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Set up licensing for BlueXP tiering

Contributors netapp-tonacki netapp-bcammett netapp-tonias
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A 30-day free trial of BlueXP tiering starts when you set up tiering from your first cluster. After the free trial ends, you'll need to pay for BlueXP tiering through a pay-as-you-go or annual subscription from your cloud provider's marketplace, a BYOL license from NetApp, or a combination of both.

A few notes before you read any further:

  • If you've already subscribed to the BlueXP subscription (PAYGO) in your cloud provider's marketplace, then you're automatically subscribed to BlueXP tiering for on-premises ONTAP systems as well. You'll see an active subscription in the BlueXP tiering On-Premises dashboard tab. You won't need to subscribe again. You'll see an active subscription in the BlueXP digital wallet.

  • The BYOL BlueXP tiering license (previously known as a "Cloud Tiering" license) is a floating license that you can use across multiple on-premises ONTAP clusters in your BlueXP organization. This is different (and much easier) than in the past where you purchased a FabricPool license for each cluster.

  • There are no charges when tiering data to StorageGRID, so neither a BYOL license or PAYGO registration is required. This tiered data doesn't count against the capacity purchased in your license.

Learn more about how licensing works for BlueXP tiering.

30-day free trial

If you don't have a BlueXP tiering license, a 30-day free trial of BlueXP tiering starts when you set up tiering to your first cluster. After the 30-day free trial ends, you'll need to pay for BlueXP tiering through a pay-as-you-go subscription, annual subscription, a BYOL license, or a combination.

If your free trial ends and you haven't subscribed or added a license, then ONTAP no longer tiers cold data to object storage. All previously tiered data remains accessible; meaning you can retrieve and use this data. When retrieved, this data is moved back to the performance tier from the cloud.

Use a BlueXP tiering PAYGO subscription

Pay-as-you-go subscriptions from your cloud provider's marketplace enable you to license the use of Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems and many Cloud Data Services, such as BlueXP tiering.

Subscribing from the AWS Marketplace

Subscribe to BlueXP tiering from the AWS Marketplace to set up a pay-as-you-go subscription for data tiering from ONTAP clusters to AWS S3.

Steps

  1. In BlueXP, click Mobility > Tiering > On-Premises Dashboard.

  2. In the Marketplace subscriptions section, click Subscribe under Amazon Web Services and then click Continue.

  3. Subscribe from the AWS Marketplace, and then log back into the BlueXP website to complete the registration.

    The following video shows the process:

    Subscribe to BlueXP from the AWS Marketplace

Subscribing from the Azure Marketplace

Subscribe to BlueXP tiering from the Azure Marketplace to set up a pay-as-you-go subscription for data tiering from ONTAP clusters to Azure Blob storage.

Steps

  1. In BlueXP, click Mobility > Tiering > On-Premises Dashboard.

  2. In the Marketplace subscriptions section, click Subscribe under Microsoft Azure and then click Continue.

  3. Subscribe from the Azure Marketplace, and then log back into the BlueXP website to complete the registration.

    The following video shows the process:

    Subscribe to BlueXP from the Azure Marketplace

Subscribing from the Google Cloud Marketplace

Subscribe to BlueXP tiering from the Google Cloud Marketplace to set up a pay-as-you-go subscription for data tiering from ONTAP clusters to Google Cloud storage.

Steps

  1. In BlueXP, click Mobility > Tiering > On-Premises Dashboard.

  2. In the Marketplace subscriptions section, click Subscribe under Google Cloud and then click Continue.

  3. Subscribe from the Google Cloud Marketplace, and then log back into the BlueXP website to complete the registration.

    The following video shows the process:

    Subscribe to BlueXP from the Google Cloud Marketplace

Use an annual contract

Pay for BlueXP tiering annually by purchasing an annual contract. Annual contracts are available in 1-, 2-, or 3-year terms.

When tiering inactive data to AWS, you can subscribe to an annual contract from the AWS Marketplace page. If you want to use this option, set up your subscription from the Marketplace page and then associate the subscription with your AWS credentials.

When tiering inactive data to Azure, you can subscribe to an annual contract from the Azure Marketplace page. If you want to use this option, set up your subscription from the Marketplace page and then associate the subscription with your Azure credentials.

Annual contracts are not currently supported when tiering to Google Cloud.

Use a BlueXP tiering BYOL license

Bring-your-own licenses from NetApp provide 1-, 2-, or 3-year terms. The BYOL BlueXP tiering license (previously known as a "Cloud Tiering" license) is a floating license that you can use across multiple on-premises ONTAP clusters in your BlueXP organization. The total tiering capacity defined in your BlueXP tiering license is shared among all of your on-prem clusters, making initial licensing and renewal easy. The minimum capacity for a tiering BYOL license starts at 10 TiB.

If you don't have a BlueXP tiering license, contact us to purchase one:

Optionally, if you have an unassigned node-based license for Cloud Volumes ONTAP that you won't be using, you can convert it to a BlueXP tiering license with the same dollar-equivalence and the same expiration date. Go here for details.

