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Abstract
IBM continuously improves its software portfolio by introducing new products and replacing old ones with them. Such changes are announced through Announcement Letters and may include the possibility to migrate license entitlements to new offerings and in some cases preserving the option to use the withdrawn or the replacement product. This note describes handling such cases within ILMT and is not limited to specific brand or product.
Content
Managing Product Migration Cases
Software withdrawal and replacements are announced by IBM through Announcement Letters located on the IBM Offering Information site: http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/.
In most cases, these changes are effective for customers at the time of the software subscription and support (S&S) renewal and the customer’s S&S entitlements will be converted as announced. When there is a change in license entitlements, the customer will receive updated Proofs of Entitlement from IBM.
Please always read the license terms and provided Proofs of Entitlement carefully to confirm if your right to continue to use the withdrawn product is allowed.
Such changes could require changes in ILMT on prior bundling. Possible cases and recommended handling is described below.
Case 1: PVU/RVU MAPC S&S entitlements for withdrawn product are converted to a replacement product entitlement also licensed with the PVU /RVU MAPC metric and customer keeps the option to use either the withdrawn or the replacement product.
Solution: In ILMT the detected components should be left bundled with the original withdrawn product and PVU/RVU MAPC counts should be summed up outside ILMT for comparison.
Case 2: PVU/RVU MAPC license entitlements for a product are converted to a different metric which is not tracked by ILMT.
Solution: In ILMT the detected components should be left bundled with the original withdrawn product and excluded after the conversion of license entitlement to the different, non PVU/RVU MAPC, metric with a comment that a different metric is now being used. Customer should conduct compliance check with new license entitlements: to ensure they have sufficient license entitlements under the new metric to cover their actual use.
Case 3: License Entitlements for a product are replaced by license entitlements for a replacement product and customer does not have the option to use the withdrawn product.
Solution: In such case customer is granted a temporary period of dual use (usually up to 90 days) to make the transition from the old product to replacement. During that period, product license entitlements for both products will be reported by ILMT. It is recommended that you put a comment in the PVU report pointing out the fact of the migration and the products being transitioned from and to.
Additional Information
Information contained in Software Catalog
IBM Software Catalog includes accumulated information about:
- Announced IBM Offerings
- Information is one of metrics in PVU or RVU MAPC
- Information about included licensable supporting programs (subset of items listed as Supporting Programs from Offering license limited).
- Software Components and associated with them tags for discovery (signatures)
Information for inclusion in IBM Software Catalog is prepared by team releasing the product and included in IBM Software Catalog in month of product GA.
Within IBM Software Catalog:
- marking of IBM Offerings as PVU or RVU MAPC is not removed, even if product is not longer offered under them
- catalog reflects component to product mapping on the date of release
and above handling changes of product licensing over product lifetime is described.
Software Product / Software Component detection within IBM License Metric Tool
IBM License Metric tool scans file system and registry entries across all managed nodes to assess based on information in Software Catalog (signatures) what Software Components have been installed on the endpoint.
End user is presented with suggestion within IBM License Metric Tool to which IBM Offering (Software Product) it might belong. Customer should:
- change if needed to correct IBM Offering (Software Product) for which detected component should be accounted
- confirm selection
- exclude from PVU/RVU MAPC report whenever different metric is used
Note: Exclude option is invoked on detected component however whole node is excluded from product PVU/RVU MAPC calculation.
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Document Information
Modified date:
26 April 2021
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swg21665426