IMPORTANT: The master branch contains the currently developed version of License Service and its content should not be used. Switch to another branch to view the content for the already-released version of License Service, for example release-<version> branch.
You can install License Service with ibm-licensing-operator to collect license usage information in two scenarios:
Scenario: License Service as a part of an IBM Cloud Pak (included in IBM Cloud Pak foundational services)
Important: Do not install this operator directly. Only install this operator using the IBM IBM Cloud Pak foundational services operator. For more information about installing this operator and other foundational services operators, see Installer documentation. If you are using this operator as part of an IBM Cloud Pak, see the documentation for that IBM Cloud Pak to learn more about how to install and use the operator service. For more information about IBM Cloud Paks, see IBM Cloud Paks that use IBM Cloud Pak foundational services.
You can use the ibm-licensing-operator to install License Service as a part of IBM Cloud Pak foundational services or an IBM Cloud Pak. You can use License Service to collect information about license usage of IBM containerized products and IBM Cloud Paks per cluster. You can retrieve license usage data through a dedicated API call and generate an audit snapshot on demand.
For more information about the available IBM Cloud Pak foundational services, see the IBM Documentation.
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.2 or newer installed on Linux x86_64, Linux on Power (ppc64le), Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE.
Before you install this operator, you need to first install the operator dependencies and prerequisites:
Important: If you installed License Service with the stand-alone IBM containerized software and you want to install an IBM Cloud Pak, it is recommended to first uninstall License Service from every cluster. Before uninstalling, the best practice is to retrieve an audit snapshot to ensure no data is lost. The Cloud Pak will install a new instance of License Service. This is a temporary action that we would like to automate in the future.
To install the operator with the IBM Cloud Pak foundational services Operator follow the installation and configuration instructions within the IBM Documentation.
License Service supports running with the OpenShift Container Platform 4.3 default restricted Security Context Constraints (SCCs).
For more information about the OpenShift Container Platform Security Context Constraints, see Managing Security Context Constraints.
Scenario: Learn how to deploy License Service on Kubernetes clusters without an IBM CLoud Pak
You can use the ibm-licensing-operator to install License Service on any Kubernetes cluster without an IBM Cloud Pak. License Service collects information about license usage of IBM Containerized Products. You can retrieve license usage data through a dedicated API call and generate an audit snapshot on demand.
For the overview and documentation, see License Service deployment without an IBM Cloud for IBM stand-alone IBM Containerized Software.
Note: License Service Reporter, which is an extension of License Service that aggregates the license usage data from multiple clusters, is not available without an IBM Cloud Pak on OpenShift Container Platform. License Service Reporter is only available as a part of an IBM Cloud Pak on OpenShift Container Platform (included in IBM Cloud Pak foundational services).