With the recent announcement of IBM i regarding the subscription model. There are a lot of questions if you wish to understand the complete impact of moving away from non-expiring licenses.
Luckily enough IBM acted on these questions and did create an excellent IBM i Subscription Transformation FAQ document to help you deal with the IBM i Subscription.
You do not have to be Einstein to expect some more IBM license key handling and monitoring. For checking expiring licenses IBM have created a special SQL service, which is available for everyone using IBM i Access Client solutions (ACS).
When starting the Run SQL Script (RSS) part of ACS, clicking the button Insert from Examples… and entering the string license will bring you to the screen shown below:
There are several examples available and the one selected does all the magic for you. It even allows you to add a job to the traditional Job Scheduler.
If you prefer to add this job to the Advanced Job Scheduler (AJS), you can better execute the command given in the script, and convert that job into an AJS scheduled job.
This can be done by using menu JSSYSCTL and option 7=“Work with Operating System job schedule entries” and option 8=”Add to Advanced Job Scheduler”.
The example Product – Expiring license info shows you the use of the SQL service QSYS2.LICENSE_INFO in a simple way. I prefer the second SQL statement as I like the check if the product is installed:
SELECT * FROM QSYS2.LICENSE_INFO
WHERE INSTALLED = 'YES' AND
LICENSE_EXPIRATION <= CURRENT DATE + 50 DAYS;
If you have an independent Software Vendor (ISV) application installed which is defined as a license product, those will be checked also.
Recently the Navigator for i was enhanced also, resulting in the image below.
When clicking the icon with the popup balloon you are brought to Configuration and Service => License Information webpage:
As 4HA0000 is not an IBM i Licence Program Product (LPP), to get a new license key you must contact your ISV.
If an IBM i LPP is about to expire, it is time to ask your Business Partner (BP) for a renewal.
Once you do so, the newly generated key will be available on IBM’s Entitled Software Support website.
Once you have selected IBM i Software Keys and picked the correct hardware type serial (Power System serial number) and IBM i OS Keys level, the keys are shown.
At the bottom of that page, you will find several buttons with different options, all to enable entering the license keys.
When working with dates we all have experienced the issue called date format.
Currently the license key expiration date is in format ISO 8601 as can be seen below:
It is there where the trouble starts, as this format does not match my System Values:
Over the years I have learned that, for me, the quickest way to get these keys installed on several systems is to do the following:
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Select the Download key(s) (<10KB)
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This will generate <serial number>.doc to be opened with your editor of choice
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After the document is opened select all text and copy/paste the content in RSS of ACS
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In RSS use the Search menu and select Replace…
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Enter the following:
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Press the Replace All button
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Next, select the date shown and replace as shown below:
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Again, press the Replace All button
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Add the following string at the very top of the SQL script: CL:CHGJOB DATFMT(*YMD) DATSEP(‘-‘)
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Finally you are ready to run the script, for this you need to press the button Run All:
Resulting in:
Over the years when working with license keys including an expiration date, the above method has prevented me from having to cut and paste every single command. It also allowed me to use RSS and connect to all LPARS on the same Power System entering all license keys in one go.
Back in the days, our IT business used to be called automation so, if there are better ways to enter license keys, please share your knowledge by leaving behind a comment on this article below.
I would really appreciate it if you did, because in our business we never stop learning, do we?
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