12 IBM Licensing Resources to help you manage your IBM risk and costs

Managing your IBM licensing costs and risks is hard enough without having to spend a lot of time searching the internet for the correct information on agreements, products or supported platforms.

Below I have listed resources I have found useful. I hope you find them useful too.

#1 International Program License Agreement (IPLA)

The IPLA is part of the contract you are agreeing to when you buy an IBM product. It’s an online document so can, and does, change. You are agreeing to any revisions every time you renew your S&S.

Link to current IPLA agreement (PDF format)

#2 IBM Passport Advantage

This is your starting point to find out about the IBM license entitlement programmes: Passport (PA) Advantage and Passport Advantage Express (PAX). It is also where you get access to the login to the license entitlement sites.

https://www.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage/

#3 IBM License Information

Need to find out the latest information about any of your IBM products? Then the IBM License Information (LI) is where you go.

As license information changes by version. You will need the Product ID (e.g. 5724-Q36) rather than the Part Number. If you only have the Part Number enter that in the search box in the top right of the page.

License Information includes things like supported programmes (bundled / free software) as well details on other license restrictions.

IBM License Information

#4 IBM Product Lifecycle

All products have a lifecycle and IBM publish this information online for easy lookup.

You need to check this information at least annually, so you know when the version you have deployed is coming to the “End of Support”. This allows you to plan upgrades or potentially save money by cancelling support.

Any name changes are also recorded as well as the version. When searching you need to use the Product ID (e.g. 5724-Q36) not the part number.

IBM Product Lifecycle

#5 IBM PVU Tables

If you license a product by PVU (processor value unit) then you need to check the what the current value for the processors on which it is deployed. IBM maintain a list of the processor and their associated PVU values. It is particularly important need to reference this list if you are considering an hardware upgrade.

Processor Value Unit [PVU] licensing for Distributed Software

#6 IBM PVU Licensing for Cloud (BYOSL)

If you are running IBM products in a cloud environment then you need to know if that vendor is supported. You will also need to know the PVU (processor value unit) IBM have assigned to that cloud vendor platform. IBM maintain a list of the platforms and their associated PVU values. This is an important ressource when calculating the new license cost of moving from on premises to cloud.

IBM Eligible Public Cloud BYOSL policy

#7 IBM Eligible Virtualisation Technology List

IBM maintains a listing (PDF) of all the operating systems and virtualisation technologies eligible for sub-capacity licensing. It is important that you check this document at least annually for updates in case one of your older platforms no longer qualifies.

IBM Eligible Virtualisation Technology

#8 IBM Eligible Public Cloud BYOSL policy

IThis IBM resource page lists the current supported platforms, PVU and licensing terms and conditions. Before you move a product to the cloud always check this site.

IBM Eligible Public Cloud BYOSL policy

#9 IBM MySupport

The IBM MySupport is a home page for a whole host of useful information. Most notably:

FixCentral
Support Cases (opening a PMR)
Notifications (on which ever product you want to keep track off)
Training

You’ll need to login to get access to the services but there is no difficulty getting an IBM ID.

Once you login it is worth your time to explore the various options available as it’s a jump off point to many IBM resources, most notably the Training.

IBM MySupport

#10 IBM Product Notifications

This is a service you can setup to give you notifications on specific IBM products. You subscribe to the product of interest. The updates are technical rather than sales or marketing.

At the very least you’ll want to subscribe to “IBM License Metric Tool” and “BigFix Family” . I’d also recommend subscribing to the “Product Information Updates” on other products you are using.

IBM My Notifications

#11 IBM US Government Product Pricing (aka IBM Pricefile)

The US Government IBM Product Pricing page provides you with links to the current pricefile for all IBM products. It’s a useful benchmark for budgeting. It also contains the part number, description, license metric purchase and product category. It contains the purchase (D-Part) and S&S costs (E-Part) for all parts.

US Government Product Pricing

#12 Schedule of removing items from the list of IBM sub-capacity eligible technologies

An operating system or a virtualization technology that reaches end of support by its vendor is removed from the list of technologies eligible for IBM sub-capacity reporting and the list of technologies supported by License Metric Tool.

You need to check this list at least once a year in case you have an operating systems that is no longer supported by ILMT and you are out of compliance.

Link to: List of operating system or virtualization technologies no longer supported by IBM ILMT