Software Licensing & Compliance Information

Customers must ensure they have sufficient PowerHA SystemMirror for i entitlements as specified in the product license terms. Refer to the software license agreement:

PowerHA SystemMirror for i Software Maintenance (SWMA)

The PowerHA SystemMirror for i Software Maintenance (SWMA) is separate from IBM i Group SWMA. Therefore, customers must ensure they have an active SWMA covering current usage to continue receiving support, upgrades, and program temporary fixes (PTFs). To ensure that your PowerHA SWMA remains active, contact your IBM representative or reseller.

PowerHA Editions

PowerHA 7.5

PowerHA 7.5 is simplified to a single edition containing all functionality. The product requires 5770HAS option 1 - PowerHA for i Enablement to be installed and licensed.

When upgrading from a prior release, if 5770HAS option 1 is not installed, the manual installation of 5770HAS Option 1 is required either before or after the upgrade.

Since PowerHA 7.5 has a new product structure (including new SWMA PIDs), this requires an upgrade in e-config rather than in IBM Entitled System Support (ESS). The following behavior applies to upgrades:

If SWMA is active on the PowerHA entitlement for which you are upgrading, config adds the PowerHA 90-day SWMA PID for $0, then order placers can select the brand SWMA extensions.
If SWMA is not active on the PowerHA entitlement from which you are upgrading, config adds the after-license fee for one year of SWMA; then, order placers can select the brand SWMA extension.

Note: Upgrades from PowerHA 7.4 and earlier Express or Standard Editions to PowerHA 7.5 will have an upgrade charge since PowerHA 7.5 is one edition with all functionality.

PowerHA 7.2 and PowerHA 7.4

PowerHA 7.2 and 7.4 contain three editions. The product may verify compliance against all installed options. Therefore, only install the highest entitled option to ensure no out-of-compliance messages are issued for options that do not apply to the configuration.

Example 1 - PowerHA SystemMirror for i Enterprise Edition

Enterprise Edition Upgrade

PowerHA enterprise edition is an upgrade to PowerHA standard edition and requires active SWMA for both PowerHA System Mirror for i standard edition and PowerHA SystemMirror for i enterprise edition.

When a system is entitled to PowerHA SystemMirror for i Enterprise edition, only the following options need to be installed:

PowerHA SystemMirror for i (*BASE)
PowerHA for i Enterprise Edition (Option 1) - A valid license key is required for this option

Example 2 - PowerHA SystemMirror for i Standard Edition

When a system is entitled to PowerHA SystemMirror for i Standard Edition, only the following options should be installed:

PowerHA SystemMirror for i (*BASE)
PowerHA for i Standard Edition (Option 2) - A valid license key is required for this option

If PowerHA for i Enterprise Edition is installed in this case, out-of-compliance and licensing-related failures will occur, even if only Standard Edition functionality is used.

Example 3 - PowerHA SystemMirror for i Express Edition

When a system is entitled to PowerHA SystemMirror for i Express Edition, only the following options should be installed:

PowerHA SystemMirror for i (*BASE)
PowerHA for i Express Edition (Option 3) - A valid license key is required for this option

If PowerHA for i Standard Edition or PowerHA for i Enterprise Edition is installed in this case, out-of-compliance and licensing-related failures will occur, even if only Express Edition functionality is used.

Initial Grace Period

PowerHA SystemMirror for i has a 70-day grace period before license keys are required for the product to function. After the 70-day grace period, license keys must be applied for the product to continue to function.

Exceeding Processor Usage Limit

In the event PowerHA is using more processors than the usage limit, a new 70-day grace period will begin. While running outside of compliance during this grace period, PowerHA will continue working. This will allow uninterrupted HA operations while working to acquire the proper entitlements and keys. After the 70-day grace period, either reduce the number of processors being used by PowerHA or obtain the proper entitlement and install your new license keys in order to continue to function.

IBM Power Systems Capacity BackUp (CBU) Offering

The IBM Power Systems Capacity BackUp offering provides flexible and economical options for secondary systems in a PowerHA environment. When utilizing the CBU offering, temporary keys enable uninterrupted PowerHA functionality on CBU systems by providing keys with the same usage limit entitlements as the production system.

For additional information see IBM Power Systems: Capacity BackUp

Another common cause on an HMC-managed system, the processor usage on the system exceeds the usage limit for the license key. Check the HMC profile, and ensure that the processor usage does not exceed the usage limit of the license key. It may be necessary to cap the processor use or set up a shared processor pool to limit the usage. The following document provides information on shared processor pools, Configuring Shared Processor Pools for Use with Operating System Licensing Rules.

The following provides an example to check a system for PowerHA compliance.

Use the command QSYS/WRKLICINF OUTPUT(*PRINT) which provides how many processors are allowed for the current license of PowerHA. In the following example, products 5770HAS 5051 and 5770HAS 5052 have a usage limit of 1 processor (Usage Limit).

The 5770HAS license usage limit should be the same number as the current usage count (or higher) being used by 5770SS1 in order to avoid errors. Ideally the 5770SS1 and 5770HAS Usage Limit counts would be the same.

License Usage Usage Peak Product Terms Feature Description Limit Count Usage 5770SS1 Vx 5051 IBMi 8 2.00 5.00 5770HAS VxRxMx 5051 PowerHA for i Enterprise Edition 1 .00 1.00 5770HAS VxRxMx 5052 PowerHA for i Standard Edition 1 .00 .00
Run command CALL QSYS/QLZARCAPI. The command shows the system's processor usage. After the command is initiated, display the job log. The following example shows the entitled processing capacity is 1.80 and online virtual processors is 2. The system is not in compliance to use PowerHA since 5770HAS only has 1 usage limit.
SYSTEM INFO -> SYSTEM SERIAL NUMBER: 11-1111R . SYSTEM TYPE-MODEL: 8286- 42A. PROCESSOR FEATURE CODE: EPXH. PROCESSOR GROUP: P20. MAX PHYSICAL PROCS IN SYSTEM: 24. CONFIGURABLE PROCS IN SYSTEM: 24. PARTITION INFO -> NETWORK NAME: TESTSYS. PARTITION NAME: TESTSYS. PARTITION ID: 18. SHARING TYPE: SHARED. SHARING MODE: UNCAPPED. MIN PROCESSING CAPACITY: 0.10. DESIRED PROCESSING UNITS: 1.80. MAX PROCESSING CAPACITY: 5.00. ENTITLED PROCESSING CAPACITY: 1.80. MIN VIRTUAL PROCESSORS: 1. DESIRED VIRTUAL PROCESSORS: 2. MAX VIRTUAL PROCESSORS: 5. ONLINE VIRTUAL PROCESSORS: 2 PROCESSOR POOL INFO -> NUMBER OF VIRTUAL PROCESSOR POOLS CONFIGURED: 2. CURRENT PROCESSOR POOL ID: 1. MAXIMUM PROCESSING UNITS FOR PROCESSOR POOL 1: 8.