License Service

Learn how to retrieve license usage data from your cluster and create a licensing snapshot.

If you are using the License Service operator as part of an IBM Cloud Pak®, see the documentation for that IBM Cloud Pak® to learn more about how to install and use the operator service. For more information about IBM Cloud Paks, see IBM Cloud Paks that use IBM Cloud Pak foundational services.

What's new in the License Service version 4.x

License Service version 4.1.x updates

• Low memory consumption for large clusters: License Service is updated to reduce the memory consumption for large clusters to prevent the Out Of Memory (OOM) issues.

• Essential security updates.

License Service version 4.0.x updates

• License namespace: There is no default ibm-common-services namespace. License Service is installed in the namespace that you specify during the installation of foundational services.

What’s new in the License Service version 1.x (Installer version 3.x)

License Service version 1.20.x updates (Installer version 3.23.x)

• Essential security updates.

License Service version 1.19.x updates (Installer version 3.22.x)

• Cluster threshold management and visualization feature: In OpenShift Container Platform, the User Workload monitoring enabled License Service displays the current core-based licensing data in Prometheus, under the ibm_licensing_usage_daily_high_watermark name. For more information, see Cluster threshold management and visualization.

License Service version 1.18.x updates (Installer version 3.21.x)

• Audit snapshot has the information about the IBM Cloud Pak for Data services: Audit snapshot contains the information about the usage of Cloud Pak for Data services that are grouped under bundled products. The audit snapshot has 2 new csv files: services and services_daily. Cloud Pak for Data services files will be visible in audit snapshots only when you use the relevant Cloud pak for Data offerings. For more information, see Audit snapshot.

• Audit snapshot is extended with the following new metadata file: The audit snapshot includes the new metadata file data_condition.json. For more information, see Audit snapshot.

• unrecognized-apps file in audit snapshot: From License Service Reporter version 1.18.0, a new file, unrecognized-apps, is seen when you generate the audit snapshot in the License Service Reporter. Earlier, the unrecognized-apps file was only seen in the audit snapshot that was generated in License Service. For more information, see Audit snapshot.

• Importing audit snapshots from offline environments into License Service Reporter: When you generate audit snapshot with License Service from offline environments, you can upload in into License Service Reporter with a dedicated API. Thanks to the upload, the additional measurements are included in the collective license usage statistics on Licensing dashboard and in License Service Reporter reports. For more information, see Uploading audit snapshots from offline environments into License Service Reporter.

• Data source configured for sending data to License Service Reporter is visible in the UI: Data source configured for sending data to License Service Reporter is visible in the UI, even if there is no IBM product deployed and available for reporting yet.

License Service version 1.16.1 and 1.16.2 updates (July and August 2022)

• Certification of License Service on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

License Service version 1.16.x updates (Installer version 3.19.x)

• Retrieving contribution of services: For the products that have three-layer reporting structure that includes services that are grouped under bundled products, and are enabled for reporting, such as IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you can view the contribution of these services with License Service. Use the /services API to see how services contribute to the usage of the bundled products. For more information, see Retrieving contribution of services.

• Tracking license usage on AWS ECS Fargate: You can track the license usage of IBM Software that is deployed on AWS ECS Fargate. For more information, see Tracking license usage on AWS ECS Fargate.

License Service version 1.15.x updates (Installer version 3.18.x)

• Information about backup and restore is added. See Backup and restore.
• License Service is enabled to report product metrics that come from Prometheus queries, for example, Wazi Developer bundle.

License Service version 1.12.x updates (Installer version 3.15.x)

• License Service automatically integrates with IBM Software Central and Red Hat Marketplace when both License Service and Red Hat Marketplace operator are on the cluster. Thanks to the seamless integration you can track your license usage directly in IBM Software Central and Red Hat Marketplace. For more information, see Integration with IBM Software Central and Red Hat Marketplace.

• License Service is enabled to report the breakdown of the license usage of an IBM Cloud Pak by services. The information about the breakdown will be reported by License Service only when the IBM Cloud Pak implements the proper mechanism for reporting services.

• License Service supports an advanced and customizable authorization method that is based on a service account token, which is provided by the request header field. Service account token authentication provides flexible and customizable way to manage access to License Service APIs which is based on a role-based access control (RBAC). For more information, see Service account token.

License Service version 1.9.x updates (Installer version 3.12.0)

• The Percent of threshold column is added to the Licensing dashboard. Thanks to the new column, you can quickly estimate how your actual license usage compares to the set threshold. For more information, see Viewing license usage on the Licensing dashboard.

