A permanent license (as opposed to an evaluation or auto-generated license) allows use of the licensed StorNext feature until it expires. If the license.dat file does not contain permanent licenses, StorNext produces an auto-generated license with an expiration date for all StorNext products and features except Deduplication. In some cases Quantum may provide evaluation licenses for features. Evaluation licenses also have a fixed expiration date.
Beyond the evaluation period, a permanent license is required to configure or use StorNext features.
Note: Do not mix auto-generated and evaluation license keys with permanent license keys. When one or more permanent license keys are entered in StorNext, ensure all auto-generated and evaluation licenses are deleted. If an auto-generated or evaluation license period is used to evaluate new features, be aware that any remaining time on those licenses is lost as soon as one or more permanent licenses is entered. One exception to note, Maintenance license keys are tied to the service contract and will always have an expiration date, even if the other license keys are permanent. After permanent licenses are entered, do not install an evaluation license.
Once a license expires (either auto-generated or evaluation) access to the licensed feature is suspended. In general, this means access to the feature is no longer available, with the following exceptions:
- When the Manager license expires, read-only access is still provided to any previously stored data
- When the Maintenance license expires, access to all licensed features remains intact but the site cannot upgrade to a version of the StorNext software released after the expiration date
Note: When one license expires they all expire, with the exception of the Maintenance and LAN Client licenses.
