IBM License Consumption

[shelby_day]

I have several IBM PVU licenses that are consuming on BOTH my Prod License and my Non-Prod license causing me to have to manually calculate actual consumption. I have allocated to the correct non production license but the issue remains. Either consuming on both or consuming on the production license only. What suggestions does anyone have to cause this functionality to work properly?

[ChrisG]

A single installation of an application on a single device can only consume against one license, so I would imagine from your description that there must be different application installations on a device affected by this consuming against the two different licenses. You may get some more insight into what is going on by looking at a inventory device record that is consuming against both licenses, and under the Applications tab of the device look to see which installations there are consuming against the PROD license you don't want. You may need to do something like exempt those installations from requiring a license, or ensure those applications are linked to the NON-PROD license.

[greg_m]

In addition to this, as they are PVU licenses, you are most likely seeing a historical peak consumption. After you have made the changes, you will need to reset the PVU counts.

[shelby_day]

Hi and thank you for your answer but that is not causing the problem. I'm not even sure I can write what it going on so someone could understand it. I'll just continue my struggle with this until I find a workaround that will show me correct consumption.

[shelby_day]

I've tried all of your suggestions. I believe the real reason this is an issue here is the fact that I have been instructed to "exempt" and move installs from Prod to non-Prod licenses, however, the actual install is Production license not the non-production. In any case, I believe this has caused Flexnet to go into a tailspin of sorts. I don't think the system can figure out what it's being told to as Flexnet is technically reporting the correct installation/consumption info just not what "we" expect it to report.

[spierce]

Perhaps the discussion seen here on managing Production and Non-Production licenses may be of use to describe the issues you are seeing:

https://community.flexera.com/t5/FlexNet-Manager-forum/Managing-Same-Applications-for-Production-and...

[shelby_day]

This is fantastic information and I've got it working correctly for my "Prod" side licensing.  I'm still having a challenge with the Non-Prod licenses.  We are assigning "Non-Prod" licensing when a Prod license is installed.  I'm thinking this is confusing the system.

I will let you know when I get this to work on both sides.

Thank you for your input,

Shelby

[spierce]

Hi Shelby, one of the important factors is whether or not the installations of Prod and Non-Prod look different.  Are they recognised as different applications in FNMS, or perhaps there is different evidence in FNMS for them?

It's actually pretty common that the installations look identical, hence the challenge to consume the correct license.  In these cases we rely on information from the business/CMDB/Application Support to understand which installations are Production and which are Non-Production.  Once we know this it is a case of allocating appropriately as per the other thread. 

As mentioned, any use of Exemption in FNMS may well prevent a Prod license from being consumed by a Non-Prod installation, but it will also prevent that Non-Prod installation from consuming any other licenses, so is usually not the way to go and you may need to look at the Exemption by Role section of the Use Rights tab in both licenses to make sure this is not impacting your configuration.

Stewart

[Natalie]

Hi @shelby_day ! 

I have seen behavior like this before in the field. It's very tricky to manage allocations and exemptions - and it's important to understand that exemptions are a special type of allocation. It can be very easy to the same device to multiple licenses and then yes, FlexNet can't handle putting the same device in two places and bad things ensue. 

BUT - I have also seen in the field real problems with this behavior, and I have a suspicion that there may be a real underlying problem. If you've validated that you're not double allocating any device, including exemptions, and that you haven't allocated the same host or cluster to multiple licenses, then you probably have something that Support should look at. 

[tivens · Accepted solution]

I recommend reading the Flexera IBM Best Practice guide, specifically the section of 'Ensuring correct consumption for Server Environment and Role' - 'Production & Non-production license consumption'

[shelby_day]

Thank you for the suggestion!  I read the guide early on and perhaps it's time I revisit again as I'm still having just a few little issues.

Shelby

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