Re: Virtual Serial Number Question -- MIDRANGE-L

I still don't see how you can't simply have the same serial number (and
logical serial number) on more than one physical machine.

If it requires some sort of communication with IBM back to them to verify
(say once a day, or so) what happens if internet is down? Or if they find
a conflic?

Does their VSN change to something else? If so, that would make downtime
pretty serious as it would make most 3rd party apps to stop working because
of invalid licensing. Seems a lot worse scenario than a customer
contacting an ISV and saying "hey, we're moving to a new partition.. can we
get new keys?"

Most ISVS, as do we, provide keys if needed to bridge these changes.

Too many what ifs from the ISV side of things.... Hopefully IBM will have
more info soon.

On Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 2:00 PM Jacob Banda <jnbanda@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That's a very good question. I would like to know the answer to that as
well.

On a side note, from what I heard it sounds like the VSN itself is listed
at
$100, but requires IBM Entitled Software purchases to be linked to that
VSN.
So if you are purchasing a new box, you need to purchase the software
entitlements for the physical serial number AND the VSN. Did you all
interpret it that way also?

I think their core audience with this feature are customers that want the
ability to move LPARs from box to box, without having to engage ISVs for
new
licensing agreements/keys because of the serial number change, and also to
introduce a new way to market the LPARs as cloud-friendly.

------------
Jacob
------------
date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 19:18:03 +0000
from: Rich Loeber <rich@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Virtual Serial Number Question

I'm just trying to access the impact on third party software installations.
If we license software to a virtual serial number, then the customer
doesn't
need to keep current on maintenance payments if they want to move the
software to a new box. And, if they can, in fact, have two partitions on
different boxes with the same virtual serial number, then they can use
licensed software on two boxes while only paying for one install.

Just looking for some answers here.

Rich Loeber
Kisco Systems LLC
http://www.kisco.com

________________________________

On 2/17/2022 2:12 PM, Brad Stone wrote:

This opens up more questions about logical serial numbers as well.

What is the point of a virtual serial number? So they can match it with a
previous system they had? What's next, virtual model numbers? Virtual
logical serial numbers?

Just curious. :)

On Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 1:04 PM Jacob Banda
<jnbanda@xxxxxxxxxx><mailto:jnbanda@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Rich and Michael,

No. I happened to screenshot the slides and reviewed them after the
presentation. They included that in the deck under the slide titled "VSN
Considerations".

"Can I share a VSN between multiple partitions? No. A VSN is unique to a
partition. If you want multiple partitions to share the same serial number,
you will have to use the base (physical) hardware serial number."

They uploaded it also. You can find it here:

https://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/support/planning/transfer/Virtual_Serial_
Number_with_IBM_i.pdf
<https://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/support/planning/transfer/Virtual_Serial_Number_with_IBM_i.pdf>
<
https://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/support/planning/transfer/Virtual_Serial
_Number_with_IBM_i.pdf
<https://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/support/planning/transfer/Virtual_Serial_Number_with_IBM_i.pdf>

<https://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/support/planning/

transfer/Virtual_Serial_Number_with_IBM_i.pdf
<https://public.dhe.ibm.com/systems/support/planning/transfer/Virtual_Serial_Number_with_IBM_i.pdf>

Or you can bookmark the IBM i License Topics page
(https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/718251) and scroll down to the
Virtual Serial Number heading.

------------
Jacob
------------

date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 18:08:02 +0000
from: "Mayer, Michael via MIDRANGE-L"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx><mailto:midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Virtual Serial Number Question (Rich Loeber)

Rich, I sat in on it too and some of it had my head spinning to a degree.

Very Respectfully,
Michael Mayer
IBM i on Power System Admin.
IT Operations.
The Florida Bar
651 E. Jefferson St
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300
mmayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:mmayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
https://www.floridabar.org
Office: 850.561.5761
Cell: 518.641.8906

date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 17:46:41 +0000
from: Rich Loeber <rich@xxxxxxxxx><mailto:rich@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Virtual Serial Number Question

I sat in on the IBM presentation today on implementation of virtual serial
numbers. One thing that was not clear to me is whether a customer could
configure a partition on two different physical serial numbers with the
same
virtual serial number. If there is anyone out there that's smarter than
me,
I'd like to know the answer to this.

Rich Loeber
Kisco Systems LLC
http://www.kisco.com

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