IBM License Metric Tool vs License Dashboard

IBM License Metric Tool inventories IBM software measured by processor core and measures required licenses in full-capacity and virtualization sub-capacity environments. IBM recommends it for full-capacity licensing and requires it for sub-capacity licensing. It scans infrastructure for installed IBM software and version details that can support version management and security patching. For sub-capacity use, it produces audit reports, tracks license utilization thresholds, and sends email notifications when thresholds approach or exceed their limits. Installation options are License Metric Tool Lite, License Metric Tool with Ansible, and License Metric Tool with BigFix. It integrates with BigFix and provides a REST API for external systems, which must retrieve data through the API rather than directly from the database. The tool is free, with a listed price of free; customers supply hardware and installation services. Linux installations require DB2, included at no charge for use only with the tool. Windows installations require a customer-provided MS SQL Server instance; MS SQL Server Express is supported for environments under 500 endpoints. Sub-capacity audit snapshots must be generated quarterly and kept for at least two years.

License Dashboard is a software asset management suite for organizations tracking software licenses, IT spending, utilization, and compliance. Its products include License Manager, Portal, Discovery, SaaS Manager, Universal Data, and an API. License Manager automates reconciliation, calculates license metrics, records compliance history, and maintains an audit trail. It checks entitlements against software catalogues, links maintenance and upgrade terms to base licenses, and visualizes virtualization relationships. Views cover cloud, on-premise, and hybrid entitlements, with predicted-spend recommendations. Portal provides role-based dashboards, reports, renewal tracking, unused-application identification, Azure billing monitoring, and Microsoft 365 subscription oversight through web access on desktop and mobile. Discovery scans Unix, Linux, and Windows networks using agent-based or agentless methods. SaaS Manager monitors AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and SaaS subscriptions. Universal Data normalizes information from inventory and third-party systems, while the REST API supports single-tenant and multi-tenant deployments. The suite is offered as a hybrid deployment across API, Linux, web, and Windows. Pricing is on request.