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Managing licenses

A license is a record of one or more software entitlements. Installing license keys, also known as license codes, enables you to use certain features or services on your storage system.

Data ONTAP feature licenses are issued as packages, each of which contains multiple features or a single feature. A package requires a license key, and installing the key enables you to access all features in the package. For information about the license packages, see the knowledgebase article Data ONTAP 8.2 Licensing Overview and References on the NetApp Support Site.

Starting with Data ONTAP 8.2, all license keys are 28 characters in length. Licenses installed prior to Data ONTAP 8.2 continue to work in Data ONTAP 8.2 and later releases. However, if you need to reinstall a license (for example, you deleted a previously installed license and want to reinstall it in Data ONTAP 8.2 or later, or you perform a controller replacement procedure for a system running Data ONTAP 8.2 or later), Data ONTAP requires that you enter the license key in the 28-character format.

You can find license keys for your initial or add-on software orders at the NetApp Support Site under My Support > Software Licenses. For instance, you can search with the serial number of a system to find all license keys associated with the system. If you cannot locate your license keys from the Software Licenses page, you should contact your sales or support representative.

Data ONTAP enables you to manage licenses in the following ways:

In an HA configuration, you must keep the licensing entitlement between the two nodes consistent. If a takeover occurs, the takeover node can provide only the functionality for the licenses installed on it. If the takeover node does not have a license that was being used by the partner node to serve data, your HA pair loses functionality after a takeover.

Some features require that you enable certain options instead of or in addition to installing a license key. For information, see the knowledgebase article Data ONTAP 8.2 Licensing Overview and References on the NetApp Support Site.