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From: ian@rathe.cs.umn.edu (Ian Hogg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP 700 series multi-user performance?
Message-ID: <1991May7.194421.6698@rathe.cs.umn.edu>
Date: 7 May 91 19:44:21 GMT
References: <29280004@teecs.UUCP> <29280006@teecs.UUCP>
Organization: Rathe, Inc.
Lines: 56

In article <29280006@teecs.UUCP> belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin) writes:
>I too have been informed that some systems (notably the 700 series, but
>possibly others) treat all network-origin logins as one user.  While
>this is a nice benefit to those planning to connect terminals via
>network terminal servers, it seems to bring up another question...
>
>How will this affect license costs of third-party software?  I know
>of several large organizations which base their charges on the 
>O/S user license level rather than (or as well as) the machine model.
>Their reasoning is that someone using their software on an 835 with
>a 64-user license should pay more than someone running on the same
>machine with a 16-user license.  Makes sense.  But now we come along
>with our 2-user 730 (which actually has 100 terminals connected via
>a terminal server)!  Do we get away with the cheap third-party license
>since we only have a "2-user" system?

  Well you can get screwed both ways.  What if you really only want 1 or 
people to use it?  We've had the situation where only 1 person used an 8xx,
why should be license software for 16 users.
>
>Of course, we could just throw this problem back on the third-party
>software manufacturer and let them control and license _their_ software
>for a certain number of users.  (A number of vendors do it this way, which
>to me makes more sense).  
>
>What do others say?  If a vendor simply asks what our HP-UX user-license
>is, do we keep quiet about the actual number of users logging in??
>

  Tell them what they ask.  If seen software (Vermont Views) that has
different prices for various models of 300's.  For instance:

  9000/330				$2995
  9000/340,350,360		$4395
  9000/370				$5995

If I was buying these for single user workstations, you can bet I'd tell them
that I have 330's.

We also had an interesting case with Oracle once.  We asked them what they
considered a user.  They told us a single person typing SQL at a terminal.  
They said that programs didn't count. So we had a lot more people 
accessing Oracle through a network server that I wrote.  

>+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
>| Hershel Belkin               hp9000/825(HP-UX)| UUCP: teecs!belkin      |
>| Test Equipment Engineering Computing Services |Phone: 416 249-1231 x2647|
>| Litton Systems Canada Limited       (Toronto) |  FAX: 416 246-2016      |
>+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+


-- 
Ian Hogg                        email:  rathe!ian@cs.umn.edu
                                        ...!umn-cs!rathe!ian
Rathe, Inc                              ianhogg@cs.umn.edu
366 Jackson Street              phone:  (612) 225-1401