What's new

License terms of multiple IBM products state that when a supporting program is installed on a different computer than its parent product, it should contribute to license usage of the parent product. To align with this requirement, License Metric Tool provides pre-defined options to classify supporting programs so that they contribute to license usage of their parent programs. In some cases, for example when such classification is the only available option, it is used automatically. It might cause a change in license usage that is calculated by License Metric Tool for some products. For more information, see this technote.

When you declare for which Cloud Paks you are entitled, either by importing their corresponding part numbers or manually, this information is used to automatically assign discovered components to products under the Cloud Paks that you own. For more information, see: Part numbers and Defining software entitlements.

A new method of validating LDAP certificates is introduced to improve security. However, to maintain backward compatibility and to ensure that all users can log in to License Metric Tool after the upgrade to application update 9.2.32, validation of the existing certificates is not enabled by default. If you do not want to use the new method of validating the certificates, no steps are required. If you want to enable the new method, log in to License Metric Tool, and go to Management > Directory Servers. Click on the directory server, and select Certificate validation.

The new method is enabled by default for fresh installations of License Metric Tool as well as when you add a new connection to the directory server in upgraded instances of License Metric Tool.

The VM Managers panel contains a column with the name of the computer where the VM Manager Tool that collects data from the particular VM manager is installed. You can use this information to easily identify where the VM Manager Tool is located if you need to change its configuration. The new column substitutes the Computer ID of VM Manager Tool column on the default report view.

Until now, import logs were never automatically deleted from the computer where the License Metric Tool server is installed. It could result in the logs occupying a lot of disk space. Starting from application update 9.2.32, logs that are older than 90 days are automatically deleted from the file system. The number of days can be customized.

During the upgrade to application update 9.2.32, the existing import logs that are older than 90 days are deleted. If you need these logs, create a backup of the folder in which the logs are stored before you run the upgrade. For more information about the settings and log locations, see: Import logs.

When you mark a computer as running on a public cloud from the License Metric Tool user interface or you revert this marking, information about this action and its effective date is listed in the audit trail. The information is not listed if you perform the same actions by using the other available methods.

To discover software that is installed on General Parallel File Systems (GPFS), configure the disconnected scanner to scan remote shared disks. Because the disconnected scanner always treats GPFS as a remote shared disk, the same procedure applies to both remote and local GPFS. Using this configuration does not require upgrading the License Metric Tool server, nor the disconnected scanner to the latest version. For more information, see: Scanning remote shared disks (disconnected scenario).

A new file with basic support data is now available for administrators from the License Metric Tool user interface. Attach the file to a support case to speed up investigation of an issue. To download the file, open the Help menu, and click Downloading Basic Support Data.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

Computers that run on public clouds must additionally be identified as such. It ensures that proper subcapacity counting rules are applied by License Metric Tool.

You can now identify a computer as running on a public cloud on the Hardware Inventory report in License Metric Tool. This method is the same for all deployment types. It is the only possible method in case of closed appliances where marking on the endpoint side might not be available. It is also useful when you did not properly identify an x86 computer from the very beginning as it applies the proper counting rules for the past. Methods of marking computers as running on public clouds that existed in the past are still available. For more information, see: Identifying computers as running on a public cloud from the user interface.

You can also create custom rules that will automatically mark computers that meet the rule criteria as running on a specific public cloud. This way, you can automate identification of such computers in the future. For more information, see: Creating and managing custom rules for computers.

When a single instance of a component is installed on a computer and the component is upgraded, it is automatically assigned to the same product after the upgrade. The rule also preserves the assignment to a Cloud Pak if applicable. For more information, see: Preserving bundling after the upgrade.

E-mail titles for periodic emails and alerts are unified and always contain the name of the License Metric Tool report. It ensures consistency but also allows for better disposition of notifications.

The new titles for alert notifications are used in case of fresh installations of License Metric Tool and upgraded environments when no report emails were scheduled before the upgrade. Otherwise, the title of the email remains unchanged. You can change this behavior by changing the value of the include_report_name_in_mail_alerts parameter. For more information, see: Advanced server settings.

Additionally, layout of the panel for scheduling report emails is refreshed to better indicate that the two types of email notifications are scheduled and sent independently.

Simplification of presenting catalog-related information that was announced earlier is implemented in this release. To become familiar with the changes, see: Simplification of presenting catalog-related information.

As announced at the of 3Q 2022 in this technote, support is removed for Debian 9.

License Metric Tool changes the discovery method for a number of legacy IBM components. All of these components are older than 10 years and no longer supported.

Due to this change, License Metric Tool 9.2.33 (planned to be released at the end of 3Q 2023) requires that scans are run by using the scanner in version 9.2.31 or later to maintain discovery of these components. If your License Metric Tool is reporting discovery of any of the affected components, upgrade the scanner to version 9.2.31. Complete this action before you upgrade the License Metric Tool server to version 9.2.33 or newer. For more information and the list of affected components, see: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6960501.

• The Computers without Scan (Preview) and Computers without Recent Scan (Preview) predefined report views are removed from the Computers report. If you scheduled report notifications to be sent based on these report views, the notifications are canceled.
• In previous application updates, you could create a custom rule for software that was applicable for a single computer. This possibility is now removed as creating custom rules is most efficient if they are applicable to groups of computers, not single computers. Custom rules for software that you created for single computers are removed during the upgrade. For more information, see: Creating and managing custom rules for software.
• When you are requested by IBM Support to provide support data for a computer with the disconnected scanner, you can run the collect_support_data.sh or collect_support_data.bat script on that computer. For more information, see: Providing packages with support data.
• The software catalog is updated with information about End of Support dates for a number of IBM products.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

In earlier application updates, classification of components to products and Cloud Paks was a two-step process. You first assigned a component to a product and license metric. Then, you assigned such a pair to a Cloud Pak in a separate step. Starting from application update 9.2.30, the process is simplified. You choose a component and assign it to a product, license metric and Cloud Pak in one step on the Software Classification panel. The old method of assigning products to Cloud Paks is still available but marked as deprecated. It is planned to be removed in the next release. For more information, see: Assigning components to products and Cloud Paks.

Upgrading policy indicates that the scanner does not have to be upgraded proactively with every release of the License Metric Tool server but only under some circumstances. Because of that, the Old scanner version status is removed from the Deployment Health widget. You can still view the scanner version on the Computers report.

You can set up the directory server so that roles of License Metric Tool users are inherited from the directory server group to which the users belong. For more information, see: Configuring connection to a directory server.

As announced in this technote, License Metric Tool removes support for HP-UX at the end of December 2022. HP-UX is no longer eligible for subcapacity licensing and a new version of the scanner is not delivered. If you need to continue monitoring software that is installed on HP-UX computers, contact your IBM sales representative or write an e-mail to talk2sam@us.ibm.com to discuss possible options.

In application update 9.2.31, the way of presenting some of the information that is related to the content of the software catalog will be changed. The changes are intended to simplify reports, make information that is relevant easily accessible, and remove information that is redundant or related to internal processes of License Metric Tool. To become familiar with the upcoming changes, see: Simplification of presenting catalog-related information.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

On May 10th, 2022 IBM updated the subcapacity policy for metering VPC license usage. IBM License Metric Tool (or another IBM-approved tool) is now required. The policy update is fully documented in the "VPC Policy upgrade" section on the Sub-capacity (Virtualization capacity) licensing page.

Supporting programs are usually free of charge. However, in rare cases, a supporting program might be free of charge on condition that its metric utilization does not exceed a specific number of metric units. It can be a fixed number or the number of metric units that is used by the product whose part the supporting program is. You can now monitor metric utilization of such a program as part of the product to which it belongs and separately to comply with usage restrictions. For more information, see: Monitoring supporting programs with license restrictions.

