When you start using the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) service, you subscribe to the service for a trial period. When your trial subscription ends, you can use the free VMware Cloud core features in the service or upgrade to a premium subscription.

You can view your subscription status and upgrade your subscription in the Subscriptions page.

Note: If a new region is added to your organization:
  • The new region is associated with the same subscription plan as the default region.
  • The daily data limit for a trial or free subscription is applied separately to each region.
  • Billing is consolidated for all the regions in the organization.
For information about regions, see Managing Regions.

Trial Subscription

When you start using the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) service, you enter a free trial subscription period of 30 days. During this period, you can use all the features in the service. This subscription has a log retention period of 10 days and the following data limits:

  • VMware Cloud on AWS users - 50 GB per day
  • Non-VMware Cloud on AWS users - 15 GB per day
When the trial period ends, the subscription extends for another 15 days. After the trial period, if you need an extension beyond the free trial subscription period (30 days + 15 days grace period) or after the expiration of the trial, contact VMware Support. If you do not need an extension, you can continue with the free subscription or upgrade to a premium subscription.
Note: By default, the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) trial instance is provisioned in US. For other regions, contact VMware Support.

Free Subscription

After the trial period, the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) service switches to a free subscription that includes the VMware Cloud core features. You are not charged for these features.

The following table lists the features included in this subscription:

Feature Category Feature Availability
Log platform Dashboard creation and sharing Yes
Usage statistics and telemetry Yes
Real-time alerts Yes
Webhook and email notifications Yes
Role-based access control Yes
Metric extraction and forwarding Yes
Log export Yes
Log grouping and reduction Yes
Log comparison and trends Yes
Log agent management Yes
Public query APIs Yes
Log forwarding to on-premises and SaaS destinations Yes
Log processing (filtering, masking, and tagging) Yes
Log archiving No
Log partitions No
Live tail No
Log sources VMware Cloud on AWS audit and activity logs Yes
VMware Cloud on AWS events and alarms Yes
VMware Cloud on AWS NSX-T firewall logs Total 1 GB per day
VMware Cloud Services Platform audit logs
VMware on-premises product logs
Non-VMware logs (public cloud, apps, containers, and so on)
Content packs VMware Cloud on AWS audit log content packs Yes
VMware log content packs (vSphere, vSAN, NSX-T, and so on) No
Non-VMware log content packs (AWS, Microsoft, and so on) No
Log retention Query-able retention in platform 7 days
Analytics KB insights No

Except for audit logs, activity logs, events, and alarms, this subscription consumes a total of 1 GB of logs per day for VMware Cloud on AWS users and 5 GB for other users. Warning messages appear when your daily data limit reaches 75% and 100%. Crossing the threshold limit of 1 GB or 5 GB stops the flow of logs into the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) service. To use all the features of the service, you can upgrade to a premium subscription.

For information about the VMware Cloud on AWS audit events collected and analyzed by VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS), see Audit Logs for VMware Cloud on AWS.

Premium Subscription

To access all the features in the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) service, you can upgrade to a full-time premium subscription.

Note: Before you select a premium subscription, ensure that you have added a payment method, and you have both the administrator and the organization owner permissions.
  1. Expand the main menu and navigate to Configuration > Subscriptions.
  2. Select a subscription of your choice.
    • To select an on-demand subscription, under On- Demand Plan, click Activate.

      When you activate this subscription, you are billed according to your data usage. To view the billing criteria for the subscription, click View Rate Card.

    • To create your own customized subscription plan, under Customized Plan, click Build Your Plan. To view the billing criteria for this plan, click View Rate Card.
      When you choose to build a customized plan, you are redirected to VMware Aria Universal Suite. While configuring the quantity and term for the plan, you can select your requirements.
      Requirement Description
      Ingestion Select the log volume and commitment plan for ingestion. You are charged based on the volume of logs flowing into VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS).
      Indexed Storage Select the log volume, retention period, and commitment plan for indexed storage. You are charged based on the volume of logs stored in indexed partitions.

      Indexed storage is suitable for short-term storage (up to 30 days) and frequent querying with quick results.

      You are not charged for executing queries.
      Non-indexed Storage Select the log volume, retention period, and commitment plan for non-indexed storage. You are charged based on the volume of logs stored in non-indexed partitions and the volume of logs examined when queries are executed.

      Non-indexed storage is suitable for long-term storage (up to 7 years) and infrequent querying.

      Note: Additional charges apply on top of your subscription plan for running queries on non-indexed storage.
      For any excess consumption beyond the selected commitment plans, you are charged according to the on-demand plan.
      Tip: Commitment plans provide a discounted rate based on the commitment period (1 year or 3 years) and retention period.
Billing for a premium subscription is handled through VMware Cloud Services. Your billing cycle begins on the day of the month when you upgrade to a premium subscription. For example, if you upgrade to a premium subscription on the 15th of the month, your billing cycle runs from the 15th of the month through the 14th of the following month.

Log volumes for VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) are tracked in alignment with your billing cycle. The log volume shown on your bill is the entirety of your log volume during the billing period.

For more information about billing, see Billing & Subscriptions.

For information about the pricing, see the VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) Product page.