In 2024, Broadcom simplified VMware product pricing and packaging. The VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) offering now encompasses a wide variety of VMware software and features, with a relatively smaller number of software and features being sold as add-ons. As part of this simplification, Broadcom required all customers and cloud providers to make new commitments and to create new license keys.

Cloud providers are uniquely entitled for on-demand licensing of VMware products beyond their contract commitment. In exchange for this benefit, Broadcom expects that the vCloud Usage Meter product "must be used" to monitor and report usage of VMware products. IBM secured an extension of this requirement so that we could update our automation and develop integration points for our customers. IBM has now released updated VMware license keys and Usage Meter support, and IBM's customers are expected by Broadcom—and therefore by IBM—to "immediately" install these in order to remain entitled to VMware software. There are roughly three steps:

1. Obtain and install updated VCF license keys for all VCF products
2. Order and install addon license keys for any applicable add-ons that you are using, such as vDefend firewall
3. Install and configure vCloud Usage Meter. As part of the registration, your Usage Meter is connected through IBM to our contract with Broadcom so that it is able to monitor IBM license keys.

In ordinary circumstances, this process should take a few hours at most; although, depending on your network design, the deployment of Usage Meter may require you to work with your firewall and security team beforehand.

However, it is important to note that IBM does not support new license keys or vCloud Usage Meter on vSphere 6 and below, or on NSX-V. If this applies to you, you need to make plans to migrate to vSphere 7 or 8 and to NSX-T as part of becoming compliant with the Usage Meter expectations. One thing that I encourage you to consider is whether IBM's managed VMware offering, VCF as a Service, could be a good home for your VMware workloads. IBM provides both single-tenant and multi-tenant versions of this offering, and takes care of all of the management of the virtualization infrastructure for you. At the time of this writing, IBM is providing customers with a credit for VCFaaS so that you can experiment!

Currently IBM distributes and supports Usage Meter version 4.8. This week, Broadcom released a new version of Usage Meter, version 9. IBM is working with Broadcom both on securing appropriate deadlines for our customers; and also integrating with this new version, which introduces a new registration workflow. Stay tuned for more details, but in the meantime you should proceed with installation of version 4.8.

IBM and Broadcom have prepared a number of resources for you:

1. IBM's documentation on the requirements and steps. This documentation includes video recordings of many steps.
2. IBM's frequently-asked questions on licensing and metering.
3. IBM provides a private proxy for use with Usage Meter for customers in our cloud who have enabled VRF and Service Endpoints. If this is not applicable to you, you will need to think about providing some other path to the public network; such as your own proxy server or a gateway appliance. Usage Meter supports the configuration of static routes if needed for this purpose.
4. Broadcom's documentation on the Usage Meter ports and protocols. Note that this applies to version 9; version 4.8 instead connects to ums.cloud.vmware.com.
5. Broadcom anonymizes the data sent by Usage Meter to their systems. They have published a Usage Meter Data Privacy Guide describing this in more detail.
6. IBM has updated our VMware Solutions Service Description to highlight the requirement to run Usage Meter.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this important requirement!

Picture source: Todd McCann, CC BY 2.0.