If you have a disconnected data source defined in License Metric Tool, you can go to the Management > Data Sources panel, select the data source, and download installation packages for disconnected scanners from this panel.

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

The software catalog is updated with information about End of Support dates for a number of IBM products.

A revised upgrading policy is announced to reduce the cost of maintenance and the number of changes for the endpoint components. According to the revised policy, the License Metric Tool server should continue to be upgraded to the latest version every quarter. However, the scanners and VM Manager Tool instances need to be upgraded only under specific conditions. For more information, see: Upgrading to the latest version.

The interactive tutorial provides a high-level overview of the main tasks that are performed in License Metric Tool: verifying the environment health, classifying the software, and generating the audit snapshot. To start the tutorial, click the signpost icon (). The tutorial is available only for Administrators.

Files with license metric utilization that are a part of the audit snapshot now contain information when the computer was first seen by the License Metric Tool server. The information is provided in the Computer First Seen column. For more information, see: Snapshot columns.

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

License Metric Tool Lite is a deployment option in which you manage disconnected scans by an automation technology of your choice. Initially, the solution was pre-approved for subcapacity reporting in environments with up to 100 computers. Starting from this application update, it is pre-approved in environments with up to 500 computers. For larger environments, request for dedicated approval by writing to talk2sam@us.ibm.com. For more information, see: Installing with disconnected scanners: Ansible and Lite.

The licensing model of some IBM products, for example DB2, defines that product instances that run in the warm standby mode consume a fixed number of PVUs or VPCs. When you assign product instances with the PVU Warm Standby or VPC Warm Standby metric, License Metric Tool reports 100 PVUs or 1 VPC per instance respectively. For more information, see: Fixed PVU and VPC values for instances running in the warm standby mode.

You can limit the amount of processor resources that disconnected scans consume by changing the value of the SW_SCAN_CPU_THRESHOLD_PERCENTAGE parameter. For more information, see: Optimizing processor utilization by disconnected scanner (disconnected scenario).

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

The software catalog is updated with information about End of Support dates for a number of IBM products.

Support for all versions of HP-UX is planned to be removed at the end of 2022. It includes support by both the BigFix client and the disconnected scanner. For more information or to discuss your use case, write an e-mail to talk2sam@us.ibm.com or subcap@us.ibm.com.

Starting from this application update, you no longer need an approval to use License Metric Tool with Ansible or License Metric Tool Lite. However, you are still encouraged to write an e-mail to talk2sam@us.ibm.com to provide your feedback about these approaches and get help with the environment setup if needed. For more information, see: Installing.

You can integrate License Metric Tool with IBM Software Central to view consolidated license information and thus make well-informed purchases, renewals and trade-ups in the future. After you configure the integration, license usage data is uploaded to IBM Software Central on demand. Because no data is sent automatically, you always have control over what data is uploaded to IBM Software Central and when. For more information, see: Integrating with IBM Software Central and Red Hat Marketplace.

If the local VM Manager Tool does not exist, it is installed during the upgrade of the server. You can continue using the VM Manager Tool that you had previously, or switch to using the local one as it ensures faster transport of data to the License Metric Tool server. For more information, see: VM Manager Tool deployment types and flow of data.

You can use the api/sam/v2/software_instances REST API to assign products to FlexPoint offerings or Cloud Paks. For more information, see: Software Classification (v2).

You can use the SW_SCAN_DAY_OF_WEEK and SW_SCAN_LOCAL_TIME parameters to schedule the disconnected software scan to run on a specific day of the week and on specific time. It gives you the flexibility of scheduling the software scan on time that has the least impact on your environment. For more information, see: Configuration parameters of the disconnected scanner (disconnected scenario).

You can enable discovery of software that is installed in Docker containers on computers with the disconnected scanner. For more information, see: Discovering software in containers.

You can enable a scanner optimization that allows for reducing the usage of RAM and CPU during the scan. For more information, see the: Optimizing scanner cache configuration (BigFix scenario).

For information about fixed APARs and defects, see: Known Issues and defect fixes.

To mitigate security vulnerability that was reported in log4j (CVE-2021-44228), the library is updated to version 2.15.0. For more information, see: log4j library vulnerability in License Metric Tool. For information about other addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

You can enable the License Metric Tool server to use the newest data for a particular endpoint coming from various data sources (regardless of whether it is a BigFix or disconnected data source). The solution allows for retaining software assignments and does not create computer duplicates. For more information, see: Migrating from BigFix-based infrastructure to disconnected infrastructure (Ansible and Lite).

The maximal number of disconnected scanners reporting to the License Metric Tool server is increased to 125 000. Thus, you can implement License Metric Tool with Ansible in large-scale environments. For more information, see: Hardware requirements.

You can download the disconnected scanner package by using the api/sam/v2/disconnected_scanner_download REST API. It allows for automating installation of the scanners in the License Metric Tool Lite scenario. For more information, see: REST API for downloading disconnected scanner packages.

If your License Metric Tool server uses DB2 10.5 as a database or runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, upgrade the database to version 11.5 and migrate the server to a supported operating system. Otherwise, your License Metric Tool will run in an unsupported setup.

Installation of the License Metric Tool server no longer requires ksh which is not available by default on newer versions of Linux.

The software catalog is updated with information about End of Support dates for a number of IBM products.

Web Reports can no longer be used to authenticate users to License Metric Tool. From now on, using LDAP for authentication of License Metric Tool users can only be set up on the Directory Servers panel in License Metric Tool. Existing user accounts whose authentication method is set up as Web Reports need to switch to an alternative authentication method.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

If your environment consists of up to 100 computers, you can use the License Metric Tool Lite deployment. In this deployment type, you do not need to install BigFix as software and hardware information is collected by disconnected (stand-alone) scanners. Using License Metric Tool Lite for subcapacity reporting requires an approval. For more information, see: Installing with disconnected scanners: Ansible and Lite.

Xen and some versions of KVM do not allow for collecting capacity data from VMs by the VM Manager Tool. Until now, collecting capacity data from these technologies was supported only by running the Run Capacity Scan on Virtualization Host fixlet on computers on which the BigFix client is installed. Starting from this application update, you can run the capacity scan on virtualization hosts on which the disconnected scanner is installed. For more information, see: Collecting capacity data from virtualization hosts with disconnect scanner (disconnected scenario).

You can configure License Metric Tool to automatically decommission computers with the disconnected scanner that are inactive for a specified period. By decommissioning the inactive computers, you ensure that they do not have negative impact on metric calculation. For more information, see: Automatically decommissioning inactive computers.

Earlier announcements included information that support for DB2 10.5 will be removed in application update 9.2.24. However, the change was postponed and synchronized with removing support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

If your License Metric Tool server uses DB2 10.5 as a database or runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, upgrade the database to version 11.5 and migrate the server to a supported operating system before the end of 3Q2021. Otherwise, your License Metric Tool will run in an unsupported setup.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

The Initiate Forced VM Manager Tool Data Collection fixlet is introduced to facilitate collection of troubleshooting data from the Computer Support Data panel. For more information about the fixlet, see: List of fixlets and tasks. For more information about the Computer Support Data panel, see: Collecting logs for troubleshooting purposes.

You can integrate License Metric Tool with Red Hat Marketplace to view consolidated license information and thus make well-informed purchases, renewals and trade-ups in the future. After you configure the integration, license usage data is exported to Red Hat Marketplace on demand. Because no data is sent automatically, you always have control over what data is exported to Red Hat Marketplace and when. For more information, see: Integrating with IBM Software Central and Red Hat Marketplace.

