Basic Licensing Question

jlehtinen

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PREDATAR Control23

Total noob question here.

Been running a really basic TSM 6.3 server for over a year. Not a production system, only about 10 clients. Software was obtained via PartnerWorld for development/testing use.

Noticed that a 'q lic' shows FAILED status with the only 'in use' component being Basic Edition.

I don't really understand how licensing works for this stuff - do I need to run "register license file=*.lic " ? Will that screw up the existing nodes/policies/etc. that have been defined on the server?

I'm honestly surprised the server has been working fine for this long with no issues if it was never licensed..
 
PREDATAR Control23

To apply licensing, you need to run "register license file=*.lic", and it would NOT affect any set policies.

However, to be 'legal' you have to pay license fees for the various nodes accessing the TSM server. The command above only licenses your TSM server assuming the license file was part of the fee you paid when you bought the software.
 
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PREDATAR Control23

Well, this TSM server is used in a lab/development environment. I know we're "legal" as we get access to IBM's full software catalog via our PartnerWorld licensing (we're an IBM business partner).

I guess I'm more curious if I need to run the license command to ensure the server continues to work correctly, or if I should just leave it alone.
 
PREDATAR Control23

Thanks Ed. Couple more noob questions if you don't mind...

So that command will generates a set of license files for the server - how are these used or how do they apply to the server?

I guess I don't understand this model. I'm used to providing a license TO a server in order for it to function. This seems to be backwards, where I'm already up and running - and now I ask the server to generate licenses for me.
 
PREDATAR Control23

You are not generating the license - you are applying the license. This is a license just for the TSM server.
 
PREDATAR Control23

In fact, there is nearly no protection against illegal use of TSM. If you download it from partnerworld, you can use it for any configuration. And if you don't register licences, the only difference is that you get a message telling you that you are not in compliance with the license.

Be careful, once you run reg lic file=tsmee.lic or reg lic file=tsmbasic.lic, q lic will tell you that you are ok but it is not necessarily true. The fact that you downloaded it from partnerworld isn't an proof either. It only proves that you bought a TSM license but not that you bought enough for your environment.

You have either to make a list of all processors of servers you are backing up and buy licenses according to this list, or sum the amount of data you have in your primary pools and buy a capacity license for this amount.

Some of my customers learned that the hard way with an IBM control an a big fee to pay afterwards.
 
PREDATAR Control23

Interesting, thanks for the heads up on that. I could see how people could mess licensing up, considering there isn't much enforcement from the software itself. I'll have to review the EULA/licensing and verify we are using it correctly in our lab.

I'm still not really clear on what the register license command does... it sounds like it generates some .lic files for you, but these never are actually used for anything?
 
PREDATAR Control23

Interesting, thanks for the heads up on that. I could see how people could mess licensing up, considering there isn't much enforcement from the software itself. I'll have to review the EULA/licensing and verify we are using it correctly in our lab.

I'm still not really clear on what the register license command does... it sounds like it generates some .lic files for you, but these never are actually used for anything?

As I said, It applies the license.

What you should really be concerned are two fold:

1 - the TSM server is licensed
2 - you paying the right license for the nodes to access the TSM server

Number 2 above is the costly part as IBM charges by what is called PVU. The PVU is a number multiplied by the total number of cores you have. Intel CPU have lower multipliers versus RISC type CPU like IBM's POWER Chip.
 
PREDATAR Control23

Right, call me dense, but what I'm not getting is what you mean when you say it "applies the license".

To me, that wording implies that IBM was supposed to have given me a license file, and the command reads the file and applies the correct licensing to the software.

If I have no file, or no other "input" to give the server, I don't understand how it knows what licensing to "apply" to the server. How does it know if I have purchased every feature under the sun, or if I should only have access to features X and Y?
 
PREDATAR Control23

In fact, I think that IBM intended to provide a license file to each Customer (I think that it was the case in version 4.2 but it's old) , but in the end, they provide with the server a universal license file usable on any server with no limitation. The only thing is that the licensing part is only with software downloaded on partnerworld or on a CD. When you run "register lic file=*.lic" in fact you just tell TSM that you bought the licenses. It's basically the same thing that you do when you click that you agree with the 127 pages EULA for the software you are installing (after reading them thoroughly, like everybody)
 
PREDATAR Control23

Right, call me dense, but what I'm not getting is what you mean when you say it "applies the license".

To me, that wording implies that IBM was supposed to have given me a license file, and the command reads the file and applies the correct licensing to the software.

If I have no file, or no other "input" to give the server, I don't understand how it knows what licensing to "apply" to the server. How does it know if I have purchased every feature under the sun, or if I should only have access to features X and Y?

There are only two license types that you can apply to a TSM server - the basic or extended version. If you install the basic, and apply an EE license, the TSM server rejects it, and vice-versa.

If you don't have a valid license applied, at some point TSM stops backing up any client or limits backups to a number of clients.

More so, by buying or downloading from a Partner site, IBM has the right to audit you and if they find out you don't have the right license in use, guess what happens?
 
PREDATAR Control23

OK - I think I've got a good understanding of things. Thank you both.

I'm going to go back and review our partnerworld licensing agreement as well... I was told our setup is OK but it's possible I need to correct our licensing. I have no interest in getting fined or having the business partner relationship put in danger due to a lab server.
 
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