Using the MLC and TFP Monthly Summary Reports

Analysis of monthly costs

This report contains comprehensive breakdowns of monthly cost data. You can compare actual costs, and MSUs in varying degrees of detail and different contexts. You can use the report to identify areas for cost reduction and to perform the following analysis:

• Identify all monthly peak R4HA MSU utilization by MLC product
• Identify the date and time of the first and second peaks of R4HA MSU utilization
• Analyze the percent of total cost breakdown by MLC product, CPC, and LPAR
• Compare cost data of MLC products running on specific CPCs or LPARs
• Convert chart data into exportable data grids that list:
  • The hourly MSU utilization for all MLC products running on a particular CPC
    
  • The hourly MSU utilization across LPARs for any MLC product
    

Report views

The reports provide dynamic and interactive views of:

• LPAR R4HA MSU Utilization values
• Baseline software license costs correlated with workload utilization and R4HA KPIs
• Charts that compare workload MSU Utilization across LPARs
• Charts that compare average hourly MSU Utilization to the R4HA
• Bar charts that break down the cost information into separate segments
• MSU Utilization for MLC Product's Priced Features
  
• Workload reports that breakdown the contribution of batch jobs to the R4HA

Interactive charts

The MLC Monthly Summary Report features hyperlinks the drill down to more detailed levels of the report. For example, you can access an interactive charting area to analyze all the factors that affect your monthly costs.

By comparing charts that contain R4HA information correlated with business activity and license costs, you can perform an informed analysis of System activity and the impact of peak periods (or exceptions) on software costs.

Country Multiplex Pricing

If your enterprise uses Country Multiplex Pricing, the MLC Monthly Summary Report displays data for MLC product families and data for individual MLC product versions. For more information, see Managing-Country-Multiplex-Pricing.

Container Pricing

If your enterprise uses Container Pricing, the MLC Monthly Summary Report displays MSU reduction data for LPARS defined as containers. For more information, see Managing-Container-Pricing.

Multi-Version Measurement (MVM) support

If your enterprise uses Multi-Version Measurement (MVM) pricing, the MLC Monthly Summary Report aggregates data for each version of an MLC product and displays the data in MLC product families. For more information, see Managing-Multiple-Version-Measurement-pricing.

Mobile Workload Pricing (MWP) support

If your enterprise participates in IBM's Mobile Workload Pricing and receives a reduction for mobile MSU activity on the tracking of mobile workload utilization, the MLC Monthly Summary Report displays the Combined MSU Reduction column that lists the MWP reduction value for each CPC. 

However, the MLC Monthly Summary Report contains mobile MSU reduction values only if the cost model has been built using mobile transaction data. The product administrator is responsible for ensuring that the Model Builder Tasks support MWP. The administrator must also maintain accuracy in the cost models by importing the mobile transaction data after the completion of each month. For more information, see Adding-Workload-Reduction-CSV-files-to-Model-Builder-Tasks.

z Systems Collocated Application Pricing (zCAP) support

If your enterprise participates in IBM z Systems Collocated Application Pricing (zCAP) and receives a reduction for a new application's general-purpose processor time from the CPC's utilization values, the MLC Monthly Summary Report displays the Combined MSU Reduction column that lists the reduction value for each CPC. 

However, the MLC Monthly Summary Report contains zCAP MSU reduction values only if the cost model has been built using zCAP data. The product administrator must ensure that the Model Builder Task processes valid zCAP information every month. It is the responsibility of the product administrator to provide correct zCAP activity data every month. For more information, see Adding-Workload-Reduction-CSV-files-to-Model-Builder-Tasks.

iStrobe integration

If you have configured the iStrobe integration, you can launch the Compuware iStrobe web-based application from an MLC Monthly Summary Report to obtain additional metrics about a selected LPAR and time range.

The launch pad is available from the Workload Views level in any MLC Monthly Summary Report. For more information, see Launching-Strobe-for-a-specific-LPAR.