Attempted usage exceeds active license limits

[Waikamon]

Hello,
Now my customer has a license problem sometimes. I'm not quit sure to explain the customer about the license counting.
The customer got the problem when he tried to login the system. (please see in attachment file)
The questions are
1. How does OpenVMS count the license unit?
2. $ show license/charge/cluster, it shows about the unit required for that license, right? So it means minimum unit should be this number.?
3. The customer has 25 unit for OpenVMS-Alpha license, but the problem (exceeds active license limits) haapens when there are 7 processes in the system.

Regards,
Waikamon C.

[Volker Halle]

Waikamon,

$ SHOW LIC/USAGE will show loaded, allocated and available license units.

Interactive use should be governed by an OpenVMS user license (e.g. OPENVMS-ALPHA-ADL with 100 units per user).

Volker.

[John Abbott_2]

Waikamon,

Issue a $ LIC LOAD command and see if any license have expired/see what loads. I don't think you're looking at the right license ?

Have you renamed the node lately ? (is there license registered with the NO_SHARE option and has an INCLUDE nodename)

You say sometimes, was this system part of a cluster ? Do you only have license issues after a reboot ?

J.

[Volker Halle]

Waikamon,

according to the output of SHOW LIC/CHARGE/CLUSTER, this node requires an OPENVMS-ALPHA (base) license with 75 units. You've only shown a license with 25 units, with NO_SHARE and without an Include: nodename.

Interactive users would require OPENVMS-ALPHA-USER or OPENVMS-ALPHA-ADL licenses (100 units per simultaneous interactive user). For some explanation, please see:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_8041.html

Volker.

[Waikamon]

Volk,
So you mean the unit of OpenVMS-Alpha is insuffucient for this system. Now it's 25 units. So the customer should increase the unit up to 75 units, right?

[Volker Halle]

Waikamon,

your SHOW LIC/CHARGE/CLUSTER output shows, that this system would need 75 units of a type A license (OpenVMS base license). What kind of system is this with how many CPUs ($ SHOW CPU) ?

Did this problem appear suddenly or has the system config been changed ?

The output of $ LIC LOAD will tell, if there are licenses with insufficient units.

$ SHOW LIC/USAGE will also show, how many units of each loaded license are allocated.

Volker.

[John Gillings]

Waikamon,



First issue - OPENVMS-ALPHA

Your OPENVMS-ALPHA PAK gives you the operating system and (normally) ONE interactive login. By your license agreement this login is only permitted to be used for system management purposes.

In your case, your PAK is ACTIVITY A which means your system has user based licenses (if it were AVAILABILITY A it would be an unlimited user license).

However, you have only 25 units, but your system requires 75. When you boot you'll see a message similar to:

%LICENSE-E-NOAUTH, DEC OPENVMS-ALPHA use is not authorized on this node
-LICENSE-F-EXCEEDED, attempted usage exceeds active license limits
-LICENSE-I-SYSMGR, please see your system manager
Startup processsing continuing

This message is warning you that your system does not have the correct operating system PAK(s) registered and loaded. SHOW LICENSE/CHARGE will tell you the type of system and the unit requirement. I'm guessing it's a multiprocessor, and you have another OPENVMS-ALPHA PAK sitting in a drawer somewhere labelled something like "OpenVMS SMP" for 50 units which needs to be registered and loaded on this system. Find the PAK and register it to correct this problem.

If it's a uniprocessor, then the registered PAK is not the one which was sold with this system, which is a breach of your license agreement (operating sytem PAKs belong to the system and are not transferrable).

Because OpenVMS is intended to be high availability, having insufficient OPENVMS-ALPHA units does not prevent you from using the system. That DOES NOT necessarily mean you're legally entitled to use the system. You need to check your license agreement to see what you're permitted.

Second issue - interactive users.

Since you're using activity licenses, your interactive users are licensed using OPENVMS-ALPHA-USER and/or OPENVMS-ALPHA-ADL PAKs. See which ones are loaded with

$ SHOW LICENSE OPENVMS-ALPHA-*

Whichever are present, they're probably ACTIVITY=CONSTANT=100, which means each interactive login "costs" 100 units. Divide the number of units loaded by 100 to find out how many users can login.

$ SHOW LICENSE/USAGE/FULL OPENVMS-ALPHA-*

will show you what units are available and who is consuming the units in use.

OPENVMS-ALPHA-USER and OPENVMS-ALPHA-ADL PAKs may be moved from system to system whenever you like, (but, obviously, the same PAK must not be loaded on multiple systems symultaneously!).