A new procedure allows for migrating the License Metric Tool server, its database, and the BigFix server to a different computer. The procedure reduces the amount of manual work required after the migration and eliminates the duplication of computers that was caused by resubscribing endpoints between BigFix servers. You can use the procedure when the operating system of the computer on which the License Metric Tool server is installed needs to be upgraded. For example, when you need to upgrade Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to a higher supported version. For more information, see: Migrating all License Metric Tool server components to a different computer (BigFix scenario).

Computers that run on public clouds need to be identified as such to ensure that PVU consumption is properly calculated for software that is installed on these computers. Starting from this application update, you can use the disconnected scanner to discover software on computers that run on public clouds. For more information, see: Identifying disconnected computers as running on public clouds (disconnected scenario).

Support for DB2 10.5 was officially withdrawn on 30th April 2020 (See: Software lifecycle). Because of that, License Metric Tool will also withdraw support for DB2 10.5 at the end of 2Q 2021. If you use this version of DB2 for the License Metric Tool server, BigFix server, or both, upgrade it promptly to version 11.5. For information about the evolution of the DB2 support matrix, see: Changes in versions of DB2 supported by the License Metric Tool server.

Support is removed for Windows 2008 and 2008 R2.

MS SQL Server 2019 and 2019 Express are supported as a database for the License Metric Tool server.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

Version 1 REST APIs for retrieving computer systems, clusters, software instances, and license usage become deprecated. They are still fully functioning and supported. However, they are not going to be changed or updated. It is recommended to use their version 2 equivalents. For more information, see: Deprecated REST APIs.

The catalog search that is available on the Software Catalog widget is simplified to allow searching by product or by component.

Ansible is an open source automation platform that you can use to manage disconnected scanners. Ansible platform itself is not delivered as part of License Metric Tool and is not subject to IBM support. Thus, managing disconnected scans with Ansible is a solution for customers who are able to configure and maintain Ansible on their own, without support from IBM. However, Ansible playbooks that are delivered with License Metric Tool are subject to IBM support.

To get access to License Metric Tool playbooks and documentation as well as approval for using them for reporting sub-capacity license, write an e-mail to talk2sam@us.ibm.com. For more information, see: Installing with disconnected scanners: Ansible and Lite.

Starting from this application update, new installations of License Metric Tool use the so-called local VM Manager Tool (that is installed as an internal component of the License Metric Tool server). Earlier application updates use the central VM Manager Tool (that is installed on the same computer as the BigFix server and is managed through BigFix). The type of the VM Manager Tool deployment remains unchanged during the upgrade of License Metric Tool.

Because the local VM Manager Tool is embedded in the License Metric Tool server, it is easier to manage, quicker to test connections, has no delays in data upload and is always up-to-date. For more information, see: Flow of capacity data - local VM Manager Tool.

Support is dropped for Windows 7.

A number of IBM products deliver .slmtag files that contain raw data about utilization of license metrics by these products. Starting from this application update, the disconnected scanner collects data from .slmtag files and reports raw utilization of license metrics.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

Part Numbers Upload panel that was previously marked as deprecated is now removed.

A new version of the PVU table is released every quarter and delivered together with each application update of License Metric Tool. When you upgrade the License Metric Tool server, a new PVU table is also uploaded. There is no need to update the table separately. This approach simplifies the process of ensuring currency of the PVU table and allows for avoiding problems with PVU calculations caused by using an outdated version of the PVU table.

Because manual upload of the PVU table is no longer necessary, the Metric Table Upload panel is removed from License Metric Tool. It is also not possible to upload the PVU table to older application updates of License Metric Tool as the table is no longer published externally.

During the upgrade, License Metric Tool checks whether the version of DB2 or MS SQL Server that is currently used is still supported. If it is no longer supported, the upgrade does not complete, and information about recommended action is written in the upgrade logs.

• The following changes are made on the License Metric Tool Dashboard to provide a better overview of the scan and infrastructure health.
  • Delayed Data Upload status is added on the Deployment Health widget. It is displayed for computers that have not uploaded new data to the License Metric Tool server for more than 10 days (by default). For more information, see: Statuses on the Deployment Health widget.
  • Old Scanner Version status is added on the Deployment Health widget. It is displayed when the scanner that is installed on the computer is at least 4 releases (by default) older when compared to the version of the License Metric Tool server that is currently used. For more information, see: Statuses on the Deployment Health widget.
  • Outdated Scan status is added on the Capacity Scan Health widget. It is displayed for computers for which the last successful capacity scan was run more than 12 hours ago (by default). For more information, see: Statuses on the Capacity Scan Health widget.
  • The Missing Scan status on the Software Scan Health widget is updated. It is now displayed for computers for which the last successful software scan was run more than 40 days ago (by default). For more information, see: Scan problems.
• The computer_health_status association is added to allow for retrieving information about computer health through REST APIs. For more information, see: computer_health_status association.
• The scanner_status.yml file is added to provide information about the status of software and capacity scans on disconnected computers. For more information, see: Content of the scanner_status.yml file (disconnected scenario).

You can install the License Metric Tool server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 or a higher 8.x version. It does not apply to the All-in-One installation as BigFix currently does not yet support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

Due to the change, settings of the VM Manager Tool logs are overwritten with new defaults. If you made any customizations to the log settings, recreate them. For more information, see: VM Manager Tool log files.

For information about addressed CVEs, see: Security enhancements.

Because part numbers are now imported on the Products & Metrics report, the Part Numbers Upload panel is marked as deprecated and no longer in use.

Audit snapshot is extended with a file that provides daily values of license metric utilization for installed products (products_daily_<start_date>_<end_date>_<server_FQDN>.csv). You can use this file to consolidate data from License Metric Tool and License Service to obtain overall license consumption across containerized and non-containerized environments. For more information, see: Content of the audit snapshot.

Software entitlements are products that you own and thus are entitled to install and use. You can declare your software entitlements, either manually or by importing part numbers, to improve the default classification of the discovered components. For more information, see: Defining software entitlements.

A new version of the software catalog is released every quarter and delivered together with each application update of License Metric Tool. When you upgrade the License Metric Tool server, a new catalog is also uploaded. There is no need to update the catalog separately. This approach simplifies the process of ensuring currency of the software catalog and allows for avoiding compatibility problems.

The To Do list is extended and displays information about using an obsolete version of the database. For more information, see: To Do list.

Navigation of the All Metrics report is unified for all products. When you click a link in the Product Name column, a list of components that are assigned to this product is displayed. When you click a link in the Metric Quantity column, a report that is specific for the particular license metric is displayed. If License Metric Tool does not provide such a report, the value in the column is not a link.

If you want to deploy the VM Manager Tool on a computer on which you cannot install the BigFix client, use the disconnected mode. Deploying the VM Manager Tool in this mode requires approval from IBM Compliance. For more information, see: Deploying the disconnected VM Manager Tool.

In the previous versions of the disconnected scanner, running the software scan and packaging results of the software and capacity scans was done by a single script. Now, you can run the software scan and pack scan results independently. For more information, see: Running software scans and gathering scan results (disconnected scenario).

The number of custom bundling rules that you can create was increased from 10 to 50.

Support is dropped for IBM i 6.1. If you are using it, upgrade to a newer version that is supported by License Metric Tool.

For more information, see: Security enhancements.

The Inventory Exploration report that was deprecated in the previous application update is now entirely removed from License Metric Tool. You can view analogical information on the Software Summary report.

License Metric Tool reports information about utilization of license metrics by non-containerized products that are installed as part of Cloud Paks. For more information, see: Licensing of non-containerized Cloud Pak programs.

Upgrading the License Metric Tool server to the latest version remains a one-click process for 8 versions back. For older versions, you need to first obtain the intermediate installer from the Support Team. Then, you can upgrade the License Metric Tool server to the latest version. For more information, see: Upgrading to the latest version.

