Rights on Virtual Machines and Hosts
FlexNet Manager Suite
2023 R1
(On-Premises)
Use this section to track special rights for installing software on virtual machines (and their hosts). As these rights can be both subtle and complicated, in general it is best practice when creating new licenses to use the license models/templates that are updated through the Product Use Rights Library (PURL).
Supported License Types
This section displays (in one of several varieties) for the following license types:
- Core Points
- Custom Metric
- Device
- Device (Core-Limited)
- Device (Processor-Limited)
- IBM PVU
- IBM VPC
- Microsoft Server Core
- Microsoft Server/Management Core
- Microsoft Server Processor
- OEM
- Processor
- Processor Points.
Restrictions
- For Custom Metric, IBM Concurrent User, and IBM Floating User licenses, these fields are for your record keeping only, and do not affect any calculations. For other license types, individual fields may also be for record-keeping only, as described below.
- For IBM PVU licenses, these properties have no effect on the PVU counts imported from ILMT. However, if a computer is reported in inventory from another source and not matched by a record imported from ILMT, FlexNet Manager Suite performs its own calculations of license consumption on that computer. In this latter case, the following controls are taken into account.
- For IBM VPU licenses, no consumption data or license position is imported from ILMT. Therefore the following controls do affect the consumption calculations in FlexNet Manager Suite.
Note: IBM accepts FlexNet Manager Suite data for sub-capacity reporting in lieu of
IBM tools such as IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT), Tivoli Asset Discovery for
Distributed (TAD4D) or IBM Software Usage Analysis (SUA). For this purpose, IBM
requires that the inventory is gather by the FlexNet inventory agent (and not by any
other third party source). Your choice between sub-capacity licensing using ILMT, or
sub-capacity licensing using the FlexNet inventory agent data uploaded into FlexNet Manager Suite, may be influenced through the controls on this page.
Some license agreements provide that licensing a virtual host simultaneously
licenses one, several, or all the virtual machines running on that host. However,
the license terms may vary on how to calculate that shared licensing:
- The agreement may specify that once the host is fully licensed, the overall licensing for the host provides coverage of a number of VMs. In relation to the VMs, the host is here considered as a single unit. Furthermore, VMs are each considered as a unit, without considering the number of processors assigned to each VM. This model could typically apply, for example, to Microsoft SQL Server 2008, depending on the edition and the licensing approach you chose (later editions started the swing to core-based licensing). For example, with SQL Server 2008 Datacenter Edition, you are permitted to run the software in one physical and any number of virtual operating system environments (OSEs), without assessing the number of virtual processors used.
- Other agreements may specify that a single license entitlement covers
a specified number of processors on the host, and also covers a
specified number of VMs. For example, you may need one license entitlement
to cover two processors on the host, and that same entitlement covers two
virtual machines running the same software on that host — as is the case for
Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition license agreements. Here, it is not the
host that is considered as the basic unit, but the individual license
entitlement (these are sometimes loosely called just "licenses"). Increasing
either the processor count for the host, or the count of
hosted VMs running the software, may increase the number of license
entitlements you must purchase; but the requirement is not "the sum of" the
parts but "the greater of" the parts. For example, consider these
requirements for Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition on a given host, where
each license entitlement covers two host processors and up to two
VMs:
Processors on host VMs on same host Total license entitlements required 2 (needs 1 entitlement) 1 or 2 (needs 1 entitlement) 1
2 (needs 1 entitlement) 3 or 4 (needs 2 entitlements) 2 4 (needs 2 entitlements) 1 or 2 (needs 1 entitlement) 2 4 (needs 2 entitlements) 3 or 4 (needs 2 entitlements) 2 Note: This entitlement-based coverage of VMs applies only to Microsoft Server Processor licenses (so far).
- To set VMs per host, choose either:
- The third option, One licensed host allows unlimited VM installations, when the license allows any number of VMs on the same host, without restrictions.
- The fourth option, One licensed host covers multiple VMs, when you need to specify the number of VMs allowed. An additional control appears, allowing you to specify the Maximum VMs per host. This typically applies to earlier versions of SQL Server, and may also apply to other products and license types.
- To set VMs per license entitlement, choose the second option,
License calculation uses host capacity.
For Microsoft Server Processor licenses only, an additional control appears,
1 entitlement covers nn VM(s),
which should be set in particular ways depending on which edition of the
software is being licensed:
- Leave the check box for this control clear (not selected) for products like Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition, because that edition allows unlimited VMs once the full capacity of the host server is licensed. This setting means you are licensing the full capacity of the host, and also covering any number of VMs running on that host.
