# HPE Morpheus Enterprise — Lessons

Notes and gotchas about running, integrating with, and licensing
**HPE Morpheus Enterprise Software** that aren't obvious from the
official docs alone. The official User Manual + Release Notes +
QuickSpecs describe the product as designed; this file is what
experienced operators actually learn.

> Treat this as living context. Update it when you (or the LLM
> driving this MCP) discover something non-obvious that the docs
> don't say or don't make findable. Each section is an H2 so the
> `morpheus_api_lessons(topic=...)` tool can return just the
> relevant piece.

## TL;DR

- **Morpheus Enterprise is the full cloud-management platform.** HPE
  Morpheus VM Essentials (HVM) is the VM-only subset; Morpheus
  Enterprise is what you "elevate to" when you need multi-cloud,
  containers, automation, policy, FinOps, ITSM integration, and
  self-service catalogs. The relationship is one-way upgrade.
- **Licensing is per physical CPU socket** on connected on-prem
  clouds (bare metal, hypervisor hosts, Kubernetes worker nodes).
  Public-cloud workloads (AWS / Azure / GCP / OCI) are factored at
  **15 workloads per socket** equivalent.
- **All license SKUs include Tech Care Essentials 24×7** as part
  of the license cost. There is no separate purchase for support
  on the license tier.
- **`morpheus_quickspecs` is the source of truth for SKUs.** Don't
  guess part numbers; query the QuickSpecs bundle.

## Licensing and SKUs

**Source of truth: the `morpheus_quickspecs` bundle.** Query it for
the current SKU list — the catalog updates more often than this
file does.

Pricing model summary (from QuickSpecs v1, 2026):

- **Per physical CPU socket** for connected on-prem clouds —
  KVM/HVM hosts, VMware ESXi hosts, bare metal servers, Kubernetes
  worker nodes. Count the **sockets**, not the cores; not the VMs.
- **Public cloud workloads factor at 15:1** — one socket of license
  covers up to 15 public-cloud workloads (instances) across AWS,
  Azure, GCP, OCI.
- **Term-based** licensing (not perpetual). 1, 3, and 5-year terms
  on E-LTU SKUs.
- **All include HPE Tech Care Essentials** (24×7 support, 15-minute
  response for severity-1) bundled into the license cost.

> The exact ratios and SKU names can change between QuickSpecs
> revisions. Use the `morpheus_quickspecs` tool / bundle for current
> values rather than memorizing.

## Elevation from HVM

The "elevate to Morpheus Enterprise" path is the canonical journey
for customers who started on HVM and outgrew it:

- **HVM clusters keep working unchanged after elevation.** You
  don't redeploy the manager; you upgrade-in-place using a
  Morpheus Enterprise license.
- **What changes:** the manager UI unlocks the full Enterprise
  feature set — public-cloud integrations, container/Kubernetes
  management, blueprints/catalogs, automation workflows, policy
  engine, FinOps cost dashboards, ITSM connectors (ServiceNow etc.),
  and the full REST API surface.
- **Existing HVM-tier work products survive the elevation:**
  Instance backups, network pools, storage providers, user
  accounts, integrations, scheduled jobs, etc.

The HVM User Manual page `Elevating to HPE Morpheus Enterprise`
(GUID-ECCA4FDD-37C8-45CE-A71F-C6E73B3BA713) walks the procedure.
See also the HVM `morpheus-docs` sibling MCP's
`hvm_user_manual_8_1_*` bundles.

## API surface — Plugin vs REST

Morpheus exposes two completely separate extensibility surfaces:

- **REST API** at `https://<manager>/api/` — external automation
  and integration. Bearer-token authentication; tokens issued from
  the user profile → API tokens UI. Full Enterprise API surface
  available (vs HVM-only managers which 404 on Enterprise-only
  endpoints).
- **Plugin API** — server-side extensions that load INTO the
  manager process. Versioned independently of the platform
  (Plugin API version listed in the Release Notes for each
  Morpheus version). A plugin built for Plugin API 1.3.x may not
  load on 1.4.x without changes.

**TODO — fill in real operational lessons as we accumulate them.**

## Multi-cloud onboarding

**TODO.** Each cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, VMware vSphere, KVM/HVM,
OpenStack, Nutanix, etc.) has its own onboarding ritual: credentials,
networking, IAM roles, regions, storage providers, image catalogs.
Search the User Manual: `search_docs(query="Add AWS cloud
integration")`, `search_docs(query="Azure subscription cost")`, etc.

## Tenancy, RBAC, and groups

**TODO.** Morpheus Enterprise tenancy is one of the more complex areas
— tenants, roles, groups, account groups, persona-based access.
Lessons specific to "what surprised me" go here.

## Backups

**TODO.** Morpheus Enterprise inherits the backup framework HVM
introduced (Storage Buckets, Execution Schedules, Backup Jobs)
and adds: cloud-native backup integrations (AWS Backup, Azure
Backup), per-instance backup policies via the policy engine,
ServiceNow-driven backup orchestration. Document the gotchas you
hit.

## Common operational gotchas

**TODO.** This is where the "experienced operator hallway
conversation" notes go. Examples to seed (delete or replace as you
learn):

- **Service plan vs Instance type** — same concept, different
  contexts. A service plan is the sizing template ("small / medium
  / large with these CPU/RAM"); an instance type is what you
  provision FROM the plan. Operators conflate them.
- **Cloud integration credentials are tenant-scoped, not
  global.** Adding a credential at the master tenant doesn't
  cascade — sub-tenants need their own (or the policy engine
  granting access).
- **Policy engine vs Logic library** — both live under
  Library/Automation, both can gate provisioning. Policies are
  preventive (block bad config), logic is generative (run scripts
  on lifecycle events). Pick the right tool.

## Adding to this doc

Two ways:

1. Manually edit `docs_mcp/api_lessons.md` in this repo and commit.
   The next image build picks it up.
2. Use `submit_doc_bug` for upstream issues, and append the
   takeaway here once the docs team responds.

The point of this doc is to surface the kind of context an
experienced operator would mention in a hallway conversation but
that doesn't quite fit anywhere in the formal product docs. Keep
sections tight — one H2 = one topic the LLM can return on demand.