Model / Serial simulation for License pretest

[Bob]

Hi all,

During a recent CPU upgrade from a z9 to a z10, it would really have helped if
we could have pretested the new s/w licenses for the 2097 on the old 2094.
Anyone know of a free or low cost way to do this (to allow the software
vendors to sleep better during the cut over).
We did get a few licenses that were usable on both platforms - of course one
of the ones that didn't, caused us some grief.

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[Edward Jaffe]

Bob wrote:
> During a recent CPU upgrade from a z9 to a z10, it would really have helped if
> we could have pretested the new s/w licenses for the 2097 on the old 2094.
> Anyone know of a free or low cost way to do this (to allow the software
> vendors to sleep better during the cut over).
> We did get a few licenses that were usable on both platforms - of course one
> of the ones that didn't, caused us some grief.
>

I doubt software vendors would sleep better if this capability existed. ;-)

Humans make mistakes from time to time.Our license strings come with
embedded grace periods that allow days or weeks of execution in
unlicensed environments to ensure uninterrupted operation during any
cut-over--even if a mistake was made.

--
Edward E Jaffe
Phoenix Software International, Inc
5200 W Century Blvd, Suite 800
Los Angeles, CA 90045
310-338-0400 x318
edj...@phoenixsoftware.com
http://www.phoenixsoftware.com/

[Kelman, Tom]

Yes, some vendor software does have a grace period so it will work
during a cut over/upgrade or in the case of a disaster recovery test or
the real thing - others don't. The problem is that the really critical
pieces of software usually don't.

Why do you want your vendors sleeping during the upgrade anyway. Don't
you want them there biting their finger nails right along with you. :-)

In 35 years in the business, first as a MVS sys prog and now as a
performance analyst, I've never seen anyway to pretest the software
keys. I'd be interested if anyone knows of one.

Tom Kelman
Enterprise Capacity Planner
Commerce Bank of Kansas City
(816) 760-7632

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[Edward Jaffe]

Kelman, Tom wrote:
> In 35 years in the business, first as a MVS sys prog and now as a
> performance analyst, I've never seen anyway to pretest the software
> keys. I'd be interested if anyone knows of one.
>

z/VM can set a guest's CPU serial to any value. This works to "fool"
only a subset of software.

AFAIK, the CPU type cannot be changed under z/VM.

And, these days much software looks at the output of STSI (or CSRSI),
QVS, LPDAT, DIAG 204, and other sources to get capacity information.

[August Carideo]

a few of our s/w products drill down to the model number
not just the serial #, but all that could not be done prior had grace
periods
or so called emerg keys

Edward Jaffe
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[Hal Merritt]

IMHO, software contracts ought to include indemnity clauses if such a key does not work for any reason. That is, the vendor would have a monetary vested inertest in getting the key right the first time, every time.

A cutover is stressful enough without that PITA.

If a key does not work during a cutover, then it goes as a sev 1 full outage to the vendor. It gives a little perverse satisfaction if I call at 2am and wake somebody up. Even better if others have to be woken up.

This old dog will go back to sleep now :-)

Hi all,

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