License validation

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IBM Confidential Computing Containers for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (CCCO) requires license validation to track and manage software usage. The validation method depends on your deployment type.

License validation ensures compliance with IBM licensing requirements and helps you monitor your software usage effectively.

This procedure is intended for users with the role Environment Operator.

Bare Metal license validation

For Bare Metal deployments, license validation is performed by installing and configuring the IBM License Service. The License Service provides license management capabilities specifically designed for on-premises and Bare Metal infrastructure.

To enable IBM License Service for your workload, you must add specific annotations to your pod YAML file. These annotations identify the product and define how license usage is measured.

Required annotations:

  • productID: The unique product identifier. This field contains a fixed value for IBM CCCO 1.2.2, which is, 2a3f0277c3eb46807b925e810e36af40.
  • productName: IBM Confidential Computing Containers RHOCP
  • productMetric: VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE
  • productChargedContainers: All

Example pod YAML with license annotations:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: busybox-ls-ann-lt
  namespace: default
  labels:
    run: busybox
  annotations:
    productID: "2a3f0277c3eb46807b925e810e36af40"
    productName: "IBM Confidential Computing Containers RHOCP"
    productMetric: "VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE"
    productChargedContainers: "All"
    io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.default_vcpus: "3"
    io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.default_memory: "9216"
    io.katacontainers.config.runtime.create_container_timeout: "900"
    io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.cc_init_data: <product_specific_annotation_value>
spec:
  runtimeClassName: kata-cc
  restartPolicy: Never
  containers:
  - name: busybox
    image: quay.io/prometheus/busybox
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "3"
        memory: "9216Mi"
      requests:
        cpu: "3"
        memory: "9216Mi"

The License Service monitors software installations and usage, ensuring that your deployment remains compliant with IBM licensing requirements. It provides reporting and auditing features to help you manage your license inventory effectively.

For detailed information about installing and configuring the License Service, see Installing License Service.

To obtain the status page for information about your deployments and their license usage, see Obtaining a status page.

Peer Pod license validation

For Peer Pod deployments, you must use IBM License Metric Tool to report license usage for IBM Confidential Computing Containers for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (CCCO).

For more information about IBM License Metric Tool, see License Metric Tool documentation, or watch the License Metric Tool video.