Billing Framework for Managed Objects and Subscription Overages

You can remove objects which should not be monitored by VMware Aria Operations using the billing framework. The billing framework ensures that the license fee is not applicable to the unmanaged objects which are moved to the maintenance state.

How To Manage Unmanaged Objects

To manage the unmanaged objects, you have to perform the following actions in VMware Aria Operations :

• Remove objects that should not be monitored.
• Move the unmonitored objects to maintenance state.
• Stop the data collection for the objects in maintenance mode.
• Power off the virtual machines that are in maintenance mode.

Billing Support for Unmanaged Objects

When you remove specific objects from monitoring, VMware Aria Operations moves these objects to maintenance mode and stops billing for the objects. The billing framework ensures that the costs related to licensing are not calculated for the following scenarios:

• vSphere and Public cloud virtual machines are in maintenance mode.
• vSphere and Public cloud virtual machines are in powered off state.
• vSphere and Public cloud virtual machines have stopped data collection.

If you want to reduce the number of objects managed by VMware Aria Operations , you can do that in multiple ways. Select one of the following option to exclude the objects from billing:

• Power off the object
• Move the object to maintenance mode. To do this navigate to Environment > Inventory
• Stop data collection for the object. To do this navigate to Environment > Inventory

The licensing fee is not charged for the objects in maintenance mode, you can verify the same in the next hourly billing cycle. You can navigate to Environment > Inventory list, to view the list of objects that are in maintenance mode.

VMware Aria Operations Usage goes Beyond the Subscription Limit

In paid versions of VMware Aria Operations , you must pay overages (on-demand pricing) if objects under management go beyond the subscription limits.

Cause

Overage charges will occur if the monitored objects count is greater than the subscription limit. Depending upon your license, verify your current usage using one of the following out of the box dashboards:

• VMware Aria Operations Billing
• VMware Aria Operations Universal Billing

Resolution

In order to avoid overages, There are several options that can be used. Choose one of the following options.

• Only monitor a subset of the vCenter Server inventory in VMware Aria Operations as mentioned in Selecting a subset of the vCenter Server inventory to monitor in VMware Aria Operations.
• Remove objects from billing by putting those objects in a maintenance state. This can be done from Administration > Inventory. Select one or more objects and click the Start Maintenance action.
• Follow the suggestion in Billing Framework for Managed Objects and Subscription Overages.
• Stop Adapter instances that are of low importance.
• Create an Alert to trigger when the subscription limit threshold is reached.

Placing Objects in Maintenance State

In the paid versions of VMware Aria Operations subscription model, you can move the objects into maintenance state using the following procedure.

To automatically put newly discovered objects in maintenance state, follow the steps given below.

1. Navigate to Configure > Maintenance Schedules page, and click Add.
2. Provide the Schedule Name and Time Zone.
3. Set the Start on time as required, and set the Stop on time to a large value.
4. Click Save.
   Note: A new maintenance schedule is created.
5. Navigate to Configure > Policies page, and click Add.
6. Provide a Name, and click Create Policy.
7. Click the Capacity tile.
8. In the Select Object Type drop-down menu, choose the required object type, like Virtual Machine.
9. Click the lock icon to Unlock Maintenance Schedule and select the maintenance schedule you had created earlier.
10. Click Save.
    Note: Repeat this step for other newly discovered object types you want to place into a maintenance state, such as Host Systems.
11. Navigate to Environment > Custom Groups and click Add to create a new group.
12. Provide a Name, set the Policy to the policy you just created, and define the membership criteria for the objects you want to be placed into the maintenance state.

In this example we will use virtual machine as the object, and TestUbuntu as the criteria. Any virtual machine that contains the name TestUbuntu will be placed in the custom group and as per the policy the VM will be moved to maintenance state.

All objects satisfying the custom group criteria will be placed into a maintenance state within 20 minutes of discovery. Verify that the objects which are in maintenance state are excluded from VMware Aria Operations billing by reviewing the billing dashboards mentioned in the Cause section.

How to Stop Adapter Instances of Low Importance

Adapter instance that are of low importance can be stopped, thus reducing the object count by the number of objects in that adapter instance.

Note: No data will be collected on the child objects while the parent adapter instance is stopped. The procedure mentioned below is applicable to Trial or Paid VMware Aria Operations subscription models.

To stop an adapter instance, complete the steps below.

1. Navigate to Data Sources > Integrations > Cloud Accounts.
2. Click the vertical ellipsis next to the adapter instance you want to stop, then click Stop Collecting All.

How to Create a Subscription Threshold Alert

Creating an alert to trigger, when the usage is close to or already reached the configured subscription threshold, will help you to identify potential subscription issues.

Identify your subscription limit from the VMware Aria Cloud Subscription Manager service. Note the total quantity of the subscriptions and if they are OSI or CPU based.

Note: OSI based metering is for VMware Aria Operations stand-alone subscriptions and CPU based metering is for VMware Aria Cloud Universal.

1. From VMware Aria Cloud, navigate to the VMware Aria Operations , and then Configuration > Alerts > Alert Definitions page.
2. Click Add to create a new Alert Definition.
   1. Set the alert Name.
   2. Set the Base Object type to Container > Universe.
   3. Under Advanced Settings set Impact to Risk and Alert Type & Subtype to Administrative : Capacity.
3. Click Next, to move to Symptoms/Conditions page.
   1. In the Symptoms tab, click Create New Symptom, depending on whether the subscription is OSI or CPU based, find and double-click on the metric Billing Objects > Summary > Total CPU Count or Total OSI Count.
   2. Set the symptom definition Name.
   3. Set Condition to is greater than.
   4. Set Value to the desired threshold to trigger the alert.
      Note:

      • You may choose to set the subscription limit as a threshold, which has been fetched from the VMware Aria Cloud Subscription Manager service mentioned above. If you like to get a proactive alert when the usage comes closer but does not hit the subscription limit, you may set the threshold to 10% or 20% less than the subscription limit. You may also choose to have two or more Symptoms in the same alert with different thresholds and criticality.
      • Each time when a new subscription has been added or the old one has expired, this field should be updated accordingly as per the subscription limit shown in the VMware Aria Cloud Subscription Manager service.
   5. Set the Criticality as per your preference.
   6. Under Advanced Settings set the Wait Cycle and Cancel Cycle to 1.
4. Click Create.
5. Find the newly created symptom in the right panel and drag and drop it to the left panel.
6. Click Next, then click Next again.
7. Select a policy to enable this alert in. You may choose the default policy.
8. Click Create.