License Metric Tool with Ansible - end to end checklist

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The following checklist leads you through the setup of the License Metric Tool environment with Ansible - from the installation of the required components, through collection of data, to classification of the discovered software and generation of the audit snapshot.

Important: Using License Metric Tool with Ansible and playbooks that are delivered with License Metric Tool does not require any approval from IBM. However, Ansible is not delivered as part of License Metric Tool and is not subject to IBM support. Ansible is an open source product that is available free of charge with optional support that can be purchased from Red Hat. Ansible playbooks that are delivered with License Metric Tool are subject to IBM support.

Install and configure the server

Install all components of the License Metric Tool infrastructure on the selected operating system. Then, perform initial configuration of the application.

  1. Plan the installation to ensure that the computer on which you want to install License Metric Tool:
    Note: If you choose the installation on Linux, you do not need to install DB2 separately. The database is installed together with the License Metric Tool server by the All-in-One installer.
  2. Install the License Metric Tool server and its database.

Set up data collection

After you install License Metric Tool, use Ansible playbooks that are delivered with License Metric Tool to set up collection of software and capacity data from all required systems. Apart from that, you need to set up collection of data from virtual machines and public clouds.

  1. Install and configure Ansible.
  2. Run scans by using Ansible playbooks that are available on GitHub: https://github.com/IBM/ansible-automation-for-lmt.
  3. Collect capacity data from VMs and public clouds.

Define products you expect on the report

Each IBM software component discovered in your environment can often be part of multiple different products. Indicating which products you expect to see on the final license usage report allows IBM License Metric Tool to more accurately perform initial, automated classification of discovered software. This highly reduces effort for manual classification later on and gives much more accurate baseline for the final report out of the box. Products which you purchased and expect on the report represent your software entitlements. The following procedure allows to define software entitlements, observe if these are reflected on the license usage report and remediate situations which require manual actions:

  1. Define your software entitlements. This can be done manually or by importing purchased Part Numbers.This can be done manually or by importing purchased Part Numbers.
  2. Review your license metric utilization on the All Metrics report.
  3. Identify products on the report which are not identified as entitled (using Configure View add "Entitled" column). For each such product click on the Product Name to see all discovered components classified to this product. Use instruction from next section to perform manual classification to the proper product.

Classify discovered software and review license utilization

Classify the discovered software so that reports in License Metric Tool reflect your entitlements and properly show utilization of license metrics by particular products.
  1. Classify the discovered software.
    1. Assign components to products, license metric, and Cloud Paks or FlexPoint bundles if you have any. If you defined your entitlements, most of the component are already assigned to products, focus on the rest of products you are entitled to.
    2. Optional: Perform additional software classification. For example, exclude trial products from metric calculation.
  2. Optional: Create custom rules. A rule automatically performs the action that is defined by the rule criteria. For example, when you create a custom rule when you are assigning a component to a product, the rule is applied whenever the exact same component is discovered in the future.
  3. Optional: Confirm the assignment. It will help you track how much software still needs to be classified.
  4. Optional: Set thresholds of license metric utilization. You will then easily notice when the utilization is above your expectations.
  5. Review your license metric utilization on the All Metrics report.

Optional: Set up email notifications

Set up notifications about items that require your attention to always be up to date with changes in your environment without the need of logging in to License Metric Tool itself. The most common items that require your attention include:
  • The appearance of computers that require troubleshooting.
  • The appearance of new components whose assignment needs to be reviewed and confirmed.
  • Exceeded thresholds of license metric utilization.

Maintain subcapacity reporting

  • Upgrade the environment. A new version of License Metric Tool is released periodically, typically at the end of every calendar quarter.
    1. Regularly upgrade the License Metric Tool server to take full advantage of new features and application fixes as well as to be compliant with subcapacity licensing requirements. You can update the disconnected scanners when needed, not necessarily during every upgrade of the License Metric Tool server.
    2. Update License Metric Tool playbooks.
  • Classify newly installed software.
  • Create the snapshot of license metric utilization at least once per quarter. Store it for two years for your reference and for the subcapacity auditing purposes.