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Requirements for licensing and metering

Requirements for licensing and metering

Broadcom requires IBM® and IBM Cloud customers to use new license keys and to use the VMware vCloud Usage Meter tool for compliance purposes. As an IBM Cloud® customer, you must adopt these new license keys and you must deploy Usage Meter. No exceptions are allowed and the ability to use VMware software on IBM Cloud might be revoked at any time if you do not meet these requirements.

The adoption of new licensing and metering is applicable to the IBM Cloud commercial environments with VMware vSphere® 7 and later. If you are using an unsupported vSphere version, you must upgrade to vSphere 7 or later to become compliant.

As of May 2024, IBM requires that you order sufficient capacity for the VMware vDefend™ Firewall (formerly VMware NSX Firewall) add-on to represent your usage of vDefend Firewall functionality. If you do not meet this requirement, you must purchase the required quantity of vDefend Firewall add-on. For more information, see VMware vDefend Firewall add-on.

Broadcom will release updates to Usage Meter from time to time. IBM and IBM customers must apply these updates in a timely manner.

Depending on your use case, review the following information and complete the appropriate steps.

VCF as a Service (formerly VMware as a Service)

For VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service (VCF as a Service), you do not need to take any action as IBM is the consumer of VMware licenses.

VCF for Classic - Automated (formerly VMware vCenter Server)

For your existing Automated instances, complete the following steps:

  1. Obtain new Broadcom license keys and retrieve VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license keys from the VMware Solutions console.
  2. Retrieve VMware add–on keys. For more information, see VMware add-ons for VMware Cloud Foundation.
  3. Add new license keys to all VMware products and assign licenses to them as applicable. For more information, see Managing VMware product licenses.

For the VCF for Classic - Automated offering, IBM Cloud automation will install Usage Meter. After you apply the correct license keys to your instance, complete the following steps:

  1. In the VMware Solutions console, click Resources > VCF for Classic from the left navigation panel.

  2. In the VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic table, click an instance name.

  3. On the Summary tab, click Deploy Usage Meter.

  4. Click Deploy.

The deployment process might take some time to complete.

It is important to note that:

  • You must have sufficient capacity in your environment to deploy the Usage Meter virtual machine (VM), which requires 2 vCPUs, 8 GB of memory, and 80 GB of disk.
  • The Usage Meter VM is configured by automation to connect to a proxy server on the IBM Cloud service endpoint network, which is 166.8.0.0/14. Your firewalls must allow communication between your VMware management network and this network.

Starting on 11 April 2025, all new hosts or instances that you deploy will be provisioned by IBM Cloud automation with new Broadcom license keys and will install and configure Usage Meter as needed.

VCF for Classic - Flexible (formerly VMware vSphere)

For your existing Flexible instances, complete the following steps:

  1. Obtain new Broadcom license keys and retrieve VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license keys from the VMware Solutions console.
  2. Retrieve VMware add–on keys. For more information, see VMware add-ons for VMware Cloud Foundation.
  3. Add new license keys to all VMware products and assign licenses to them as applicable. For more information, see Managing VMware product licenses.

Then, to connect your instance to Usage Meter, complete the following steps:

  1. Install Usage Meter in your non–automated environments. For more information, see Deploying Usage Meter.

  2. Configure Usage Meter to use the IBM Cloud proxy server.

    IBM Cloud provides a proxy server so that Usage Meter can connect to Broadcom over the IBM Cloud private network. Unless you are running Usage Meter on-premises as part of the IBM Bridge to Cloud program, you can optionally configure Usage Meter to use this IBM proxy server. Alternatively, you can configure Usage Meter to connect to Broadcom directly over the public network or through your own proxy server if you want. For more information, see Configuring Usage Meter.

  3. Register Usage Meter with IBM Cloud. Complete this step to obtain the Usage Meter ID from Usage Meter and register it in the IBM Cloud console. For more information, see Registering Usage Meter with IBM.

  4. Add VMware products to Usage Meter. For more information, see Adding VMware products to Usage Meter.

Starting on 11 April 2025, all new hosts that you deploy will be provisioned with new VCF license keys. You will obtain license keys as described in the previous steps. These new hosts must be covered by the Usage Meter that you deployed or by a new Usage Meter.

VCF for VPC (formerly VMware Cloud Foundation)

For your existing VCF for VPC instances, complete the following steps:

  1. Obtain new Broadcom license keys and retrieve VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license keys from the VMware Solutions console.
  2. Retrieve VMware add–on keys. For more information, see VMware add-ons for VMware Cloud Foundation.
  3. Add new license keys to all VMware products and assign licenses to them as applicable. For more information, see Managing VMware product licenses.

Then, to connect your instance to Usage Meter, complete the following steps:

  1. Install Usage Meter in your non–automated environments. For more information, see Deploying Usage Meter.

  2. Configure Usage Meter to use the IBM Cloud proxy server.

    IBM Cloud provides a proxy server so that Usage Meter can connect to Broadcom over the IBM Cloud private network. Unless you are running Usage Meter on-premises as part of the IBM Bridge to Cloud program, you can optionally configure Usage Meter to use this IBM proxy server. Alternatively, you can configure Usage Meter to connect to Broadcom directly over the public network or through your own proxy server if you want. For more information, see Configuring Usage Meter.

