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DB2 Version 8 Licensing and License Management

Licensing Policy for DB2 is based on several factors:

• number of registered or concurrent users,
• number of processors,
• number of database partitions and
• high availability configuration

Every factor has special meaning and all together define total database licensing price.

User license (Connection License):

1.) Registered user license is an unlimited access user license. This license is based on the number of client seats (individuals) that access any DB2 servers in a company.

2.) Concurrent user license is a limited access user license for the maximum concurrent client connections coming to one database server.

Server license is a DB2 license based on the number of server processors.

IBM Licensing Models for DB2

DB2 Workgroup Server Edition (WSE) is licensed by the number of connections to the database.

The licensing price is defined with a base price for server license + n x user connections (registered or concurrent). The base server license covers machines ranging from uni-processor up to 4-way SMP and is offered in a packaging suite of 50 user connections.

DB2 WSE has a special discount price in shrink-wrap purchase combination (database without Passport Advantage and customer support), but then you have no further rights on discounts for future upgrades.

DB2 Workgroup Server Unlimited Edition (WSUE) is licensed by the number of available processors for external access (web access from external network) and per connection for users on a corporate network. Special discount versions (shrink-wrap licensing) are not possible. A maximum 4 licensed processor allowed.

DB2 UDB Enterprise Server Edition (ESE) is licensed by the number of available processors and database connections. This licensing method has no limit on the number of processors. ESE has Partitioning and Clustering support as add-on features for the DB2 database engine, which are additionally licensed per processors.

Licensing for High Availability Configurations

For High-Availability (HA) configurations, special licensing rules applies. It is a question of standby failover node and how it is used in combination with other nodes.

1.) Mutual takeover is a configuration where every node can replace any other nodes in a case of failover. Defined configuration scripts have to be prepared to establish load balancing after takeover so that all database partitions handle approximately same data volume after failover. All nodes are working nodes and all need a separate license.

2.) "Idle standby" (Cold Standby) configuration has one idle node. idle node will take over the work of one failed node when a failure occurs. The idle node can run with or without an activated database, however, there should not be any transactional work on that node. [lbc1] For DB2 UDB EE we have only to pay for one processor on the idle node, even if we are running on a four-way SMP machine. If we have implemented idle standby configuration with DB2 UDB Enterprise Extended Edition (EEE), then we need licenses for all processors on the idle node.

3.) In "Active standby" (Hot Standby) configuration all servers have active DB2 databases. One node is designated as the active standby node and will take over any of failover nodes in the system in a case of failure. This configuration does not waste machine resources, however, the Hot Standby machine must be fully licensed. Compared to idle standby, idle standby is dedicated to just one failed server's workload, while an active standby is set up to take the work of two servers in the event of a failure.

DB2 cluster agent for Sun Cluster (DB2 UDB HA agent for Sun Cluster) is given with DB2 server distribution media starting from version 7 FixPack 5 or can be downloaded from IBM's official site. Sun Cluster 2.2 is fully supported and Sun Cluster 3.0 is supported starting with version 7.1 FixPack 3.