Platespin Workload Licensing FAQ

  • 7920950
  • 12-Jun-2007
  • 01-Aug-2017

Environment

PlateSpin Protect 10.x and above
PlateSpin Forge 3.x and above
PlateSpin Migrate 9.x and above

Resolution

Q: How is a Workload defined?

A: A Workload is defined as everything above the hardware level of a machine, including the Operating System and all installed software, installed on a physical or virtual machine, that is supported by PlateSpin. “Per Workload” replaces the “Per Server” construct in older licenses. It also simplifies licensing for use in disaster recovery implementations as only one license is required to protect a workload. Workload licenses are also assigned as servers are migrated.

Q: How are workloads licensed?

A: The Workload license is a unique identifier that is tied to a Workload.

• A workload license is assigned only when an action is performed (like a migration).
• When a workload is migrated, the Workload license follows the Workload.
• A workload should only be transferred for reasons such as: end of lifecycle (decommissioning), moving to a newer platform, hardware issues with the server, protection or migrations are no longer needed, or as otherwise recommended by support.
 
Q: What is the difference between Per Server licensing and Per Workload Licensing?

A: With per Server licensing, a license is consumed when a workload has been discovered. That means both the target machine and source workload will consume a Server license. With Workload licensing, only the source workload requires a license; so if a workload moves from one hardware platform to another, additional licenses are not required.

Q: What happens to a Workload license when performing a "Move Workload" migration?

A: If a workload is moved instead of copied, the workload license is moved along with it.

Q: What happens to a Workload license when performing a "Copy Workload" migration?

A: If a workload is copied, the end result is that there are 2 instances of the same workload. The Workload license will remain attached to the source workload. As soon as a migration is done using the copy of the workload, a new Workload license is assigned to the copied workload as it is now a source workload.

Q: When using the Server Sync feature for a Disaster Recovery situation (i.e: creating an image of a physical workload, deploying that image as a VM and then carrying out incremental transfers between the original workload and the new VM to synchronize them) what is the best practice for licensing?


A: Only one universal edition license is needed for each workload being protected. The “primary” workload, the one that will be replicated to the VM, will have the license attached to it. That way the image can be captured, deployed to the target VM and the protection contract created all with one license. 

Q: For the Evaluation license, or any license that has a set number of Workloads and Conversions available), do the incremental transfers consume a conversion?

A: Incremental transfers will consume an available Conversion, but will not consume available Workloads. A workload license is only used to perform the initial transfer.

Q: How many workloads can be transferred with Platespin products?

Novell Customer Care login required to access site (www.novell.com/center)

Workload Transfer website link : http://www.platespin.com/entitlementmgr/  proceed once logged to the workload transfer link

A: PlateSpin Migrate - for every 1 workload purchased 1 workload transfer can be performed before the license is fully consumed (example: a 5 workload license purchased can be transferred with the entitlement manager website 5 times before the maximum number of workload transfers is reached).

To view the End User License Agreement open ..\PlateSpin Migrate Client\Eula.rtf
 
A: PlateSpin Protect 10.0.2 and earlier - for every 1 workload purchased 1 workload transfer can be performed before the license is fully consumed.
A: Protect 10.1 and higher - The workload transfer website is no longer available, however the transfer limit is 5 times the number of workloads.
To view the End User License Agreement open ..\PlateSpin Protect Server\PlateSpin Forge\web\doc\<language>\Eula.rtf
 
A: Forge 3 or higher - The workload transfer website allows for continuous transfers when using a Forge appliance; there is no limit to the number of workload transfers that can be done.
 
To view the End User License Agreement open D:\Program Files\PlateSpin Forge Server\PlateSpin Forge\web\doc\<language>\Eula.rtf