Verifying license compliance

Verify that your IBM Spectrum® Protect solution complies with the provisions of your licensing agreement. By verifying compliance regularly, you can track trends in data growth or processor value unit (PVU) usage. Use this information to plan for future license purchasing.

About this task

The method that you use to verify that your solution complies with license terms varies depending on the provisions of your IBM Spectrum Protect licensing agreement.
Front-end capacity licensing
The front-end model determines license requirements based on the amount of primary data that is reported as being backed up by clients. Clients include applications, virtual machines, and systems.
Back-end capacity licensing
The back-end model determines license requirements based on the terabytes of data that are stored in primary storage pools and repositories.
Tips:
  • To ensure the accuracy of front-end and back-end capacity estimates, install the most recent version of the client software on each client node.
  • The front-end and back-end capacity information in the Operations Center is for planning and estimation purposes.
PVU licensing
The PVU model is based on the use of PVUs by server devices.
Important: The PVU calculations that are provided by IBM Spectrum Protect are considered estimates and are not legally binding. The PVU licensing information that is reported by IBM Spectrum Protect is not considered an acceptable substitute for the IBM® License Metric Tool. The IBM License Metric Tool is designed to reflect actual usage. For example, after you install the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client, the tool counts the client only after first usage. For more information about the IBM License Metric Tool, see IBM License Metric Tool.

If you have questions or concerns about licensing requirements, contact your IBM Spectrum Protect software provider.

Procedure

To monitor license compliance, complete the steps that correspond to the provisions of your licensing agreement.
Tip: The Operations Center provides an email report that summarizes front-end and back-end capacity usage. Reports can be sent automatically to one or more recipients regularly. To configure and manage email reports, click Reports on the Operations Center menu bar.
Option Description
Front-end model
  1. On the Operations Center menu bar, hover over the settings icon and click Licensing.

    The front-end capacity estimate is displayed on the Front-end Usage page.

  2. If a value is displayed in the Not Reporting column, click the number to identify clients that did not report capacity usage.
  3. To estimate capacity for clients that did not report capacity usage, go to the following download site, which provides measuring tools and instructions:

    https://public.dhe.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/front_end_capacity_measurement_tools

    To measure front-end capacity by script, complete the instructions in the most recently available licensing guide.

  4. Add the Operations Center estimate and any estimates that you obtained by using a script.
  5. Verify that the estimated capacity complies with your licensing agreement.
Back-end model
Restriction: If the source and target replication servers do not use the same policy settings, you cannot use the Operations Center to monitor back-end capacity usage for replicated clients. For information about how to estimate capacity usage for these clients, see technote 1656476.
  1. On the Operations Center menu bar, hover over the settings icon and click Licensing.
  2. Click the Back-end tab.
  3. Verify that the estimated amount of data complies with your licensing agreement.
PVU model For information about how to assess compliance with PVU licensing terms, see Assessing compliance with the PVU licensing model.