Container vCPU Capacity Counting Methodology
Catalog row in Vendor License Rules · Cited
- Kind
- Counting
- Statement
- IBM Container Licenses — vCPU Capacity Counting Methodology (retrieved 2026-08-31): “The vCPU capacity of a pod is the sum of the CPU limits for all containers within that pod” via Kubernetes resources.limits.cpu. “Pods with vCPU capacity less than one core will be counted as fractions.” “Within a worker node, when the total vCPU capacity for all pods of an IBM Program exceeds the worker node capacity, the vCPU capacity is equal to the worker node capacity.” “Any pod which contains a container without a CPU limit is considered to have vCPU capacity equal to the worker node capacity.” “vCPU capacity for an IBM Program will be aggregated at the cluster level and any fractional values rounded up to the nearest whole integer.” HT/SMT for containers only (do not apply to traditional sub-capacity): “2 vCPUs per 1 core as 1 VPC or 70 PVUs for license counting purposes if Hyperthreading or SMT2 is enabled (e.g., 8 vCPUs is counted as 4 vCPUs).” SMT4 = 4 vCPUs per 1 core; SMT8 = 8 vCPUs per 1 core. “For clusters, with mixed/different SMT levels, the lowest factor is applied.” Identification of HT/SMT “to be done manually and assigned at a cluster level” until License Service automates it. “Available vCPU capacity will be polled at frequent intervals (≤ 30 minutes) throughout each day and processed where the maximum value from intraday calculations determine daily available vCPU capacity.”
- Applies when
- Counting containerized IBM Programs with IBM License Service under Container Licensing. HT/SMT factors apply to containers only, not traditional VM sub-capacity.
- Applies to
- IBM Certified Containers and IBM Cloud Paks deployed in containers (Kubernetes-orchestrated). Not traditional sub-capacity SMT (which is not adjusted).
- Aliases
- pod CPU limits; worker-node cap; cluster round-up; container HT/SMT
- Related metrics
- Related programs