IBM System z Software Pricing

Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool?

The Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool (SCRT) is intended to support sub-capacity software pricing until a strategic license management solution is available from IBM. SCRT will analyze a month of SMF data for one or more System z machines running z/OS, including changes to LPAR sizes and movement/addition/deletion of products across LPARs. SCRT will output a report for each machine analyzed, called a "Sub-Capacity Report", and that report will indicate the required licensed capacity for each Sub-Capacity eligible software product from IBM.

For each System z machine, running z/OS in 64-bit mode, wishing to qualify for sub-capacity pricing:

• SCRT must be run against SMF data from that machine
• the Sub-Capacity Report must be produced for that machine
• the Sub-Capacity Report must be submitted to IBM via the web

How does the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool work?

SCRT will post-process SMF data, specifically SMF70 Subtype 1 records (CPU Activity) and SMF89 records (Product Usage). SCRT will take one or more datasets as input and have a single PDS dataset as output. Each member of the output PDS is referred to as a "Sub-Capacity Report". For a Sub-Capacity Report for a particular zSeries machine to be considered valid for software billing purposes, the input stream must contain one month of SMF70 Subtype 1 records and one month of SMF89 records for all the z/OS images on a given zSeries machine.

For example, imagine that you have two zSeries processors (CECA with Serial Number 12345 and CECB with Serial Number 56789) and you wish to obtain sub-capacity Workload License Charges for both machines. If CECA has LPARs SYSA and SYSB while CECB has LPARs SYSX and SYSZ, you should include in your input stream the SMF70 and SMF89 records for an entire month from SYSA, SYSB, SYSX and SYSZ.

The output dataset will be a PDS and each member in the PDS corresponds to a particular machine included in the input dataset. Each member will be a comma-separated-value (CSV) flat file, referred to as a Sub-Capacity Report. Given the example above, your output PDS dataset would include two members, #12345 for CECA and #56789 for CECB.

Each Sub-Capacity Report should be downloaded to a desktop machine and reviewed for accuracy (and edited, in some cases) using any spreadsheet package, prior to submission to IBM via e-mail. See the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool Instructions for more details.

How can I prepare for the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool?

Required service and other pre-reqs are posted on the SCRT Maintenance Page.

What report formats will IBM accept?

IBM will accept reports in Comma Separated Values (CSV) or plain text (TXT) format.

Where do I send the Sub-Capacity Report?

Submit your report via the Internet as described on the Where to Send Reports page.

Is the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool supported? Is there a charge for using the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool?

The Sub Capacity Reporting Tool must be downloaded from the Web site and as such it does not have a Product ID number. There are no charges associated with download and/or use of the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool. The SCRT is a supported tool and problems may be reported as described on the “Ask Me” section of this website.

There is no warranty, but IBM will accept problems submitted via the Support section of this website. Fixes to SCRT will be delivered by complete refresh of the tool on this Web site. There will be no PTFs for SCRT, a full program replace will be made available with each new release.

Do I have to manually update my Sub-Capacity Report?

Previously, products which did not cut SMF89 records (see below) required manual updates on the Sub-Capacity Report. Now, with SCRT V4+, manual updates are no longer required. The new functionality requires you to indicate the LPAR(s) where each of these products executes, in the NO89 DD Statement of the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool's JCL. Please see the SCRT User's Guide (PDF, 1,8MB) for more details.

However, IBM recommends that you always review your Sub-Capacity Report(s) before submitting them to IBM.

Which products are Sub-Capacity eligible? Which products do/do not have SMF89 records?

See the System z Software Contracts exhibits website for product-level information.