Licensing Details for the VSC 2.0 vSphere Plug-in

In an attempt to make up for my oversight, I wanted to share some details related to software licensing requirements that weren't included in my post 'NetApp VSC 2.0 vCenter Plug-in Announced'.

If you were looking for this information, please thank those who posted the comments identifying my omission.

Although Virtual Storage Console (VSC) 2.0 is a free download for NetApp customers via NOW, use of the 'Backup and Recovery' and the 'Provisioning and Cloning' capabilities are optional and require software licensing on a NetApp FAS series, IBM N-Series, or 3rd party array virtualized with a NetApp vSeries.

Which software licenses are required by the VSC?

• The core functionality of the VSC does not require any software licenses to operate; however, it does require a VMware supported storage protocol (NFS, iSCSI, FC or FCoE) to operate.
  
  
• The Provisioning capabilities (formerly found in the Rapid Cloning Utility or RCU) requires a VMware supported storage protocol.
  
  
• The Cloning of VMs and Desktop Pools capabilities (formerly found in the RCU) requires a VMware supported storage protocol and FlexClone.
  
  
• The Backup & Restore capabilities (formerly found in SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure or SMVI) requires a VMware supported storage protocol, SnapRestore, and a SMVI license. Optional licensees may also be required depending on your usage. SnapMirror is required for storage based replication and integration with VMware Site Recovery Manager, and FlexClone is required for NFS deployments.

The VSC 2.0 does allow one to 'try before they buy' the backup & restore capabilities of the VSC without installing a SMVI license. I'm sure this tid-bit is music to the ears of those who are technically curious. I just ask that before you put the backup & restore capabilities into production, please contact your NetApp account team or partner and obtain a SMVI license.

If you're an existing SMVI customer with a valid license, you should be all set.

The VSC 2.0 (with additional capabilities) is supported with ESX/ESXi 4.0 and subsequent releases including 4.1 and with Data ONTAP releases 7.3.1 or later.

Comments

[Maish]

Thanks for the info Vaughn

[Sun]

Vaughn,

In an ESX/ESXI environment, what is best practice....using the VMware iSCSI software initiator or MS iSCSI software initiator?

Thanks.