Fractions of points supported for IBM PVU license calculations

FlexNet Manager Suite version 2021 R1.1

Points tables in FlexNet Manager Suite have long supported decimal fractions of points used for calculating consumption in points-based licenses. From this release, when FlexNet Manager Suite is in PVU mode (responsible for sub-capacity consumption calculations for IBM PVU licenses), it correctly uses any fractional points values in calculating both current and historical peak consumption values. Rounding is not applied (so that fractional values are preserved) throughout device calculations and summing of those consumption figures within the three mandatory IBM regions. Only at the level of reporting by those regions is rounding up correctly applied, as required by IBM. (If you still have not configured those reporting regions, rounding is applied to your global total consumption.) For example, imagine that you have a negotiated points rule where each core earns 0.5 points, and consider one of the standard IBM regions where you have:

• Host1 running VM1 with 3 cores, contributing (3 x 0.5) = 1.5 points to license A
• Host2 running VM2 with 4 cores, contributing (4 x 0.5) = 2 points to license A
• The total consumption in the region is therefore (1.5 + 2) = 3.5 points, which for the regional report is finally rounded to 4 points total.

Assuming this is the only region that consumes from license A, this rounded total is the final value that appears in the Compliance tab of the license properties. Similarly, the rounded regional totals are the figures used in both the IBM PVU License Consumption report (showing historical peak consumption) and the IBM PVU License Current Consumption report.

In contrast, the Consumption tab of the same license properties, which always shows the current result of the most recent compliance calculation, displays any decimal fractions in the contributions of each host to the total consumption of the license.

Tip: If you have successfully negotiated with IBM for some custom (potentially fractional) points values, you must add your own points rule to the appropriate points rule set to reflect that unique (and confidential) agreement. Remember that your locally-added points rules have precedence over those supplied through updates to the Application Recognition Library.