Sub-capacity licensing lets you license an eligible software product for less than the full capacity of your server or group of servers.
Sub-capacity Overview
Sub-capacity licensing lets you license an eligible software product for less than the full capacity of your server or group of servers. It provides the licensing granularity needed to leverage various multi-core chip and virtualization technologies.
The sub-capacity software licensing terms are documented in the International Passport Advantage and Passport Advantage Express Agreements (IPAA).
A summary of sub-capacity licensing requirements follows.
Sub-capacity Requirements*
*Visit Container Licensing for Information about eligibility and reporting requirements for container licensing.
Customers who obtain eligible sub-capacity products for use in an eligible virtualization environment must obtain entitlements sufficient to cover all activated processor cores* made available to or managed by the Program, as defined according to the Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules and
- Use Eligible Sub-Capacity Products (See below)
- Use Eligible Virtualization Technologies 30 December 2024
- Use Eligible Processor Technologies 09 February 2023
- Use the IBM License Metric Tool or other approved validated tools
Note: ILMT Lite configuration deployment with ILMT Disconnected Scanner is pre-approved when number of target VMs/LPARs in scope of virtualization capacity is less than 5000 (five thousands).
In lieu of ILMT, approved validated tools are
- HCL BigFix Inventory versions / releases / updates
- Flexera One and Flexera One Select with IBM Observability IT Asset Management, and Flexera One and Flexera One Select IT Asset Management
Please refer to the Approved tools page and related sections for more info.
* An Activated processor core is a processor core that is available for use in a physical or virtual server, regardless of whether the capacity of the processor core can be or is limited through virtualization technologies, operating system commands, BIOS settings, or similar restrictions.
Eligible Sub-Capacity Products & Technologies
Products priced on a per-core metrics listed below are supported for sub-capacity pricing and shown in the left column. IBM License Metric Tool requirements for each metric are listed to the right.
| Metric* | ILMT Mandatory** |
|---|---|
| Processor Value Unit (PVU) | Yes |
| Resource Value Unit: Managed Activated Processor Core (RVU MAPC) |
Yes |
| Virtual Processor Core (VPC) | Yes (See VPC Policy Change below.) |
Updated 10 May 2022
*For PVU, RVU and VPC metric definitions, please go to Commonly used license metrics.
**IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) supports license tracking for the “Install” metric out-of-the-box as well as for various other metrics on a program-by-program basis.
Virtual Appliances (such as OVA booted from VMware ESXi) are supported using sub-capacity licensing. All compute must be charged using sub-capacity counting rules. These environments must use eligible operating systems and virtualization technologies as well as approved tooling (e.g., ILMT) as per standard sub-capacity requirements. Support of ILMT scanners are on a product-by-product basis. Check your product documentation or with your IBM representative to ensure your Virtual Appliances are compatible.
VPC Policy Update
With the release of IBM Passport Advantage v11, for all new customers as of February 1, 2023 and existing customers as of May 1, 2023, sub-capacity reporting policies that previously only applied to eligible products deployed on PVU and RVU metrics now apply to those deployed on the VPC metric.
Ineligible Sub-Capacity Products
The Parts listed below are ineligible for sub-capacity licensing:
| Part #s (Lic., Spt., Reinst.) | PID# | Description |
|---|---|---|
| D571FLL, E02DTLL, D571GLL | 5724A39 | WebSphere MQ for HP NonStop Server |
| D564PLL, E0287LL, D564QLL | 5724A38 | WebSphere MQ for HP OpenVMS |
What happens when OS or virtualization technologies are no longer supported?
When an operating system (OS) or virtualization technology is no longer supported by its vendor, IBM announces plans to remove them from the list of technologies.
- eligible for sub-capacity reporting
- supported by License Metric Tool
All such plans and actual technology removals are announced in the Schedule of removing items from the list of sub-capacity eligible technologies.
To be notified of the latest plans of removal of virtualization technologies and operating systems from the list of sub-capacity eligibility, customers need to subscribe to My Notifications for ILMT product.
Notes:
- Additionally, technologies being removed from ILMT support are announced with each ILMT release.
- Requirements to continue using virtualization technologies that are no longer eligible for Sub-Capacity are outlined in Passport Advantage Agreement v12 - Section 9.2.2.e:
For EPs that no longer meet Sub-Capacity Licensing requirements for which Client would like to continue to license under Sub-Capacity Licensing terms, Client will submit a migration plan to meet the Sub-Capacity Licensing requirements for IBM's review and approval. During any approved migration, Client shall maintain the version of ILMT that supported the EP based on the Sub-Capacity Licensing requirements prior to becoming ineligible and continue to generate ILMT reports. With IBM's prior written consent, Client may manually manage and track such EPs in accordance with item [9.2.2.d].
Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules
Generally, for any Eligible Product installed in an Eligible Virtualization Environment, you may license to the lower of:
- The maximum number of virtual cores in the virtual machines (VMs) available to the Eligible Product at any given time or
- The physical capacity of the Server where the VMs are hosted when the Virtual Capacity exceeds total physical capacity of the server
The total number of cores would then be applied to any conversion ratio:
- For PVUs: You can determine the correct number of PVUs per core by referring to the PVU table
- For VPCs: 1 VPC equals 1 virtual CPU (vCPU)
- For RVUs: Use the License Information document of the Principal Program to determine the number of RVUs required to license the number of processor cores available to that Principal Program. All License Information documents are available on the IBM Terms website
SMT/hyperthreading ratios are not adjusted for with sub-capacity licensing. When the total number of virtual cores reaches the physical capacity, no additional cores are counted.
The materials below contain the Virtualization Capacity License Counting Rules and counting scenarios, which are intended to assist you in determining the correct number of cores required to be licensed. These rules are applicable for servers located within the same ILMT Region. ILMT Regions are based on global continents and are defined as follows.
ILMT Regions:
- Region 1: North America & South America
- Region 2: Europe & Africa
- Region 3: Asia & Australia
License Counting Scenarios:
- IBM Power Systems (AIX, iOS, Linux) (PDF, 825KB)
- IBM Power Systems AIX System WPARs (PDF, 491KB)
- IBM i OS (PDF, 330KB)
- IBM Linux for System z (PDF, 330KB)
- Processor Deconfiguration and TurboCore on IBM Power Systems servers to Limit Processor Cores Available (PDF, 815KB)
- Sun and Fujitsu (Solaris) (PDF, 340KB)
- x86 (Intel / AMD) based servers (PDF, 286KB)r
- Operating System Commands and BIOS Settings (PDF, 512KB)
- Get Adobe® Reader®