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Nutanix has trust based licensing structure, Nutanix licensing divided the Acropolis AOS licensing matrix / editions / levels into three types Nutanix Starter License, Nutanix Pro License and Nutanix Ultimate License. Nutanix Acropolis licensing cost depends on the license editions and features using by you, If you are using out-of-box licensing features then Nutanix license violation alert will be pop up on the Nutnaix Prism. Each Nutanix Acropolis license has its own set of Nutanix licensing features and advantages.
Lets compare / explain the Nutanix licensing level / matrix difference between Nutanix Starter license Vs Nutanix Pro license Vs Nutanix Ultimate license below:
Read also: Become Expert On Nutanix License Management
Acropolis ( AOS ) Software Editions
Nutanix Licensing Types
Nutanix licensing comparison matrix core level difference between the Nutanix licensing: Nutanix Starter, Nutanix Pro and Nutanix Ultimate licensing are:
| STARTER | PRO | ULTIMATE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core set of software functionality | Rich data services, resilience and management features | The full suite of Nutanix software capabilities to tackle complex infrastructure challenges | |
| Ideal For | Small-scale deployments with a limited set of workloads | Running multiple applications or large-scale single workload deployments | Multi-site deployments and advanced security requirements |
Read also: Check Your Nutanix Cluster Acropolis License Edition
Nutanix Licensing Features
Nutanix Acropolis licensing features list as per Nutanix licensing editions: Nutanix Starter, Nutanix Pro and Nutanix Ulimate licensing comparison are:
Read more: How to Create Account on Nutanix Licensing Portal
| Features | STARTER | PRO | ULTIMATE |
| Enterprise Storage | |||
| Cluster Size | 12 | No theoretical limits* | No theoretical limits* |
| Heterogeneous Clusters | * | * | * |
| VM-centric Snapshots & Clones | * | * | * |
| Data Tiering | * | * | * |
| Inline Compression | * | * | * |
| Inline Performance Deduplication | * | * | * |
| Online Cluster Grow/Shrink | * | * | * |
| Nutanix Karbon™ | * | * | * |
| Nutanix Volumes™ | * | * | |
| Compression | * | * | |
| Deduplication | * | * | |
| Erasure Coding (EC-X) | * | * | |
| VM Centric Storage QoS | * | * | |
| VM Flash Mode | * | * | |
| Data Path Redundancy | * | * | * |
| Tunable Redundancy Factor | 2 | 2 or 3 | 2 or 3 |
| Availability Domains – Block/Rack Awareness | * | * | |
| Disaster Recovery with Async Replication (1hr or larger RPO) | * | * | * |
| Application Consistent Snapshots | * | * | * |
| Local Snapshots | * | * | * |
| Self Service Restore | * | * | |
| Cloud Connect | * | * | |
| Multiple Site DR (many to many) 1 | Add-on license available | * | |
| Metro Availability 1 | Add-on license available | * | |
| Disaster Recovery with NearSync or Sync Replication (1min-1hr RPO or 0 RPO) 1 | Add-on license available | * | |
| On-premises Leap: Advanced Orchestration (Multiple Boot Phases, re-IP, Recovery Plan Test)1 | Add-on license available | * | |
| Client Authentication | * | * | * |
| Cluster Lockdown | * | * | |
| Data-at-Rest Encryption (Software-based & SED)2 | Add-on license available | * | |
| Native KMS2 | Add-on license available | * | |
| Prism Starter | * | * | * |
| Pulse | * | * | * |
| Cluster Health | * | * | * |
| One-click Upgrades (Nutanix OS & Hypervisor) | * | * | * |
| Rest APIs | * | * | * |
| Nutanix AHV | * | * | * |
| VMware ESXi | * | * | * |
| Microsoft Hyper-V | * | * | * |
| XenServer for Citrix workloads | * | * | * |
| VM Management | * | * | * |
| Intelligent VM Placement | * | * | * |
| VM Automated Resource Scheduling | * | * | * |
| VM Affinity Rules | * | * | * |
| Virtual Network Configuration | * | * | * |
| Host Profiles | * | * | * |
| VM High Availability | * | * | * |
| Open Stack Drivers | * | * | * |
| Hypervisor Conversion | * | * | * |
| Cross Hypervisor DR | * | * | * |
| Self Service Portal | * | * | * |
Note: Nutanix Licensing might be changed over the time as per Nutanix licensing term.
