Overridden Consumption

This field enables you to override the value of Calculated consumption derived by FlexNet Manager Suite for an inventory device (or user, depending on license type). When non-zero, this field sets the total consumed count of license entitlements (for the chosen device or user), replacing what was originally calculated by FlexNet Manager Suite. In these non-zero cases, after a full license reconciliation, the values of the Consumed and Overridden consumption columns are the same.

Tip: If Calculated consumption is derived by, and imported from, ILMT (visible by adding the Calculated by column on the Consumption tab), Overridden consumption has no effect. Furthermore, the Overridden consumption column is disabled for any row displaying a Kubernetes cluster (the Inventory device type column shows the pseudo-value Cluster); and if this is a license for an IBM Cloud Pak (most often an IBM VPC license type), the Overridden consumption column is also disabled for rows displaying a Product.

For more about the relationships between various consumption fields (with special emphasis on IBM PVU licenses), see Relationships Between Consumption Fields.

Click in the cell to enter the number of license entitlements or points that you declare is the corrected consumption value for the inventory device (or user, depending on license type) shown in your chosen row. Depending on circumstances, this figure may be higher or lower than the consumption calculated by FlexNet Manager Suite from imported inventory (shown in the Calculated consumption column).

Tip: If Calculated consumption is derived by, and imported from ILMT (visible by adding the Calculated by column on the Consumption tab), Overridden consumption has no effect.

Important: You apply an override as a correction, because you do not trust an element of inventory data. For this reason, capping no longer applies at the level where you apply an override. For example, if inventory reports that a particular VM is assigned 2 cores (and the points table assigns 50 points per core), the Calculated consumption for that VM is 100 points, and may be capped at that value. If you now assign an override of 300 points, the capping is ignored at the VM level, and its local consumption becomes 300 points. However, capping may still apply at the host level. To continue the example, if the same VM is on a host with 4 cores (at 50 points each) with capping, the host caps the consumption at a maximum of 200 points. Therefore, if you apply an override, be sure to apply it at the appropriate level, and consider whether an additional override on the host level is also required. (You see where capping is applied by adding the Capped column from the column chooser on the Consumption tab of the license properties.) Do not add an override to a VM that has intervening levels (pools and the like) in its virtualization hierarchy.

When you have changed all affected rows, remember to click Save.

Tip: The following timing issues apply:

• Immediate impact: When your changes are saved, the only immediate impacts are:
  • To update the bottom-line total of all values in the Overridden consumption column (the total includes entries across all pages, if there are multiple pages in the list of consuming devices/users); and
  • To update the same total reflected in the Compliance tab of the license properties.
  Specifically, when you save a new override value, the Consumed column is not immediately affected.
• Full compliance calculation impact: After the next full compliance calculation (by default, happening overnight), for each row any non-zero Overridden consumption value is copied into the Consumed column for the same row. So typically you can see the corrected Consumed value the day after changing the override.
• IBM PVU Peak impact: If you are using higher frequency scanning for IBM PVU licenses (allowing FlexNet Manager Suite to calculate subcapacity license consumption), the Overridden consumption value is always taken into account when reassessing the Peak consumed value every 30 minutes (or the interval you set) — even in the gap between your edit to the override and the next full compliance calculation, when you cannot see the corrected Consumed value. That is, despite the delayed display, no data is lost for the high-frequency checking of the Peak consumed value.

For more about the relationships between various consumption fields (with special emphasis on IBM PVU licenses), see Relationships Between Consumption Fields.

Tip: In usage scenarios where many external users use a single account to access a server, the Overridden consumption column value should be adjusted to show the actual consumption. For example, if three warehouse managers rotating through different shifts each log in with the WHMgr account to an application that accesses a database on Microsoft SQL Server, the UAL data reveals access evidence for only one accessing account, WHMgr. In this example, to remain license compliant, the Overridden consumption should be adjusted to three.

Not available for CAL Legacy, IBM Authorized User, IBM Concurrent User, IBM Floating User, IBM UVU, IBM VCP, Microsoft SCCM Client User, Named User, Oracle Application User, Oracle Legacy, Oracle Named User Plus, SaaS User, or User licenses.