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> August
2003 Update (this page)
Friday, August 22nd, IBM introduced
their Mainframe
Charter on the internet. From the IBM website,
the charter provides “a framework for planned
future investment and to highlight specific ways
in which IBM intends to deliver ongoing value
to zSeries customers.” There have not yet
been any new announcements but they are expected
soon. (Click here
for the September announcement update.)
Four areas are covered in this update as they
are of special interest for their impact on software
pricing, sub-capacity pricing, and WLC:
- MSUs Lowered for z990
Servers, But Not the Performance. This will
lower your Variable WLC software charges and
perhaps your MSU based licenses from other vendors.
- z/OS Charges Lowered
for Variable WLC Below 315 MSUs. Provides lower
monthly charges for smaller installations.
- When z/OS is used with a NALC
(“New Application License Charge”)
the z/OS Charges have been lowered to z/OS.e
levels
- Links to Additional Information
Previous Updates are
available online.
With LPAR Capacity
and Software Usage Analysis (LCS) you can
do your own analysis of sub-capacity pricing and
these changes to determine what WLC can provide
in your site.
IBM has changed the Announced MSU Sizes of the
z990 servers without changing the actual performance.
The MSUs sizes are now approximately 10% smaller.
| Model |
Previously Announced
MSUs |
August 2003 Announced
MSUs |
Percent Change |
| z990-301 |
77 |
70 |
-9.0% |
| z990-305 |
337 |
302 |
-10.4% |
| z990-310 |
601 |
538 |
-10.4% |
| z990-316 |
844 |
761 |
-9.8% |
| z990-324 |
1192 |
1076 |
-9.7% |
| z990-332 |
1512 |
1365 |
-9.7% |
To implement this change IBM will upgrade the
microcode on all z990s to reflect the new Announced
MSU Values. The micrcode updates should be available
in September.
Additional 17Sep2003: Once the microcode
is updated the MSU related information in the
RMF70 data will change from the original Hardware
MSUs to Software Pricing MSUs (SWPMSUs). This
will change the reported capacity (SMF70CPA),
the 4-hour rolling average (SMF70LAC), image capacity
(SMF70WLA) and the defined capacity (SMF70MSU).
The z/OS Workload Manager and software from
other vendors queries the hardware about the size
and capabilities of an LPAR. The new size is available
for sites using pricing metrics of full-capacity
WLC, sub-capacity WLC or PSLC pricing. This new
size may also apply to the license agreements
you have with other software vendors, lowering
your software cost-of-ownership for the same performance.
What This Means to Your Site
This will certainly impact your capacity planning
and reporting. I've been telling clients to report
capacity in terms of MSUs, but this announcement
will change that strategy. For example if you
were planning an upgrade to a z990-310 with 601
MSUs then you were also planning the software
budget impact based on 601 MSUs. Now the maximum
software charges will be based on 538
MSUs. You'll still need to acquire the
z990-310 if you need 601 MSUs of hardware capacity.
The z990-310's SRM Constant will remain 17003.1881
as the performance is unchanged.
Carefully review your chargeback procedures,
particularly if you have changed them to use MSUs
as chargeback metric. When you have multiple machines
jobs that normally run on a z900 will use less
MSUs when those jobs run on a z990. The Service
Units and CPU time will be similar as that is
controlled by the SRM Constant. If MSUs is your
metric then customer invoices will decrease on
the z990. If CPU Time is your metric then customer
invoices will not change (except for the usual
variability based on workload and other parameters).
If you have been using a formula for conversion
from MIPS to MSUs, that will change on the z990s.
MSUs, the SRM Constant and the z/OS Workload
Manager
The z/OS Workload Manager (WLM) uses the SRM
Constant to convert CPU Service Units into CPU
time. The SRM Constant for the z990s is not changing,
so CPU times will not change. What is changing
is the announced MSU value for the z990s and the
required microcode update is needed so WLM can
compute MSUs for 4-hour rolling averages, and
other MSU capacity related information. (Recall
that APAR Number OW50998 was needed so that RMF
reports and SMF data would correctly reflect the
announced MSU values. Befoer OW50998 the image
capacity on RMF Partition Data Reports and the
4-hour rolling averages were not correct.)
WLM will use the changed MSU values when calculating
4-hour rolling averages and image capacities. These
values will also be reported on RMF Partition Data
Reports, RMF LPAR Cluster Reports, RMF III CPC command
output, and various other reports and displays.
This should also be used by your systems monitors.
When software products query the LPAR and hardware
configuration the changed MSU values will be returned
to the calling program. The changed MSU sizes will
be reflected in SMF70CPA (labeled as the “physical
CPU adjustment factor”).
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IBM lowered the price of z/OS and some features
for sub-capacity sizes smaller than 315 MSUs on
any zSeries server. Of course you must be using
Variable WLC. Earlier this year IBM lowered the
entry point to 3 MSUs. This change results in
a further cost reduction. This price change is
effective October 1, 2003. The Lowered
MSUs discussed above also apply. If you are
have a z990-305 it previously had an announced
capacity of 337 MSUs. Now it's capacity is 302
MSUs, and it falls within the range of the lower
z/OS prices also.
There are many installed machines that will benefit
from this change. Five z990 models, and twenty-five
z900 models and all the z800s are smaller than
315 MSUs. You should note this is a change for
z/OS only and not for the other Variable-WLC products.
The actually prices have not been announced yet,
only the fact that they will be changed soon.
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Additionally, IBM has also lowered z/OS charges
when you have a new workload that qualifies for
IBM's “New Application License Charge”.
for new workloads, that qualify for NALC pricing,
to the level of z/OS.e. This change is also planned
for G5, G6, and z900. To qualify for NALC pricing
you must be implementing a new workload such as
SAP, Domino, PeopleSoft, WebSphere , plus a
few others. Generally a new machine must be acquired
for the workload, but you may be able to implement
the new workload in an LPAR.
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Links to More Information
There is more information on other changes that
are part of IBM's
Mainframe Charter including changes in IFLs,
and memory. I've focused on those specifically
related to Workload License Charges and there
are additional
Mainframe Charter Pricing Initiatives. Other
recent updates include:
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More Questions? Please send an Email
Last Updated:
Wednesday, 17 September, 2003
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