HP-UX 11i Version 2 June 2006 Release Notes

Hardware-Specific Information
Utility Pricing Solutions
Chapter 4
102
HP Pay per use
The HP Pay per use (PPU) program is a lease model in which customers are charged only
for the computing capacity that they use. The PPU software (HP product T2351AA)
provides services for metering resource utilization.
Summary of Change
PPU has been updated to version B.11.23.08.00.xx with the following changes:
• PPU now includes support for the rx7640 and rx8640 servers.
• To more accurately represent the new generation of hardware, all references to
“processor” and “CPU” have been changed to “core.” The two metrics for measuring
and pricing utilization are now called Percent Core and Active Core (previously
known as Percent CPU or Processor Percent, and Active CPU or Number Active
Processors).
• PPU can be run in an HP Integrity Virtual Machines environment (HPVM). In this
case, the usage information for billing purposes is still the overall usage for the host.
However, you can examine the usage report at the portal to see a detailed breakdown
of the usage for each Virtual Machine (also called a “guest”). In an HPVM
environment, PPU needs to be installed and configured only on the host, not on the
guest Virtual Machines.
• The command ppuconfig -t has been enhanced to do additional validation of
configuration and environment and will also restart the ppud daemon if it is not
already started.
• Previously, when a cell contained dual-core processors and was powered down
(inactive), then PPU on another partition of the complex would report the number of
cores for the inactive cell as if it contained single-core processors. Now, as long as
there is at least one cell that is powered up in the same partition as the inactive cell,
then PPU will correctly report the number of cores. If there are no active cells in the
partition, then PPU must make an assumption about the number of cores and by
default will assume single-core processors when reporting TotalCores for the
complex.
• The error messages and manpages have been enhanced and updated.
• A new documentation file, /usr/share/doc/PayPerUseOverview.htm, is provided
to link to the most current documentation files on the HP documentation Web site.
In particular, if you do not have a pdf reader, you can use this file to link to the Web
site where html-formatted files exist.
Impact
PPU Version B.11.23.08.00.xx supersedes version B.11.23.07.02 on HP-UX 11i v2.
The two metrics for measuring pricing and utilization are now called Percent Core and
Active Core (previously known as Percent CPU or Processor Percent, and Active CPU or
Number Active Processors). The billing amounts vary as your core usage increases or
decreases. This is different than traditional financing approaches that are based on
fixed-payment amounts for a specified period. PPU can be run in an HP Integrity Virtual
Machines environment (HPVM). In this case, the usage information for billing purposes
is still the overall usage for the host. However, you can examine the usage report at the