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Version: 3.1

License types

Introduction

This topic explains the various Portworx license types, and how you can use them.

note

If you have already set up your cluster using any of the paid or free Portworx licenses, you can switch to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing by acquiring a PAYG account key from the Pure Storage support team. For more information about switching to PAYG, refer to the pay-as-you-go topic.

Portworx products support the following license types:

License typeDescription
Portworx EssentialsFree Portworx license with limited functionality, suitable to run small production or proof-of-concept workloads.
Portworx CSI for FA/FBFree Portworx license with a limited feature set. This license provides essential container storage capabilities for Portworx on FlashArray and FlashBlade. This license allows only Direct Access volumes up to the cluster limit.
TrialSame as the Portworx Enterprise license. It is a default license installed with 30 days trial period for full Portworx Enterprise functionality
Portworx Enterprise VMEnterprise license, suitable for Virtual Machine (VM) installs on-prem and in cloud
Portworx Enterprise MetalEnterprise license, suitable for installs on any bare metal hardware

Depending on the type of container you are installing, a different license will be automatically activated. For example, the Portworx Enterprise automatically activates the Trial license (limited to 30 days), which you can upgrade to a Portworx Enterprise license at any time.

Licensed features

In the following table, you can see the overview of features that are controlled via licensing.

License featureDescriptionPortworx EssentialsPortworx CSI for FlashArray and FlashBladePortworx Enterprise
Number of nodes maximumDefines the maximum number of nodes in a cluster510001000
Number of volumes per cluster maximumDefines max number of volumes on a single node200100000 Direct Access volumes100000
Volume capacity [TiB] maximumDefines max size of a single volume1 TiB40 TiB40 TiB
Node disk capacity [TiB] maximumDefines max storage capacity of a single node1 TiB256 TiB256 TiB
Node disk capacity extensionDefines is the storage capacity can be extendednono1yes
Number of snapshots per volume maximumNumber of volume snapshots allowed per single volume5no164
Number of attached volumes per node maximumNumber of attached volumes on a single node30128256
Storage aggregationDefines if volumes may be aggregated across multiple nodesnonoyes
Shared volumesDefines if volumes may be shared w/ other nodesyesno1yes
Volume setsDefines if volumes may be scaledyesno1yes
BYOK data encryptionBring your own key" for data encryptionPer cluster keyno1Per volume and per cluster
Limit BYOK encryption to cluster-wide secretsLimits the use of data-encryption keys to only a cluster-wide secretslimitedlimitedunlimited
Resize volumes on demandDefines if volumes can be resizedyesyesyes
Snapshot to object store [CloudSnap]Defines if cloud-snapshots can be used (for example, volume snapshot to Amazon S3 service)yesno1yes
Number of CloudSnaps daily per volume maximumLimits how many cloud-snapshots can customers do (per volume, in a day)1no1unlimited
Cluster-level migration [Kube-motion/Data Migration]Defines if the Data Migration can be used, see Data Migrationnonoyes
Disaster Recovery [PX-DR]Enables synchronous and asynchronous DR features (requires 2.1 version or later, needs additional license)nono(AddOn required)
Autopilot Capacity ManagementDefines if Autopilot can be usednonoyes
OIDC SecurityDefines if PX-Security can be used, see PX-Security on an existing clusternonoyes
Bare-metal hostsSoftware may be deployed on commodity hardwareyesyesyes
Virtual machine hostsSoftware may be deployed on VMs (including Amazon EC2, OpenStack Nova)yesyesyes

Trial License

The trial license activates automatically when the Portworx Enterprise license is installed.

The trial license provides the full product functionality for 30 days.

DESCRIPTION                  ENABLEMENT  ADDITIONAL INFO
Number of nodes maximum 1000
Number of volumes maximum 1024
Volume capacity [TB] maximum 40
Storage aggregation yes
Shared volumes yes
Volume sets yes
BYOK data encryption yes
Resize volumes on demand yes
Snapshot to object store yes
Bare-metal hosts yes
Virtual machine hosts yes
Product SKU Trial expires in 6 days, 20:40

Trial license expiration

After the trial period expires, you cannot create new volumes or volume snapshots. You can restore normal functionality by purchasing and installing a Portworx Enterprise license.


  1. Starting with Portworx version 3.1.0, Portworx volumes are not supported with the Portworx CSI for FlashArray and FlashBlade license, some related features are no longer applicable under this plan.
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