[gpfsug-discuss] Spectrum Scale licensing - important correction

[T.A. Yeep]

Hi Carl,

I'm confused here, in the previous email it was said *And for ESS, it
is licensed Per Drive with different prices for HDDs and SSDs.*

But then you mentioned in below email that:
But new customers and new OEM systems are *all licensed by Capacity. This
also applies to IBM's own ESS*: you can keep upgrading your old (if
hardware is supported) gen 1 ESS on Sockets, but if you replace it with *a
new ESS, that will come with capacity licenses*.

Now the question, ESS is license per Drive or by capacity?


.On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 4:25 AM Carl Zetie - carlz at us.ibm.com <
carlz at us.ibm.com> wrote:

> > From my understanding existing customers from DDN, Lenovo, etc. that
> have v4 with socket based licenses
> >are not entitled v5 licenses socket licenses. Is that a correct
> understanding?
>
> It is not, and I apologize in advance for the length of this explanation.
> I want to be precise and as transparent as possible while respecting the
> confidentiality of our OEM partners and the contracts we have with them,
> and there is a lot of misinformation out there.
>
> The short version is that the same rules apply to DDN, Lenovo, and other
> OEM systems that apply to IBM ESS. You can update your system in place and
> keep your existing metric, as long as your vendor can supply you with V5
> for that hardware. The update from V4 to V5 is not relevant.
>
>
> The long version:
>
> We apply the same standard to our OEM's systems as to our own ESS: they
> can upgrade their existing customers on their existing OEM systems to V5
> and stay on Sockets, *provided* that the OEM has entered into an OEM
> license for Scale V5 and can supply it, and *provided* that the hardware is
> still supported by the software stack. But new customers and new OEM
> systems are all licensed by Capacity. This also applies to IBM's own ESS:
> you can keep upgrading your old (if hardware is supported) gen 1 ESS on
> Sockets, but if you replace it with a new ESS, that will come with capacity
> licenses. (Lenovo may want to chime in about their own GSS customers here,
> who have Socket licenses, and DSS-G customers, who have Capacity licenses).
> Existing systems that originally shipped with Socket licenses are
> "grandfathered in".
>
> And of course, if you move from a Lenovo system to an IBM system, or from
> an IBM system to a Lenovo system, or any other change of suppliers, that
> new system will come with capacity licenses, simply because it's a new
> system. If you're replacing an old system running with V4 with a new one
> running V5 it might look like you are forced to switch to update, but
> that's not the case: if you replace an old "grandfathered in" system that
> you had already updated to V5 on Sockets, your new system would *still*
> come with Capacity licenses - again, because it's a new system.
>
> Now where much of the confusion occurs is this: What if your supplier does
> not provide an update to V5 at all, *neither as Capacity nor Socket
> licenses*? Then you have no choice: to get to V5, you have to move to a new
> supplier, and consequently you have to move to Capacity licensing. But once
> again, it's not that moving from V4 to V5 requires a change of metric; it's
> moving to a new system from a new supplier.
>
> I hope that helps to make things clearer.
>
>
>
> Carl Zetie
> Program Director
> Offering Management
> Spectrum Scale
> ----
> (919) 473 3318 ][ Research Triangle Park
> carlz at us.ibm.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gpfsug-discuss mailing list
> gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
> http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss
>


-- 
Best regards

*T.A. Yeep*Mobile: 016-719 8506 | Tel/Fax: 03-6261 7237 | www.robusthpc.com
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