NetMaster Licensing: Costs, Renewal Levers.

NetMaster Network Management is the Broadcom (CA) family for monitoring and managing mainframe networking on z/OS. It spans NetMaster for TCP/IP, which watches IP network activity, connection availability, FTP and file transfer, and the IP paths into CICS, Db2, and WebSphere; NetMaster for SNA, which manages the older SNA stack and TN3270 sessions; and Network Automation for event driven response. The key fact for licensing is that these are distinct entitlements, so what you pay depends as much on which editions you carry as on the capacity underneath them.

NetMaster is licensed on mainframe capacity within the Broadcom (CA) portfolio. The legacy basis is a MIPS entitlement enforced through CA License Management Program, or LMP, keys tied to the processor complex. Broadcom has been moving customers toward Mainframe Consumption Licensing, or MCL, priced on actual MSU consumption. Because the family splits into TCP/IP, SNA, and automation editions that are entitled separately, edition scope sits alongside the capacity basis as a primary driver, and it usually all rolls up into the wider portfolio deal.

Directional summary. The basis and edition mix on a given contract depend on your deployment.

Three drivers set the NetMaster number. The edition mix, because TCP/IP, SNA, and Network Automation each carry their own entitlement and an estate can be paying for all three when it actively uses one or two. The capacity basis, legacy MIPS on the rated complex or consumption MSU on actual use, which value the same estate differently. And the portfolio uplift, because Broadcom (CA) commonly raises the bundle as a whole and NetMaster rides it regardless of whether its own monitored footprint has grown. The SNA edition in particular tends to outlive the network it was bought to watch.

The recurring traps are about scope that no longer matches reality. Paying for the SNA edition as SNA workloads shrink toward TN3270 only or disappear entirely. Capacity entitlement larger than the LPARs NetMaster now monitors after consolidation. And a portfolio uplift that carries NetMaster along with the bundle regardless of its own footprint. Network tools are often left running on legacy capacity long after the network they watched was rationalized, so an edition by edition usage check usually finds entitlement to drop before any capacity conversation even starts.

The first lever is the edition cull: confirm which NetMaster editions are genuinely in use and drop the rest, with the SNA edition the usual candidate. Then rebaseline the capacity it is licensed against to the LPARs it actually monitors, and test consumption MSU against the legacy MIPS basis to see which is cheaper for your profile. The contract levers are a hard cap on the renewal uplift and negotiating NetMaster as one line inside the portfolio so Broadcom (CA) cannot price each edition in isolation. This is the buyer side work we do on Broadcom (CA) cost optimization.

Publisher hub: Broadcom (CA) mainframe licensing. Related products: CA 11 licensing and CA Panvalet licensing. Related metric: MSU explained. Put it to work: Broadcom (CA) cost optimization.