Common: Targeting for Solaris Zones

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

To calculate the compliance position for Oracle Processor and IBM PVU licenses, FlexNet Manager Suite needs hardware-specific information about the Solaris zone where the application has been installed. As the global zone manages and keeps track of the host resources used by the non-global zones, you must collect inventory from the global zone when you collect inventory from one or more non-global zones. Consider the following example architecture of a Solaris host:

The diagram illustrates a Solaris host with a logical domain (LDom 1) that contains a global zone and three non-global zones. Non-global Zone 1 uses three processor threads in a dedicated mode from the Logical Domain, Non-global Zone 2 uses four processor threads through the capped CPU resource management method, and Non-global zone 3 uses another four processor threads through the resource pool resource management method.

To calculate the compliance position for the Oracle Processor and IBM PVU licenses for the applications installed on Non-global Zone1, you need to inventory the Global Zone and Non-global Zone 1 through one or more discovery and inventory rules. The hardware details would be collected from the global zone, and the application inventory would be collected from the non-global zone. The same targeting technique applies for Non-global Zone 2 and Non-global zone 3. For more information on creating targets, see the online help.

Representation of Solaris architecture

The following table describes how different entities of Solaris architecture are displayed on the Virtual Devices and Clusters page :

Solaris entity	Representation
LDom	VM host
Processor set and Pool	Resource Pool
Global or non-global zone	Virtual Machine

Note: When a physical machine has been hard-partitioned into two LDoms, two default global zones are created. IT Asset Management collects an .ndi file for each global zone.

Data sources for Solaris zones inventory

To get an accurate license compliance position for Oracle Processor and IBM PVU licenses for the applications installed on Solaris zones, Flexera recommends using its inventory collection component. A locally-installed FlexNet Inventory Agent is the most complete and capable format for use of this component.

License consumption calculations

An accurate license consumption for license metrics relying on hardware properties can only be calculated when the required data is available to IT Asset Management. For example, the license consumption calculation for an Oracle Processor or IBM PVU license requires processor, core, threads or similar from the host, pool, or the virtual machine itself. The virtualization hierarchy and properties (such as capped, uncapped, dedicated partitioning) are also required. Missing hardware details for any level of the virtualization hierarchy may lead to the following values for consumption on a Solaris zone:

• Approximated value: When the Threads (max) property is missing for a pool, IT Asset Management uses the capping value defined at the processor set level. If this value is also missing, the value at the host level is used.
• Zero: In all other cases.

The following table summarizes the impact of missing hardware details on Oracle Processor and IBM PVU license consumption calculations:

License type	Level	Missing property value	UI location	Consumption value
Oracle Processor	Host	Cores	The Hardware tab of the host properties.	0
	Host	Threads	The Hardware tab of the host properties.	0
	VM	Threads (max)	The VM Properties tab, under the Virtual machine properties section.	0
	Pool	Threads (max)	The VM Properties tab, under the Pool properties section.	Approximated value
IBM PVU	Host	Cores	The Hardware tab of the host properties.	0
	Host	Threads	The Hardware tab of the host properties.	0
	VM	Threads	The Hardware tab of the VM properties.	0
	Pool	Threads	The VM Properties tab, under the Pool properties section.	Approximated value

Inventory beacon settings for Solaris zones inventory

To collect inventory from Solaris zones through zero footprint inventory collection, the inventory beacon needs the credentials of the root user for these zones. For this, the Password Manager on the appropriate inventory beacon(s) needs to be updated with these credentials. Use the value SSH account (password) for the Account Type field while adding the root user to the Password Manager. For more information on using the Password Manager, see the online help for the inventory beacon.