Data sources for collecting license usage in multicloud and hybrid environments
IBM® delivers the tools that measure the license usage of your IBM software in containerized and non-containerized environments. These tools become the data sources for License Advisor aggregations.
Several products that are included in IBM Cloud Pak solutions can be deployed both in containers and as non-containerized products on virtual machines or physical boxes. License Service and IBM® License Metric Tool constitute a complete licensing solution for hybrid environments and serve as data sources for License Advisor. License Service measures the license usage of the bundled products that are deployed in containerized environment, while License Metric Tool is a dedicated licensing solution for non-containerized products.
The overall license usage of IBM Cloud Pak solutions is calculated by adding the license usage of the VM-based products that are tracked in License Metric Tool, and the license usage that is collected from containers with License Service.
For example, IBM® MQ as a bundled product under IBM Cloud Pak® for Integration can be distributed both on virtual machines and in containers on Kubernetes clusters. To calculate the license usage of the entire IBM Cloud Pak®, License Advisor needs to consider the VPC consumption of IBM MQ. To measure this usage, License Advisor needs to get license usage from clusters that is collected by License Service, and from the VMs that is collected by License Metric Tool. The highest license usage of IBM MQ, and the remaining bundled products contribute to the overall VPC consumption for the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration.
Use the IBM licensing solutions to comply with your software agreements and prepare for software audit. Keep your license usage under control and optimize your software purchases.