Understanding the IBM Fusion license report

Use these instructions to get a detailed explanation of each metric and how to interpret them to ensure compliance with IBM Fusion licensing terms.

IBM Fusion licenses require entitlements for the following three key components:
Cores managed
  • Cores on all worker nodes in the cluster must be entitled using IBM Fusion licenses with a VPC metric or a managed server metric.
  • The reported value of PROCESSOR_CORE is obtained from a native OpenShift® API for each node and aggregated by the IBM Fusion license service.
  • The quantity of cores that are included in IBM Fusion licenses with a compute metric must meet or exceed the PROCESSOR_CORE reported value.

IBM clients who purchase certain IBM Software products, such as IBM Cloud Pak, Watson, or Maximo Application Suite, may be entitled to use IBM Fusion as a supporting program within their license agreement.

Key entitlement details:
  • Restrictions may apply to services and storage capacity, but not to the number of cores, unless otherwise stated.
  • Clients using IBM Fusion as a supporting program must replace their entitlement with paid licenses to remove the restrictions.
Deployment requirements:
  • IBM Fusion licenses with a managed server metric can only be deployed on x86 bare metal nodes.
  • IBM Fusion licenses with a VPC metric can be deployed on any node type, including physical, virtual, on-premises, or public cloud.
Services deployed
  • Clients can install services from IBM Fusion using operators that are included in the product.
  • Each service flag should be validated against the Fusion licenses purchased or applied to the observed cluster to ensure compliance.
  • Restrictions of use in other products, such as IBM Cloud Paks, are applicable if IBM Fusion is deployed using terms from those products.
When a client installs services from IBM Fusion, they must ensure that the services are licensed for use. Each installed service has a flag with a value of 1. To validate, check the flag against the purchased or applied IBM Fusion licenses for the cluster.
Key considerations:
  • Validate each service flag against the applicable license terms.
  • If using IBM Cloud Paks, follow the restrictions of use for those products.
  • Non-compliance may occur if services are used without proper licensing.
For example, if the BACKUP_RESTORE_SERVICE metric is 1 and IBM Cloud Pak license terms are used, the deployment may not be compliant.
Storage capacity provisioned or accessed
  • IBM Fusion licenses usually include an allowance for provisioning or accessing storage in the cluster such as Fusion Data Foundation, IBM Storage Scale, IBM Storage Ceph Pro.

    Other types of storage can be accessed using Fusion services such as object storage, or a third-party storage array with Fusion Access.

  • Each type of permitted provisioning or access method is reported in a metric with the prefix STORAGE_.

    For example, STORAGE_FDF can be provisioned within the cluster (locally) or provisioned outside the cluster (externally).

  • Clients should validate that the storage capacities and types that are deployed are covered by IBM Fusion licenses and any product-specific licenses.

    For example, client may already own IBM Storage Scale and then add to it using their Fusion entitlements when setting up their Fusion cluster. Combining licenses for the same type of IBM storage from different sources is usually permitted.

Some Fusion licenses include an entitlement for primary storage and allow core deployment. If this entitlement is not enough, you can buy additional primary storage expansion parts to increase the capacity.
Primary storage:

Primary storage refers to the usable capacity available to a cluster.

IBM Software Entitlements:
If you are using IBM Software entitlements with limited storage capacity, you can increase your storage entitlements by replacing the included licenses with paid Fusion licenses.
  • Replace the licenses with paid Fusion licenses that meet the processor core requirements.
  • Buy additional capacity entitlements to cover any remaining storage needs.