Legacy Software Options

AOS and Prism software are available in several editions to meet your infrastructure needs with the right capabilities on Nutanix and partner appliances, as well as Nutanix-certified hardware platforms.

To see our latest software options, click here.

Minimum Complexity,
Maximum Flexibility

Whether you choose Nutanix software as part of a turnkey appliance solution or to run on your own installed platforms, AOS and Prism editions provide a range of capabilities to match your needs.

AOS Software Editions

  STARTER PRO ULTIMATE
  Core set of software functionality Rich data services, resilience and management features The full suite of Nutanix software capabilities to tackle complex infrastructure challenges
Ideal For Small-scale deployments with a limited set of workloads (on-prem only) Running multiple applications or large-scale single workload deployments (on-prem or in public clouds) Multi-site deployments and advanced security requirements (on-prem or in public clouds)
Enterprise Storage
Cluster Size 12 No enforced limits on-prem. 16 nodes validated in AWS No enforced limits on-prem. 16 nodes validated in AWS
Heterogeneous Clusters      
VM-centric Snapshots & Clones      
Data Tiering      
Online Cluster Grow/Shrink      
Data Path Redundancy      
Tunable Redundancy Factor 2 2 or 3 2 or 3
Availability Domains Node Node, Block, Rack Node, Block, Rack
Basic Compression (LZ4) - Inline and post process      
Deep Compression (LZ4HC) - Greater efficiency for cold data      
Cache Deduplication      
Capacity Tier Deduplication      
Erasure Coding (EC-X)      
VM Centric Storage QoS      
VM Flash Mode      
Consolidated Storage Services
Volume Groups - for in-cluster VMs      
Volume Groups - external access      
Nutanix Files 1 TiB Free Capacity 1 TiB Free Capacity 1 TiB Free Capacity
Nutanix Objects 2 TiB Free Capacity 2 TiB Free Capacity 2 TiB Free Capacity
Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Async Replication (RPO = 1 hr or greater)      
Application Consistent Snapshots      
Self Service Restore      
Multiple Site DR (many to one, one to many, many to many) 1   Adv Replication add-on license
 
Metro Availability 1   Adv Replication add-on license
 
Sync Replication (RPO = 0)   Adv Replication add-on license
 
NearSync Replication (RPO = 1-15 min)   Adv Replication add-on license
 
Advanced Orchestration with Runbook Automation   Adv Replication add-on license
 
Security
Client Authentication      
Cluster Lockdown      
Data-at-Rest Encryption (Software-based & SED)2   Add-on license available  
Native KMS2   Add-on license available  
Management & Analytics
Prism Starter      
Insights      
LCM      
Foundation      
Foundation Central      
Supported Hypervisors
Nutanix AHV      
VMware ESXi      
Microsoft Hyper-V      
Included Hypervisor and Container Runtime
Nutanix AHV
All Hypervisor Features Included
     
Nutanix Karbon      

Nutanix AOS Software Licensing Models

Select a Nutanix AOS license model based on the needs of your organization. You can license by capacity, by appliance, or by specific use cases and workloads. All licensing models include product entitlements for AOS, AHV, and Prism.

Capacity-based licensing

Capacity-based licensing allows you to purchase and apply licenses based on the number of physical CPU cores and total SSD capacity in your cluster. You can purchase software separately from your hardware with a license that is portable across hardware platforms, giving you additional flexibility for budgeting and planning.

  • Term license: 1 through 7-year options

Appliance-based licensing

Appliance-based licensing is tied to the underlying hardware and the life of your device and is non-transferable. You can license Nutanix NX appliances or OEM appliances this way and benefit from a packaged single-purchase approach. Term-based licensing is only available for Pro and Ultimate upgrades on NX appliances.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Per User

The VDI per user model offers product entitlement for AOS, AHV, and Prism with pricing on a per concurrent user basis. VDI per user is an alternative to capacity-based and appliance licensing options and is designed to provide simple, transparent licensing for all VDI users, regardless of the underlying hardware.

  • Term license: 1 through 7-year options
  • Must run on a dedicated VDI per user cluster with no capacity-based licensing
  • Available in AOS Pro and Ultimate editions

Remote and Branch Office (ROBO) Per Virtual Machine

The ROBO per VM model combines AOS, AHV and Prism together with pricing on a per VM basis. This licensing model is an alternative to capacity-based and appliance licensing and is designed for sites running typically up to 10 VMs.