- For Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition, select the check box and (by default), select 2 VMs per license entitlement. (This is the normal license condition for Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition, unless you have negotiated special rights with Microsoft.)
Tip: For Windows Server 2012 Essentials Edition or Foundation Edition, do not use a Microsoft Server Processor license type, as these are simple "server" licenses that do not count processors. For these, you may find a simple Device license more appropriate.
Controls
If the license has been created automatically during purchase processing, the default settings from the Product Use Rights Libraries are already applied. If you are creating a license manually, please review the terms of your license agreement carefully.
These controls are documented in the order they appear on screen.
| Control | Details |
|---|---|
| This license does not have contracts with applicable rights on virtual machines and hosts | The license is not inheriting any virtualization rights, either
because:
|
| Inherited rights on virtual machines and hosts from contract |
Indicates the name of the linked contract from which this license can
inherit license consumption rules and rights. When you select this check box, you instruct
FlexNet Manager Suite to dynamically inherit license use rights and rules from an
automatically-selected linked contract. If a license is linked to multiple contracts, the
license inherits use rights and rules from one of the linked contracts based on the
following conditions:
When no suitable contract has been linked to the license, the check box is replaced with a text explanation This license does not have contracts with applicable rights on virtual machines and hosts. |
| No special virtualization rights |
Select this option when the license has no provision for installations on virtual machines. Tip: With this setting, when a Device (Core-Limited) license is
consumed on a virtual machine, the number of cores allocated to the
virtual machine is not considered during license reconciliation.
Instead, only the total number of cores on the physical host is used in
the calculations. As a result, a virtual machine cannot consume from
such a license if its physical host has more cores than the core limit
defined in the license.
This choice is not available for IBM PVU or IBM VPC licenses. |
|
License calculation uses host capacity |
This is displayed for the following license types:
When this radio button is selected (or in the case of Microsoft Server/Management Core licenses, where it 'always on' and cannot be changed), the appropriate properties of only the virtual host server are used to calculate consumption for the license; and any inventory device properties of guest VMs are ignored as irrelevant to the license. For these licenses where the consumption calculations exclusively use the
hardware inventory of the virtual host, the host license may also
authorize a number of VMs (virtualized operating system environments, or
OSEs) on the host server. These may work in either of two ways
(discussed above in Shared coverage of hosts and VMs):
|
| 1 entitlement covers nn VM(s) |
This control is available only for Microsoft Server Processor licenses. The Microsoft Server Processor license type (based on properties of the host) may also authorize the same software running on some guest VMs on the host (coverage may extend to downgraded versions as well, so it is important to check license terms). As normal, if this license is created from a Microsoft SKU during order processing, the standard settings for product use rights are applied as defaults. If you are editing a license manually, consider the following. For
Windows Server, the Microsoft Server Processor license is always applied
to the physical server, but the default settings vary by product version
and edition:
For more information, see the licensing guidelines from Microsoft. |
| Always use full capacity license calculations |
This choice is available only for IBM PVU and VPC licenses. Even though FlexNet Manager Suite may be configured for sub-capacity
calculations of IBM VPC or PVU points (see IBM High-Frequency Scanning), an individual license
may be exempted, and use full capacity calculations, when you select
this choice. Full capacity calculations license the host server based on
its own core count, and ignore the assigned capacities of any guest VMs
running the same software on that host. Therefore, if you select this
choice, the fields available in the Compliance tab are
adjusted appropriately (see Compliance Tab).
Tip: When FlexNet Manager Suite is replacing ILMT and is responsible for
sub-capacity points calculations, changing this setting invalidates
the current results for PVU points or VPC consumption. The next full
reconciliation then recalculates consumption, taking into account
your new settings. Notice that the change is retroactive through the
data retention period for any report that you [re-]generate. In
other words, such a mid-term change is considered a data
correction, effective throughout the reporting
period.
|
| Use sub-capacity license calculations where available |
This choice is available only for IBM PVU and VPC licenses. If you select
this choice, the fields available in the Compliance tab are
adjusted appropriately (see Compliance Tab).
Note: Using FlexNet Manager Suite data (derived from the 2015
release or later) to determine an IBM PVU or VPC license position on IBM
software may be
acceptable by IBM for sub-capacity reporting in place of IBM License Metric Tool
(ILMT), Tivoli Asset Discovery for Distributed (TAD4D), IBM Software Usage
Analysis (SUA), or IBM BigFix Inventory.
