Processor value unit (PVU)

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A processor value unit (PVU) is a unit of measurement that is used to determine the licensing cost of IBM middleware products. It is based on the type of processor that is deployed on the server where the software is installed. For each product, you must acquire the appropriate number of PVUs that is defined for the specific processor on which the software is installed.

The number of required PVUs is based on the processor technology and the number of processors that are available to the software product. For PVU-based licensing, IBM defines a processor as a processor core on a chip. For example, a dual-core processor chip has two processor cores. PVUs are assigned per core, not per processor. The number of PVUs that are assigned to a processor core is defined in the PVU table. For more information, see: Processor Value Unit [PVU] licensing for Distributed Software.

Processor value unit license types

PVU licensing can be full capacity or subcapacity. Full capacity licensing is based on the overall number of processor cores on the physical server on which the product is installed. Subcapacity licensing is available only in virtualized environments. It is counted as the highest number of PVUs that are available for the VM on which the product is installed, not the total PVU count on the physical server. You acquire licenses for the lower value: subcapacity or full capacity.

Subcapacity licensing can significantly reduce the licensing cost, especially with a move to a newer processor core technology. However, virtual machines or partitions that restrict the available processor capacity must be created by using eligible virtualization technologies. For more information about subcapacity licensing requirements, see: Passport Advantage® Virtualization Capacity (Subcapacity) Licensing.

For information about rules of subcapacity counting on each virtualization type, see: Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules. For information about rules of subcapacity counting on public clouds, see: IBM Eligible Public Cloud BYOSL policy.

Fixed PVU value

The licensing model of some IBM products defines that product instances consume a fixed number of PVUs, for example when they run in the warm standby mode. To report metric utilization by such product instances, assign them with the PVU Warm Standby metric. For more information, see: Fixed PVU and VPC values for instances running in the warm standby mode.

Scenarios

The following scenarios describe how the cost of software license is calculated. The calculations are based on sample values and should be treated as examples.

Scenario 1: Full capacity on a physical server

IBM MQ software is installed on a server that has two Intel Xeon 3400 processors, each processor with eight cores which gives 16 cores in total.

Full capacity, physical cores on one server

Because the environment is not virtualized, subcapacity license does not apply. Full capacity license is counted as the highest number of PVUs on the server where the software is installed. According to the PVU table, when the server has two sockets, this processor model is assigned 70 PVUs per core. The following table shows how the cost of full capacity license is calculated for IBM MQ software that is installed on this server.

Table 1. Cost of full capacity licenses for IBM MQ software
Description	Full capacity
Cores to license	16
PVU per core	70
Software cost per PVU	$50
License cost	16×70×$50 =$56,000

Scenario 2: Subcapacity on two virtual machines

Two virtual machines are deployed on a server that has two Intel Xeon 3400 processors, each processor with eight cores which gives 16 cores in total. Each VM is assigned eight virtual cores. WebSphere software is installed only on the first virtual machine and has access to eight cores. IBM MQ software is installed on both virtual machines and thus has access to 16 cores.

According to the PVU table, when the server has two sockets, this processor model is assigned 70 PVUs per core. The following table shows how the cost of full capacity license and subcapacity license is calculated for IBM MQ software and WebSphere software that is installed on this server.

Table 2. Cost of full capacity and subcapacity licenses for IBM MQ software and WebSphere software
Description	MQ software		WebSphere software
Description	Full capacity	Subcapacity	Full capacity	Subcapacity
Cores to license	16	16	16	8
PVU per core	70	70	70	70
Software cost per PVU	$50	$50	$30	$30
License cost	16×70×$50 =$56,000	16×70×$50 =$56,000	16×70×$30 =$33,600	8×70×$30 =$16,800

Scenario 3: Capacity in a virtual environment where connection to the VM manager is not configured

Important: In this scenario, default PVU counting is applied due to the lack of connection to the VM manager. IBM accepts audit reports that contain subcapacity values calculated based on the default subcapacity counting instead of considering the client to be ineligible for subcapacity or liable for full capacity. For more information, see: Default subcapacity counting and Managing VM managers.

Two virtual machines are deployed on a server that has two Intel Xeon 3400 processors, each with eight cores which gives 16 cores in total. The first VM is assigned 12 virtual cores. The second VM is assigned 10 virtual cores. IBM MQ software is installed on both VMs.

If a virtual machine manager is not defined, License Metric Tool does not have access to information about the number of sockets and physical cores on the server on which the VMs are deployed. It has access only to information about the processor model and the number of virtual cores that each VM is assigned. The sum of virtual cores to which IBM MQ software has access is greater than the number of physical cores that are available on the server.