The Software Summary report provides an overview of software inventory in your environment. Each row represents a set of software instances that are grouped by the selected columns. The report was introduced as a preview feature and improved over the past releases. It now becomes an integral part of License Metric Tool. For more information, see: Available reports.

You can use License Metric Tool with BigFix 10.0.

Support for DB2 10.1 as a database for the License Metric Tool server is removed. To upgrade to License Metric Tool 9.2.19, first migrate to a higher version of DB2. For the list of supported versions of DB2, see: Software requirements (BigFix scenario). For information about plans related to supporting DB2, see: Changes in versions of DB2 supported by the License Metric Tool server.

DB2 11.5 is supported as a database for the License Metric Tool server. For specific requirements, see: Software requirements (BigFix scenario). This version of the database is also supported by BigFix starting from version 9.5.14.

Express editions of MS SQL Server 2016 and 2017 are supported as a database for the License Metric Tool server. For specific requirements, see: Software requirements (BigFix scenario).

For more information, see Security enhancements.

• Support for new platforms
  • Disconnected scanner on CentOS 8
  • Disconnected scanner on Oracle Enterprise Linux 8 with Red Hat Compatible Kernel
  • Disconnected scanner on Debian 10 x86 and x64
  • Disconnected scanner on SLES 15 on zSystems
  • IBM z15
  • AMD Epyc processor
• Support for new virtualization technologies
  • Nutanix on x86 with AHV
  • zCX (System Z Container Extensions). For information how to use License Metric Tool to report subcapacity of products that are deployed in zCX, see: Using the IBM License Metric Tool for sub-capacity pricing. For information about subcapacity counting rules, see: Sub-capacity (Virtualization) License Counting RulesIBM System z™ Virtualization Environment.
• Update of the end of support dates

  Information about the end of support dates is refreshed for the IBM software basing on the IBM Lifecycle data.

• Security enhancements

  For more information, see Security enhancements.

• Usability improvements on the user interface
  To improve user experience, the following name changes are applied.

  • Scan Health is renamed to Software Scan Health
  • Missing Software Scan is renamed to Missing Scan
  • IBM Capacity Data Completeness is renamed to Capacity Scan Health
  • IBM Software Classification is renamed to Software Classification
  • The Latest Software Scan column is renamed to Last Software Change
• Important changes:
  • Sunset of License Metric Tool wiki

    With the end of 2019, the License Metric Tool wiki is going to be sunset. The content of the wiki page is now included in the documentation.

  • Documentation is extended with new topics

    Documentation is extended with new content, including the following help topics.

    • Getting started: How to handle License Metric Tool reporting end-to-end, How to start License Metric Tool project, How to install and maintain License Metric Tool, How to control and report IBM licenses
    • Known Issues and defect fixes
    • Useful links

• Removal of the legacy IBM Software Classification panel

  The IBM Software Classification was already deprecated and substituted with Software Classification panel in application update 9.2.13. At this point, the IBM Software Classification panel is entirely removed. The new Software Classification panel allows simple software classification and ensures better performance. It is fully customizable and allows you to create custom classification rules.

• End of support for MS SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 database for License Metric Tool server

  The support for MS SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 database for License Metric Tool server is sunset. It is related to Microsoft officially ceasing the support this July. For more information, see: Prepare now for end of support in 2019 and 2020 (Microsoft). To upgrade to License Metric Tool 9.2.17, first migrate to newer MS SQL Server version that is supported by License Metric Tool. For the list, see: Software requirements (BigFix scenario).

• License Metric Tool reports information about the highest license consumption of FlexPoints over a specified reporting period for an entire FlexPoint bundle as well as the contributing products.
• You can view the license metric utilization trends for the entire bundle, as well as its components on the Metric Quantity History graph. The graph presents information about the values calculated by the system and the values that are declared by the user.
• Two new columns are now available on metric reports: Peak Date and Metric Quantity. For more information, see: Report columns.
• The All IBM Metrics report shows only license consumption on a bundle level. To see the detailed information about license consumption for the contributing products, drill down by clicking the name of the bundle.
• Audit snapshot is extended with an additional file that outlines the usage of FlexPoints in your environment. The flexpoints.csv file contains information about the FlexPoint bundles and the underlying products.

You can manually declare the metric quantity for selected license types for which License Metric Tool does not calculate license metric utilization out of the box. You can also use this option to customize the metric quantity if needed. For more information, see:Setting and removing the declared metric quantity.

You can retrieve information about additional hardware parameters, such as the serial number, vendor, model, or type of the physical server. For more information, see: computer_hardware association.

By specifying the relevant criteria, you can create the custom rule which automatically suppresses the matching components in the future. For more information, see: Creating and managing custom rules for software.

• Support for new platforms and systems
  • Debian 9 x86 and x64
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 x86-64
  • SMBIOS3 on Linux
  • License Metric Tool server on Windows 2019
  • License Metric Tool server on MS SQL Server 2017 version 14.0.3162.1 for fresh installations

• Rails is upgraded to version 5.1.7 to maintain security.
• WebSphere Liberty Profile is upgraded to version 19.00.4 to maintain security.
• Update of the Xerces library to version 3.2.1 on AIX to keep the scanner secure and reliable.

The report provides an overview of software inventory in your environment. Each row in the report represents a set of software instances that are grouped by the selected columns. You can drill down the Software Summary report to view the details of the instances in a group. For more information, see: Available reports.

• Support for new platforms
  • Windows 2019
  • Oracle SPARC-M8 processor
  • Ubuntu 18.04 on x86
• Support for new virtualization technologies
  • vCenter with external Platform Services Controllers (PSC) on different computers
  • Solaris Kernel zones on Oracle Solaris x86 and SPARC with nested virtualization. For more information, see: Client installation on Oracle Solaris (BigFix scenario)

The new version of the Software Installations report is introduced. The old report is deprecated and moved to the bottom of the Reports menu. It is planned to be entirely removed in the future. The new report view is based on the new data model and consistent with other reports. For more information, see: Available reports.

The To Do list is extended and additionally displays information about the outdated scanning actions that need to be restarted. For more information, see: To Do list.

Documentation is extended with new content, including the following help topic: Tuning performance based on scalability guidelines.

The look and feel of the user interface is refreshed. The reports are now more vivid with a new blue action bar, updated action icons and selected buttons.

Several improvements are introduced to simplify the navigation and usability of the selected management panels, including Users, Saved Reports, Advanced Server Settings and Contracts. You can use filters based on the available columns, and save the custom view as a predefined view. You can also export these reports to a CSV or PDF file.

Limitation: To filter the Contracts report by the All Computers computer group, use its English name regardless of the interface language. The name of this group is not translated.

You can filter reports and retrieve data from specified columns by using the matches exactly operator. This operator is used to exactly match two values, including upper and lowercase characters.

The names of report files that are exported, or received in a scheduled email follow a new, more meaningful naming convention. Additionally, the email subject contains the name of the predefined or custom report that is included.

Names of the License Metric Tool fixlets are extended with the information about the currently available version. By default, fixlet version is updated with each release of License Metric Tool server.

Rails is upgraded to version 5.0.7 to maintain security.

Information about the usage of Floating User metric is now available on the All IBM Metrics report for IBM Rational products. The calculations are available thanks to integration with IBM Rational License Key Server. The usage is provided by the .slmtag files. For more information, see: Other IBM metrics.

You can now tag software components, or instances of the discovered software to classify them. The tags might, for example, emphasize the ownership of a software product, categorize it as a test or free of charge instance, or mark it as blacklisted or approved. For more information, see: Adding and removing tags.

The new dashboard presents an overview of your inventory and license metrics. Additionally, it contains a quick search that allows you to browse the software inventory by the component name. To view the dashboard, click Go to New Dashboard & Reporting on the home page. For more information, see: Dashboard.

