# Elastic licensing in virtualised environments

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** license\
**Created:** [December 11, 2018, 11:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367 "2018-12-11T11:50:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rayh)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 11:50am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367/1 "2018-12-11T11:50:29Z")

</div>

Hi

I am a little unsure about the [elastic.co](http://elastic.co) licensing for running multiple elasticsearch instances on a single host - is the license per instance or per physical host? Also how is that affected by HA functionality like VM failover to another host say ?

thanks  
ray

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 12:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367/2 "2018-12-11T12:20:07Z")

</div>

It's per elasticsearch node. Per instance that is.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rayh)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367/3 "2018-12-11T14:12:21Z")

</div>

thanks dadoonet

So I am safe to assume that if the licensed ES instance is failed over to another host then the license goes with the instance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367/4 "2018-12-11T14:59:43Z")

</div>

As long as both nodes are not up at the same time, yes I guess.  
But that sounds like a bad practice to me unless I don't understand what you meant.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rayh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@rayh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rayh)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367/5 "2018-12-11T15:33:54Z")

</div>

yep only one node up at the same time

host fails so VM running ES is migrated to alternate host (in an N+1) scenario

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-licensing-in-virtualised-environments/160367/6 "2019-01-08T15:33:54Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 28 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.