In this slidecast, Fritz Ferstl from Univa discusses complex issues of application license management for cluster and grid deployments. "Companies invest large portions of their budget on expensive software tools without the means to ensure that these critical assets are being used optimally and getting into the hands of those who need it most," said Gary Tyreman, CEO, Univa. "In the highly competitive business environments of today, going to market quickly is paramount. License Orchestrator provides that speed through an integrated, scalable and flexible approach to managing key software licenses." Learn more: http://www.univa.com/about/news/press_2013/06182013.php Watch the presentation video: http://insidehpc.com/?p=39427

1. No! License Management is not boring!
Fritz Ferstl, CTO Univa Corporation

2. 2
Well, is it exciting?
Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.*
• Individual application licenses can cost >$500,000 per seat
• Single most important asset being managed
• Way more important than 50-100x cheaper server
• Do everything required to keep those licenses busy
• And make those applications perform at top speed
• Even if cost per seat is similar to other assets there are still
very specific challenges:
• Know what you have and who uses it. Then optimize.
• Pay for as few as possible but for as many as necessary
• Accelerate project schedules by providing preferential access to licenses to
users/departments/projects needing it the most
• Adjust dynamically to changing demands
• Allocate licenses based on funding/entitlements
• Share unused licenses; share across geos
• Account and do charge-back for license consumption
• Reserve licenses for mission critical project phases
• Improving license utilization provides instant ROI and can
result in dramatic savings! Often much more than through any
other means of optimizing a capacity computing environment!

3. 3
• New product released in July 2013
• Must be using Univa Grid Engine 8.1.5 or later
• Open architecture for support of arbitrary
License Management facilities
• Initial support for FlexLM only
• Replaces and vastly exceeds previously
existing means for managing licenses with
Univa Grid Engine
• e.g. via consumables or qlicserver (aka the Olesen
method)
Univa License Orchestrator
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4. Univa License Orchestrator
Server
License Monitor
Managed
Licenses:
License 1
…
License x
Job A_Cluster X
Job B_Cluster Y
Flexera
Publisher
1
Flexera
Publisher
2
Qmaster
LO Thread
LO Connector
Qmaster
LO Thread
LO Connector
Qmaster
LO Thread
LO Connector
Univa Grid Engine Cluster x Univa Grid Engine Cluster y Univa Grid Engine Cluster z
License Orchestrator Architecture
Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved. Slide 4

5. 5
Multiple License Managers
• Aggregate licenses across multiple license managers
• Inside a cluster and across clusters, organizationally
or geographically dispersed
• Minimizes idle time of licenses
• Allows to implement cross-company license usage
policies
FlexLM FlexLM FlexLM FlexLM FlexLM
Univa License Orchestrator
Saves cost through optimized utilization of licenses
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6. 6
Fair Sharing of Licenses
• Distribute licenses to users, user groups and
projects based on Fair Share policy
• Allows for temporary over-usage with compensation later
• Allows for assignment of shares per license per user
• Option for default user that matches requests from
unlisted users
• Again across clusters and license managers
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.* 6

7. 7
Fair Sharing of Licenses (cont.)
• Example: 6 Users, 3 Licenses, with default users
– Users: alan, bob, cathy, dan, edward, fritz
– License: license-a, license-b, license-c
– Default users for each license
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.* 7

8. 8
Project-Based Sharing of Licenses
• Distribute licenses within
projects (as well as
departments and users)
based on fixed shares
• Always the same entitlement
for license access
• No overage or underage
• Also across clusters and
license managers
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
Shares
Projects
70 %
HI
70 %
MED
20 %
LO
10 %
Departments
20 %
Development
10 %
Test
10 %
Production
80 %
Users
10 %
Maria
25 %
Steve
15 %
John
50 %
Susan
10 %
Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.*

9. 9
Limiting License Requests
• Limit license consumption
– Quotas per license for users and user groups
– Each quota can have multiple Rule Sets
– Rule Sets are evaluated in order. First match
wins.
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
$ loconf -srqs license-a-quota
{
name license-a-quota
description All of the quota rules for license-a
enabled TRUE
limit users {cathy,bob} to license-a=10
limit users @power_users to license-a=100
limit to license-a=20
}
Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.* 9

10. Preferential Access to Licenses
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• Implements share what you can spare
• Licenses are owned by an organization and will be
utilized by it first
• But unutilized licenses can be shared
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
free
req d
License Owner License Borrower

11. 11
Pre-emption of licenses
• Ensure access to required licenses for the most
important workloads
• Withdraw (pre-empt) license from low priority job
and hand to high priority job
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
License Usage over Time
High Prio
Job
Low Prio
Job
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12. 12
Reserving Licenses
• Provide license access at a designated time in the future
• Ensure license requirements can be met together with other
dependencies of the job
• Backfilling utilizes license prior to the start of the reservation
for other, short-running jobs
Faster ROI through aligning license usage with business demands
License Usage over Time
Backfilling Reservation
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13. 13
Grid Engine / Non-Grid Engine Use
• Allows for license management functionality also
without Grid Engine being utilized
• Or for situations with parts of the resources
controlled by Grid Engine and parts of them being
unmanaged
Save cost by optimized use of licenses
FlexLM FlexLM FlexLM FlexLM FlexLM
Univa License Orchestrator
Unmanaged Cluster
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14. License'Accoun+ng'and'Repor+ng
• UniSight is integrated with License Orchestrator
• Specific reports provide insights in and analytics on license usage
• UniSight collects data from all Univa Grid Engine Clusters and License
Orchestrator
• Reports can be created to correlate data from cluster and License
Orchestrator
14Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.

15. Conclusions
• License Management is at least as important
as managing other valuable assets in a
cluster
• SW licenses are often the most important
and most rewarding asset to be managed
• Univa License Orchestrator is a novel
product which in combination with Univa
Grid Engine addresses the challenges of
license management
15Copyright*©*2013*Univa*Corpora4on,*All*Rights*Reserved.*

16. Thank You!
fferstl@univa.com
http://www.univa.com/products/license-orchestrator.php