Commvault Grid, HyperScale and legacy licence conversions covers two related parts of Commvault licensing. The first is how Commvault’s own storage platforms are licensed. Commvault On-prem Deployment Options deliver a scale-out backup storage platform, either as an integrated appliance (Commvault Grid Appliance) or as a reference design (Commvault Grid Software) running on hardware from the customer’s preferred vendor.[1] The second is how customers holding licences from earlier Commvault programs move to the current ones. Earlier programs include capacity licence agreements, Solution Sets, Agents & Options, Commvault Complete, HyperScale appliances and IntelliSnap for NetApp.[1] For a licence manager, both raise the same question: which entitlement record governs a CommCell that has passed through several programs.
Editions
| Product | Availability | Metric | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commvault HyperScale Software 1.5 | 2017-10-01 to 2020-10-01 | Per provisioned TB | Commvault Backup & Recovery |
| Commvault Grid Reference Architecture Software | 2020-10-01 to present | Per node (4, 12 or 24 drives) | Commvault Backup & Recovery |
| Commvault Grid Appliances | 2020-10-01 to present | Per unit/appliance | Commvault Backup & Recovery |
| Commvault AirGap, Hot | May 2021 to present | Per stored TB | Commvault Backup & Recovery |
| Commvault AirGap, Cool | May 2021 to present | Per stored TB | Commvault Backup & Recovery |
Source: License Program Guide, software-specific terms for storage management.[1] The CVU values are 465, 925 and 1,855 for the 4-, 12- and 24-drive Grid nodes, and 60 (Hot) and 20 (Cool) per AirGap stored TB.[1] Catalog: Grid Reference Architecture Software; AirGap Hot; AirGap Cool.
Metrics
- Node. Grid is licensed per node, in small, medium and large sizes that reflect the number of drives the node supports.[1]
- Provisioned storage terabyte. The total local storage across the nodes in base-2, as recognised by the software and operating system. The entire available pool must be licensed.[1]
- Stored terabyte. Disk and cloud storage actually consumed by Commvault data stores, in base-2 and after Commvault compression and deduplication. Third-party deduplication appliances may not be recognised, in which case raw totals are reported.[1]
Counting / floors
Grid node licences cover the node only. “Commvault Grid licensing only grants entitlements for the Commvault Grid node itself.” Protecting client data and sending it to Grid requires separate licences, such as Backup & Recovery per TB or per VM.[1] A Grid purchase therefore does not reduce the client-side licence count. Catalog: Grid node licences do not cover client data protection.
HyperScale 1.5 pools must be licensed in full. Licensing for HyperScale Software 1.5 follows the usable storage available to its MediaAgents, in base-2. Storage reserved for erasure coding is excluded. Storage that should not be licensed must not be presented to the nodes, and storage that is accessible to a node may never be partly licensed.[1] The License Summary Report shows the total and used capacity of each HyperScale 1.5 storage pool.[2] Catalog: HyperScale 1.5 storage may never be partially licensed.
AirGap is provisioned by purchase and consumed by data written. AirGap capacity is provisioned according to what was bought, but consumption is measured by the storage actually written.[1] The License Summary Report lists Air Gap Protect containers and the space each uses. It shows them under a table still labelled “Metallic Licenses”.[5] Commvault may apply a fair use policy depending on the tier and how often data is accessed.[1]
Enforcement. Any HyperScale 1.5, Grid or AirGap storage pool that is not fully and actively licensed “may be reset to a read-only state” until proper licensing is obtained.[1] Catalog: Unlicensed storage pools may be set to read-only.
