Disk space requirements on Linux (disconnected scenario)

Ensure that the computer on which you are installing License Metric Tool meets the minimal disk space requirements.

Simplified disk space requirements

The following table shows general disk space requirements depending on the number of endpoint units. To learn more about directories in which the free disk space is required and how to calculate the amount of space for data that depends on the number of computers, see the following sections.

Table 1. Simplified disk space requirements
Endpoint units License Metric Tool server and its database on a single computer
Up to 1 000 46 GB
1 000 - 5 000 56 GB
5 000 - 25 000 113 GB
25 000 - 50 000 192 GB
50 000 - 150 000 Set up with the License Metric Tool server on one computer and its database on a separate computer is advised due to processor, memory, and storage requirements.
  • Computer with the License Metric Tool server: 7 GB
  • Computer with the database: 505 GB
150 000 - 250 000 Set up with the License Metric Tool server on one computer and its database on a separate computer is advised due to processor, memory, and storage requirements.
  • Computer with the License Metric Tool server: 7 GB
  • Computer with the database: 825 GB

Detailed requirements for the License Metric Tool server

The following table provides detailed information about disk space that is required in each directory that is used by the License Metric Tool server.
Table 2. Detailed disk space requirements for the License Metric Tool server
Default directory Space required Comments
user_directory/LMT_installer 1 GB Compressed installer that is downloaded to the selected endpoint. The compressed installer can be deleted after it is extracted.
2 GB Extracted installation files.
/opt/ibm/LMT 4 GB
See Comments
License Metric Tool installation directory. The amount includes space required for future upgrades.

If the datasource directory is a subdirectory of /opt/ibm/LMT/, add the amount of the space that is required for the /opt/ibm/LMT/datasource directory.

/opt/ibm/LMT/datasource See Comments Default disconnected data source directory.
The amount of the disk space that is required in case of frequent data collection (up to one week per computer node) and daily data imports. It can be calculated according to the following formula:
  • <The number of computers> x 1 MB
/tmp 350 MB Temporary files used during the installation.
Important: The installer must be able to run executable files in this directory.
$HOME 1 MB Home directory of the user running the installation.
/etc 1 MB Directory that stores scripts that start the server.
/var 10 kB Directory that stores the installation registry.

Detailed requirements for DB2 for License Metric Tool

The following table provides detailed information about disk space that is required in each directory that is used by DB2.
Table 3. Detailed disk space requirements for DB2 for License Metric Tool
Default directory Space required Comments
/opt/IBM/db2 1.5 GB DB2 installation directory.
/var/db2 10 kB Directory that stores DB2 global registry.
/home/db2inst1 See Comments Database server instance.
The amount of disk space that is required for the database server depends on the number of computers in your environment and the average size of scan files and analysis. It can be calculated according to the following formula*:
  • <The number of computers> x 1 MB + 15 GB of initial disk space
/home/db2inst1/db2inst1/ See Comments Database server transaction logs.
During the data import (ETL process), License Metric Tool requires some additional free disk space for database server transaction logs. The amount of disk space that is required can be significant because transaction logs store two sets of data:
  • Data that is used for recovery if the ETL fails
  • Data that is used to create new ETL results
The amount of disk space that is necessary for the transaction logs depends on the number of computers in your environment as well as the number of computers in a single scan group from which data is processed during the import.

To lower the amount of disk space that is necessary for transactions logs, distribute the scans over time so they are processed during several data imports instead of one.

The size of transaction logs can be calculated according to the following formula*:
  • <The number of computers> x 1.2 MB + <the number of computers in the biggest scan group> x 1.2 MB + 17 GB of initial disk space
* The formulas apply to typical environments that are configured to run weekly software scans, daily data imports, and whose endpoints have about 60 software installations each. The results also depend on the amount of data returned by the scans, which means that in some environments the required amount of disk space might be smaller or bigger. In case of irregular data imports or accumulated scans, the required disk space increases.
Note: The retention period in this typical environment is set to the last 7 days. For more information about tuning this parameter, see: Shortening the retention period gradually to avoid problems with growing database size.

For disk speed, see: Storage performance requirements.