New predefined reports are available under the Software Classification, Scanned File Data and Computers reports. For more information, see: Available reports.

Documentation provides best practices for configuring VM managers. For more information, see: Best practices for configuring VM managers.

The Software Catalog report is renamed to Products & Metrics. A link to Software Components report is added under Reports in the main menu.

Several improvements are introduced to simplify the navigation and usability of the VM Managers panel. You can filter the report by any available column, and save the custom view as a predefined view. You can also export the report to a CSV or PDF file.

If you have custom tools or internal processes that use the software_instances REST API, you can now achieve your goals by using the v2/license_usage and v2/software_instances REST API. It is best to adjust the tools to use REST API in version 2. For more information, see: Mapping functions of the software_instances REST API.

Microsoft Edge is certified as a supported browser for License Metric Tool. For more information, see: Software requirements (BigFix scenario).

• Oracle VM Server for x86 3.4.x
• Solaris Kernel zones on x86 without nested virtualization (not yet announced as IBM subcapacity eligible). For more information, see: Client installation on Oracle Solaris (BigFix scenario).
• SLES 11 for PowerVM on Power9 in Power8 compatibility mode.
• SLES 12 for PowerVM on Power9 in native mode.
• SLES 15 on Power9 with disconnected scanner in P9 native mode.

• To maintain security, Java is upgraded to the newest version: 8.0.5.25.
• WebSphere Application Server Liberty is upgraded to version 18.0.0.3.
• Update of the Xerces library to version 3.2.1 on Solaris Sparc and Solaris x86 to keep the scanner secure and reliable.

The session timeout specifies the period of user inactivity after which the session ends, and the user is required to log in again. Before it happens, you are notified that the session is about to end.

FlexPoint is a license metric unit that can be used to determine the cost of IBM products that are purchased as part of FlexPoint bundles. Each product from a bundle is licensed based on a different license metric but all metrics are converted into FlexPoints. Products that are currently available as part of FlexPoint bundles are products from the IBM Cloud and IBM Analytics brands. For more information, see: FlexPoints, and Assigning products to FlexPoint bundles (deprecated).

License Metric Tool displays information about the identifier of the shared processor pool under the Shared Pool ID column on the Hardware Inventory, Computers, Software Installations, and Software Classification reports.

The /api/sam/v2/software_instances REST API is extended with the release_component_lifecycle association that allow to retrieve information about when a component reaches its end of support.

You can filter reports and retrieve data from specified columns by using the is empty and is not empty operators.

License Metric Tool server is now supported on MS SQL Server 2016 for fresh installations. If you used MS SQL Server 2016 with earlier versions of the product, see: Software requirements (BigFix scenario).

The information about the end of support dates is refreshed for your IBM software components for which the dates were announced since the last update of the list. The data is based on the information contained in IBM Lifecycle in September.

• The import of VM Manager data is optimized to decrease the processing time.

• Java is upgraded to the newest version to maintain security.
• TLS 1.2 is enabled in IBM Java by default.
• WebSphere Application Server Liberty is upgraded to version 18.0.0.2 to address CVE-2018-1553.
• Update of the Xerces library to version 3.2.1 on Windows to keep the scanner secure and reliable.

Starting from 1st October 2018, migration from License Metric Tool 7.x and Tivoli Asset Discovery for Distributed 7.x will no longer be supported. The support will not be available regardless of the version of License Metric Tool 9.x or BigFix Inventory 9.x that you are using. For more information, see: End of support for migrating from LMT and TAD4D version 7.x.

The end of support dates for selected IBM software products and components for which the information has been announced are now available on the Software Classification panel.

Until now, remote shared disks could only be scanned with a manual procedure. With the newest release of License Metric Tool, you can optimize this process and set up automatic scans. As a result, a single computer is designated to scan a specific shared disk and discover the installed software. The data is then automatically populated to all computers on which the same shared disk is mounted. For more information, see:Discovering software on shared disks (BigFix scenario).

License Metric Tool allows you to specify the individual relation between a product and a component as charged or not charged. For example, when the existing relation between the component and the product is charged, but your license agreement states that the component is not charged.

When the software scan, capacity scan, or VM Manager Tool scan finishes successfully on a particular computer but its results are not uploaded to the BigFix server, you can force upload of the data. You can do it directly from License Metric Tool without the need of accessing the BigFix console and running a separate fixlet for each type of scan. For more information, see: Troubleshooting problems with computers.

You can resume a connection to a VM manager that is in the Invalid credentials - suspended status by clicking the Resume button on the VM managers panel. For more information, see: VM Managers panel.

The list of quick links under Help is updated with the link to Learning Resources on the IBM Security Learning Academy. The site consists of video tutorials for the product.

License Metric Tool server is now supported on DB2 11 in a separate deployment scenario. The BigFix server must use a different database. For the list of databases supported by the BigFix platform, see: IBM BigFix Platform: Detailed System Requirements.

You can specify end of support dates for IBM software components. You can use this information to easily define license demand for the future. You can also use it for security purposes. For example, to determine whether software installed on a computer that is under investigation is still supported. For more information, see: Changing end of support date.

License Metric Tool measures utilization of the Virtual Processor Core (VPC) metric. The metric is based on the number of virtual cores (vCPUs) that are available to the product. VPC consumption is reported on the physical server level as well as across servers similarly to other license metrics such as PVU. For more information, see: Virtual processor core (VPC).

The process of updating the software catalog is simplified. You simply need to run the Software Catalog Update task that downloads the software catalog, and automatically uploads it to the License Metric Tool server during the next import of data. Manual upload of the software catalog through the License Metric Tool user interface is no longer needed.

The process of importing data from BigFix to License Metric Tool is optimized thanks to using an improved schema of the BigFix database. The improved schema is enabled by default in fresh installations and during upgrades from earlier versions. The only requirement is to have the BigFix server in version 9.5.5 or higher.

When the imports of data are failing for a longer period of time, you can enable skipping certain import steps. In such a case, the import continues even if these steps fail. When the import finishes, it is marked as partial because only data from successfully completed steps is processed. Enabling partial imports allows for quicker system recovery after a problematic import and prevents accumulation of unprocessed data. For more information, see the description of the enable_partial_imports parameter in: Advanced server settings.

Part numbers that are available on Passport Advantage represent products that you purchased and license metrics that these products use. When you upload part numbers to License Metric Tool, they affect the default assignment of components. Information about part numbers which caused that a component was assigned to a particular product is displayed on the Software Classification panel. The information gives you a better understanding of rationale behind the default classification that was proposed.

You can retrieve information about utilization of license metrics, query and set thresholds of the utilization as well as query and set values of custom fields by using the api/sam/v2/license_usage REST API. For more information, see: Retrieval of license metric utilization (v2) and Setting license metric thresholds and custom field values (v2).

When hardware inventory data is not retrieved from a VM manager for more than 30 days, default PVU counting is applied and higher utilization might be reported. To allow the Infrastructure Administrator to troubleshoot problems with VM manager connection before they affect the reports, the Outdated VM Manager Data status is introduced. The status indicates that there are problems but license metric utilization is not yet affected. For more information, see: Statuses on the Capacity Scan Health widget.

If some of your HP-UX computers cannot be managed from a central location due to security reasons, you can discover software and hardware inventory by using disconnected scans. Scan results are placed in files that can be later on used to import the collected data to the License Metric Tool server. For more information, see: Installing and configuring disconnected scanners for Lite.

The number of partition cores that were assigned to a virtual machine when the peak of the metric value occurred is shown in the Partition Cores column on the All IBM Metrics report and in the audit snapshot. You can use the information to better understand how particular VMs contributed to license metric consumption. For more information, see: Report columns.