You use the BlueXP digital wallet page to manage BlueXP tiering BYOL licenses. You can add new licenses and update existing licenses.

BlueXP tiering BYOL licensing starting in 2021

The new BlueXP tiering license was introduced in August 2021 for tiering configurations that are supported within BlueXP using the BlueXP tiering service. BlueXP currently supports tiering to the following cloud storage: Amazon S3, Azure Blob storage, Google Cloud Storage, NetApp StorageGRID, and S3-compatible object storage.

The FabricPool license that you may have used in the past to tier on-premises ONTAP data to the cloud is being retained only for ONTAP deployments in sites that have no internet access (also known as "dark sites"), and for tiering configurations to IBM Cloud Object Storage. If you're using this type of configuration, you'll install a FabricPool license on each cluster using System Manager or the ONTAP CLI.

Tip Note that tiering to StorageGRID does not require a FabricPool or BlueXP tiering license.

If you are currently using FabricPool licensing, you're not affected until your FabricPool license reaches its expiration date or maximum capacity. Contact NetApp when you need to update your license, or earlier to make sure there is no interruption in your ability to tier data to the cloud.

  • If you're using a configuration that's supported in BlueXP, your FabricPool licenses will be converted to BlueXP tiering licenses and they'll appear in the BlueXP digital wallet. When those initial licenses expire, you'll need to update the BlueXP tiering licenses.

  • If you're using a configuration that's not supported in BlueXP, then you'll continue using a FabricPool license. See how to license tiering using System Manager.

Here are some things you need to know about the two licenses:

BlueXP tiering license FabricPool license

It is a floating license that you can use across multiple on-premises ONTAP clusters.

It is a per-cluster license that you purchase and license for every cluster.

It is registered in the BlueXP digital wallet.

It is applied to individual clusters using System Manager or the ONTAP CLI.

Tiering configuration and management is done through the BlueXP tiering service in BlueXP.

Tiering configuration and management is done through System Manager or the ONTAP CLI.

Once configured, you can use the tiering service without a license for 30 days using the free trial.

Once configured, you can tier the first 10 TB of data for free.

Manage BlueXP tiering licenses

If your licensed term is nearing the expiration date, or if your licensed capacity is reaching the limit, you'll be notified in BlueXP tiering as well as in digital wallet.

You can update existing licenses, view license status, and add new licenses through the BlueXP digital wallet. Learn about managing licenses in the digital wallet.

Apply BlueXP tiering licenses to clusters in special configurations

ONTAP clusters in the following configurations can use BlueXP tiering licenses, but the license must be applied in a different manner than single-node clusters, HA-configured clusters, clusters in Tiering Mirror configurations, and MetroCluster configurations using FabricPool Mirror:

  • Clusters that are tiered to IBM Cloud Object Storage

  • Clusters that are installed in "dark sites"

Process for existing clusters that have a FabricPool license

When you discover any of these special cluster types in BlueXP tiering, BlueXP tiering recognizes the FabricPool license and adds the license into the BlueXP digital wallet. Those clusters will continue tiering data as usual. When the FabricPool license expires, you'll need to purchase a BlueXP tiering license.

Process for newly created clusters

When you discover typical clusters in BlueXP tiering, you'll configure tiering using the BlueXP tiering interface. In these cases the following actions happen:

  1. The "parent" BlueXP tiering license tracks the capacity being used for tiering by all clusters to make sure there is enough capacity in the license. The total licensed capacity and expiration date are shown in the BlueXP digital wallet.

  2. A "child" tiering license is automatically installed on each cluster to communicate with the "parent" license.

Note The licensed capacity and expiration date shown in System Manager or in the ONTAP CLI for the "child" license is not the real information, so don't be concerned if the information is not the same. These values are managed internally by the BlueXP tiering software. The real information is tracked in the BlueXP digital wallet.

For the two configurations listed above, you'll need to configure tiering using System Manager or the ONTAP CLI (not by using the BlueXP tiering interface). So in these cases you'll need to push the "child" license to these clusters manually from the BlueXP tiering interface.

Note that since data is tiered to two different object storage locations for Tiering Mirror configurations, you'll need to purchase a license with enough capacity for tiering data to both locations.

Steps

  1. Install and configure your ONTAP clusters using System Manager or the ONTAP CLI.

    Do not configure tiering at this point.

  2. Purchase a BlueXP tiering license for the capacity needed for the new cluster, or clusters.

  3. In BlueXP, add the license to the BlueXP digital wallet.

  4. In BlueXP tiering, discover the new clusters.

  5. From the Clusters page, click More icon for the cluster and select Deploy License.

    A screenshot showing how to deploy a tiering license to an ONTAP cluster.

  6. In the Deploy License dialog, click Deploy.

    The child license is deployed to the ONTAP cluster.

  7. Return to System Manager or the ONTAP CLI and set up your tiering configuration.

    FabricPool Mirror configuration information

    FabricPool MetroCluster configuration information

    Tiering to IBM Cloud Object Storage information