Tip: If the hypervisor data is missing from a virtual machine and default subcapacity counting is applied, ID of the server on which the machine runs begins with TLM_VM.

The number of PVUs per core that is assigned to a processor depends on the number of sockets on the host. Because License Metric Tool does not have access to this information, it assigns the highest PVU per core value that is defined for the particular processor in the PVU table. According to the PVU table, when the server has two sockets, this processor model is assigned 70 PVUs per core. However, due to the lack of information about the number of sockets, software is charged 120 PVUs per core. It is the highest number of PVUs that is defined in the PVU table for this type of processor.

The following table shows the cost of license for the IBM MQ software depending on whether the VM manager is defined.

Table 3. Cost of license for IBM MQ software depending on whether the VM manager is defined
Description	Capacity for IBM MQ software when the VM manager is defined		Capacity for IBM MQ software when VM manager is not defined
Description	Full capacity	Subcapacity	Capacity for IBM MQ software when VM manager is not defined
Cores to license	16	22 capped to 16	22
PVU per core	70	70	120
Software cost per PVU	$50	$50	$50
License cost	16×70×$50 =$56,000	16×70×$50 =$56,000	22×120×$50 =$132,000

Scenario 4: Capacity calculated on an x86 public cloud

Two virtual machines are deployed on an x86 public cloud. Each VM is assigned eight virtual cores. WebSphere software is installed only on the first virtual machine and has access to eight cores. IBM MQ software is installed on both virtual machines and thus has access to 16 cores.

Subcapacity, two virtual machines on x86 public cloud

In case of VMs that run on x86 public clouds, License Metric Tool does not have information about the underlying physical hosts. Thus, PVU subcapacity is calculated according to the following rules.

Only the number of virtual cores is taken into account.
Each virtual core is always assigned 70 PVUs.
PVU full capacity always equals PVU subcapacity.

The following table shows how the cost of subcapacity licenses is calculated for IBM MQ software and WebSphere software that is installed on these VMs.

Table 4. Cost of subcapacity licenses for IBM MQ software and WebSphere software
Description	MQ software	WebSphere software
Cores to license	16	8
PVU per core	70	70
Software cost per PVU	$50	$30
License cost	16×70×$50 =$56,000	8×70×$30 =$16,800

Scenario 5: Capacity calculated on a public cloud running on IBM Power Systems

Three LPARs are deployed on IBM Power Systems.

The first LPAR runs on IBM Power Systems E980 and uses AIX operating system. It is assigned eight virtual cores and has the WebSphere software and IBM MQ software installed.
The second LPAR runs on the same IBM Power Systems E980 but uses Linux operating system. It is assigned eight virtual cores and has the IBM MQ software installed.
The third LPAR runs on IBM Power Systems S922 and uses AIX operating system. It is assigned eight virtual cores and has the IBM MQ software installed.

License Metric Tool groups LPARs that run on IBM Power Systems into categories that are based on the machine type. Additionally, LPARs that use the Linux operating system form a separate category regardless of the underlying machine type. Each category is assigned a specific number of PVUs per core. PVU full capacity is not calculated for LPARs that run on IBM Power Systems. Thus, software instances that are installed on IBM Power Systems do not contribute to PVU full capacity of the particular products.

The following table shows how the cost of subcapacity licenses is calculated for IBM MQ software and WebSphere software that is installed on these LPARs.

Table 5. Cost of subcapacity licenses for IBM MQ software and WebSphere software
Description	MQ software	WebSphere software
Cores to license	24	8
PVU per core	120 for LPAR 1 70 for LPAR 2 70 for LPAR 3	120
Software cost per PVU	$50	$30
License cost	(8×120+8×70+8×70)x$50 =$104,000	8×120×$30 =$28,800

When a product is displayed on the PVU report

To see a product on the PVU report, the following conditions must be met.

The component must be discovered by the software scan. To verify that the component is discovered, go to Reports > Software Installations.
The discovered component must be assigned to a product that uses the PVU metric.
The relation between the discovered component and the product to which it is assigned must be charged. Otherwise, the component does not contribute to license metric utilization of the product.
The report must cover the dates when the component was present in the software inventory.

If an item that you expected to see on the PVU report is not displayed, go to Reports > Software Classification. Then, hover over Configure, and click Configure View. Select the following columns, and click Submit.

Charged
Always Not Charged
Suppressed
Discovery Start
Discovery End
Present
Metric
IBM-provided Bundling Option
Confirmed
Excluded

Review the software inventory by checking discovery dates and relation types between components and products.