

You won't be entitled to deploy new Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems using this license. The existing systems might continue to work, but you won't receive any support or updates for your systems post the EOS date.

Valid node-based license with PAYGO subscription

Will cease to receive NetApp support post the EOS date, until you transition to a capacity-based license.
Exclusions

NetApp recognizes that certain situations require special consideration, and EOA and EOS of node-based licensing will not apply to the following cases:

  • USPS customers

  • Deployments in private mode

  • China region deployments of Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS

For these particular scenarios, NetApp will offer support to address the unique licensing requirements in compliance with contractual obligations and operational needs.

Note Even in these scenarios, new node-based licenses and license renewals are valid for a maximum of one year from the date of approval.

License conversion

BlueXP enables a seamless conversion of node-based licenses to capacity based through the license conversion tool. For information about EOA of node-based licensing, refer to End of availability of node-based licenses.

Before transitioning, it is good to familiarize yourself with the difference between the two licensing models. Node-based licensing includes fixed capacity for each ONTAP instance, which can restrict flexibility. Capacity-based licensing, on the other hand, allows for a shared pool of storage across multiple instances, offering enhanced flexibility, optimizing resource utilization, and reducing the potential for financial penalties when redistributing workloads. Capacity-based charging seamlessly adjusts to changing storage requirements.

To know how you can perform this conversion, refer to Convert node-based licenses to capacity based.

Note Conversion of a system from capacity-based to node-based licensing is not supported.