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IBM License Metric Tool helps you to manage your license compliance. If you want to track Cloud APM agents' license consumption, you can integrate Cloud APM with IBM License Metric Tool by installing the APM ILMT tool on Cloud APM Server side.
How it works
- The APM ILMT tool connects to Cloud APM server to check the number of agents connected and counts the Managed Virtual Servers (MVS) for different offerings like Base, Advanced, and various Extension Packs. The counted MVS data is categorized based on the rules in Rules for counting Cloud APM agent licenses section and saved in .slmtag files in XML format under the apm-ilmt-tool/output directory.
- BigFix Client detects the .slmtag files periodically based on its scanning frequency and uploads the collected data to BigFix Server. Then, BigFix Server imports the data to IBM License Metric Tool Server according to the Data Import schedule.
Note: BigFix is the core component of the License Metric Tool infrastructure. It consists of a server that coordinates the flow of data to and from the monitored computers, an administrative console, and clients that collect data from the computers in your infrastructure. - You can log in the console of IBM License Metric Tool to see the license consumption data under Resource Utilization Report.
| Note: In this screen capture, there are 5 unique types of offerings. MVS are counted based on each offering. |
Before installing the APM ILMT tool
- Ensure BigFix Client is installed on Cloud APM Server and configured well with BigFix Server.
- Ensure BigFix Server is configured well with IBM License Metric Tool Server.
- Ensure Cloud APM agents are connected to Cloud APM Server.
- If you configure the Cloud APM server to use high availability, install BigFix client and the APM ILMT tool on the active Cloud APM server and the standby Cloud APM server.
- Upgrade your agent to the version included in the December 2019 or later refresh of the Cloud APM V8.1.4 agent packages to ensure your agents provide the information required by the APM ILMT tool. The December 2019 refresh agent image names contains 8.1.4.0.10 as the version number. So install or upgrade your monitoring agents by using an agent image name that contains 8.1.4.0.10 or later as the version number.
- To count license usage for JBoss agent, Node.js agent, Oracle agent, PHP agent, Ruby agent, and WebLogic agent by using the APM ILMT tool, you need to upgrade these agents to 8.1.4.0.11 or later version. The March 2020 refresh agent image names contains 8.1.4.0.11 as the version number.
- To count license usage for the following agents by using the APM ILMT tool, you don't need to upgrade the agents.
- Amazon EC5 agent
- Amazon ELB agent
- Linux® OS agent
- Windows® OS agent
- UNIX OS agent
- Microsoft® Cluster Server agent
- Microsoft® Hyper-V agent
- Response Time agent
Installation steps of the APM ILMT tool
- Download the apm-ilmt-tool.tar utility from this link.
- Copy the apm-ilmt-tool.tar utility to Cloud APM Server and extract it in a directory.
- Change the JAVA_HOME parameter in the start-apm-ilmt-tool.sh script to point to a valid Java installation directory, such as /opt/ibm/java. If you installed the Cloud APM server into a custom directory path, then specify that directory path in place of /opt/ibm.
- If you changed the password of the smadmin user during Cloud APM installation, you need to get the Base64 encoded string of smadmin:<your password> by using Base64 Encoding Link and use the encoded string for the AUTH_USER parameter in the config.properties file under the /apm-ilmt-tool directory.
Example: If the password of the smadmin user is apmpass, you need to input c21hZG1pbjphcG1wYXNz as the Base64 encoded string for the AUTH_USER parameter. - If the Cloud APM server is installed in a custom directory, instead of the default /opt/ibm directory, you need to change the value of the AGENT_CONFIG_FILE_BASE_PATH parameter in the config.properties file.
Example: If you installed the Cloud APM server in the /custom/path directory, the value of the AGENT_CONFIG_FILE_BASE_PATH parameter need to be set to /custom/path/wlp/usr/servers/min/dropins/CentralConfigurationServer.war/data_source/ - Set the cron job to run the start-apm-ilmt-tool.sh script every day at a specific time, such as 21:30.
Rules for counting Cloud APM agent licenses
Agents are categorized as a Cloud APM Base agent MVS, Cloud APM Advanced agent MVS, or a Cloud APM Extension Pack MVS based on which Cloud APM offering the agent is contained in, if the agent is configured for transaction tracking (TT) or diagnostics (DD) and if the agent is included in an add-on extension pack. See Capabilities in each offering to determine which Cloud APM offering each agent is contained in and if the agent is included in a Cloud APM extension pack.
Here are the detailed rules:
- If an agent is contained in an extension pack, then it monitors the MVS type for the extension pack. For example, the Amazon EC2 agent is categorized as a Cloud APM Infrastructure Extension Pack MVS.
- If an agent is contained in both the Cloud APM Base offering and the Cloud APM Advanced offering but the agent does not support transaction tracking or diagnostics, the agent monitors a Cloud APM Base agent MVS.
- If an agent is contained in both the Cloud APM Base offering and the Cloud APM Advanced offering and the transaction tracking or diagnostics is enabled for the agent, the agent monitors a Cloud APM Advanced agent MVS.
- WebSphere MQ agent is available only in the Cloud APM Advanced offering, and the agent monitors a Cloud APM Advanced agent MVS.
- If multiple agents are monitoring the same managed virtual server, only one MVS is counted for license purposes. If these agents are associated with different MVS types (Base, Advanced, or extension pack MVS), the APM ILMT tool uses the MVS Type of the first agent that it finds for that virtual server.
- If an agent monitors a remote virtual server, the remote system is counted as an MVS by the APM ILMT tool, instead of the system where the agent is installed.
- When the Cloud APM Advanced offering is installed on the Cloud APM server, the Response Time agent and HTTP Server agent are categorized as a Cloud APM Advanced agent MVS. Otherwise, they are categorized as a Cloud APM Base agent MVS.
- If the Cloud APM server is configured for high availability, the APM ILMT tool reports license information for the active Cloud APM server hostname and for the standby Cloud APM server hostname to the IBM License Metric Tool Server. When you check the Resource Utilization report in the IBM License Metric Tool console, the license information for the active Cloud APM server hostname contains the most recent license count and might not match the license count last provided by the Cloud APM standby server.
- For the following Hypervisor agents, each managed VM is considered as a Cloud APM Base agent MVS:
- Linux® KVM agent
- Microsoft® Hyper-V Server agent
- VMware® VI agent
- The APM ILMT tool does not count the Managed Virtual Servers that are monitored by the following agents. You can count the Managed Virtual Servers manually. If you don't know how to count manually, open a case to IBM Support team for help.
- Cisco® UCS agent
- Citrix® VDI agent
- Microsoft® Office 365 agent
- Azure Compute agent
- Siebel® agent
- Power VM agent (also named HMC agent)
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Document Information
Modified date:
14 July 2020
UID
ibm11173064