If you look in the SMF manual at SMF70LAC it talks about long-term average. But in practice it DOES mean 4-Hour Rolling Average.
I believe the figure is generated by the hardware / firmware - from the z/OS perspective. This is important because I don’t think you can negotiate with IBM execs to have the meaning change with a simple z/OS PTF. Which leads me to a minor “war story”. I was dispatched by one of our execs - a good few years ago - to help a customer manage their software bill down. They had been arguing for a SIX Hour Rolling Average metric, rather than FOUR. I don’t think it takes much of a Math(s) background to understand why. :-) (Almost) needless to say, their request for a change was refused. And as to why we have this mechanism it is to smooth out spikes and to get a (vaguely) repeatable metric that’s defensible all round. And, for what it’s worth, I think we’ve been very creative over the years with software licensing schemes - to be helpful. And remember we have to be equitable and defensible in doing so. It’s just that implementation - the customer’s responsibility - sometimes takes some doing. Cheers, Martin Sent from my iPad > On 25 Sep 2017, at 04:50, Peter <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Cheryl, > > Thank you so much > > I was just trying to understand the meaning of FOUR hour and why not more > than that.. > > > I will read it and come back > > > On 25-Sep-2017 8:58 AM, "Cheryl Watson" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Peter, > > It's best to start at the source using IBM' Software Pricing website. The > calculation for the R4HA is explained here - http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/ > z/resources/swprice/subcap/corner5.html. > > Sub-capacity products are charged based on the highest simultaneous sum of > the R4HA MSUs for all LPARs that the product runs in. Said in another > way...for each RMF interval, WLM calculates the highest R4HA (as described > in the article above) for each LPAR on a CPC and records that to an SMF > type 70 record. Most sites, on the second day of the month, collect the > SMF type 70 and SMF type 89 records and process them with a program called > the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool (SCRT). SCRT will then calculate the > highest R4HA for each LPAR and each hour. From the type 89 records or > control statements, SCRT can determine in which LPAR(s) each product runs. > SCRT then finds the hour during the month for that combination of LPARs > where the sum of the R4HA MSUs is the highest. Thus my earlier sentence > that it's the highest simultaneous sum. That sum is then the R4HA for the > product. Each product could theoretically have a different R4HA. > > Note: In most cases, finding the highest sum for a combination of LPARs is > done at the CPC level. For Country Multiplex, it's done by finding the > highest sum of the LPARs on all CPCs in the multiplex. > > The MSUs in that hour are used to calculate the price of the product for > the entire month. The art of reducing or containing your z/OS software > costs is often focused on reducing or capping the R4HA for a product. Some > sites have a single R4HA for all LPARs, perhaps at 10 am or maybe at 3 am, > and you can try to tune your system to that time frame. Other sites might > have a 10 am R4HA for CICS and a 3 am R4HA for DB2, so tuning might be > directly at different time periods with different solutions. > > Here are two articles in a series on software pricing that Alan Murphy and > I wrote for Enterprise Executive: > > 2016 No 2 - > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ourdigitalmags.com_publication_-3Fi-3D297321-23&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=BsPGKdq7-Vl8MW2-WOWZjlZ0NwmcFSpQCLphNznBSDQ&m=vfA_jMXcR0x4mRLiyaMZmRNTjHJjpbTX92upu96AmN4&s=ZrDm52Ym8VCdi5VHCV8cujOKilGa_WGkussy1mDbyMc&e= > {"issue_ > id":297321,"numpages":1,"page":47} > > 2017 No 1 - > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ourdigitalmags.com_publication_-3Fi-3D384426-23&d=DwIBaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=BsPGKdq7-Vl8MW2-WOWZjlZ0NwmcFSpQCLphNznBSDQ&m=vfA_jMXcR0x4mRLiyaMZmRNTjHJjpbTX92upu96AmN4&s=l9bH-oprg1GdJVVpTt7lJPdc-bWBSrEyzDqpK4IjrBE&e= > "{issue_ > id:384426,numpages:1,page:28}" > > Does that help a little? > > Best regards, > Cheryl > > > Cheryl Watson > Watson & Walker, Inc. > www.watsonwalker.com > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Peter > Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2017 10:36 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: What is 4 Hour rolling average > > Hi Group > > Apology for being ignorant here. > > I am not a capacity analyst but even in the manuals I can't make out the > real meaning behind 4 hour rolling average. > > Could someone please explain me in simple or in layman terms about 4 hour > rolling average ? > > Regards > Peter > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email > to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. 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