I got this license file together with DB2 v9.7 Limited use for Linux 32-bit (downloaded from Passport Advantage) - DB2 is bundled with Rational and this is what appl people told me to get. I'm not sure if there is a separate "restricted" license file for this 32-bit product (I could not find it and Passport Advantage help desk was useless). I know we don't even have the one I downloaded at the lab.

I installed this image on several servers and there are more to come, all bundled with Rational. I found some licensing info for this product on the web: IBM Licensing agreements for Rational supplied DB2 database software - United States

I now understand about PVU's and how to ensure we're in compliance, but I'm still not clear about restricted licenses. I also want to ensure that I won't have any problem starting the instance on a server with 16 cores which exceeds [Max number of Value Units: "480"] limit. I think it should work, but I have no way of verifying it on our test servers (all have less cores).

I am fairly sure that if you have too many cores, it just shows an error in the db2diag.log. However, it is fairly easy for a system admin to disable cores if needed (without removing them from the machine).

I found the following:

"The CPU and memory resources available to the DB2 Express and Workgroup Server Edition products are limited to the capacity specified by the license. You can use DB2 Express and DB2 Workgroup Server on a system that has more capacity, but will only be able to exploit the capacity specified by the license."

IBM DB2 9.7 for Linux, UNIX and Windows Information Center

I also found some registry var that can be used to override the limits, will try to see if it works with "restricted" licenses.

If needed, I guess they can add additional cores to the "virtual" server (they can easily add memory to this one) for me to test.

How do you interpret the following sentence:
"In Version 9.7, DB2® Express® and DB2 Workgroup Server Edition use a hard-stop license enforcement policy with regards to CPU and memory usage."

IBM DB2 9.7 for Linux, UNIX and Windows Information Center


To me, based on the license file I provided earlier, "hard-stop license enforcement policy" means I cannot set instance_memory to more than 4GB (for 64-bit instances).

But what does "hard-stop license enforcement policy" mean with regards to CPU usage? If the PVU limit is not enforced (only displayed), then it's not a "hard-stop" policy.

Your link says:

"The CPU and memory resources available to the DB2 Express and Workgroup Server Edition products are limited to the capacity specified by the license. You can use DB2 Express and DB2 Workgroup Server on a system that has more capacity, but will only be able to exploit the capacity specified by the license."

So there is no problem with the above scenario. The other possible scenario has to do with Workload Manager, and that might a problem if you get the following specified error:

"If an attempt is made to use the DB2 WLM functionality provided in the DB2 Performance Optimization Feature without the DB2 Performance Optimization Feature license key being registered, the SQL8029N message is returned."

However, even if you don't have WM or don't use WM, do not revoke any WM grants that exist by default when you create the database.

I'm just being picky about "hard-stop" in the first sentence.

4GB memory limit is enforced. If I try to set instance_memory greater than 4GB, I get an error. I consider this a hard-stop policy.

However, IBM is saying that PVU limit is not enforced. If it's not enforced (and I don't get any error), I don't consider this a hard-stop policy.

They can enforce the number of cores limit via software, but not the PVU limit since different cores have different PVU values. If they could, they probably would.

A lot of people use automatic settings on instance limit (especially with Express-C), so DB2 just enforces that itself.

Understood. Thank you.

one a similar topic... if you have 9.7 ESE licence all support current and you want to move to 10.1 Advanced ESE, how does that work? Is it possible to "pay the difference"? Or do you need to buy licenses for all the bundled extra value add ons?

Any idea what the lsit PVU price is for ESE? I've read that AESE is $450 PVU... not sure that's correct though....

Hi,

it depends on your Contract with IBM. Usually you can upgrade your licenses for an additional fee. It's also a "little bit" more than the difference.
And you better hurry up. License Costs will be raised due to Version 10.

I believe that you can just pay the upgrade price to move from ESE to Advanced. Many customers get a volume discount on software, especially if they also purchase a lot of IBM mainframe software (which is very expensive), but I would guess that that 9.7 ESE list price is about $400 per PVU (so a large IBM customer may only pay about $310 per PVU for ESE).

Thanks guys... on closer inspection we are on WSE for the servers I'm looking at (going by doco, no logins yet). I logged into my own Passport advantage and tried looking for prices... finally found some and BAM!
WSE is about AU$250 PVU
AESE is like AU$850 PVU

Couldn't find any upgrade part numbers but the difference for an upgrade looks like it'd be massive. I'll get them to talk to their rep to get a proper quote but I think it might be out of budget :/

On another topic... WTF is with the price differential between AU$ and US$ pricing?!?! The currencies are practially 1:1, bit of a rip!

If you are still on WSE. Take a look at the Socket or TB Licenses from the Infosphere Warehouse Departmental (Base) Edition. They bring an ESE with Compression, WLM etc, so it's close to AESE, but have Hardware Limits like WSE.

I think you should discuss DB2 pricing with your IBM rep. Discounts are available for most customers, and it is hard to figure out the real prices without asking them for quote.

This is very true Marcus, above my paygrade I'll let management/procurement sort that out...