A Processor Value Unit (PVU) is a unit of measure used to differentiate licensing of software Programs on distributed processor technologies (defined by Processor Vendor, Brand, Type and Model Number).

HCL defines a processor, for purposes of PVU-based licensing, to be each processor core on a chip (socket). Each Program has a unique price per PVU. See tools below to establish proper PVU rating of your configuration.

Licensee can deploy the Program using either:

  1. 1) Physical hardware environment at full capacity (“Full Capacity Licensing”) -  Licensee must obtain PVU entitlements sufficient to cover all activated processor cores* in the physical hardware environment made available to or managed by the Program, except for those servers from which the Program has been permanently removed.
  2. 2) Virtualization environment (“Sub-Capacity Licensing”) - When Program is deployed in a virtualized environment as established by the processor vendor technology or using virtualization software, Licensee must obtain entitlements sufficient to cover all activated processor cores* made available to or managed by the Program.

* An activated processor core is a processor core that is available for use in a physical or virtual server, regardless of whether the capacity of the processor core can be or is limited through virtualization technologies, operating system commands, BIOS settings, or similar restrictions.

By accepting this Disclaimer, you agree to indemnify, defend and otherwise hold harmless HCL, its officers, employees, agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and other partners from any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages resulting from:

Generally, for Sub-Capacity Licensing, you may license to the lower of:

  • PVUs for the maximum number of virtual cores in the virtual machines (VMs) available to the Program at any given time or
  • PVUs for the maximum number of physical cores in the server available to the Program at any given time.

Licensee must maintain a record of total PVUs allocated to the product to be presented to HCL on request in accordance with HCL’s Master License Agreement.

HCL accepts the following reports for the purpose for Full Capacity and Sub-Capacity licensing.

Note: For any configuration able to take advantage of SW or HW acceleration methods (e.g. VM/Ware ESXi, SMP, etc.) the rating per core will always be a minimum of 100 PVU.

Product Family HCL PVU Calculator(1) Big Fix(2) ILMT(3)
HCL Commerce Yes Yes Yes
HCL Connections Yes Yes Yes
HCL Digital Experience Yes Yes Yes
HCL Domino  (from V11) Yes n/a n/a
HCL Domino  (through V10) Yes Yes Yes
HCL Portal Yes Yes Yes
HCL Sametime Yes Yes Yes
HCL Web Content Manager Yes Yes Yes
  1. 1) The HCL supplied application is available to HCL registered customers at: Click here
  2. 2) HCL BigFix Inventory which includes PVU reporting for Virtual Deployments.
  3. 3) IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) which is a tool available to IBM Passport Advantage customers.