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Product · IBM MQ

IBM MQ licensing and audit defense.

IBM MQ moves the messages that keep your business running, and it sits on exactly the kind of widely connected estate that audits love. We map how MQ is licensed, where the count goes wrong, and how to defend it. Independent and buyer side, we are not affiliated with IBM.

PVU · core based for production deploymentsVPC · under Cloud Pak for Integration
How IBM MQ is licensed.

MQ is metered to capacity, so every core it can touch is a core IBM can count.

Standalone IBM MQ production deployments are licensed by the processor value unit, the core based metric where PVU per core, around 70 PVU for a typical Intel core, is multiplied by the cores allocated to the software. MQ is sub capacity eligible, so with ILMT in place you can license only the virtual cores running it rather than the whole physical host.

Where MQ ships inside Cloud Pak for Integration, it is metered in virtual processor cores. Since Passport Advantage version 11, VPC metered products fall under sub capacity reporting and ILMT as well, and manual core counting is no longer accepted. The metric you are charged on depends on how MQ entered your estate, and that is the first thing an audit tests.

The common MQ audit traps.

MQ deployments spread quietly. These are the patterns that turn into findings.

Trap 01
Missing ILMT, full capacity charge
A queue manager using a handful of cores on a large host, with no working ILMT agent, is charged across every core in that host rather than the cores MQ actually uses.
Trap 02
Multi instance and HA standby
Standby and high availability nodes are often deployed without a clear license rule applied, and IBM may count idle standby capacity as live.
Trap 03
Managed File Transfer and connectors
Managed File Transfer, Advanced features and client connectors carry their own entitlements, and use beyond the base scope shows up as unlicensed deployment.
Trap 04
Sprawl onto ineligible hosts
MQ installed on hosts that do not meet sub capacity rules voids the virtual claim for that period and defaults the count back to full capacity.
How we defend the MQ count.
01
Contain
Scope which queue managers, connectors and MFT instances are truly in use before any inventory reaches IBM.
02
Reconcile
Recompute PVU or VPC against your entitlements, applying sub capacity where the ILMT evidence holds.
03
Challenge
Dispute full capacity defaults on standby nodes and every install IBM cannot show is in genuine production use.
04
Settle
Close on a corrected MQ position with a sub capacity reinstatement plan written into the settlement.
Related services.

Defend MQ before the count defaults up.

$250M+ in exposure defended. 500+ engagements. We mobilize within 48 hours of your audit notice. Independent and buyer side, every time.

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The IBM Audit Brief

Audit triggers, ILMT pitfalls, and settlement tactics for IBM software buyers.

IBM Audit

Independent, buyer side IBM software audit defense and negotiation. Not affiliated with IBM Corporation.

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Independent. Not affiliated with IBM Corporation.Buyer Side · Est. 2019