Commvault software capacity and workload licensing covers the rules that decide how many licences a customer-managed Commvault environment consumes. In such an environment, a CommServe server manages a CommCell of MediaAgents and protected clients. Commvault calls the current scheme Workload licensing. It replaced the earlier Commvault Complete licences, which were split between capacity and virtual environments. Each workload class has its own metric. Virtual machines are counted in packs of ten, non-virtual systems by front-end terabyte or capped operating instance, and mail, cloud application, endpoint, Active Directory and DevOps data by user.[1] Each CommCell receives a unique licence key that enables the purchased products, and the key is installed on the CommServe.[1]
Editions
The Guide sorts current software products into three groups: products for virtual environments, products for non-virtual environments, and products for mail, cloud user and endpoint users. Each product has a metric and a relative CVU value.[1]
| Workload line | Example products (availability) | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual | Commvault Software Gold and Platinum Packages (April 2026 to present); Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery Software for Virtual Environments (July 2020 to present)[1] | Per 10 virtual machines |
| Non-virtual | Gold and Platinum Packages; Gold and Platinum Bundles for Unstructured Data; Commvault Cloud Backup & Recovery; Auto Recovery, Compliance, Risk Analysis and Threat Scan for Non-Virtual Environments[1] | Per TB; Backup & Recovery also per capped OI (500 GB) |
| Mail and cloud users | Backup & Recovery, Compliance and Risk Analysis for Mail and Cloud User applications[1] | Per user |
| Endpoint | Backup & Recovery, Compliance and Risk Analysis for Endpoint Users[1] | Per user |
Compliance and Threat Scan for non-virtual environments require Backup & Recovery as a prerequisite.[1] The Unstructured Data package applies only to file, NAS and object storage protection. It succeeds Commvault Select.[1] Catalog: Unstructured Data; Backup & Recovery per capped OI; Mail and Cloud User applications.
Metrics
- Front-End Terabyte. For backup, this is the application size of the latest full or synthetic full backup of each subclient. Where an agent has several backup sets, the largest set counts. For archive (OnePass), it is the last full plus all incrementals since.[1] A TB is 10244 bytes.[2]
- Virtual Operating Instance. Any operating instance that runs on a supported hypervisor or container platform.[1]
- Operating Instance. A physical or virtual environment with a distinct server name and a Commvault agent capturing its data. It also covers named entities such as NAS devices that are protected through a proxy.[1]
- Socket. Any logical socket identified by a supported hypervisor.[1]
- User metrics. Mail and Cloud User, Endpoint User, Active Directory enabled user account or Heartbeat, and DevOps user.
Counting / floors
Capacity
Capacity counts the latest full of each active subclient. Commvault’s documentation adds several details. Fulls deleted under the Days Only Retention setting still count. All backup copy jobs for IntelliSnap count. For Oracle, the smaller of the backup size and the allocated blocks plus log backups is used.[3] Several items are excluded: transaction log and index server backups, the same job held in several storage policy copies, secondary deduplicated Silo copies, imported jobs, and jobs of deconfigured clients. Deconfiguring a client releases its licence.[3] For virtual machines, capacity is the guest size, and every VM-level job counts as a full.[11] When OI, VOI, socket or endpoint licences cover a client, its jobs leave the capacity calculation.[4][3] Catalog: Front-end TB counts the latest full or synthetic full per subclient; Log, index and deconfigured-client jobs are excluded from capacity; Fulls aged by Days Only Retention still count toward capacity; OI and VOI licences remove a client's jobs from capacity.
Other capabilities are measured on a different base. Auto Recovery counts the raw size of replicated source data; destination copies are not counted. eDiscovery and Risk Analysis count the raw size of the data indexed.[1]
Operating instances
Since 2020-07-13 operating instance licences have been capped at 500 GB each. A 700 GB client therefore needs two OI licences. Entitlements cannot be pooled, so a 700 GB client and a 100 GB client need three OIs between them.[1] The cap does not apply to original Commvault Complete customers who keep at least one uncapped OI entitlement under support, but only within that CommCell.[1] The OI count includes Application Class clients, laptops and desktops, NDMP, OpenStack pseudo-clients and server file systems. It also includes each configured NAS pseudo-client, whether a physical IP address or a logical SVM. CommServe DR nodes and cluster pseudo-clients such as Exchange DAG, SQL Always On, Oracle RAC and SAP HANA are excluded.[4] Catalog: Capped OI covers 500 GB and cannot be pooled.
Clusters and proxies
Commvault counts every operating instance from which a backup or archive job can run. In an Exchange DAG, for example, each member server available as a backup source consumes an OI or VOI. Nodes placed in restore-only mode consume nothing. A shared cluster resource in an active/passive cluster is always non-virtual.[1] For storage that can only be protected through a proxy (NAS, GPFS, Hadoop, cloud storage), OI or capacity licensing applies. OIs are counted per IP address, SVM or vFiler, or cloud service account. Virtual licensing never applies, even if the proxy is itself a VM.[1] More generally, a multi-tier design may never be used “to conceal or artificially lessen” the licence requirement.[1] Catalog: Each cluster member that can run backups consumes a licence; Proxy-protected NAS and file systems are never licensed as virtual; Multi-tier architectures may not reduce the licence requirement.
