VPC: virtual processor core licensing since Passport Advantage v11.
VPC looks like a simpler metric than PVU, and that is exactly why it catches people out. Since Passport Advantage v11, VPC metered products must report through ILMT under sub capacity rules, and manual counting is no longer permitted. The estates still counting VPC in a spreadsheet are carrying an exposure they have not measured.
What VPC is
Virtual Processor Core is the metric many IBM container and Cloud Pak products are licensed by. Where PVU multiplies cores by a per core value tied to the processor, VPC counts the virtual cores made available to the software directly, with no PVU multiplier. The arithmetic is simpler, but the entitlement still has to match the deployed virtual cores, and the way that count is produced is where the rules changed.
What Passport Advantage v11 changed
Under Passport Advantage v11, which applied to existing customers from May 1 2023, VPC metered products were brought under sub capacity reporting and ILMT. The headline change is that manual counting of VPC is no longer permitted. Where a team once kept a spreadsheet of virtual cores per Cloud Pak, IBM now expects the figure to come from ILMT, or an approved equivalent, on the same sub capacity terms that already governed PVU products. That means deployed within 90 days, running continuously, quarterly reports retained for two years.
Why this is a new exposure
Many VPC deployments predate the rule and were never wired into ILMT, because at purchase they did not have to be. The transition is exactly the kind of gap an audit finds: the product is in scope for sub capacity reporting, ILMT was not collecting it, and the manual count the team relied on is no longer an acceptable basis. For container and Cloud Pak products the stakes are higher still, because non compliance there means IBM can charge for all cores in the cluster, not just the cores the software used.
What to check now
The practical questions are narrow. Is every VPC metered product visible in ILMT, with agents reporting on every host and cluster where it runs. Did the move from manual counting to ILMT reporting happen when v11 took effect, or did the process lag. Does the VPC count ILMT produces reconcile against your entitlements. Each of those is answerable today, on your own schedule, which is the only schedule that keeps it cheap.
VPC is not the soft metric it appears to be. Since Passport Advantage v11 it lives under ILMT and sub capacity rules, and the manual counts many estates still rely on are no longer a defence. Get every VPC metered product reporting through ILMT, reconcile the count against entitlement, and for Cloud Pak remember that a compliance gap exposes the whole cluster, not just the cores in use.
VPC products still counted by hand?
Our PVU Reconciliation engagement recalculates PVU and VPC consumption against your entitlements and Passport Advantage records, and confirms every metered product is reporting the way IBM now requires. We mobilize within 48 hours of your audit notice.
See PVU Reconciliation →The IBM Audit Brief
Audit triggers, ILMT pitfalls, and settlement tactics for IBM software buyers.
Independent, buyer side IBM software audit defense and negotiation. Not affiliated with IBM Corporation.