You can optimize the process of importing data from BigFix to License Metric Tool. The option is available for BigFix 9.5.5 and higher. To enable the feature, change the value of the schema_next parameter to true. For more information, see: Advanced server settings.

To avoid a situation in which the import of data fails due to deadlocks of SQL queries, the step during which the deadlock occurs is retried up to 5 times before the import fails.

License Metric Tool supports software discovery on Docker containers under the Red Hat OpenShift container application platform. For more information, see: Discovering software in containers.

You can extend information that is related to software products by adding custom fields on the All IBM Metrics report and its derivatives. The information can be of any type and therefore can help you better identify ownership and purpose of the discovered products as well as license management information such as purchase orders, product owners or other. After the information is added, you can use it to create filtering and grouping criteria such as contract name, placement, allocation, date, or other. For more information, see: Adding custom information to license metric reports.

The installed software components that are detected with software identification tags are reported with the detailed version, on condition that the tag collects this information. The information is shown in the Component Detailed Version column. It can help you decide whether versions of the installed software instances are covered by your entitlements and are in line with the company policy. It can also be used for security purposes, for example to check whether the latest patches are installed for security purposes. For the components that are discovered with other detection methods, the values in Component Detailed Version and Component Version columns are duplicated.

If some of your AIX computers cannot be managed from a central location due to security reasons, you can discover software and hardware inventory by using disconnected scans. Scan results are placed in files that can be later on used to import the collected data to the License Metric Tool server. For more information, see: Installing and configuring disconnected scanners for Lite.

You can overwrite the default key that is used to encrypt VM manager passwords or change the default password to the VM Manager Tool keystore. For more information, see: Improving security of storing VM manager passwords.

If your LDAP server uses load balancer that dynamically changes the list of hosts, and the connection between LDAP and the License Metric Tool server is secure, set up the License Metric Tool server to preserve certificates of the LDAP server. For more information, see: Configuring a directory server with load balancer or multiple domain controllers.

The look and feel of the application is improved to be more in line with other BigFix applications.

The PDF reports that are generated in License Metric Tool contain detailed information about the version of the application. The information can be helpful for troubleshooting purposes.

The Software Catalog column is replaced with a set of columns that define the organization that provides the definition of a component, product, publisher, release, signature and version. For more information, see: Report columns.

Rules of counting subcapacity licenses on PowerKVM systems were clarified and multithreading no longer impacts the number of reported cores. License Metric Tool is adjusted to the change and thus the number of PVUs that it reports is lower. For more information, see: Subcapacity (Virtualization) License Counting Rules.

To ensure that the change in counting rules is reflected in License Metric Tool, restart the Run Capacity Scan on Virtualization Hosts fixlet and run the import of data. The reported value might not change immediately, as the report shows the peak value.

To ensure completeness of software discovery, it is necessary to collect data from shared disks. The solution that was available in the previous application updates could be resource-consuming when shared disks were used extensively. The new solution is based on creating software templates which allows for limiting the impact of the shared disks scan on the performance of the infrastructure.

To report software that is installed on a shared disk, one of the computers on which the disk is mounted is scanned to create a software template. Then, the template is replicated within a computer group that contains other computers on which the same disk is mounted. For more information, see: Discovering software on shared disks (BigFix scenario) and Step 2b: Optimized mode - Manual scanning of remote shared disks (BigFix scenario).

The APIs are planned to substitute the following existing APIs: software_inventory and computer_systems. For more information, see: Retrieval of software inventory (v2) and Retrieval of hardware inventory (v2).

When your license terms define that a particular product uses a specific license metric but such a relation is not available in the software catalog, you can assign any of the license metrics available in License Metric Tool to any of the products. It gives you more flexibility to accommodate the assignment of license metrics to products in accordance with your contract terms. For more information, see: Assigning an additional metric to a product.

To increase License Metric Tool security, you can set conditions under which user account is locked. You can set the maximum number of failed login attempts, the period within which these attempts must occur for the account to be locked, and the period for which the account is locked. By default, user account is locked for 5 minutes after the user attempts to log in to License Metric Tool more than 10 times within 5 minutes. For more information, see: Configuring user account lockout.

If some of your Solaris computers cannot be managed from a central location due to security reasons, you can discover software and hardware inventory by using disconnected scans. Scan results are placed in files that can be later on used to import the collected data to the License Metric Tool server. For more information, see: Installing and configuring disconnected scanners for Lite.

When infrastructure management policy makes a process of deleting decommissioned clients in BigFix difficult or impossible, you can enable automatic decommissioning of inactive computers directly in BigFix Inventory. Inactive computers are then decommissioned after a specified period of time, and are no longer included in metric calculation. For more information, see: Automatically decommissioning inactive computers.

If you are asked to provide data for troubleshooting problems with computers in your infrastructure, you can run the Collect Logs from Endpoints fixlet, and provide the generated output to IBM Support. The output contains log files needed for troubleshooting purposes. For more information, see: Troubleshooting problems with computers.

When a component that is installed in your infrastructure is not discovered, you can check signatures that are defined for that component in the software catalog. You can then use this information to troubleshoot software discovery. To find the list of signatures, use the Software Catalog widget and search for the component. The list of all signatures is displayed on the component details page. For more information, see: Troubleshooting software discovery.

VM Manager Tool is further enhanced to attempt to automatically fix common problems with the VM manager connection parameters. For example, it tries using a default port or a different URL suffix as well as changing the VM manager type. It also tries to correct more than one mistake at a time.

Browsing the Software Catalog report is improved so that it is more intuitive and consistent.

Information about operating systems and hypervisors that are supported by each component of License Metric Tool including the server, the BigFix client, and disconnected scans is moved to the Software Product Compatibility Reports (SPCR). You can dynamically generate reports with information about specific operating system or hypervisor, as well as selected components. To view predefined reports generated per component and per operating system, see: Supported operating systems.

You can install the License Metric Tool server on Windows Server 2016. You can also identify computers as running on the Google Compute Engine public cloud. For more information, see: Supported operating systems.

The Software Classification panel introduces a new way of looking at software inventory and relations between the discovered components and licensable products. It provides a flat structure with software installations broken into single components, which makes it easier to view software assets and manage relations between them. The new panel provides functions such as reassigning, suppressing and sharing components, excluding products as well as confirming software classifications. The panel replaces the existing IBM Software Classification panel. For more information, see: Software Classification panel.

When you are assigning a component, or excluding a product, you can create a custom classification rule that will be applied when the same component or product is discovered in the future. It allows for automating actions on analogical components or products, and facilitates the process of software classification. For more information, see: Creating and managing custom rules for software.

The All Metrics report is extended to include information about the utilization of the Install Instances metric for IBM products. You can see not only the current number of installed product instances, but also how that number changed over time. You can also set a threshold, to easily monitor when the number of installed instances exceeds your expectations. For more information, see: License metric utilization, and Reported license metrics.

The All Metrics report is extended to include not only products with license metrics for which utilization is calculated, but also all other IBM products in your infrastructure. Even though metric utilization might not be calculated for these products, it gives you an overview of all IBM metrics for which you should have licenses. For more information, see: License metric utilization and Reported license metrics.

If there is no direct connection between some of the Windows or Linux computers in you infrastructure and the BigFix server, you can discover software and hardware inventory by using disconnected scans. Scripts that are provided in the disconnected scanner package initiate software and capacity scans, and prepare scan results that you later on upload to License Metric Tool. For more information, see: Installing and configuring disconnected scanners for Lite.

If you have a large number of VM managers to define, you can use REST API requests to add and change VM managers in your infrastructure. For more information, see: REST API for managing VM managers.

