The IBM License Metric Tool is the only acceptable measure of sub capacity entitlement under the Passport Advantage agreement. Miss the deploy or miss the polling and the audit reverts to full capacity. This guide walks the install, the agent footprint, the polling cadence, and the PVU report discipline.
IBM Sub Capacity Licensing lets a customer license a fraction of the physical machine that the workload actually uses. The only acceptable measurement is the IBM License Metric Tool, deployed across every host running an IBM software product that participates in the sub capacity policy.
The rule set is mechanical. ILMT on every host. Polling every 30 minutes. Two years of report retention. A clean PVU summary report ready for the audit window. Miss any one rule and the audit reverts to full capacity entitlement.
Read this alongside the IBM knowledge hub, the IBM services page, the audit defense guide, the IBM PVU licensing reference, and the Vendor Shield subscription.
The sub capacity rules sit inside the Passport Advantage agreement. The rules are publicly documented and apply to a list of eligible products that runs across Db2, WebSphere, Cloud Pak, MQ, DataPower, Cognos, SPSS, and the broader software catalog.
ILMT is a three tier architecture. The agent sits on every host. The server is the management console and the report engine. The database stores the inventory and the report history.
| Component | CPU | RAM | Disk | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ILMT Agent (per host) | <1% steady | 200 MB | 500 MB | Negligible footprint on production hosts |
| ILMT Server | 4 vCPU | 16 GB | 100 GB | Sized for 10,000 endpoints |
| ILMT Database | 4 vCPU | 16 GB | 500 GB | Db2 or Postgres backend, two year history |
| ILMT Web UI | Shared | Shared | Shared | Runs on the server tier |
The install runs from the IBM Passport Advantage download portal. The current version is BigFix Inventory branded ILMT, the successor to the legacy Tivoli ILMT product. The two share the sub capacity report engine and the same agent footprint.
The polling cadence sets the audit floor. The default cadence inside the ILMT product is 30 minutes. Anything less frequent breaks the sub capacity entitlement. Anything more frequent costs CPU on the host with no audit benefit.
Disaster recovery hosts running an IBM sub capacity product need the ILMT agent and a PVU entitlement, even when the workload is idle. A failover that lights up a DR host without ILMT triggers full capacity entitlement on the DR cluster at audit. Cover every DR host on day one.
The PVU summary report is the audit deliverable. The PVU value comes from the IBM Processor Value Unit table, the workload comes from the ILMT scan history, the entitlement comes from Passport Advantage.
| Section | Content | Audit weight |
|---|---|---|
| Cover page | Period, customer, IBM account number | Low |
| Software bundle map | Product code to bundle code mapping | High |
| Server and partition list | Physical and virtual host inventory | High |
| PVU summary | PVU peak per product per host across the period | Critical |
| Entitlement reconciliation | PVU entitlement minus PVU used per product | Critical |
| Anomaly log | Coverage gaps, agent down events, unrecognized hosts | High |
| Sign off | Software asset manager, infrastructure lead, CIO designate | High |
Five audit traps catch most enterprises. Every trap turns sub capacity into full capacity at the audit settlement table.
The seven step checklist takes an IBM estate from no ILMT to clean sub capacity defense across the Passport Advantage agreement.
The IBM License Metric Tool is the only acceptable measure of sub capacity entitlement under the Passport Advantage agreement. ILMT discovers every host running an IBM software product, measures the workload on each host, and produces a quarterly PVU summary report that procurement signs off and archives. Without ILMT, audit defaults to full physical capacity.
Yes. The sub capacity policy requires ILMT installed on every host running an eligible product, polling every 30 minutes, with two years of report retention. Any gap in the ILMT data breaks the sub capacity claim for the affected product. The audit reverts to full capacity entitlement on the affected hosts.
The default polling cadence is 30 minutes. The agent runs a scan every 30 minutes on every host, the data is uploaded to the central ILMT server daily, and the central server runs a PVU summary report quarterly. Polling cadence longer than 30 minutes breaks the sub capacity entitlement.
The sub capacity claim breaks for the product running on the uncovered hosts. The audit calculation reverts to full physical capacity for those hosts. On a 32 core host, that turns a 16 vCPU sub capacity claim into 32 core full capacity exposure. The settlement math compounds across every uncovered host.
The Passport Advantage policy requires two years of ILMT report retention. The report has to be available for the audit window across the prior 24 months on every host and on the central server. Disk pressure that purges history under 24 months is a common audit finding and breaks the sub capacity entitlement.
Redress runs the ILMT readiness review, the agent rollout plan, the quarterly PVU summary discipline, and the IBM audit response inside the Vendor Shield subscription and the Renewal Program. Every engagement is led by a former IBM commercial executive on the buyer side, with no IBM sales conflict on the table.
Redress runs IBM ILMT advisory inside the Vendor Shield subscription, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment.
Read the related IBM hub, the benchmarking page, the about us page, the locations page, and the contact page.
Buyer side reference on the IBM audit cycle. ILMT discipline, sub capacity defense, settlement levers, and the seven step audit response.
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