Default PVU counting on x86 processors

To properly calculate PVU subcapacity, BigFix Inventory requires information about the number of processor cores that are available to virtual machines and on the physical computers that host these machines. If the information is not available, license metric utilization cannot be properly calculated and reported results might be over-counted for x86 processors.

When hypervisor data is not available, reported results might be over-counted due to the following reasons.

  • The applied PVU rate might be higher than the actual rate
    PVU rate that is applied to a processor depends on the model and type of the processor as well as the number of processors that can be installed on a physical host (the number of sockets). When hypervisor data is not available, BigFix Inventory cannot properly identify the PVU rate for a processor. It applies the PVU rate for the configuration with the highest number of sockets that is possible for the particular processor.
    Important: 9.2.11 Starting from application update 9.2.11, BigFix Inventory always applies 120 PVUs per core when the PVU rate for a processor cannot be properly identified. In earlier versions of BigFix Inventory, the number of applied PVUs was specified in the PVU table.
  • The number of processor cores that are taken into account might be higher than the actual number of available cores

    If CPU is over-committed to virtual machines and the total virtual capacity exceeds the physical capacity, virtual capacity must be capped to physical capacity according to the pricing rules. When hypervisor data is not available, BigFix Inventory cannot limit virtualization capacity to physical capacity.

IBM accepts audit reports that contain PVU values calculated based on the default PVU counting instead of considering the client to be ineligible for subcapacity or liable for full capacity.
For more information about the results of applying default PVU counting, see: Scenario: Capacity in virtual environments with no VM managers defined.
Tip: If the hypervisor data is missing from a virtual machine and default PVU counting is applied, ID of the server on which the machine runs begins with TLM_VM.