Custom part numbers can be assigned to products with custom deals, or any other software that is not included in the software catalog by default. Custom part numbers that you add are matched against the part numbers that you obtain from Passport Advantage to improve the accuracy of automated bundling. You can check which of your uploaded part numbers were matched against the catalog part numbers or custom part numbers on the Software Catalog report. For more information, see: Part numbers and Adding custom part numbers.

The bundling tags and part numbers rules are extended to increase the accuracy of automated bundling. The rules now use information contained in part numbers to assign components not only to proper products but also to proper license metrics. For more information, see: Bundling tags and Part numbers.

When a file signature used for discovering a component on Windows had size and version specified, the component was discovered only when both properties matched. Applications that are frequently patched required separate signatures for every patch. Currently, if a patch modifies only the size of the file signature, the signature will cause software discovery.

If your company has a security policy for user passwords, or you want to improve the application security, you can configure License Metric Tool to require that user passwords fulfill specific requirements. By default, user passwords are required to be at least 8 characters long and contain one lowercase character, one uppercase character, and one digit. For more information, see: Configuring security policy for user passwords.

VM Manager Tool is enhanced to attempt to automatically fix the most common problems with the VM manager connection parameters such as adding default URL suffix, correcting the user name format, and testing the WinRM and PowerShell protocols for Hyper-V VM managers. For information about disabling this functionality, see: VM Manager Tool configuration parameters.

Look and feel of the user interface is updated for improved experience. The possibility of selecting all columns while configuring the report view is added. Additionally, duplicated report views such as All IBM Metrics and IBM Software Only are removed.

You can use Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016, Xen Hypervisor, Oracle VM, RHV-M 3.6 as well as VMware vCenter, and ESXi 6.5 as supported virtualization technologies on selected operating systems. You can also install the BigFix client on AIX VIOS. For more information, see: Supported operating systems.

During the upgrade, new versions of the software catalog and PVU table are uploaded to License Metric Tool to ensure that the latest software is properly discovered and that new processors are correctly matched. The versions that are uploaded are the newest ones that were available during the release of the application update to which you are upgrading. For more information, see: Upgrading components of License Metric Tool (BigFix scenario).

The scanner cache folder is used to store information about scanned files and directories in your file system. By knowing the hierarchy of files, the scanner can locate them quicker, which results in shorter scans. The amount of disk space that is needed for the cache depends on the number of files that are being scanned.

Fresh installations of License Metric Tool use the optimized cache which includes only files that are relevant for the types of software scans that you are running. The optimization results in a reduced size of the cache on the monitored computer. Scanner cache settings are not changed during the upgrade. For more information, see: Optimizing scanner cache configuration (BigFix scenario).

The Software Catalog report provides information about product part numbers and associated license metrics. Thus, you can check which products your part numbers represent and what license metrics they use. This information facilitates the process of software classification. You can also verify whether a particular part number is contained in the current software catalog, and thus influences automated bundling.

The All-in-One installer was updated to version 9.2.5 on Passport Advantage.

Documentation provides best practices for creating database backups. For more information, see: Backing up and restoring the database.

The BigFix client log contains information about versions of fixlets that were run on the specific computer. The information can be used for troubleshooting purposes, for example to determine whether the action should be restarted because it was created by an old version of the fixlet. For information about the location of client logs, see: Component log files.

Generation of CSV reports is now faster and consumes less resources.

You can detect software that is installed on Windows Server 2016, Ubuntu 16 for IBM Power Systems, and SUSE Linux 12 for IBM Power Systems on Little Endian Architecture. You can use XenServer and Citrix XenServer as supported virtualization technologies on selected operating systems. For more information, see: Supported operating systems.

For more information, go to the Preview community.

Bundling tags facilitate the process of software classification allowing you to save time and effort related to analyzing to which product a particular component belongs. They contain information about the part number of a product to which the instance of a component should be assigned. Thus, they increase accuracy of the automated bundling. For more information, see: Bundling tags.

You can discover software that is installed on the IBM i systems. The discovery is based on a semi-automatic procedure that uses scripts to initiate software and capacity scans. Because there is no direct connection between the IBM i systems and the BigFix server, the scans that are initiated on these systems are called disconnected scans. Although the scans run automatically, you must perform several manual actions, such as installing the scanner, or uploading the results to License Metric Tool. For more information, see: Installing and configuring disconnected scanners for Lite.

Docker is a platform that allows for automating the deployment of applications inside software containers. License Metric Tool can discover software that is installed inside Docker containers and measure its PVU and RVU MAPC utilization. For more information, see: Discovering software in containers.

You can use License Metric Tool to track the consumption of Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). VPC is a unit of measure by which a program can be licensed. It can be considered as a physical processor core, if the server is not partitioned for virtual machines, or as a virtual core assigned to a virtual machine.

The All-in-One installer was updated to version 9.2.4 on Passport Advantage.

Information about the duration of the software scan is available in the Software Scan Status analysis. You can use this information, for example, to review the scanner timeout settings or verify whether optimization is needed to reduce the length of the scan.

The Insufficient rights status indicates that no data was collected from the VM manager because the user that is defined for this VM manager does not have sufficient rights.

Information about the processor brand string is available on the Hardware Inventory report. It contains a full specification of the processor including its brand, model, and speed as read from the computer operating system.

When the import of software scan results fails, or when software is not reported properly on the Software Installations report, you can use the Force Reupload of Software Scan Results task to troubleshoot the problem.

You can choose whether you want to install the scanner in the default directory (on the C: or opt drive) or the directory where the BigFix client is installed. This option is useful, for example, when the security policy in your company does not allow for installing software on the C: or opt drive. For more information, see: Installing the scanner (BigFix scenario).

You can use z/KVM as a supported virtualization technology on SUSE Linux 12.

You can specify a metric threshold that is used to show how the metric consumption that you would like to maintain relates to the actual consumption. You can then schedule emails to be sent whenever metric consumption for any product exceeds the threshold. For more information, see: Setting license metric threshold.

If you encounter problems with panels and reports or think that some of them might be improved, you can quickly share your feedback by simply clicking the Send Feedback button that is in the top-right corner of the user interface. Each panel has a separate button that creates an email message with the panel name, version of the application that you are using, and your comment.

Preview features allow you to work with the newly implemented functions and to provide your feedback to influence their final form. These features are subject to IBM Support.

Information about the cluster to which a computer belongs is available on the Hardware Inventory report. Now, the information can also be retrieved through REST API. For more information, see: Retrieval of clusters (deprecated).

You can enable an import that retrieves all software scan data from the restored BigFix database. Such an import is time-consuming and should be run only when problems with incomplete data occur after the database is restored. When you enable the option, the import runs once and returns to the normal operation mode. For more information, see: Database problems.

The scanner cache folder stores information about scanned files and directories in your file system. By knowing the hierarchy of files, the scanner can locate them quicker, which results in shorter scans. The amount of disk space that is needed for the cache depends on the number of files that are being scanned. If the current location of the cache folder cannot ensure sufficient disk space, you can optimize the cache. Thanks to the optimization, the cache includes only files relevant for the types of software scans that you are running. For more information, see: Optimizing scanner cache configuration (BigFix scenario).

When IBM software is discovered with a software ID tag but is not in the current catalog, a warning sign is displayed on the Software Catalog widget. It indicates that a newer version of the catalog needs to be uploaded. For more information, see: Support for ISO/IEC 19770-2.

The BigFix client can be installed on Oracle Linux 7 and on Power Linux on the Little Endian architecture. Support is added for PowerKVM virtualization technology. Additionally, support for Multiple Shared Processor Pools is extended to Linux. For more information, see: Supported operating systems

Starting from V9.5, the BigFix Platform can gather data from BigFix clients that are deployed in different geographical locations and thus use different code pages and languages. The data is encoded into UTF-8 format, and reported back to the BigFix server. As a result, regardless of the system and encoding that the clients use, the data is correctly displayed both in BigFix and License Metric Tool. For more information, see: Unicode.

