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How to calculate OI licenses for physical cluster scenarios

  • 15 August 2022
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Hello, 

Could you say please how to calculate OI licenses for physical Clusters, for example two node MS cluster with single SQL instance, how much OI licenses it should consume in case when we need to backup clustered SQL instance?

We have mixed license environment VMs and OI.

Br,
Andrejs

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Best answer by Jos Meijer 17 August 2022, 13:04

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https://documentation.commvault.com/11.24/essential/114655_operating_instances_in_license_summary_report_01.html

This page explains how OIs are applied in a mixed environment, and what’s excluded.

Thanks,
Scott
 

 

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As I am reading the question this concerns physical only machines involved in the SQL cluster, correct?

If all physical you need 1 physical OI per pseudo client, but you will need additional physical OI's per node if you perform node specific backups on the file system, SQL or other agents.

If I am misinterpreting and the nodes are VM based then only one physical OI is needed for per pseudo client. The node specific licenses are handled by the VM packs, if covered by the virtual application classes, which for SQL is the case.

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We have cluster of two physical servers “Node1“and “Node2”, backup jobs works against pseudo client “PseudoClient1” which resides on Node1. Why PseudoClient1 is not included in OI calculation if it is under “Application Class 1” license?

Br,
Andrejs

Userlevel 7
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Simply put, this is their revenue model.

They need to make money to sustain the company and product development, if they include everything in one license then they throw away money necessary for these activities. A cluster config is a nice differentiator to place a separate license on 🙂

Will this model ever change? Depends what the competition is doing. 

Badge +7

As I am reading the question this concerns physical only machines involved in the SQL cluster, correct?

If all physical you need 1 physical OI per pseudo client, but you will need additional physical OI's per node if you perform node specific backups on the file system, SQL or other agents.

If I am misinterpreting and the nodes are VM based then only one physical OI is needed for per pseudo client. The node specific licenses are handled by the VM packs, if covered by the virtual application classes, which for SQL is the case.

As I am reading the question this concerns physical only machines involved in the SQL cluster, correct?

Yes, but even if I release licenses for physical nodes and leave pseudo client for backups report shows what you see on picture (Commvault consumes  OI licenses for physical nodes and don’t consume for pseudo client). It is confusing and doesn’t match with licensing guide.

 

 

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Quick question, what license types do you have in this commcell?

It seems you have a FET capacity based license, is this correct?

If correct, what is the license name or product sku?

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Quick question, what license types do you have in this commcell?

It seems you have a FET capacity based license, is this correct?

If correct, what is the license name or product sku?

No, we don’t have capacity licenses. 
We have VM and OI mix.

Userlevel 7
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This was stuck in my thoughts since your post, so I did some additional reading and digging.
I apparently have an old view on the license count method.

Looking at the link provided by @Scott Moseman which states:

Quote:

“For backup operations that include cluster clients, the system makes the following checks:

  • If the nodes of the cluster client are all physical machines, the system checks for the OI license.

  • If the nodes of the cluster client are all virtual machines, the system checks for the VOI or OI license.

  • If the nodes of the cluster client are mixed (some nodes are on a physical server, and some nodes are on a virtual machine), the system checks for the OI license.

Then, the cluster backup job proceeds as follows:

  • If the needed license is not present, then the cluster backup job is blocked.

  • If the needed license is present and within usage, the cluster backup job is allowed to run.”

 

Also looking at the licensing program guide it states:

Quote:

Common cluster scenarios

In many physical server scenarios, various clustering methodologies are used to deliver high availability of a given resource. Examples of these modern clustering technologies include (but are not limited to) Exchange Distributed Availability Groups (DAG), SQL Server Always-On Availability Groups (AG), Oracle RAC, and others.

Commvault licensing will count the operating instance (unique name) from which the backup or archive job is able to be executed. For example, in an Exchange DAG configuration, each defined Member Server that that is available as a backup source will consume an operating instance (or virtual operating instance) license, even though Commvault may configure the backups from a singular control point (pseudo-client).”

 

Thus implying that when the underlying nodes have valid OI's the cluster is licensed under the node associated OI's and not a separate OI.

My apologies for the confusion...

Badge +7

This was stuck in my thoughts since your post, so I did some additional reading and digging.
I apparently have an old view on the license count method.

Looking at the link provided by @Scott Moseman which states:

Quote:

“For backup operations that include cluster clients, the system makes the following checks:

  • If the nodes of the cluster client are all physical machines, the system checks for the OI license.

  • If the nodes of the cluster client are all virtual machines, the system checks for the VOI or OI license.

  • If the nodes of the cluster client are mixed (some nodes are on a physical server, and some nodes are on a virtual machine), the system checks for the OI license.

Then, the cluster backup job proceeds as follows:

  • If the needed license is not present, then the cluster backup job is blocked.

  • If the needed license is present and within usage, the cluster backup job is allowed to run.”

 

Also looking at the licensing program guide it states:

Quote:

Common cluster scenarios

In many physical server scenarios, various clustering methodologies are used to deliver high availability of a given resource. Examples of these modern clustering technologies include (but are not limited to) Exchange Distributed Availability Groups (DAG), SQL Server Always-On Availability Groups (AG), Oracle RAC, and others.

Commvault licensing will count the operating instance (unique name) from which the backup or archive job is able to be executed. For example, in an Exchange DAG configuration, each defined Member Server that that is available as a backup source will consume an operating instance (or virtual operating instance) license, even though Commvault may configure the backups from a singular control point (pseudo-client).”

 

Thus implying that when the underlying nodes have valid OI's the cluster is licensed under the node associated OI's and not a separate OI.

My apologies for the confusion...

 

Problem is that next paragraph of licensing guide says:

“In the case of an active/passive failover cluster, where a shared “cluster resource” is created to singularly address shared storage in the cluster, such as Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) and SQL Server Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) or Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) clusters, the underlying systems/nodes in the cluster will be measured based on normal rules stated in this guide. The shared cluster resource will always be counted as "non-virtual" and as such will be measured as either an Operating Instance, or the data protected will be counted against a capacity-based license.


Which is confusing.

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