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HP-UX 11i licensing and investment protection

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Protect your investment. HP-UX 11i Software Licensing Terms

HP-UX 11i software licensing

An HP-UX 11i software license is defined by the combination of HP Software licensing terms and End-user license agreements. The HP-UX 11i software license is a perpetual license which grants you the right to use the current version of the software and all previous versions. To obtain future software updates, software support with “rights to new versions” is available. HP also provides industry-leading software investment protection with its HP-UX 11i software license trade-in and transfer policies.
HP-UX 11i software is licensed on a per-socket basis on the new HP Integrity family of servers (models BL8x0c i2, rx2800 i2, Superdome 2). HP-UX software on all other Integrity servers is still licensed on a per-core basis. Note that there are a few products that are licensed on a per-server or per-cluster basis on all Integrity servers.
Customers who purchase one of the HP-UX 11i v3 OE licenses also have a License To Use (LTU) the v1/v2 OEs, according to the mapping below.
Purchased HP-UX v3 OE
HP-UX v3 OE License To Use
HP-UX v1/v2 OE License To Use
Base OE Base OE Foundation OE
Technical Computing OE
Virtual Server OE Base OE
Virtual Server OE		 Enterprise OE
Foundation OE
High Availability OE Base OE
High Availability OE		 Enterprise OE
Foundation OE
Data Center OE Base OE
Virtual Server OE
High Availability OE
Data Center OE		 Mission Critical OE
Enterprise OE
Foundation OE

Note that the prior version (v1/v2) license provided by the HP-UX 11i version 3 OE license applies to the package content of the designated original OE and the additional package content of the HP-UX v3 OE as long as the HP-UX 11i v1/v2 OE is running in the following ways:

  • Within an HP 9000 Container
  • Within an HP-UX 11i v2 guest in an HP-UX 11i v3 virtualized environment
  • Natively in an existing HP-UX v1/v2 environment where additional licenses are needed (e.g. when activating an iCAP core)
The support lifecycle for all HP-UX 11i versions can be found on the support matrix.

» View the HP-UX 11i v3 OE contents and the value of upgrading from v2 to v3 (PDF, 541 KB)

HP-UX 11i Software Virtualization Licensing Policy

The HP-UX 11i Software Virtualization Licensing Policy allows customers to purchase some software licenses for less than the full capacity of a server or hard partition (nPar) when the software will be run in an HP 9000 Container, HP Integrity Virtual Machines VM (Virtual Machine) or in an HP Virtual Partitions vPAR. This policy may help reduce customers’ licensing costs in some cases. Note that to enable virtualization for a server or nPAR, only the following Operating Environment (OE) software combination options can be licensed across all active cores or sockets:

Option 1: DC-OE or VSE-OE or a combination of DC-OE and VSE-OE (recommended)

Option 2: HA-OE and Integrity Virtual Machines or HP Virtual Partitions or Matrix OE – with this option, only BOE, HA-OE and standalone products can be licensed and run in the guest VMs or vPARs

Option 3: BOE and Integrity Virtual Machines or HP Virtual Partitions or Matrix OE - with this option, only BOE, HA-OE and standalone products can be licensed and run in the guest VMs or vPARs

For most environments, it is usually more cost-effective to license one of the virtualized OEs, either DC-OE or VSE-OE, for the entire nPAR or server. Taking this approach also means it will be easier to maintain software license compliance when the size or definition of the contents of a vPAR or Virtual Machine changes.

In addition to the licenses purchased in the options above, customers can cap their licensing costs for standalone software used within an HP 9000 Container, Virtual Machine or vPAR by purchasing only the number of per-core or per-socket licenses needed. This method is called “à la carte,” and the customer needs to carefully pre-define the size and contents of each HP 9000 Container or virtual partition, and make sure he maintains license compliance if there are any changes. Virtualization Licensing is not applicable for software licensed on a per-server or per-cluster basis. Some ISVs also have virtualization licensing policies that a customer can take advantage of to minimize software costs.

HP-UX 11i software investment protection policies

HP provides software investment protection for your HP-UX 11i Operating Environments. The only requirement is to have a software support contract in place that includes “rights to new versions” – a standard practice for all mission-critical system environments.
When you upgrade your server environment, either via the purchase of replacement servers or via server consolidation, they receive a 100 percent credit on their order when OEs are traded-in for like OEs on the same server tier.