License Service
You can use License Service to retrieve license usage data from your cluster and create a licensing snapshot.
License Service collects and measures the license usage of your IBM® products at the cluster level. You can retrieve this data upon request for monitoring and compliance. You can also retrieve an audit snapshot of the data that is audit evidence.
License Service is required for monitoring and measuring license usage of the IBM Cloud Paks® and IBM® stand-alone containerized software in accord with the pricing rule for containerized environments. Manual license measurements are not allowed.
Important: License Service can be delivered as an individual component, as a part of IBM Cloud Pak® foundational services, IBM Cloud Pak® or IBM® Certified Container. In each case, you can upgrade License Service without the need to upgrade any other product. The upgrade does not affect any other products in any way.
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 4.2.14 updates (April 2025)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.13 updates (March 2025)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.12 updates (February 2025)
- Installing License Service with Argo CD: You can install License Service as an Argo CD application. For more information, see Installing License Service with Argo CD.
License Service version 4.2.11 updates (December 2024)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.10 updates (November 2024)
- Enabling Instana metric collection: You can enable License Service to allow Instana to collect metrics about License Service pod containers. For more information, see Enabling Instana metric collection.
License Service version 4.2.9 updates (October 2024)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.8 updates (September 2024)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.7 updates (August 2024)
- Namespace scoping:
- Limiting visibility of namespaces for License Service: License Service can be configured to monitor only selected namespaces. However, limiting visibility of License Service must be justified and approved by IBM® Compliance. For more information, see Limiting visibility of namespaces in License Service.
- Viewing information about namespace scoping in audit snapshot: You can view the information about namespaces that are restricted or that could not be accessed by License Service over a period of time iin the audit snapshot. For more information, see Audit snapshot.
License Service version 4.2.6 updates (July 2024)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.5 updates (June 2024)
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Customizing limits and requests of License Service resources: You can customize limits and requirements of License Service resources by editing the License Service custom resource.
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Adding annotations to License Service resources: You can add custom annotations to the
ibm-licensing-operatorresources automatically with thespec.annotationsparameters. For more information, see Managing License Service metadata.
License Service version 4.2.4 updates (May 2024)
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.3 updates
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.2 updates
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.1 updates
- Launch scripts for offline installation: License Service is updated to support the launch scripts for offline installation.
- New Cloud Pak name in the Licensing reports: License Service is updated to display the new Cloud Pak name in the licensing reports.
License Service version 4.2.0 updates
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.2.x updates
- Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.1.x updates
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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.
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Essential security updates.
License Service version 4.0.x updates
- License namespace: There is no default
ibm-common-servicesnamespace. License Service is installed in the namespace that you specify during the installation whether you install standalone License Service, IBM Cloud Pak foundational services or an IBM Cloud Pak.