License requirements

All Splunk software instances must have a license.

• Splunk Enterprise instances need access to an Enterprise license unless they are functioning only as forwarders. The license access is required even when they do not index external data. Access to specific features of a distributed deployment, such as distributed search and deployment server are only available with Enterprise licenses. The recommended way to connect instances to an Enterprise license is to associate the instance with a license manager. See Configure a license peerNo Content found for /db/organizations/splunk/repositories/splunk-10_4/content/documents/Platform/Splunk/Splunk_Admin/Configurealicensepeer/Configurealicensepeer.dita#id_70ae04bc_c933_4995_bb20_3d9bdde346ac/Configure_a_license_peer.

• Universal forwarders only need a Forwarder license. If a heavy forwarder is performing additional functions such as indexing data or managing searches, it requires access to an Enterprise license.

This table provides a summary of the license needs for the various Splunk Enterprise component types.