IBM Sub-Cap Licensing Tool Feedback?

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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Because of the PVU pricing model and the fact that many wintel servers are now coming with a very large number of cores, and boxes with fewer cores are harder to find going forward, we find ourselves having to deploy new BES servers with some cores disabled to avoid very, very large licensing costs for the Domino underlying a BES server (ie more than $20k USD for a 12 core machine). IBM can adjust for that through the “sub-capacity” licensing program. The rub is that to run with some cores disabled, IBM requires the “IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) for Sub capacity usage” be introduced into the environment. It requires a websphere server (dedicated) to gather the data and agents on the BES dominos to track the core usage.

Questions:

  1. has anyone done this with a BES and if so any bad things happen as a result?

  2. any general feedback on the setup and management of the ILMT server? How much effort to install, configure and maintain? Is it hands off after installation?

  3. If you have used this, are you using it to do things other than count the number of active cores (ie other licensing audit reports) and if so have you found value in that?

  4. Any general/overview feedback for this would be greatly appreciated

Thanks very much for any time taken to share.

Dan

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Subject: Re: IBM Sub-Cap Licensing Tool Feedback

“…we find ourselves having to deploy new BES servers with some cores disabled to avoid very, very large licensing costs…”

Depending on how the cores are disabled, it may not require sub-capacity licensing terms. See:

“IBM can adjust for that through the “sub-capacity” licensing program…to run with some cores disabled…”

If the cores are disabled via Bios/OS commands, then yes, sub-capacity licensing terms are required. See:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage/SubCapacity/Scenarios_OS_BIOS.pdf

“[ILMT]…requires a websphere server (dedicated) to gather the data and agents on the BES dominos to track the core usage.”

ILMT provides both WebSphere and DB2 as restricted-use license components within ILMT.

Questions:

  1. Is it hands off after installation?

No, IBM provides ILMT to customers to assist in their software license management. See:

  1. Any general/overview feedback for this would be greatly appreciated

IBM Sub-Cap Resources:

Assessment by Siwel:

http://www.iaitam.org/V4I10_Puzzle.htm

Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules

ILMT Resources:

ILMT’s external product home page:

ILMT Technical Pre-Reqs:

What Is ITSM (IT Service Management)? | IBM (external)

ILMT Information Center (V7.2.1)

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/lmt/v7r2m1/index.jsp

ILMT Information Center Tutorials (V7.2.1)

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/lmt/v7r2m1/topic/com.ibm.license.mgmt.tutorials.doc/tutorials_main.html

ILMT Product FAQs (New)

Technical Exchange Webcast Replays for TAD4D / ILMT V7.2*

Overview and Integration

Playback URL: https://de202.centra.com:443/GP/main/00000186167d00000122f8caac06a723

Slides : http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg27016569

Topic Server Installation

Playback URL: https://de202.centra.com:443/GP/main/00000186167d00000122f8caac06a74f

Slides: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg27016570

Configuration, Agent and Security

Playback URL: https://de202.centra.com:443/GP/main/00000186167d00000122f8caac06a79c

Slides: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg27016571

Product Use

Playback URL: https://de202.centra.com:443/GP/main/00000186167d00000122f8c9295ea866

Slides: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg27016572

Upgrade

Playback URL: https://de202.centra.com:443/GP/main/00000186167d00000122f8c9295ea878

Slides: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg27016573

Event Password for all sessions: ‘tiv0li’ [0 is a zero]

If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to contact your IBM software sales rep or send a note to subcap@us.ibm.com.