Legacy HyperScale full appliances
HyperScale appliances whose SKU did not end in “-E” were sold with predefined licence grants in the older Commvault Platform licence model. Each model granted platform clients, a HyperScale (primary) pool and the same amount of additional platform storage for secondary targets. Growth beyond the appliance was licensed in back-end terabytes (BET), measured on actual disk or cloud consumption after deduplication.[1] The Guide’s table gives, for example, 58 TB (base-2) of pool, 58 TB of additional platform storage and 700 platform clients for the 1396 model.[1] Full appliance licences may not be mixed with other Complete or Workload licensing. They also did not include mailbox or endpoint user rights.[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
Storage licences do not depend on how many VMs or hosts are protected. Under the mixing table in the Guide, full appliance licensing cannot be combined with per-TB, per-VM, per-socket or per-operating-instance licensing in the same CommCell. Only per-user (mailbox and endpoint) licences may sit alongside it.[1] Where virtual licences were bought under older structures (Protected Virtual Instances, Application Class Virtual, Archived VM), the licensing reports consolidate them all under the VOI licence.[3]
Cloud / BYOL
AirGap is Commvault-managed cloud storage held outside the customer’s own cloud tenant. It runs on cloud providers including Microsoft, Oracle, AWS and Google.[1] It requires a Backup & Recovery licence. AirGap Infrequent and Archive tiers have recovery limits of 5% and 1% of purchased capacity per month, averaged over a rolling 12 months.[1]
Programs
Transition principles
Licence programs were modernised in July 2018, and the models used before then are being phased out. The transition program rests on the principle that “no customer should lose any functionality”.[1] The Guide maps legacy programs to current ones:[1]
| Legacy licence | Current program |
|---|---|
| Capacity licence agreement (DPE/DPA/DAE) | Commvault Backup & Recovery (per TB) |
| Capacity licence agreement (FAE) | Backup & Recovery for Unstructured Data (per TB) |
| VM Backup and Recovery Solution Sets | Backup & Recovery for Virtual Machines |
| File, NAS and Application Backup and Recovery Solution Sets | Backup & Recovery for Non-virtual Environments (capped OI) |
| Endpoint and Email Solution Sets | Backup & Recovery for Endpoint Users; for Mailbox and Cloud Application Users |
| Agents and Options; appliance licensing (non-Grid) | Backup & Recovery for Virtual, Non-virtual, Endpoint and Mailbox users |
Same metric or subscription. A customer can keep perpetual rights if the conversion keeps a similar metric, such as TB to TB or client to client. Changing between client and TB metrics requires a move to subscription.[1] Giving up perpetual rights requires a signed licensing forfeiture agreement, and prepaid maintenance or subscription is not refunded. A customer can instead keep perpetual licences under maintenance in a separate CommCell while using subscription licences in a new one, but the metric of the perpetual licences cannot change in that move.[1] Catalog: Changing licence metric requires moving to subscription; Forfeiting perpetual rights needs a signed agreement and gives no refund.
How a conversion happens. The customer first buys licences under the current program. The new key then grants the previous licences plus the new purchase. A conversion that was not made at the time of purchase can be requested later with the CommCell ID, through a Commvault sales executive or a channel partner with documented customer consent. Commvault then issues a confirmation statement and a new permanent key.[1] In limited cases Commvault may convert at maintenance renewal.[1] The confirmation statement is the record a licence manager should keep, because the new key replaces the old one.
Grandfathered mixed-metric CommCells. For CommCells installed before October 2020, the split between Commvault Complete per TB and Commvault Complete for Virtual Environments follows the traditional counting. VSA backups and AppAware backups of supported applications count as virtual. Non-AppAware applications, file system backups and NAS/NDMP count per TB.[1] Perpetual-to-perpetual conversions within Backup & Recovery are allowed from Complete per TB to Mailbox or Endpoint user licences, and from Complete per socket to per VM.[1]
IntelliSnap for NetApp and Snap Protect
Commvault IntelliSnap for NetApp (CIFN) licences are tied to a NetApp controller. Each array model maps to 2, 4 or 8 “conversion units”. The Guide lists NetApp part numbers such as SW-8040A-CVLT-INTSNAP, and those units guide the grant of VM and capacity licences.[1] Customers who also own capacity licences receive a custom transition. Snap Protect (NetApp OEM) holders must first have NetApp formally transfer support responsibility to Commvault. After conversion the licences are no longer tied to the controller.[1] See also NetApp licensing.
End-of-sale licences
Appendix B lists end-of-sale licences and their direct replacements. Examples include Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery per front-end TB and for Virtual Environments (July 2018 to September 2020), replaced by the Autonomous Recovery bundle; Commvault Select (replaced by Unstructured Data); and Sensitive Data Governance and File Optimization (replaced by Risk Analysis).[1] Existing holders of a licence type keep extended availability until end of sale for all customers is announced.[1] Historic products also include Orchestrate for Copy Data Management, counted per source operating instance and since superseded by Auto Recovery, and the Activate suite site licence, counted per 500 Active Directory users.[1]
Hardware-bound software. Under the Master Terms, a software licence acquired with hardware is limited to the hardware on which the software was first installed. Backup copies may replace the original only on that hardware.[4] Appliance licences tied to hardware may stay on that program, or be converted to licensing not tied to hardware when new Backup & Recovery licences are bought.[1] Catalog: Software licence is for internal data center operations and tied to original hardware.
Out of scope
- Hardware specifications, warranties and support for Grid appliances.
- The full CIFN part-number table and the conversion-unit-to-licence grant ratios, which Commvault calculates per customer.
- Service Provider program conversions.