  • Term license: 1 through 5-year options
  • Must run on a dedicated ROBO cluster with no capacity-based licensing
  • Available in AOS Pro and Ultimate editions

Nutanix Prism Software Licensing Models

Nutanix Prism is an end-to-end consumer-grade management and operations solution for virtualized datacenter environments that brings unprecedented simplicity by combining several aspects of administration, reporting, and intelligent automation.

Prism Starter licensing tier is included with every Nutanix AOS license. Prism Pro tier enables AIOps for customer’s infrastructure and the Ultimate tier extends the value to applications and services layers.

Prism Software Tiers

  STARTER PRO ULTIMATE
Ideal for HCI Management Infrastructure AIOps IT Service AIOps
HCI Management
Multi-Cluster management with Prism Central      
Infrastructure management
     
Monitoring and troubleshooting      
Cluster health      
Enterprise authentication and RBAC      
Rest APIs      
Comprehensive search      
Operational Insights
Customizable dashboard      
Reporting      
Application discovery​       
Automated Optimization
Capacity forecast      
VM Inefficiency detection and right-sizing      
Just-in-time planning      
Proactive Remediation
Anomaly detection      
Advanced troubleshooting      
Monitoring for non-AOS virtual infrastructure​       
Application monitoring (*)​       
Smart Automation
Low-code/no-code operations automation      
Self-tuning with machine learning      
Cost Management for Nutanix (**)​
Cost metering for resources​      
Budgeting and chargeback​       
Content Pack
SQL Server monitoring​      Included

* Enabled through the content pack.

** Delivered by the Beam Service. Applicable for on-prem resources only.

Note: 

  • A 90 day trial version of Prism Ultimate is included with every edition of AOS.
  • Licensing will be on a per-node per year basis with option to purchase for 1/2/3/4 or 5-year term
  • One license should be purchased for each node in the cluster that is being “managed” by Prism Pro or Ultimate tier

Nutanix Calm

Nutanix Calm is currently licensed on a per virtual-machine (VM) basis and on a per core basis. Calm licenses are required only for VMs managed by Calm, running in either the Nutanix Enterprise cloud or on other supported platforms.

  • Calm VM license packs are sold in annual subscription support bundles of 25 VMs per pack, available for all platforms
  • Calm Core licenses are sold in annual subscription of per core, available for on-Prem platforms. All cores in a cluster need to be licensed
  • For additional question, please reach out to a Nutanix Sales Expert

Nutanix Era

Era is a subscription term-based software license. This product is licensed based on the concept of managed database server vCPUs. vCPU licensing is a consumption-based model that will allow customers to license just the database servers that will be managed by Nutanix Era.

  • Licenses are sold in 1 to 5 year subscription terms

Nutanix Flow

Nutanix Flow is sold as an annual subscription licensed on a per node basis. Licenses are needed for all nodes in a cluster where microsegmentation functionality will be used. This option requires a Nutanix cluster managed by Prism Central and using the AHV virtualization solution.

  • Licenses are sold in 1 to 5 year subscription terms
  • Prism Central with Starter license is needed to manage microsegmentation policy

Nutanix Files

Nutanix Files is sold by capacity under two different licenses. Nutanix Files Add-on License for HCI is for Nutanix Files running on mixed mode clusters. Nutanix Files Dedicated License is for Nutanix Files running on dedicated clusters. Nutanix Files is intended for enterprise file workloads within corporate datacenters and at edge locations including remote/branch offices (ROBO) where there is a mix of VM and file workloads.

Nutanix Objects

Nutanix Objects is sold by capacity under two different licenses, Nutanix Objects for AOS license is for Nutanix Objects running on mixed mode clusters. Nutanix Objects Dedicated license is for Nutanix Objects running on dedicated clusters. Nutanix Objects is intended for object storage use cases such as backup, archive and object storage for development.

See Also: Explore the hardware platforms optimized for Nutanix software.

1: For any model on the hardware compatibility list, an Advanced Replication SKU is available as an add-on for the Pro licensing tier. This add-on license is applicable for On-prem Leap: Advanced Orchestration (Multiple Boot Stages, Script Execution, Re-IP, Test Failover) and it includes: Multi-site DR (many to one, one to many, many to many), Metro Availability, Sync or NearSync Replication (RPO = 0 or RPO = 1-15 min.).
Xi Leap subscribers do NOT need to upgrade to Pro or Ultimate AOS License to run this feature.

2: Encryption support is subject to export laws. Contact your account representative to confirm eligibility. For any model on the hardware compatibility list, an Encryption SKU is available as an add-on for the Pro licensing tier. This add-on license includes data-at-rest-encryption required for Self Encrypting Drives (SED) or software-based encryption.
License includes an optional native Local Key Management (LKM) service

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