• You can integrate License Service with Red Hat Marketplace to get a single pane of glass license usage reporting directly in Red Hat Marketplace. For more information, see Integration with Red Hat Marketplace.

License Service version 1.8.x updates (Installer version 3.11.0)

• The audit snapshot that can be generated for multiple clusters from License Service Reporter is reconfigured and now comes in a form that is a valid audit proof. By generating the audit snapshot from Licensing dashboard or by using License Service Reporter API, you get a package that contains a collection of audit snapshots. For more information, see Audit snapshot in a multicluster environment.

• License Service supports hyperthreading on worker nodes also referred to as Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) or Hyperthreading (HT). If your IBM software is deployed on a cluster that has SMT or HT enabled, hyperthreading might have great impact on your licensing costs. For more information, see Hyperthreading and Enabling hyperthreading.

License Service version 1.7.x updates (Installer version 3.10.0)

• License Service can report open source products that are managed and supported by IBM, for example, WebSphere Liberty that is managed through IBM Cloud Foundry Migration Runtime (CFMR).

License Service version 1.5.x updates (Installer version 3.8.0)

• For products that contribute to the license usage of an IBM Cloud Pak but are licensed with a metric other than that of the IBM Cloud Pak, License Service Reporter displays information about the contribution that is expressed in both the IBM Cloud Pak metric and the original metric of the product.

• The License Service Reporter user interface is updated to improve user experience. The names of columns are updates, and information about the original recorded metric of the contributing services is displayed. For more information, see Viewing license usage on the Licensing dashboard.

• The bundled_products file in the audit snapshot and the /bundled_products API additionally include information about the license metric unit of an IBM Cloud Pak to which the bundled product contributes.

License Service version 1.4.x updates (Installer version 3.7.x)

• The user interface of the Licensing dashboard is improved and extended. You can now set a license usage threshold for each product to see how it compares with your actual license usage. Threshold is a means of control that helps you better understand your actual license needs. For more information, see Setting the license usage threshold.

• You can retrieve the status page that contains the most important information about your deployments and their license usage. You can use this data for analysis and troubleshooting. For more information, see Obtaining a status page to view the license usage details.

• The /products API is extended to enable retrieving information about the products that are deployed in namespaces that belong to user-defined groups. Thanks to grouping, you can see how the internal organizations or business divisions in your company contribute to the overall license usage. This information can help you with establishing the potential chargeback. For more information, see Chargeback - Filtering the license usage data by user-defined groups.

• The documentation is extended with an article that lists the core and non-core metrics that are collected by License Service and explains how the reported values are aggregated. For more information, see Reported metrics.

License Service version 1.3.x updates (Installer version 3.6.x)

• The Licensing dashboard, which is the License Service Reporter user interface, is extended with the deep dive view. Thanks to the deep dive you can view and understand the contribution of individual bundled products and clusters to the overall license usage of your products. For more information, see Viewing license usage on the Licensing dashboard.

• The enhanced time range selector on the Licensing dashboard allows the flexible reporting period selection. The new selector is optimized for customizing your reports to view the previous or current calendar months, quarters, and years, as well as the custom time range. For more information, see Viewing license usage on the Licensing dashboard.

• License Service Reporter configuration is simplified. When you deploy the tool in the cluster, the License Service instance for this cluster is automatically configured to feed data into License Service Reporter. For more information, see Configuring data sources.

License Service version 1.2.x updates (Installer version 3.5.x)

• License Service is extended with a new tool, License Service Reporter, that provides a new way of tracking license usage of your IBM Cloud Paks and IBM® stand-alone containerized software in multicloud environments. License Service Reporter is not obligatory. However, after deployment and configuration, it offers you a unique, aggregated overview of the license usage in your multicluster environment that is presented on a user interface. Additionally, you can also retrieve License Service Reporter data through the set of dedicated APIs. For more information, see Tracking license usage in multicluster environment with License Service Reporter.

• You can retrieve information about License Service version and health by using the new APIs. For more information, see APIs for retrieving License Service data.

• License Service support is extended with Linux® on Power® (ppc64le) and Linux® on IBM® Z and LinuxONE. For the full list of supported platforms, see Supported OpenShift versions and platforms.

License service version 1.1.0 (installer version 3.4.0)

• License Service supports license usage measurements for stand-alone IBM Container Software on all Kubernetes-orchestrated clouds.

• License Service collects and measures the license usage of IBM Cloud Paks and their bundled products that are enabled for reporting and licensed with the Managed Virtual Server (MVS) license metric.