Most organisations choose to licence their IBM software where possible on a sub-capacity licensing basis. This is far cheaper than paying for full-capacity licensing, but is dependent on the customer running IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) to report on their software usage.
It is vital to ensure that the underlying systems which ILMT is reporting on are eligible for sub-capacity licensing. If your organisation has ineligible technology in place, you are ineligible for sub-capacity licensing terms. This is still the case even if ILMT is working perfectly in your environment. The customer may have everything set up and reporting properly, but if the underlying systems are not sub-capacity eligible, they will be deemed to be noncompliant. In the event of an IBM licence audit, the customer will face fines which are six to ten times the amount they currently pay for sub-capacity licensing.
For customers to be sure whether their underlying systems are considered eligible for ILMT, IBM publishes a list of technologies that are considered eligible. This list is updated on a regular basis. IBM publishes a schedule detailing which technologies will be removed and when. In most cases the list is updated to include an operating system or a virtualisation technology that has reached end of support by its vendor.
Here are some notable removals from the list made in the recent months:
- Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server R2 2008 were removed at the end of 2Q 2021
- VMware vSphere 6.0 was removed at the end of 2Q 2021
- Oracle Linux 6 was removed at the end of 3Q 2021
Here are some notable removals planned for the upcoming months:
- Suse Linux Enterprise 11 is planned to be removed by the end of 2Q 2022
- RHEL 5 on Power is planned to be removed by the end of 2Q 22
- IBM i 7.1 are planned to be removed by end of 2Q 2022
The list detailing all planned and past removals can be found on the IBM website here.
Katerina is a licensing consultant manager and IBM specialist, managing the portfolio of IBM licensing services at FisherITS. She is passionate about helping clients understand and improve their complex IBM licensing estate and gain confidence in navigating through the IBM universe.