Read also: Reclaim Nutanix licenses
Nutanix AOS Software Licensing Models
Select a Nutanix AOS license model based on the needs of your organization. You can license by capacity, by appliance, or by specific use cases and workloads. All licensing models include product entitlements for AOS, AHV, and Prism. Read more Nutanix Appliance Vs Nutanix NX Core based Licensing
Capacity-based licensing
Capacity-based licensing allows you to purchase and apply licenses based on the number of physical CPU cores and total SSD capacity in your cluster. You can purchase software separately from your hardware with a license that is portable across hardware platforms, giving you additional flexibility for budgeting and planning.
- Term license: 1 through 7-year options
Read also: How To Open Case With Nutanix, Lenovo, IBM & Dell EMC
Appliance-based licensing
Appliance-based licensing is tied to the underlying hardware and the life of your device and is non-transferable. You can license Nutanix NX appliances or OEM appliances this way and benefit from a packaged single-purchase approach. Term-based licensing is only available for Pro and Ultimate upgrades on NX appliances.
Read also: What is Nutanix Acropolis AOS ?
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Per User
The VDI per user model offers product entitlement for AOS, AHV, and Prism with pricing on a per concurrent user basis. VDI per user is an alternative to capacity-based and appliance licensing options and is designed to provide simple, transparent licensing for all VDI users, regardless of the underlying hardware.
- Term license: 1 through 7-year options
- Must run on a dedicated VDI per user cluster with no capacity-based licensing
Remote and Branch Office (ROBO) Per Virtual Machine
The ROBO per VM model combines AOS, AHV and Prism together with pricing on a per VM basis. This licensing model is an alternative to capacity-based and appliance licensing and is designed for sites running typically up to 10 VMs.
- Term license: 1 through 5-year options
- Must run on a dedicated ROBO cluster with no capacity-based licensing
Nutanix Calm
Nutanix Calm is sold as an annual subscription licensed on a per virtual-machine (VM) basis. Calm licenses are
required only for VMs managed by Calm, running in either the Nutanix Enterprise cloud or public clouds.
- Nutanix Calm is sold in 25 VM subscription license packs
Read also: How to Deploy Nutanix Cloud-native Karbon Cluster
Nutanix Era
Era is a subscription term-based software license. This product is licensed based on the concept of managed database server vCPUs. vCPU licensing is a consumption-based model that will allow customers to license just the database servers that will be managed by Nutanix Era.
- Licenses are sold in 1 to 5 year subscription terms
Nutanix Flow
Nutanix Flow is sold as an annual subscription licensed on a per node basis. Licenses are needed for all nodes in a cluster where microsegmentation functionality will be used. This option requires a Nutanix cluster managed by Prism Central and using the AHV virtualization solution.
- Licenses are sold in 1 to 5 year subscription terms
- Prism Central with Starter license is needed to manage micro-segmentation policy
Read also: Nutanix Hyper-converge Technology Evolution To Xi Cloud
Nutanix Files
Nutanix Files is sold by capacity under two different licenses. Nutanix Files Add-on License for HCI is for Nutanix Files running on mixed mode clusters. Nutanix Files Dedicated License is for Nutanix Files running on dedicated clusters. Nutanix Files is intended for enterprise file workloads within corporate datacenters and at edge locations including remote/branch offices (ROBO) where there is a mix of VM and file workloads.
Read more: Install License In Adding New Node and Add-On Feature
Nutanix Objects
Nutanix Objects is sold by capacity under two different licenses, Nutanix Objects for AOS license is for Nutanix Objects running on mixed mode clusters. Nutanix Objects Dedicated license is for Nutanix Objects running on dedicated clusters. Nutanix Objects is intended for object storage use cases such as backup, archive and object storage for development.
Read more: Nutanix Portal : License Tagging Feature
Nutanix Prism Pro
Nutanix Prism Pro enables smart IT operation and automation by optimizing capacity intelligently, monitoring and resolving anomalies proactively, and automating remediation and operations tasks. Prism Pro is available for purchase on a subscription basis. A trial version of Prism Pro is included with every edition of Acropolis.
- Licensing will be on a per-node per year basis with option to purchase for 1/2/3/4 or 5-year term
- One license should be purchased for each node in the cluster that is being “managed” by Prism Pro
Read also: How to Install Nutanix Acropolis License
Conclusion
Nutanix licensing structure is very simple and easy to understand. Nutanix offer Acropolis licensing editions and other licensing model with other hardware OEMs on capacity based licensing model.
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