ILMT scan frequency and data freshness rules.
Sub-capacity does not just require ILMT to be installed. It requires ILMT to be current. A tool that scanned three months ago is, for audit purposes, a tool that did not run. Here is what frequency IBM expects and why stale data quietly forfeits your position.
Buyers often treat ILMT as a one time deployment: stand it up, point it at the estate, and assume the sub-capacity claim is safe. It is not. The sub-capacity terms require the tool to run continuously and to keep producing reports across the whole period being measured. A gap in scanning is read the same way a missing tool is read, and it lands the affected environment back on full-capacity charging.
What "continuous" actually means
The Passport Advantage sub-capacity terms ask for current data, not occasional snapshots. ILMT discovers and recalculates on a regular cycle, and the practical expectation is that scans run on at least a roughly thirty day rhythm so each quarter is built on fresh measurement rather than a single old reading. The deliverable IBM relies on is the quarterly sub-capacity report, and those reports must be generated each quarter and retained for two years. A quarter with no underlying scan data behind it is a quarter you cannot defend.
How freshness breaks without anyone noticing
- Agents stop reporting. A server is rebuilt, an agent is not reinstalled, and that host silently drops out of discovery while everyone assumes it is covered.
- Scans fail quietly. Scheduled scans error out on a subset of machines and the failures are never reviewed, so the data ages while the dashboard still looks populated.
- Reports are not generated. The tool runs but nobody produces and files the quarterly report, leaving a documentation gap even though the measurement existed.
- New deployments outrun the tool. Software lands on hosts that ILMT has not yet been pointed at, so its first measurement is late and the early period is undefended.
An audit lookback can run two to five years. A scanning gap is not a one quarter problem. Every quarter inside the lookback that lacks fresh data and a retained report is a quarter IBM can default to full-capacity, and on a large estate that multiplies the exposure fast.
How we restore a defensible freshness record
When we inherit an estate with stale or patchy scan history, the work is to rebuild the strongest defensible record period by period. We confirm which hosts were genuinely covered and when, reconstruct the report trail from whatever data exists, and separate true coverage gaps from cosmetic ones such as a renamed host or a re-registered agent that only looks like a gap. The goal is to narrow the period IBM can legitimately treat as unmonitored down to the smallest accurate window, and to document the rest as continuously measured.
Done before the data leaves your network, freshness is a record you present. Done after IBM has the raw scan history, every gap becomes a finding you argue under deadline.
Installed is not the standard. Current is. ILMT must scan on a regular cycle and produce quarterly reports kept for two years. Stale data, dead agents, and missing reports each convert a measured quarter into a full-capacity quarter across the lookback. Keep the cadence and keep the reports, and the sub-capacity number holds.