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BVQ licensing overview

BVQ is licensed as a combination of BVQ editions and capacities entitlements:

For very large installations, other licensing methods can be used that are mutually beneficial.

^* Memory based Compute layer licensing available since BVQ release 2023.H1 (see below)

BVQ editions & packages

BVQ functionality is tailored to the typical needs of different infrastructure sizes and customer demands:
More information about the features of the different BVQ editions can be found here: BVQ Editions

BVQ capacity entitlements

The size of a BVQ managed environment is measured with capacity entitlements. Each BVQ edition has a specific price for one of the three following entitlement types related to an IT-infrastrucure layer grouping the platforms and their systems supported by BVQ. Entitlements are marketed in packages, that contain a specific count of entitlements.

Compute layer Memory entitlements

BVQ license is validated against the total count of GiB of installed Memory (RAM) of all Compute layer systems monitored by BVQ. The count is independent from the online state or usage of this capacity.

All Compute layer systems must be completely licensed by Virtual machine entitlements or be completely licensed by Memory entitlements. Partial entitlement intermix is not supported.

Compute layer licensing based on memory is available since BVQ release 2023.H1 and replaces the Compute layer Virtual machine entitlements (see below).

Compute layer Virtual machine entitlements

BVQ license is validated against the total count of all Virtual machines or Logical partitions (VMs) configured of all systems monitored by BVQ. The count is independent from the online state or function of the VMs. IBM PowerVM VIOS are excluded from the count.

In case a BVQ OS Agent is used on a System that is already monitored via PowerVM HMC or VMware vSphere BVQ Scanners, no additional VM entitlement count is needed.

All Compute layer systems must be completely licensed by Virtual machine entitlements or be completely licensed by Memory entitlements. Partial entitlement intermix is not supported.

Compute layer licensing based on Virtual machine entitlements is no longer available since BVQ release 2023.H1. A migration path to the new Compute layer Memory entitlements (see above) is available. Please ask your SVA contact for details.

BVQ Compute layer licensing tries to keep the virtualization layer transparent

In a cascaded compute virtualization layer environment, for example Kuberntes containers runnung inside a VMware vSphere hypervisor, the memory capacity is only counted once. Memory discovered in upper compute container nodes provisioned from underlying compute hypervisor systems which are monitored and completely licensed by BVQ is not validated against the BVQ license. Otherwise, memory discovered in upper compute container nodes provisioned from underlying compute hypervisor systems which are not monitored and completely licensed by BVQ is  completly validated against the BVQ license.

With that, you can add your Kubernetes environment without additional charge, if the underlying compute hypervisor system memory is licensed already. This provides the advbantage of a deeper a end-to-end monitoring expertise.

Network layer Port entitlements

BVQ license is validated against the total count of all ports of all switches and directors monitored by BVQ, which are activated by a license of the device vendor. The count is independent from the online state or function of the ports.

Storage layer Capacity entitlements

For the most storage systems the BVQ license is validated against the total count of managed storage pool capacity TiB of all systems monitored by BVQ. The count is independent from the online state or usage of the capacity.

Managed storage pool capacity is based on the amount of total capacity that is provided by the storage system pools that can be assigned to volumes, filesystems or metadata. This capacity is typical less than the gross raw disk capacity and less than the capacity after volume data reduction (compression, de-duplication, thin provisioning, ...).

BVQ Storage layer licensing tries not to take care where data reduction takes place

• In case of volume data reduction: This  does not affect the total managed capacity of the pools, so it does not affect the BVQ license.
• In case of pool data reduction: BVQ license is validated against the smaller physical allocatable capacity not the logical capacity.
• In case of drive level data reduction: BVQ license is validated against the smaller physical allocatable capacity not the logical capacity. This is currently only applicable for some systems. All other systems need to be licensed for the pool capacity as explained above.
  BVQ respects drive level data reduction for the following systems:
  
  • IBM Storwize family systems
  • IBM FlashSystems
• In case of thin provisioned MDisks provisioned from BE Systems to the Storage virtualization layer (eg IBM Spectrum virtualize (SVC)), the sum of the physical capacity and the sum of the logical capacity is calculated and only the smallest of both results is counted (since BVQ release 2021.H2).
  The support of thin provisioned MDisks in the virtualization layer. is required for that. IBM supports that feature for a growing number of backend storage subsystems from IBM and other vendors.

BVQ Storage layer licensing tries to keep the virtualization layer transparent

In the storage virtualization layer, the managed storage pool capacity of storage pools provisioned by backend storage subsystems monitored and completely licensed by BVQ is not validated against the BVQ license. Otherwise, managed storage pool capacity of storage pools provisioned by backend storage subsystems not monitored by BVQ is completely validated against the BVQ license.

You can take the following advantages by including supported backend storage subsystems in your BVQ monitoring:

• This may decrease the amount of licensed BVQ capacity, in case data reduction takes place inside the backed subsystems .
• e, without additional charge if the backend subsystem capacity is completely provisioned to the virtualization layer.

BVQ Storage layer licensing example calculation (based on TiB)

Backend subsystem						Virtualization layer	BVQ
BVQ monitored?	Drive physical capacity	Drive logical capacity	Pool physical capacity	Pool logical capacity	Volume logical capacity	pool logical capacity	Licensed capacity	Reason why
	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	No data reduction at all
	100	100	100	100	200	200	100	Volume level data reduction in BE subsystem is respected by BVQ
	100	100	100	200	200	200	100	Pool level data reduction in BE subsystem is respected by BVQ
	100	200	100	200	200	200	100	Drive level data reduction in BE subsystem is respected by BVQ
	N/A (50)	N/A (100)	50	100	100	100	100	Drive level data reduction in BE subsystem not listed to be respected by BVQ
	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A (100)	100	100	No information from BE subsystem: Virtualization layer pool logical capacity counts.
	100	100	100	100	100	50	100	Not all capacity of a BE subsystem managed by BVQ is provisioned to the virtualization layer: Total managed BE System capacity counts.
	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A (200)	100	100	Not all capacity of the BE subsystem is provisioned to the virtualization layer: Virtualization layer capacity counts.
	N/A	N/A	100	N/A	200	200	100	Inline inquiry information from BE subsystem via thin provisioned MDisks: Pool level data reduction in BE subsystem is respected by BVQ
	N/A	N/A	200	N/A	100	50	100	Inline inquiry information from BE subsystem via thin provisioned MDisks, but not all physical capacity of the BE Pool is provisioned to the virtualization layer: Pool level data reduction in BE subsystem is ignored by BVQ.

Storage layer Enclosure entitlements

This way of licensing is withdrawn from market since 01 Apr 2020. Customers with an active BVQ license may still extend their systems with that type of license.

For eligible storage systems, the BVQ license is validated against the total count of all enclosures containing disk drives (controller an expansion enclosures). The count is independent from the online state of the enclosure.

The following storage systems are eligible for BVQ enclosure based licensing: IBM Storwize V5000, V7000, V7000F

• All Storwize systems' capacity below SVC is not eligible for enclosure based licensing.
• Standalone Storwize systems not attached to SVC, must be completely licensed by enclosure or be completely licensed by capacity entitlements. Partial entitlement intermix is not supported.
• A typical scenario is: A customer has some Backend systems below SVC and some other eligible Storwize systems not  connected to the SVC so they are directly provisioning some hosts with storage capacity. Here the customer can license the direct attached systems by BVQ enclosure based licensing and the SVC Capacity by BVQ capacity based licensing.

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