VM-Series Model License Types

Capacity License
—The VM-Series firewall requires a base license, also called a capacity license, to enable the model number (VM-50, VM-100, VM-200, VM300, VM-500, VM-700, or VM-1000-HV) and the associated capacities on the firewall. Capacity licenses are included in a bundle and can be perpetual or term-based:
Perpetual License
—A license with no expiration date, it allows you to use the VM-Series firewall at the licensed capacity, indefinitely. Perpetual licenses are available for the VM-Series capacity license only.
Term-Based License
—A term-based license allows you to use the VM-Series firewall for a specified period of time. It has an expiration date and you will be prompted to renew the license before it expires. Term-based licenses are available for the capacity licenses, support entitlements, and subscriptions.
VM-Series ELA
—For high-growth enterprises, the VM-Series enterprise licensing agreement (VM-Series ELA) provides a fixed price licensing option that allows up to unlimited deployment of VM-Series firewalls with BYOL. The ELA is offered in one and three-year term agreements with no true-up at the end of the term.
There are two flavors of the VM-Series ELA:
If you purchased the VM-Series ELA before December 4, 2018, you have the legacy VM-Series ELA which includes your choice of a single VM-Series model on any supported hypervisor or public cloud environment. With this ELA, you receive a single license authorization code for capacity, support, GlobalProtect, PAN-DB URL Filtering, Threat Prevention, WildFire subscriptions for every instance of the VM-Series firewall. You also get unlimited deployments of the Panorama virtual appliance included with a device management license for 1000 firewalls on each.
Palo Alto Networks began phasing out the legacy VM-Series ELA on April 16, 2019. Existing enterprise license customers will be notified by their support representative when their account is migrated to the Multi-Model ELA. Licensing tokens will be distributed according to your VM-Series firewall subscription agreement — no additional action is necessary for continued operation of your firewalls. If you would like to Manage VM-Series ELA License Tokens, you must designate an ELA administrator. Only a super user role on the Palo Alto Networks Customer Support Portal (CSP) can assign an ELA administrator.
The VM-Series Enterprise License Agreement (Multi-Model ELA) you purchase after December 4, 2018 (either as a new purchase or as a repurchase of the legacy VM-Series ELA) is called the multi-model VM-Series ELA that includes most models of the VM-Series firewall portfolio along with the GlobalProtect, PAN-DB URL Filtering, Threat Prevention, WildFire subscriptions, and support entitlement. You also get unlimited deployments of the Panorama virtual appliance with a device management license for 1000 firewalls on each.