Defined Capacity and Group Capacity Management

Defined Capacity and Group Capacity are frequently used in conjunction with the Variable Workload License Charge (VWLC) pricing model. Sub-capacity Workload License Charges introduce the capability to pay software license fees based on the processor utilization of the LPAR on which the product is running, rather than on the total capacity of the system, as follows:

• An installation can specify a Defined Capacity expressed in millions of service units per hour (MSU) for an LPAR. The Defined Capacity sets the capacity limit of an individual LPAR when soft capping is in effect.
• WLM keeps a 4-hour rolling average of the CPU usage of the LPAR, and when the 4-hour average CPU consumption exceeds the defined capacity limit, WLM dynamically activates soft capping. When the rolling 4-hour average returns below the Defined Capacity, soft capping is removed.

The Group Capacity allows the definition of a group of LPARs on the same CPC and a limit for the combined capacity usage by those LPARs. This allows the system to manage the group in such a way that the limit for Group Capacity in MSU per hour will not be exceeded. PR/SM and WLM work together to enforce the capacity defined for the group and also enforce the capacity optionally defined for each individual LPAR.

An LPAR can be restricted by Defined Capacity and in addition belong to a capacity group.

z/OS Capacity Provisioning can help you to monitor and manage the Defined Capacity and Group Capacity either through policy based automation or through commands from the z/OS Console.

For further details on the management of Defined Capacity and Group Capacity with z/OS Capacity Provisioning see the section Processing Defined Capacity and Group Capacity.