You can configure reports to be emailed to specified recipients regularly or when a specific number of rows is exceeded in the report. This option is useful for alerting the recipients about changes to the key data or when the recipients do not work with License Metric Tool, yet must have access to the reports.

The Scan Configurations panel is extended to allow for basic configuration of software scans per computer groups directly from the License Metric Tool user interface. Use this method as an alternative to scheduling scans from the BigFix console.

The improvements give more flexibility and better management of data visibility in situations where computers are divided into groups and each group is managed by a different person. For example, in the service provider’s environment or when computers are divided into regions or business units.

You can use time filters to display data starting from or ending at a particular date. For example, you can view computers that were not seen within the last week. When you combine this feature with conditional report emails, you get instant notifications about changes within your environment including reports on which data fulfills specific time conditions.

You can collect serial numbers of VM manager hosts and define the format in which the information is displayed on the reports.

When the import of capacity scan data fails, you can run a single capacity scan and force the upload of its results to ensure that the data on reports is refreshed.

You can change advanced settings of the License Metric Tool server, for example settings related to the configuration of the central VM Manager Tool, on the Advanced Server Settings panel. Additionally, a number of new parameters is added.

In earlier versions of License Metric Tool, the PVU per core value was adjusted by using a fixlet. Starting from this version, the fixlet is deprecated. The PVU value can be changed on the Hardware Inventory panel instead.

The BigFix client can be installed on Cent OS 6 and 7. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 are supported on z/VM. Additionally, support for RHV-M 3.5 is provided.

IBM subcapacity licensing rules define three regions. To properly calculate subcapacity values for products that are installed in multiple regions, generate the audit snapshot for each region. Then, for every product, sum up the subcapacity values from all regions. The value that you obtain is the overall subcapacity usage for the particular product.

You can manage software and view reports per organizational business unit. To do this, divide the computers in your infrastructure into groups that represent these units. Then, create dedicated users, each with access only to a particular computer group.

A service provider is a company that provides other organizations with access to software installed on machines that are owned and maintained by the service provider.

Hardware information, such as processor details, is available on the Computers, and Software Installations reports. Combination of software and hardware information on a single report facilitates the calculation of processor-based and core-based licenses.

The scanner cache folder is used to store information about scanned files and directories in your file system. By knowing the hierarchy of files, the scanner can locate them quicker, which results in shorter scans. Change the location of the cache folder if the default one cannot ensure sufficient disk space.

You can use the vmman_collecting_hostnames_enabled parameter to identify duplicate UUIDs on VMware vSphere. When you set the parameter to true, host names of virtual machines with duplicate UUIDs are written in the log file.

You can define the time range of reports in relation to the current date. Then, the report provides you with data for a specific period, for instance the last 2 weeks.

The BigFix client can be installed on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (x86). Additionally, support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on Power 8 is provided.

Resource Utilization report provides information about the maximum utilization of license metrics other than PVU and RVU MAPC over the last 30 days. If a product can use five license metrics, each metric is shown as a separate row on the report. What is more, all metrics that are available for a product are displayed, not only the metrics that are defined by your license agreement. You can export the history of license utilization and aggregate it manually outside License Metric Tool according to the information that is provided in the license agreement. The data is available only for products that deliver resource utilization data (.slmtag files).

You can now use the two-factor authentication and use single sign-on to log on to License Metric Tool and maintain login consistency with other applications in the enterprise. You can configure License Metric Tool to use two-factor authentication with single sign-on based either on the exchange of Simple Access Markup Language (SAML 2.0) token and Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services as Identity Provider or you can use the IBM Lightweight Third-Party Authentication (LTPA) technology and IBM Security Access Manager for Web as the authentication service.

You can connect two instances of License Metric Tool to one BigFix platform. To enable the coexistence, divide the computers in your infrastructure into two groups by assigning them with unique computer settings, and creating an analysis that retrieves the values of these settings. Then, modify the data import so that each server imports data only from computers that have a particular setting, and omits the remaining ones. As a result, each server manages a separate group of computers.

If a computer that runs on a public cloud is not identified as such, PVU values might be incorrectly calculated for the software that is installed on it. To ensure that PVU is calculated in accordance with the IBM Eligible Public Cloud BYOSL policy, identify computers that run on public clouds and specify the types of clouds.

The IBM software catalog defines which components can be assigned to which products to create software bundles. The bundles reflect sets of products that are offered under a single entitlement or license. If a bundle that you purchased does not have a relation that is defined in the IBM software catalog, add a custom bundling option. It will allow you to assign components to the proper product to reflect your entitlement.

When you create the audit snapshot, you can add comments or attach a file with details regarding the information that is contained in the snapshot.

When a Fixlet or task is not relevant on a particular endpoint, you can create an analysis that checks which part of the relevance expression is not matched. This way, you can identify the exact reason why the Fixlet or task cannot be run on an endpoint and troubleshoot the problem.

The number of PVUs is assigned per processor core based on the information that is provided in the PVU table. However, it might happen that the value that is assigned to a processor in your environment is incorrect. In such case, contact IBM Support to get a permission to manually adjust the PVU value. When the problem with incorrect detection of the PVU value is solved, remove the manual adjustment.

Data retention period is the period after which historical data or resource utilization data is removed from the License Metric Tool database. Retention period is set by default in fresh installations of License Metric Tool. If you upgraded from earlier versions, your original settings were preserved.

The License Metric Tool server can be installed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. The BigFix client can be installed on Windows 10 and Ubuntu.

You can use extra features that are provided by BigFix Inventory by adding this application to your environment. BigFix Inventory can be connected to the same BigFix server as License Metric Tool which allows for managing both applications from one console and makes monitoring your environment much easier.

You can collect capacity data from KVM hosts that are not managed by RHV-M.

You can facilitate the process of classifying IBM software by hiding software instances for which all bundling options are free of charge.

You can choose whether License Metric Tool uses PowerShell or NTLM as the communication interface for Hyper-V.

Apart from migrating from Tivoli Asset Discovery for Distributed and License Metric Tool 7.5, you can also migrate from version 7.2.2. The process is also expanded with migrating scan groups and scan schedules.

The VM Manager Tool is automatically installed and configured on the BigFix server during the installation of License Metric Tool, and does not require additional setup. However, the installation might fail. Then, an appropriate message is displayed on the VM Managers panel..

If you are installing the License Metric Tool server on Linux® and plan to install DB2 on a remote computer, you can install it on AIX version 6.1 or 7.1.

New widget on the Infrastructure Administrator Dashboard provides the means to check the health of scans that are running in your infrastructure. You can check on which computers a particular type of scan failed, or was not initiated within the last 30 days as well as which computers did not upload scan results to the BigFix server. You can also learn which computers have an outdated version of the catalog and whether any shared disks in your infrastructure are not scanned.

You can collect information about software that is installed on shared disks on UNIX. The disks are not scanned by default. To enable scanning of shared disks, select the option in the Initiate Software Scan fixlet.

Detailed information about import steps and statistics for particular steps is written in the import logs.

License Metric Tool can work on BigFix version 9.2.

When you create the audit snapshot of the All IBM Metrics report, the file other_products.csv is created as part of the snapshot. It contains information about software products that are not licensed under full or subcapacity licensing, and that do not generate any PVU or RVU MAPC consumption. It also lists details of the computers on which the software is installed.

BigFix client version 9.2 can be installed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, and 7 as well as SUSE Linux 10 and 11 that run on IBM Power Systems. The endpoints are certified for PVU subcapacity reporting.