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Home > Updates
> 19 February 2003
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Questions and Answers Regarding Workload License Charges
Question: Now that ILM has been cancelled Is There Still WLC?
Answer:
WLC continues as before. The IBM License Manager would have
provided “active” and “realtime” enforcement
of software contracts. IBM’s Sub Capacity Reporting Tool
(SCRT) has been and will continue to be used so sites can have
WLC.
Question: Do I have to cap my LPARs and/or z900s, and/or workloads to
use WLC?
Answer:
Capping is not required to use WLC. Hard capping of an LPAR
is still an option. If you do hard cap an LPAR then the software
running in that LPAR is priced at the level of the hard cap, the
four hour rolling average is not used. Defined Capacity is also
an option that sites may use to limit some or all of their LPARs.
Depending on the setting of the defined capacity this could throttle
the workloads and control the size of the software bill.
Question: What is Full Capacity WLC?
Answer:
With Full Capacity WLC you pay for your variable WLC products
based on the entire capacity of the z900/z800. Because there 627
flat WLC products and only 30 Variable WLC products some installations
save so much money on z/OS and the flat products that paying sub-capacity
on the Variable WLC products does not matter. See the
IBM product list. (You can even ask IBM to license z/OS, and
set up a “perpetual” Single Version Charge for OS/390
and then continue to run OS/390 without using z/OS at all.)
Question: Why aren’t there more customers/sites/machines
using WLC?
Answer:
Many installations have done a “quick” analysis
of WLC versus PSLC. While a quick analysis will save time, it
does not always provide the correct answer. A thorough analysis
may be needed. Analysis of your particular environment is the
only way to understand the potential value to WLC. There are no
“rules of thumb” that apply to everyone and there
are no good “indicators” that WLC will provide value.
One further obstacle: if a site is uncertain
that WLC will lower their costs they will stay
with PSLC. Once WLC is started for a machine you
cannot go back to PSLC on that machine. Your IBM
team should be able to do a quick analysis, primarily
looking at “Full Capacity WLC”. Other
than LCS software
there are no tools available from IBM or anyone
else that can assist you in doing your own analysis
of prices for your environment.
Question: What “Workload” is the Workload
of WLC?
Answer:
While the “W” in WLC is “Workload” it
does not refer to workloads in a Workload Manager (WLM) or z/OS
sense of the word. IBM also uses the term “sub-capacity”
pricing in relation to WLC, but I suggest you think of this as
container pricing or LPAR pricing. The price you are charge for
a Variable WLC product is based on the maximum simultaneous 4
hour rolling average of the LPARs in which the product is running.
Question: What do you mean, by the “maximum simultaneous
4 hour rolling average of the LPARs in which the product is running”?
Answer:
You might think that if a product runs in an LPAR during the
month, that LPAR should always be included while determining the
maximum simultaneous 4 hour rolling average. That would penalize
sites that ran one job on the wrong LPAR by mistake. SCRT analyzes
the simultaneous 4 hour rolling averages interval by interval
and LPAR by LPAR retaining the maximum as the basis of billing
for each product. SCRT only includes an LPAR’s 4 hour rolling
average if the product is running during the interval. This is
important for the products that do not normally run 24x7x365 such
as the compilers.
More Questions? Please send an Email
What Should You Do?
Continue Studying WLC and Learn How You Can Leverage WLC
There are number of sessions at the Share
Conference in Dallas, February 23-28. I'll be doing four sessions
at Share.
My WLC Seminar is fully up
to date and available for In-House presentation. This is the best
way to get everyone in your organization the knowledge they require
about WLC.
LPAR Capacity and Software Usage Analysis (LCS) Software
was introduced in December. LCS was developed
to assist installations in planning for and implementing IBM’s
Workload License Charges (WLC). Read the PDF
brochure for a description of all the LCS
capabilities.
Last Updated:
Friday, 25 July, 2003
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