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There are a large number of IBM i applications that do not license to physical Serial Number and instead license to user, partition, per core and so forth. The applications are not using IBM licensing but have written their own. Therefore, one option is to change to your license management scheme.
As for IBM i, our primary strategy for mobile licensing is Virtual Serial Number, which was referenced in this thread. We just announced our first Virtual Serial Number phase on January 25, 2022: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-i-license-topics > section "Virtual Serial Number". ISV applications can change to license to Virtual Serial Number instead of physical Serial Number. Using that method, you can still leverage IBM i License Management. You mentioned that using Virtual Serial Number requires the HMC, and that the HMC is expensive for small clients. One of the less expensive alternatives is the virtual HMC (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/virtual-hmc-appliance-vhmc-overview). The price for vHMC may be worth it to clients in order to get mobile licensing.
I've read the link provided and the issue with that approach is that it requires the use of an HMC to accomplish this VSN implementation. If there were an API or CL command interface I would support such a concept. I have very few customers with HMCs installed. In fact, I have one client who purchased a new HMC with their Power7 upgrades and never used it. Today that same client is installing Power9's and when they asked me if they should power-up the HMC I had to tell them it is not supported by IBM for their new Power9 purchase. They see no reason to pay a huge fee to use it to turn on the system when day-today- they don't need or use it.
So if there is another option I'd love to hear about it
When upgrading hardware, it is understood that the hardware serial number that the IBM i License Manager depends on (QLZA* APIs) will usually change. When such hardware changes are detected, a 70 day "hardware grace period" is initiated during which license keys for the previous hardware will be honored while new keys are obtained. This should be true of IBM software as well as independent software vendor (ISV) products. The advantage for IBM i products is that the Entitled Systems Support website (ESS) is aware of the migration and can provide new keys rather quickly. Keys for ISV products would have to be requested manually.
The proposed solutions are problematic for a variety of reasons. There are strong security concerns with any solution that "phones home" as many systems are not allowed internet access. In addition, there exists no current facility to "invalidate" a non-OS license key, and the method used for OS keys cannot be adapted to further products. It would also be impossible to automate retrieving new keys for ISV products as each vendor would have its own management system for obtaining and recording product keys.
One solution that exists today for POWER9+, and to avoid future ties to hardware serial numbers, is to license software for individual partitions to a virtual serial number:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power9?topic=POWER9/p9hat/p9hat_pvsn.htm
As this article points out, Virtual Serial Numbers may be migrated from one system to another as needed, and this happens automatically with Live Partition Mobility. IBM believes this solution would sufficiently solve the use case in most circumstances. Please let us know if you have further questions or suggestions regarding this request, or if this solution works for you.
The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM close this as a Duplicate. There is an existing RFE for this function, and that RFE is already in Planned for Future Release status. See https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=147378
Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community, and has therefore reviewed your RFE.
For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac
Nancy Uthke-Schmucki - CAAC Program Manager
The CEAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a MEDIUM priority requirement that should be addressed.
Background: The COMMON Europe Advisory Council (CEAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CEAC has a crucial role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your RFE.
To find out how CEAC help to shape the future of IBM i, see CEAC @ ibm.biz/BdYSYj and the article "The Five Hottest IBM i RFEs Of The Quarter" at ibm.biz/BdYSZT
Therese Eaton – CEAC Program Manager, IBM
Hi pnicolay,
I'm not concerned about DR/HA situations. All our software, using the IBM QLZA* APIs has an automatically 17-day license built in upon install. So no need to go get a new one.
Note sure what you mean by "specific partition" The QLZA* APIs allow you to use the license by User or by Active Core and optionally have that spread/counted across partitions. I think you can also limit it to N partitions, but not a specific partition. Mostly the APIs lean heavily towards the CPU or USER count-base. But since one one likes User-based licensing, and since only about "10 customers world-wide" (I'm pontificating) use more than 1 CORE due to pricing, core-based pricing doesn't really apply to my situation. So we've moved to All or nothing model. You either have a license or you don't, and we don't care how many CPU's you've activated or partitions on the same physical system you've configured. But a Cloud user of IBM i (not many today but that'll change) needs serial-number-less licensing and that's today requires you to roll your own and depend on honesty.
Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Power Systems
Product - IBM i
Component - Install, Upgrade, Licensing
Operating system - IBM i
Source - None
For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Power Systems
Product - IBM i
Component - Other
Operating system - IBM i
Source - None
How would you limit the license to a specific partition when you link it to a customer number ?
We have developed a website where our customers can managed their licenses... it's a fully automated environment so that when they have a disaster or other issue they get a (temporary) license in seconds.