  3. Register Usage Meter with IBM Cloud. Complete this step to obtain the Usage Meter ID from Usage Meter and register it in the IBM Cloud console. For more information, see Registering Usage Meter with IBM.

  4. Add VMware products to Usage Meter. For more information, see Adding VMware products to Usage Meter.

Starting on 11 April 2025, all new hosts or instances that you deploy will be provisioned by IBM Cloud automation with new Broadcom license keys. At some point in the future, the IBM Cloud automation is expected to deploy Usage Meter to new instances automatically. Until then, you must deploy Usage Meter for any new instances that you create.

Roll-your-own (RYO) servers deployed from the Classic Bare Metal order form

For your existing instances, complete the following steps:

  1. Obtain new Broadcom license keys and retrieve VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license keys from the VMware Solutions console.
  2. Retrieve VMware add–on keys. For more information, see VMware add-ons for VMware Cloud Foundation.
  3. Add new license keys to all VMware products and assign licenses to them as applicable. For more information, see Managing VMware product licenses.

Then, to connect your environment to Usage Meter, complete the following steps:

  1. Install Usage Meter in your non–automated environments. For more information, see Deploying Usage Meter.

  2. Configure Usage Meter to use the IBM Cloud proxy server.

    IBM Cloud provides a proxy server so that Usage Meter can connect to Broadcom over the IBM Cloud private network. Unless you are running Usage Meter on-premises as part of the IBM Bridge to Cloud program, you can optionally configure Usage Meter to use this IBM proxy server. Alternatively, you can configure Usage Meter to connect to Broadcom directly over the public network or through your own proxy server if you want. For more information, see Configuring Usage Meter.

  3. Register Usage Meter with IBM Cloud. Complete this step to obtain the Usage Meter ID from Usage Meter and register it in the IBM Cloud console. For more information, see Registering Usage Meter with IBM.

  4. Add VMware products to Usage Meter. For more information, see Adding VMware products to Usage Meter.

Starting on 11 April 2025, all new hosts that you deploy will be provisioned with new VCF license keys. You will obtain license keys as described in the previous steps. These new hosts must be covered by the Usage Meter that you deployed or by a new Usage Meter.

BYOL for VMware

If you are a BYOL (Bring Your Own License) user and if all hosts in your environment are licensed with your own licenses, IBM does not require you to take any action as you are contracted directly with Broadcom.

However, if some of the hosts in your environment are licensed with IBM-provided licenses, complete the following steps:

  1. Obtain new Broadcom license keys and retrieve VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license keys from the VMware Solutions console.

  2. Retrieve VMware add–on keys. For more information, see VMware add-ons for VMware Cloud Foundation.

  3. Add new license keys to all VMware products and assign licenses to them as applicable. For more information, see Managing VMware product licenses.

    Assign IBM licenses only to hosts for which you are paying IBM for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) entitlement.

Then, to connect your mixed–licensing environment to Usage Meter, complete the following steps:

  1. Install Usage Meter in your non–automated environments. For more information, see Deploying Usage Meter.

  2. Configure Usage Meter to use the IBM Cloud proxy server.

    IBM Cloud provides a proxy server so that Usage Meter can connect to Broadcom over the IBM Cloud private network. Unless you are running Usage Meter on-premises as part of the IBM Bridge to Cloud program, you can optionally configure Usage Meter to use this IBM proxy server. Alternatively, you can configure Usage Meter to connect to Broadcom directly over the public network or through your own proxy server if you want. For more information, see Configuring Usage Meter.

  3. Register Usage Meter with IBM. Complete this step to obtain the Usage Meter ID from Usage Meter and register it in the IBM Cloud console. For more information, see Registering Usage Meter with IBM.

  4. Add VMware products to Usage Meter. For more information, see Adding VMware products to Usage Meter.

Broadcom license portability

IBM does not require you to take any action as you are contracted directly with Broadcom. Do not mix your Broadcom licenses and IBM licenses in the same environment.

On-premises VMware licenses as part of the IBM Bridge to Cloud program

You must work with IBM Cloud product management to obtain new Broadcom license keys, which include receiving new keys for products such as vSphere, VMware Avi Load Balancer, and vDefend Firewall. If needed, you can order new add-on keys and apply them to your VMware environment. Next, deploy one or more instances of Usage Meter to your environments to ensure that usage is reported to Broadcom.

For new licensed environments, you will continue to work with IBM Cloud product management to obtain license keys and ensure that each environment is monitored by Usage Meter. You can connect these new environments to an existing Usage Meter or deploy a new Usage Meter.

To connect your environment to Usage Meter, complete the following steps:

  1. Install Usage Meter in your non–automated environments. For more information, see Deploying Usage Meter.
  2. Configure Usage Meter. For more information, see Configuring Usage Meter.
  3. Register Usage Meter with IBM. Complete this step to obtain the Usage Meter ID from Usage Meter and register it in the IBM Cloud console. For more information, see Registering Usage Meter with IBM.
  4. Add VMware products to Usage Meter. For more information, see Adding VMware products to Usage Meter.