Hewlett Packard Enterprise software licensing covers how HPE licenses the management, virtualization, data and as-a-service software that runs on or alongside its servers and storage. HPE does not sell one licence model. A customer who owns HPE ProLiant servers may hold a per-server iLO licence, a per-server OneView licence and a per-seat Compute Ops Management subscription. The same customer may run HPE Morpheus or VM Essentials licensed per socket, or buy infrastructure through GreenLake under metered as-a-service terms. This overview describes how the pieces fit together, and four further articles describe the licence terms and audit clauses, iLO, OneView and Compute Ops Management, GreenLake and the aaS terms, and Morpheus, VM Essentials and Ezmeral.
Two court cases involving HPE are recorded on the wiki under Oracle: Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Oracle Corp. (Itanium) and Oracle America, Inc. v. Terix and v. Hewlett Packard Enterprise. They are summarized in their own articles and are not about HPE’s own software licence terms.
Editions
HPE does not publish editions in one place. Each product line carries its own tiers.
| Product line | Tiers named in HPE documents | Source |
|---|---|---|
| iLO | iLO Standard (included with the server) and iLO Advanced (licensed) | [5] |
| OneView | Standard (monitoring, built in), Advanced, Advanced w/o iLO | [6] |
| Compute Ops Management | Standard and Advanced subscription tiers | [7] |
| Morpheus and VM Essentials | Subscription, Community Edition, Plugin Core Software | [8] |
| Ezmeral | Runtime Enterprise, ML Ops, Data Fabric, Unified Analytics, each with Production and Evaluation licences | [9] |
The landing page for HPE software licensing also lists Additional License Authorizations for further product families, including Aruba networking software, Nimble OS, Serviceguard for Linux and Cray programming environments. It notes that software products previously offered by HPE and now offered by Micro Focus have licence documents on the Micro Focus site.[2] Those are outside this article.
Metrics
HPE uses the unit that suits each product.
- Per server. An iLO licence is required for each server that uses licensed features and does not expire for the life of that server.[5] OneView uses server-based licensing and its licences cannot be moved from one server to another.[6] Compute Ops Management needs one subscription seat for each directly managed server.[7]
- Per socket. A Morpheus Enterprise or VM Essentials subscription licence grants the right to use the software for one Socket during the Subscription Term, defined as 1, 3 or 5 years.[8]
- Per core and per terabyte. Legacy Ezmeral licences count cores (two virtual cores equal one physical core) and, for Data Fabric, terabytes of raw capacity under management.[9]
- Per consumption unit. Ezmeral SaaS is metered in vCPU-hours or gigabytes per month, and GreenLake services use a Unit of Measure defined in the Solution Material or quote.[9][11]
Counting / floors
No HPE document reviewed publishes a global minimum. Product-specific floors appear only in a few places. iLO documents suggest different purchase options by volume: single-server licences for 1 to 10 servers, flexible quantity for 11 to 99 and an Activation Key Agreement for at least 100 licences over three years, which are recommendations rather than floors.[5] Ezmeral SaaS subscriptions carry a minimum term of one year and are non-cancellable.[9] GreenLake commitments are set per quote and early termination before the end of a Commitment period triggers fees equal to the Subscription fee times the remaining period.[11]
Virtualization & partitioning
Virtual machines matter in three places. The Morpheus terms define a Server as any physical or virtual machine on which the software is installed, license by Socket, and set 15 Workload Equivalents (virtual machines) equal to one Socket for managed workloads on public cloud services.[8] The OneView ALA says that a customer who runs OneView on a virtual machine must obtain the appropriate licences for the virtualization software.[13] The Ezmeral legacy core metric treats two virtual cores as one physical core.[9]
Cloud / BYOL
HPE GreenLake offerings are delivered under the HPE aaS Terms for Customers. Unless the order says otherwise HPE or its affiliates remain owner or licensee of the Systems and grant a right to use them, and where software licences transfer to the customer, HPE-branded software is subject to the HPE EULA and software licensing terms.[10] Ezmeral software included in a GreenLake managed service runs on the HPE managed environment and cannot be moved to third-party infrastructure or a public cloud.[9] Bring-your-own-licence terms are therefore product specific, and the customer should read the ALA for each product rather than assume portability.
Programs
The main commercial wrappers are the iLO Activation Key Agreement for volume purchases, trial periods (90 days for iLO and 60 days for OneView), the Morpheus Community Edition for home labs, and the aaS payment models of pay per use, subscription and subscription with a pay per use option.[5][13][8][11]
Contract terms
The Customer Terms index describes the Portfolio Terms (CTPF01) as the template for purchasing HPE hardware, software licences, support and professional services, with the aaS Terms and aaS Commercial Terms used for GreenLake services.[1] Software is licensed non-exclusively and non-transferably for internal purposes, and unless otherwise specified a licence under the Portfolio Terms is perpetual.[3][4] These terms are covered in the licence terms article.
Audits and compliance
Both the EULA and the Portfolio Terms let HPE audit compliance with software licence terms on reasonable notice during business hours at HPE’s expense, with the customer paying underpayments and reimbursing the auditor if underpayments exceed five percent.[3][4] GreenLake Flex Solutions adds a quarterly right to inspect and audit the metering tools and usage data on three business days notice.[12] Ezmeral and Morpheus terms treat interference with consumption monitoring as a material breach.[8][9]
Out of scope
This article does not cover HPE hardware warranties, HPE Aruba Networking, Juniper Networks, or third-party software resold by HPE, which is governed by the third party’s licence terms.[4] It also does not cover HPE Alletra or Nimble storage operating software, which has its own Additional License Authorizations on the HPE licensing page, or the My HPE Software Center portal itself beyond the registration steps in the iLO licensing guide.