License Manager Guide | Nutanix Community
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Welcome to License Manager

The Nutanix corporate web site includes up-to-date information about AOS software editions.

License Manager provides Licensing as a Service (LaaS) by integrating the Nutanix Support portal Licensing page with licensing management and agent software residing on Prism Element and Prism Central clusters. Unlike previous license schemes and work flows that were dependent on specific Nutanix software releases, License Manager is an independent software service residing in your cluster software. You can update it independently from Nutanix software such as AOS, Prism Central, Nutanix Cluster Check, and so on.

License Manager provides these features and benefits.

  • Simplified upgrade path. Upgradeable through Life Cycle Manager (LCM), which enables Nutanix to regularly introduce licensing features, functions, and fixes. Upgrades through LCM help ensure your cluster is running the latest licensing agent logic.

  • Streamlined web console interface for Prism Element and Prism Central. After licensing unlicensed clusters and adding new software products through the Nutanix Support Portal, the web console provides a single 1-click control plane for most work flows. The web console only displays your licensed products and their current status.

  • Simplified 1-click work flow. Invisible integration with the Nutanix Support Portal helps simplify the most common licensing work flows and use cases.

  • Consistent experience. License Manager works for all licensable products that are available for Prism Element and Prism Central.

Licensing Management Options

License Manager provides more than one way to manage your licenses, depending on your preference and cluster deployment. Except for dark-site clusters, where AOS and Prism Central clusters are not connected to the Internet, these options require that your cluster is connected to the Internet.

Manage Licenses with License Manager and 1-Click Licensing

This feature is not available to dark site clusters, which are not connected to the Internet.

See Enable 1-Click Licensing and Manage Licenses with 1-Click Licensing.

Nutanix recommends that you configure and enable 1-click licensing. 1-click licensing simplifies license and add-on management by integrating the licensing work flow into a single interface in the web console. Once you enable this feature, you can perform most licensing tasks from the web console. It is disabled by default.

Depending on the product license you purchase, you apply it through the Prism Element or Prism Central web console. See Prism Element Cluster Licensing or Prism Central License Categories.

Manage Licenses with License Manager Without Enabling 1-Click Licensing (3-Step Licensing)

This feature is not available to dark site clusters, which are not connected to the Internet.

See Manage Licenses with Update License (3-Step Licensing).

After you license your cluster, the web console Licensing page allows you to manage your license tier by upgrading, downgrading, or otherwise updating a license. If you have not enabled 1-click licensing and want to use 3-step licensing, the Licensing page includes a Update License button.

Manage Licenses For Dark-Site Clusters

See Manage Licenses for Dark Site Clusters (3-Step Licensing) or Manage Licenses for Dark Site Clusters (License Key)

Use these procedures if your dark site cluster is not connected to the internet (that is, your cluster is deployed at a dark site). To enter dark site cluster information at the Nutanix Support Portal, these procedures require you to use a web browser from a machine connected to the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, you cannot use these procedures.

I Want to Use the Previous Manual Licensing Scheme

The Licensing Guide describes this legacy manual licensing work flow.

After you have logged on to the web console and opened the Licensing page, click Switch to Old Experience. However, Nutanix recommends you use the new experience as described in this License Manager guide.

Figure. Switch to Old Experience

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Switch to Old Experience button