White paper xiii · IBM

The IBM Passport Advantage at the sub-capacity test.

The Passport Advantage agreement is a quiet anchor in the IBM estate. Its construct shapes the renewal, the bundle, the PVU computation and the audit defence. This 22-page paper sets out the buyer position on Passport Advantage entitlement, ILMT health, sub-capacity reporting and the audit response protocol. Written from the buyer’s side. None of it carries reseller margin or referral fee.

FormatWhite paper, gated
Pages22
AudienceCIO, CFO, Infrastructure, Procurement
PublishedNovember 2024
UpdatedApril 2026

A senior Admodum advisor will follow up to confirm receipt and offer a private read of the document if you would prefer a guided walkthrough. There is no obligation. The paper is the deliverable.

Contents

Inside the 22 pages.

i.
Why the Passport Advantage matters
The Passport Advantage construct, the perpetual licence position, Subscription and Support (S&S) renewal mechanics and the role of the IBM Customer Agreement umbrella.
ii.
PVU computation and the processor table
Processor Value Unit derivation, the IBM PVU table, virtualisation read, hyperthreading treatment and the worked computation across the major chip families.
iii.
Full-capacity versus sub-capacity
The default full-capacity position, the sub-capacity entitlement, the eligibility list and the partitioning technologies that qualify.
iv.
ILMT health and the 30-day rule
The IBM Licence Metric Tool deployment requirement, agent coverage, the 30-day reporting cadence and the quarterly snapshot retention window.
v.
Bundle and Flexible Bundle treatment
Component reads inside Passport Advantage bundles, Flexible Bundle reallocation, the entitled-versus-deployed view and the suite economics.
vi.
The audit defence position
The IBM audit clause, the seven-step Admodum protocol, ILMT remediation under audit, true-up arithmetic and the closing memorandum.
vii.
Cloud Paks and the Red Hat overlay
Cloud Pak VPCs, OpenShift entitlement, the Red Hat subscription transition and the metric reconciliation between Passport Advantage and the post-Red Hat model.
viii.
The renewal posture
The 90-day renewal window, S&S reinstatement risk, the renewal anchor, the BATNA position and the migration paths off uneconomic components.
ix.
Reading list and references
Companion papers on the ILMT sub-capacity build, the IBM Cloud Pak metric reconciliation and the IBM mainframe MLPS economics.
Excerpt · Section IV

ILMT is not a tool. It is the entitlement.

The IBM Licence Metric Tool is positioned in the Passport Advantage Sub-Capacity Licensing terms as the condition precedent for the sub-capacity entitlement. That language matters. Without an ILMT deployment in proper health, the buyer reverts to the full-capacity position; the PVU count moves from the partition allocation to the underlying physical capacity; and the bill moves with it. The arithmetic difference between the two positions can run into millions on a single product.

Sub-capacity is not a default. It is an entitlement that the buyer earns by demonstrating ILMT health quarter on quarter.

IBM’s position is set out in writing. The ILMT deployment must be live within ninety days of first eligible deployment, the agent coverage must extend across the partitions that carry the sub-capacity product, the reporting cadence must run at thirty-day intervals and the quarterly snapshots must be retained for the audit window. Where any of these conditions falls away, the buyer carries audit exposure at the full-capacity computation.

This paper covers the ILMT deployment posture Admodum applies inside the Passport Advantage estate: the agent coverage discipline, the report retention regime, the quarterly review and the remediation protocol where ILMT health has lapsed.

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Admodum is not a partner, reseller, or affiliate of IBM, or of any other software vendor. No reseller margin, no referral commission, no certified-implementer subcontract.
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