Pass the DB2/LUW Audit

28 May 2010

 

 

I have been in contact with a number of customers lately are being audited by IBM to verify that they are not using more software then they have purchased.  In this article I will discuss what you can do now to ensure that you pass your audit with no sweat for DB2 for Linux, Unix and Windows and DB2 Connect.  Also don't fear – the auditors are only observing facts.  The auditors found that one of my customers owned more licenses than they were using which was good because they were starting a new project and didn't need to buy as many new licenses as they originally thought.  On the other hand, licensing terms can be kind of confusing to those who do your installs and it is possible that DB2 got installed on an additional server or two and the amount of DB2 licensed was not well understood at the time.  If that is the case then you may want to consider removing those installs or purchasing more licenses. 

 

In this document I will only discuss licensing terms in general terms and it is possible that I have made some mistakes.  To see the correct, detailed terms for DB2 see the DB2 9.7 Announcement Letter or the DB2 Connect 9.7 Announcement Letter.

 

At a high level, the steps that you should take to ensure that you are in compliance are:

1.    Determine the editions and quantity of each for which you are entitled.

2.    Determine options licensed such as Storage Optimization

3.    Determine what is installed.

4.    Compare entitlements to installed copies.

 

I will expand on how to do these steps after I define some terms that will be used in those steps.

 

Editions

 

There are a number of other special editions described in the Announcement Letter above, but the three primary editions are:

 

       DB2 Enterprise Server Edition

       DB2 Workgroup Server Edition

       DB2 Express Edition

 

The primary DB2 Connect editions are described on my DB2 Connect Usage and Editions page, but the primary editions are:

 

       DB2 Connect Unlimited Edition

       DB2 Connect Application Server Edition

       DB2 Connect Enterprise Edition Authorized User Edition

       DB2 Connect Enterprise Edition Concurrent User Edition

 

For DB2 Connect you should also note if you purchased the correct product for 'I' or 'Z' Systems.  There are now some DB2 Connect Advanced Editions that bundle additional software with the base editions.

 

User vs. Processor Licensing

 

Some editions of DB2 and DB2 Connect allow for either Processor Value Unit (PVU) licensing or User licensing and some can be purchased either way.  PVU licensing bases licensing on the number and types of processors on which the software is installed.  The Processor Value Unit page shows the PVU rating for various processors.  Users may be counted as authorized or concurrent.  The definitions are in the announcement letters.

 

The four Steps

 

1.  Determine the editions and quantity of each for which you are entitled.

 

If you are quite familiar with Passport Advantage, you can log into your account to determine the editions, licensing types and quantities for which you are entitled.  However, if you own more than a few products then this can be a daunting task.  You may instead want to contact your IBM Software Sales Representative and ask for everything data related for which you are entitled and the quantities of each. 

 

2. Determine options such as Storage Optimization

 

Make sure to ask for the all of the options to which you are entitled and amounts.  Some of the more common add-on features are:

 

       Storage Optimization (Compression)

       Performance Optimization (Workload Manager, DB2 Performance Expert)

 

3. Determine what is installed.

 

This is where you need to determine what you have installed on your various servers and workstations.  Once you know which machines have DB2 or DB2 Connect, you can then easily determine what is running on it by running the following command in a CLP window locally on the server:

 

     db2licm -l

 

This will display the edition of DB2 and DB2 Connect along with the licensed options.  Here is an example of the output:

 

C:\Program Files\IBM\SQLLIB\BIN>db2licm -l

Product name:                     "DB2 Enterprise Server Edition"

License type:                     "CPU Option"

Expiry date:                      "Permanent"

Product identifier:               "db2ese"

Version information:              "9.7"

Enforcement policy:               "Soft Stop"

Features:

DB2 Database Partitioning:        "Not licensed"

DB2 Performance Optimization ESE: "Not licensed"

DB2 Storage Optimization:         "Not licensed"

DB2 Advanced Access Control:      "Not licensed"

DB2 Geodetic Data Management:     "Not licensed"

IBM Homogeneous Replication ESE:  "Not licensed"

 

Product name:                     "DB2 Connect Unlimited Edition for zSeries"

License type:                     "Host Server and MSU"

Expiry date:                      "Permanent"

Product identifier:               "db2consv"

Version information:              "9.7"

 

In the above example, you can see that my machine is licensed for the CPU (PVU) DB2 ESE and DB2 Connect Unlimited for zSeries.  However, I am not licensed for any of the add-on features. 

 

For non-partitioned servers or workstations you only need to run this command once.  However, for multiple-partition servers, you will need to run it on each partition to verify which products and options are being run on each since each partition is its own operating sytem.

 

In addition to determining what products are running you will need to determine the numbers or processors or users being used for the installation.  If you are using a user based license, then you should determine the number of users.  This is not as straight forward as you might think.  I highly recommend that you speak with your software sales representative to determine what this means, because it can even mean different things for different products and even editions of the same product. 

 

If you are using a processor based (PVU) license, then you need to count the number of processors on the machine.  If you are using a virtualized (partitioned) server and do not have DB2 or DB2 Connect installed on all processors, then you need to count the processors where it is installed.  Finally you count the number of processors on the machine or partitions with DB2 and multiply that number by the PVU rating of the processors on your machine.  You can find the PVU ratings  on the Processor Value Unit page.

 

If you are only licensing part of a machine then you will need to ensure that you have a sub-capacity license.  This is a very involved topic and you should discuss it with your software sales representative.  This is very important if you are running in a virtualized environment.  Sub-capacity licenses are typically the same price as regular licenses, but you should ensure that you have the correct type and are following the terms for the license type that you own. 

 

If you are using DB2 Connect Unlimited Edition then you do not need to worry about where it is running.  That license is based on the power of your zSeries or iSeries host.  Please see my  DB2 Connect Usage and Editions page for more information.

 

 

4. Compare entitlements to installed copies.

 

So, once you have determined the amounts and types of license you own in steps 1 and 2 and have determined the amounts and types of licenses that you have deployed you can compare the two categories.  You must make sure that you do this by edition and options.  For example, you may own 400 PVUs of DB2 Enterprise Server Edition (ESE), but if you have 300 PVUs of DB2 ESE and 100 PVU's of DB2 Workgroup deployed then you are not in compliance.  In this case you should replace your Workgroup install with DB2 ESE.  Everything should line up exactly with what you own.  If they don't then you can call your Software Sales Representative or IT Specialist and they will be happy to help. 

 

 

DB2 Clients

In general you are licensed to use the DB2 Client software at no extra charge on servers and workstations as long as you have at least one DB2 or DB2 Connect license.  If you want to verify what is actually on a machine, you can use the “db2licm -l” command on clients too to show what is there. 

 

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