About licensing

This topic provides information about licensing for server hardware including server blades and rack mount servers. This section applies to HPE OneView Advanced and HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO licenses only.

The appliance uses server-based licensing, but server blades and rack mount servers are managed differently. Server blade licenses are managed at the enclosure level, and rack mount server licenses are managed at the server level. When you add an enclosure, you specify a license policy for all server blades in the enclosure. When you add a rack mount server, you specify a license type for that server. Both policy and type refer to either of the two licenses: HPE OneView Advanced or HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO.

An HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO license provides support for all server hardware features on the appliance, with the following exceptions:

	NOTE: The appliance applies embedded (integrated) licenses to managed server hardware on which they reside.

Server blade licensing at the enclosure level

A server blade licensing policy at the enclosure level is an efficient way to handle licensing for all servers in an enclosure.

When you add an enclosure to the appliance, you must choose a server hardware license policy. This sets the licensing policy for all server hardware in the enclosure. You cannot change the policy for an enclosure unless you remove and re-add the enclosure.

For more information on how the appliance handles enclosure licenses, see About licensing.

	NOTE: A license embedded on a managed server blade will override the enclosure license policy. If you add a managed server blade with an embedded license, the appliance assigns the embedded license to that server, regardless of the enclosure license policy. Embedded licenses on monitored server hardware are ignored.

Enclosure licensing policy behavior

When you add a managed enclosure to the appliance:

• You must choose a licensing policy: HPE OneView Advanced or HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO.

• A license embedded on the OA (Onboard Administrator) is added to the appliance license pool.

• If the server blade does not have an embedded license, the appliance attempts to assign a license from the pool.

• If there are not enough licenses to satisfy the policy, a notification is displayed that instructs you on how to address the issue.

• If you add server blades to the enclosure after it has been added to the appliance, the server hardware will use the enclosure license policy.

• There is no guarantee that an embedded OA license will be applied to the server blades in the enclosure that contains the embedded license.

• Licenses embedded on a server iLO are automatically added to the appliance and applied to the server hardware on which they are embedded.

• If the server hardware has an existing permanent iLO Advanced license, the appliance assigns an HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO license, regardless of the license type you choose.

• To change the server hardware license policy of an enclosure, you must remove the enclosure from management and then re-add it with the new license policy.

• When you add server hardware to the appliance, the iLO Advanced license that is part of the HPE OneView Advanced license is applied to the server hardware iLO.

• If a server blade does not have an iLO license and there are not enough of the selected license type available, the appliance will attempt to apply a demo iLO license to the server blade.

About rack mount server licensing

Rack mount server licensing is managed at the server level.

When you add a rack mount server to the appliance, you must choose a license type. You cannot change the license type for a rack mount server unless you remove and re-add it.

	NOTE: Embedded licenses take precedent over the license type you choose. If you add a rack mount server to be managed with an embedded license, the appliance assigns the license to that rack mount server, regardless of the license type you choose.

Remote console support is not enabled if the rack mount server does not have an iLO license.

Rack mount server licensing behavior

When you add a managed rack mount server to the appliance:

• You must choose a license type: HPE OneView Advanced or HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO.

• A license embedded on the rack mount server iLO is automatically added to the appliance and applied to the rack mount server.

• If the server hardware has an existing permanent iLO Advanced license, the appliance assigns an HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO license, regardless of the license type you choose.

• If the rack mount server does not have an embedded license, the appliance attempts to assign a license from the license pool.

• If there are not enough licenses available, a notification is displayed that instructs you on how to address the issue.

• The iLO Advanced license that is part of your HPE OneView Advanced license is applied to the iLO when you add a rack mount server.

• To change the license type of a rack mount server that does not have an embedded license, you must remove the rack mount server from management and then re-add it with the new license type.

The HPE OneView Standard license applies to only monitored servers and enclosures and cannot be applied to managed servers. The HPE OneView Standard license is automatically applied when adding enclosures or server hardware to monitor.

The HPE OneView Standard license is automatically applied when adding an enclosure to be managed that contains any ProLiant G6 server blades or G7 BL680c server blades. These servers are added in a Monitored state.

For more information, see Licensing scenarios

More information

For HPE OneView Advanced and HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO, the supported key format is:

<encrypted key string> "<annotation>"_<optional encrypted key string>

The encrypted key string is expected to be a series of character/number blocks separated by spaces. The annotation includes space separated fields representing an Hewlett Packard Enterprise sales order number, a product number, a product description, and an EON (entitlement order number). The iLO Advanced license key string, if present, uses the format: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx and is preceded by an underscore (_). The HPE OneView Advanced w/o iLO license does not include the iLO Advanced license key string.

Example HPE OneView Advanced key:

ABKE C9MA T9PY 8HX2 V7B5 HWWB Y9JL KMPL K6ND 7D5U UVQW JH2E ADU6 H78V ENXG TXBA KFVS D5GM ELX7 DK2K HKK9 DXLD QRUF YQUE BMUF AQF2 M756 9GVQ QZWD LY9B V9ZF BG2B JKTG 2VCB LK4U R4UR V886 3C9X MQT3 G3AD LVKK 5LRG E2U7 GHA3"Order1 Number2 HPE OneView_Example_License EON3"_35T9X-ZQR9V-716S8-TD48P-JLBTW

See also 

The appliance gathers and reports utilization statistics for server hardware that has an iLO Advanced license, including monitored servers and enclosures. Utilization statistics are not available for server hardware that does not have an iLO Advanced license. See About utilization graphs and meters to learn more.

The way in which the appliance handles license assignments depends on the following:

The following table describes how the appliance handles licensing for different user actions.

Basic license reporting indicates whether the appliance has enough licenses for the managed server hardware in your environment.

From the Licenses view on the Settings screen, you can view the following:

More information