PVU sub-capacity — lower of virtual vs physical
Catalog row in Vendor License Rules · Cited
- Kind
- Virtualization
- Statement
- IBM Virtualization Capacity (Sub-capacity) Licensing (retrieved 2026-08-31): customers who obtain eligible sub-capacity products “must obtain entitlements sufficient to cover all activated processor cores made available to or managed by the Program, as defined according to the Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules.” “Generally, for any Eligible Product installed in an Eligible Virtualization Environment, you may license to the lower of: The maximum number of virtual cores in the virtual machines (VMs) available to the Eligible Product at any given time or The physical capacity of the Server where the VMs are hosted when the Virtual Capacity exceeds total physical capacity of the server.” “The total number of cores would then be applied to any conversion ratio: For PVUs: You can determine the correct number of PVUs per core by referring to the PVU table.” SMT/hyperthreading not adjusted is a separate Counting row. The container 70-PVU flat rate does not apply to this traditional VM sub-capacity overlay.
- Applies when
- Eligible Sub-Capacity Product installed in an Eligible Virtualization Environment, licensed by PVU, using Virtualization Capacity (sub-capacity) rather than full capacity.
- Applies to
- Passport Advantage Eligible Sub-Capacity Products licensed by Processor Value Unit (PVU). Not Container Licensing (separate overlay). Not the container 70-PVU flat rate.
- Aliases
- Virtualization Capacity; sub-capacity lower of; PVU sub-cap
- Related metrics
- Related programs