In the following description, "an IBM-approved inventory tool" means
either ILMT or the FlexNet Manager Suite stack.
Important: Approved use of sub-capacity calculations from
FlexNet inventory requires more frequent hardware inventory
collection from the affected IBM servers (specifically, an
inspection every 30 minutes). To use sub-capacity licensing from
FlexNet inventory, be sure that you have selected the check box to
Enable frequent hardware scanning for IBM sub-capacity
license calculations in the IBM reporting and archiving
settings section of the Inventory Settings page (). For details of all these settings, see IBM High-Frequency Scanning.
When this Use sub-capacity license calculations
where available option
is selected, it provides sub-capacity licensing to the extent permitted.
Two other factors may still limit this extent:
Note: Special considerations apply when the virtual host is part of a
cluster, and you have not enabled extra inventory scanning. (In this
case, the inventory setting check box to Enable frequent hardware scanning for IBM sub-capacity
license calculations is
cleared.) Here, the entire cluster is treated as one. Therefore:
Tip: When FlexNet Manager Suite is replacing ILMT and is responsible for
sub-capacity points calculations, changing this setting invalidates
the current results for PVU points or VPC consumption. The next full
reconciliation then recalculates consumption, taking into account
your new settings. Notice that the change is retroactive through the
data retention period for any report that you [re-]generate. In
other words, such a mid-term change is considered a data
correction, effective throughout the reporting
period.
|
|
Allow sub-capacity licensing for sources other than ... |
This choice is available only for IBM PVU and VPC licenses, and is
displayed only when you select the option Use sub-capacity license calculations
where available. When this check box is
clear (the default), the following IBM licensing rules are applied:
However, an exceptional calculation may apply for certain
IBM customers who have negotiated away the requirement to use ILMT, and
do not wish to use the correctly configured FlexNet inventory agent. In
such exceptional cases only, select this check box. When it is
selected:
As well, whenever this check box is visible (and you have
ILMT data available), a report is prepared showing comparative
License Positions from FlexNet
Manager and ILMT. This compares the
results of sub-capacity licensing calculated by ILMT and the
current calculations by FlexNet Manager Suite.
Tip: When FlexNet Manager Suite is replacing ILMT and is responsible for
sub-capacity points calculations, changing this setting invalidates
the current results for PVU points or VPC consumption. The next full
reconciliation then recalculates consumption, taking into account
your new settings. Notice that the change is retroactive through the
data retention period for any report that you [re-]generate. In
other words, such a mid-term change is considered a data
correction, effective throughout the reporting
period.
|
| One licensed host allows unlimited VM installations |
Select this option when the license does not keep
count of which virtual machines hosted on the server are running the
software.
Tip: Select this option for the
Datacenter editions of either the Microsoft Server/Management Core
license type, or the Microsoft Server Processor license type.
|
| One licensed host covers multiple VMs | Choose this option for licenses that cover a maximum number of VMs
(often also covering host licensing, or else the number of VMs may be
included in the licensing of the virtual host).
Tip: For the
Microsoft Server/Management Core license type, select this option
for the Standard edition.
When you select this option, additional controls are exposed so that you can set limits. These are described next. Example: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition used to require that the check box was set and the count was set to four OSEs per processor license. (Since the release of SQL Server 2012, Microsoft is transitioning customers to core licensing.) |
| Maximum VMs | Enter or spin up the upper limit of VMs allowed by a license that can
cover both the host server and a specified maximum number of guest VM
operating system environments (OSEs). Tip: For a Microsoft
Server/Management Core license for Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition,
the standard value is 2 virtual OSEs or Hyper-V containers (and
unlimited Windows Server containers). Whether or not you need to
separately license Windows Server running on the physical server
depends:
|
| Count includes installation(s) on the host operating system |
When a license grants rights to run software in virtual machines, it may take either of two approaches to an installation of the same software on the host server:
|
| Minimum cores per VM | This control appears only for Microsoft Server Core licenses. When licensing virtual host servers, this field sets the minimum number of processor cores that the license counts as consumed for each VM running on the host (which may be a larger number than the cores actually assigned to a VM and showing in inventory for the guest device). Naturally, since this is a minimum, if inventory for the guest VM shows a higher number of cores assigned, the larger number is taken into account. |
FlexNet Manager Suite (On-Premises)
2023 R1