The docs are quite unclear on the matter of licenses for search heads. I'm referring mainly to http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.1.0/Admin/TypesofSplunklicenses#Licenses_for_search_heads , although other, peripheral mentions of search heads in the context of licensing are equally muddled.
In places, the docs seem to imply, if not outright state, that licenses are optional (albeit advised) for search heads. But then the section referenced above states, "... you must have an Enterprise license to configure a search head." If that statement is true, then how can a license be optional for a search head?
If, in fact, licenses are somehow optional for search heads, what happens if you do not add a search head to the license pool? Is the search head's functionality limited in some ways? Precisely what ways?
Finally, do search heads that are properly configured (that is, that are purely search heads and are not indexing any external data) ever consume license volume?
To make this worth your time, I promise to rewrite the docs to clarify all this stuff if I get some good answers. Also, I will definitely remember to accept the most helpful answer I get.
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