Below are some of our most frequently asked questions about Sub-capacity licensing and Compliance
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1. Does IBM have the right to audit a customer?
Yes, per the terms of their Passport Advantage or Passport Advantage Express Agreements, IBM has the right to audit customers.
2. How does IBM determine if the customer is in compliance with the Sub-capacity terms and conditions?
It is the customer’s responsibility to maintain compliance with Sub-capacity terms and conditions. IBM retains the right to audit a customer’s use of IBM software products to verify compliance. Each customer's situation is unique and the audit approach will be adapted to assess compliance specific to those environments.
3. What if a customer increases the available capacity by adding an additional processor core without first adding license authorizations?
The customer would be out of compliance. Our licensing terms require that customers must obtain license entitlements before increasing the processor core capacity to be in compliance. IBM will request payment for the licenses required for the additional processor core effective the date the additional processor core capacity was added (includes back coverage for Software Subscription and Support).
4. If a customer has multiple instances or packages of a product running in a single partition, how are the cores counted?
Cores are licensed based on the processor core capacity that is available to the IBM software. From a licensing perspective, a partition can have any number of "instances" or "packages" (not a legally defined term) of a product running, we do not count those multiple instances of that product -- we only license based on the maximum (peak) processor cores assigned to that partition and available to that product. If the number of instances causes the partition's capacity to be increased, ILMT will capture that "high water mark" so that the customer can ensure compliance with our terms.
5. Does IBM licensing allow for a grace period and/or periodic "true-up" in order get compliant?
No, IBM licensing terms do not provide for a grace period in order to "true-up". In addition, PVU licensing terms are not based on "usage". Both full and Sub-capacity PVU licensing terms requires the maximum (peak) processor core capacity for the server/server cluster (full) or partition (sub-cap) prior to deployment or increase in that capacity. The IBM License Metric Tool monitors the customer's virtualized server environment on a continuous basis and reports back this "high water mark" in PVUs by software product, by partition. This allows the customer to compare the ILMT report output product totals to their inventory of license PoEs to confirm their compliance
6. Is a tool currently required to track Sub-capacity license use?
Yes, the use of IBM License Metric Tool (or IBM BigFix Inventory, Flexera One with IBM Observability IT Asset Management, or Flexera One IT Asset Management is now required for Sub-capacity licensing.