Reporting to IBM

FlexNet Manager Suite 2023 R1 (On-Premises)

FlexNet Manager Suite provides some specialized reports to assist you in reporting your IBM PVU points consumption, or your IBM VPC entitlement consumption, ready for an IBM-appointed auditor (who may demand such reports up to two years after the reporting period).

Tip: Although some of the following reports are very similar to those from ILMT, there are acceptable presentation differences between ILMT and FlexNet Manager Suite reports of sub-capacity licensing. IBM's sub-capacity reporting requirements do not require exact copies of the ILMT reports (nor is FlexNet Manager Suite intended to copy ILMT).

To meet IBM's reporting requirements, the following classes of data should be saved and safely archived for each reporting period (typically each month, but least once each quarter). This process suggests a best practice that assists you in the event of an audit.

Important: Reports show data based on the latest full license reconciliation calculations. In fact, if for some reason you have not yet run a full (overnight) license reconciliation since switching to high-frequency PVU mode for FlexNet Manager Suite, reports like IBM PVU License Consumption are unable to display any data.

FlexNet Manager Suite provides the digitally-signed report package for the following reports:

• IBM Cloud Pak consumption report
• IBM PVU license consumption report
• IBM VPC license consumption report

The package can be used as a trusted source for audit as the data contained in the package can be validated for authenticity.

Each package contains the following data:

• IBM Cloud Pak license consumption report
• IBM PVU license consumption report
• IBM VPC license consumption report
• Report summary
• Checksums

To generate a digitally-signed report package, go to the IBM Cloud Pak Consumption, IBM PVU License Consumption, or IBM VPC License Consumption report page, select the reporting period, and click the Download the archive link.

Alternatively, if you don't want to download the digitally-signed report package, follow the below steps:

To archive regular reports for use with an IBM-appointed auditor:

1. Switch to Reports mode (clicking the Reports button above the main menu in the web interface).
2. Export the following reports from FlexNet Manager Suite as both PDF and XSLX (or CSV), adjusting each one for the period since your last archived report, and saving them to a convenient working directory (such as C:/temp/MonthlyReports).
   • IBM PVU License Consumption (in the License Compliance, Licenses group), listing the software covered by these licenses and the license consumption resulting from inventory imports. The default dates for the reporting period of this report come from the current reporting period (as set in the System Settings > Licensing tab), so it is very likely that you need to adjust the start and end dates to align with the previous reporting period, just closed.
     Tip: Keep in mind that, where a region's peak consumption is maintained over time, the peak date in the report is the last calculation that resulted in that peak figure. If the same peak continues through the end of the reporting period, the listed date may well be the period end date, or perhaps the evening before, when the last relevant calculation was run.
   • IBM Cloud Pak License Consumption (also in the License Compliance, Licenses group), listing IBM Cloud Pak software covered by these IBM VPC licenses, and the license consumption calculated from inventory imports. As for the previous report, be sure to set the correct start and end dates for the reporting period.
   • IBM PVU Overrides (under Discovery and Inventory, Inventory), showing computers consuming from IBM PVU licenses where the computer inventory has been manually modified, or where the device's consumption on a PVU license has been manually overridden. These overrides are the current settings on the device or license properties, respectively.
   • IBM PVU Out-Of-Date Inventory (in the same group), showing computers with incorrectly configured inventory agents, or those for which there has been no inventory gathered in the previous time interval you select for the report.
   • IBM VPC License Consumption Report (Reporting > License Reports > IBM VPC License Consumption) displays the consumption details of all VPC-licensed IBM products that are not bundled, for a given reporting period. The report cannot cover any time earlier than the current data retention period.
3. Switch back to Management mode (clicking the Management button above the main menu in the web interface).
4. Navigate to License Compliance > All Licenses, and use the column chooser to ensure that the following columns are all visible in the listing:
   • Compliance status
   • License type
   • Purchased
   • Consumed.
5. Click the simple filter icon to expose the filter row under the table header, and in the License type column, choose IBM RVU.
   (This is not a typographical error. Auditors of IBM PVU licenses frequently also check consumption for IBM RVU licenses as well.)

   Tip: You may like to use the Save view as link (top right) to keep a standard configuration of the page for your use in monthly reporting.
6. Use the download button (toward the left above the listing) to save IBM RVU License Consumption to your working folder in both PDF and CSV formats.
7. Navigate to License Compliance > Unlicensed Installations, apply a filter for Publisher = IBM, and ensure that at least the following columns are visible:
   • Name
   • Publisher
   • Installed
   • Unlicensed
   • Classification (which may help to explain why some applications are not licensable).
8. Once again, save Unlicensed IBM Application Installations to your working folder in both PDF and CSV formats.
9. If, in the current reporting period, you have manually calculated any license consumption details and stored the results in FlexNet Manager Suite, save a copy of your substantiating records to the working folder. (You may have originally saved such records through the Documents tab of the license properties.)
10. If, in the current reporting period, you have used any scripts or other tools (other than the standard implementation of FlexNet Manager Suite) to gather license consumption details, save copies of their outputs to your working folder.
11. Use CertUtil on Microsoft Windows (or a similar utility of your choice) to store a checksum for each CSV file so that you can demonstrate the integrity of each report under audit.
12. Zip the contents of your working folder into a dated archive (for example, IBM_Reporting_Nov2021.zip, and move to a safe location (such as a backup system) against a possible future audit.

Beyond these typical sub-capacity reporting requirements, your enterprise may have additional reporting required by your IBM agreements, such as License Management Option (LMO) reports, that are not addressed in this process.