Installing IBM License Service and adding annotations for IBM App Connect Enterprise containers

If you create your own container with IBM® App Connect Enterprise on distributed platforms, you must install an IBM License Service operator and add annotations to your container to ensure that you comply with the IBM licensing requirements.

The IBM License Service is applicable only on distributed platforms. For IBM z/OS® Container Extensions (zCX), you must use the IBM License Metric Tool for sub-capacity pricing of Linux on Z IBM SW (Passport Advantage products) that are deployed in zCX. For more information, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.4.0?topic=zcx-using-license-metric-tool-sub-capacity-pricing.

The License Service is required for monitoring and measuring license usage of IBM App Connect Enterprise in accordance with the pricing rule for containerized environments. You must deploy License Service on all clusters where IBM App Connect Enterprise is installed. Manual license measurements are not allowed. By using license annotations, you can track usage based on the limits that are defined on the container, rather than on the underlying machine. You configure your clients to deploy the container with specific annotations that the IBM License Service then uses to track usage.

The integrated licensing solution collects and stores the license usage information, which can be used for audit purposes and for tracking license consumption in cloud environments. The solution works in the background and does not require any configuration. Only one instance of the License Service is deployed per cluster regardless of the number of Cloud Paks and containerized products that you install on the cluster.

You must deploy License Service on each cluster where IBM App Connect Enterprise is installed. License Service can be deployed on any Kubernetes cluster. For more information about License Service, including how to install and use it, see the License Service documentation.

To ensure license reporting continuity for license compliance purposes, ensure that License Service is successfully deployed and periodically verify whether it is active. For example, to validate whether License Service is deployed and running on the cluster, you can log in to the cluster and run the following command:
`kubectl get pods --all-namespaces | grep ibm-licensing | grep -v operator`
The following response is a confirmation of successful deployment:
1/1     Running

For more information about the supported environments and installation instructions, see the ibm-licensing-operator page on GitHub. For more information about IBM container licenses, see the IBM Container Licenses page on Passport Advantage.

IBM License Service is installed on the Kubernetes cluster where the IBM App Connect Enterprise container is deployed, and pod annotations are used to track usage. Clients must be configured to deploy the pod with specific annotations that the IBM License Service uses. Based on your entitlement and capabilities that are deployed within the container, use one or more of the following annotations:

Each of your annotations must contain a single product metric.

IBM App Connect Enterprise

Use one of the following annotations for IBM App Connect Enterprise to specify your chosen product metric, which can be either VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE or PROCESSOR_VALUE_UNIT, but not both:

VPC:

productName: "IBM App Connect Enterprise"
productID: "b8b6252aa88b4cd996c4b7aca350d2fe"
productMetric: "VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE"
productChargedContainers : "All"
PVU: 

productName: "IBM App Connect Enterprise"
productID: "b8b6252aa88b4cd996c4b7aca350d2fe"
productMetric: "PROCESSOR_VALUE_UNIT"
productChargedContainers : "All"

IBM App Connect Enterprise for non-production

Use one of the following annotations for IBM App Connect Enterprise for non-production to specify your chosen product metric, which can be VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE, PROCESSOR_VALUE_UNIT, or FREE:

VPC:

productName: "IBM App Connect Enterprise for non-production"
productID: "eb5b5e73f62b4dcf8c434c6274a158a7"
productMetric: "VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE"
productChargedContainers : "All"
PVU:

productName: "IBM App Connect Enterprise for non-production"
productID: "eb5b5e73f62b4dcf8c434c6274a158a7"
productMetric: "PROCESSOR_VALUE_UNIT"
productChargedContainers : "All"
FREE:

productName: "IBM App Connect Enterprise for non-production"
productID: "eb5b5e73f62b4dcf8c434c6274a158a7"
productMetric: "FREE"

You cannot specify multiple product metrics in the same annotation.