Users
For mail and cloud applications, every unique combination of user and application is a separate user. A person protected in both Office 365 and Salesforce therefore needs two licences.[1] Resource and inactive accounts are excluded only where the platform flags them. With journaling, the count also includes every unique sender address from the licensee’s domain, including aliases and resource accounts. SharePoint backup requires every user with read/write access to be licensed. HCL Notes/Domino is metered against capacity instead.[1] Customers who bought Commvault Complete before Workload licensing arrived in October 2020 keep the right to protect both mail and Salesforce under a single user licence.[1] Catalog: Each user and application combination is a separate user; Journaling counts unique senders from the licensee domain; SharePoint backup requires licensing every read/write user.
Endpoint licences count each unique owner of an endpoint client. A software licence covers up to five devices. Each user of a shared machine counts separately.[1] The documentation adds that each laptop without an owner also consumes an Endpoint Users licence, and that laptop clients are excluded from capacity.[7] Active Directory licences count every enabled user account in the domains being managed, meaning domains with a Commvault agent on at least one domain controller. Alternatively, a customer can be licensed per heartbeat, which means per employee. Commvault may check the heartbeat figure against public employee counts.[1] Under heartbeat licensing, the entire organisation must be licensed.[9] DevOps protection needs one licence per user per platform.[1] Catalog: Endpoint user licences cover five devices (software) or three (SaaS); Laptops without an owner each consume an Endpoint Users licence; AD protection counts all enabled accounts in managed domains; Heartbeat licensing must cover every employee; DevOps users are licensed per platform.
Exemptions
Backups of Commvault’s own infrastructure, such as the CommServe database and deduplication databases, consume no licence when they are configured as part of the component installation. CommServe LiveSync for SQL Server needs no Auto Recovery licence.[1] The CommCell SNMP Enabler, direct-attached and shared tape libraries and the SharePoint Online Search Connector need no licence.[12] Catalog: Backups of Commvault infrastructure consume no licence.
Reporting and enforcement
The License Summary Report shows current usage. The Subclient Peak Usage Report shows the monthly total, including clients that were removed during the month. A worked example in the documentation ends a month with current usage of 3 clients and 3 TB but peak usage of 6 clients and 7 TB.[8] Hard-enforced licences restrict functionality, typically at 110% of the purchased total. For soft-enforced and self-monitored licences, the customer is responsible for compliance.[1] Under the Master Terms, capacity-based Software must keep its reporting features active, usage reports must be provided on request, and excess usage must be paid for.[10]
Virtualization & partitioning
Mixing. Within a CommCell, some licence types cannot be combined. The Guide’s mixing table forbids per-TB with per-operating-instance licensing, per-VM with per-socket licensing, and any of these with full appliance licensing.[1] When per-VM or socket licences are present, all VMs must be licensed that way.[1] There is one exception. Customers licensed only by capacity may keep using TB-based licences for virtual workloads for the rest of their current subscription, or for perpetual CommCell groups.[1] Catalog: Per-VM or socket licensing excludes TB counting of any VM in the CommCell; Socket and per-VM licensing cannot coexist in one CommCell.
What counts as a VM. The VM must be detected through a successful full Virtual Server Agent (VSA) backup or through the full File System agent in the guest. The File System Core package is not enough. Otherwise the system is non-virtual.[1][5] LPARs, LDOMs and PaaS databases count as non-virtual. A VM protected by several agents counts once, but each service applied to it (backup, Auto Recovery, eDiscovery) consumes its own entitlement. A cluster with only virtual nodes is checked against VOI or OI licences. A cluster with mixed physical and virtual nodes is checked against OI licences.[1][5] In VM plus OI or OI-only configurations, OI licences may cover VMs, but they may not cover a socket overage.[1] Catalog: LPAR, LDOM and PaaS databases are not virtual machines; VMs must be detected through VSA or the full File System agent; A VM protected by several agents counts once; OI licences may cover VMs but not socket overages.
Sockets. The socket licence counts all CPU sockets on hypervisor hosts protected by the VSA, based on the last successful full or synthetic full backup of a VM on each host.[6] Catalog: Sockets counted on hosts with a completed full VM backup.
Kubernetes. CommCells licensed by capacity only, or by Capacity+VM on version 11.36 or later, meter Kubernetes against structured capacity. Other CommCells use VOIs. Each workload (Pod, Deployment, StatefulSet, DaemonSet or Helm release) consumes one VOI, whatever its number of replicas. Further VOIs are needed for each namespace, for cluster-scoped resources, for etcd, for each independent PersistentVolume and for each system namespace.[1] Catalog: Kubernetes workloads consume VOI or structured capacity.
Cloud / BYOL
The same metrics apply when Commvault software runs on cloud instances. The Guide counts cloud-based virtual machines as virtual workloads. Cloud storage such as Amazon S3 or Azure Blob is licensed as non-virtual file storage, not as a user application.[1] PaaS databases count as non-virtual.[1]
Programs
Software is sold by subscription or perpetually with maintenance. When a term key expires, the CommCell becomes restore-only.[1] The 60-day evaluation covers test and development installations.[1] Conversions from legacy licences are covered in Commvault Grid, HyperScale and legacy licence conversions.
Out of scope
- Commvault Cloud SaaS metering, covered in Commvault Cloud SaaS and Clumio licensing.
- Service provider licence types (Advanced VM, VM Only, Application Server) used in the Service Provider program reports.
- Per-feature licences, such as Data Encryption or Hardware Snapshot Enabler, listed in the product’s feature licence tables.