IBM ILMT ... Check-in Time

If you rely on IBM Sub-Capacity licensing its a good idea to check you are meeting the compliance requirements on a regular basis ...

In order to be eligible for IBM's sub-capacity pricing you need to be aware of, and current with, the compliance requirements IBM stipulate (and change) on an ongoing basis.

... If not, you might find yourself in the unenviable position of being measured at full capacity - across everything.

You no doubt recall that IBM divested the BigFix portfolio of products to HCL in 2019, however maintained ILMT (which remains based on BigFix Inventory), as their free license measurement tool that can be used to meet the reporting and validation requirements under the sub-capacity rules.

There is no escaping the sub-capacity rules -  as IBM states: "the use of ILMT is recommended for Full Capacity PVU environments, and is mandatory for use with PVU sub-capacity licensing". There are some exceptions to this requirement, essentially though, its only where you measure everything at Full Capacity.

So a quick recap of the base requirements for sub-capacity licensing:

1. You must use Eligible Sub-capacity Products (basically, PVU, RVU or VPC products);
2. You must use Eligible Virtualization Technologies;
3. You must use Eligible Processor Technologies; and of course:
4. You  must use the IBM License Metric Tool or other approved validated tools

The other validated tools? Only Flexera One with IBM Observability IT Asset Management and Flexera One IT Asset Management at this time.

Now there are some 'tricks and traps' in running ILMT that we reported on back in 2020 (refer blog here), so make sure you're aware of and managing those gotcha's, and then you'll need to ensure that your IT team is across the eligible technology requirements - most notably - 'Eligible Operating Systems'. These are regularly updated - with only 180 days notice of any withdrawal - so you might find yourselves exposed to the untenable position of being denied sub-capacity licensing based on the OS you're running - as an example, the earliest eligible version of Windows Server is now 2012 !

It can be very easy to lose sight of these changing conditions, and doing so at best can be very problematic, at worst very expensive, so make sure keeping current is diarized in your (and the relevant IT teams) calendars. Further, ILMT itself will need roles assigned to maintaining versions and your software catalogue, and also meeting the quarterly reporting requirements. Keep in mind ILMT retains historic data, so any late changes might well be contested under audit, so better to keep on top of your situation on an ongoing basis.

... all good reasons to perform a timely health-check across your IBM sub-capacity licensing.