Understanding licenses

e-Licensing uses embedded locking functions and back-office IT systems and processes. It provides better visibility into software assets, easier upgrade, and capacity planning. It reduces the risk of noncompliance, while still adhering to a strict “do no harm” policy to your operations.

When installing licenses with e-Licensing, you obtain license files from customer service, copy them to a Solutions Enabler or a Unisphere host, and load them onto storage systems.

Each license file fully defines the entitlements for a specific system, including its activation type (Individual or Enterprise), the licensed capacity, and the date the license was created. If you want to add a product title or increase the licensed capacity of an entitlement, obtain a new license file from online support and load it onto the storage system.

When managing licenses, Solutions Enabler, Unisphere for PowerMax, z/OS Storage Manager (EzSM), MF SCF native command line, TPF, and IBM i platform console, provide detailed usage reports that enable you to better manage capacity and compliance planning.

There are two types of e-Licenses: host-based and storage system-based. Host-based licenses, as the name implies, are installed on the host. And, storage system-based licenses are installed on the storage system. For information about the types of licenses and the features they activate, see the Solutions Enabler Installation Guide.

Unisphere enables you to add and view storage system-based licenses, and add, view, and remove host-based licenses.

Unisphere uses storage system-based e-Licensing.

For storage systems running PowerMaxOS 10 (6079), or later, XML format licenses are supported (along with dynamic licensing). The installation of older format licenses for storage systems running PowerMax 5978, or earlier, is not supported.

Dynamic licensing is a system that automates license management activities, such as registrations, compliance, capacity expansions, and subscription renewals. It provides a flexible and keyless experience by allowing you to register software instances and share licensing information between the product instance and Dell.

Dynamic licensing is being introduced for systems that were born on PowerMaxOS 10 Q2 2026, or later. The licensing options presented to you depend on the storage system.