Understanding managed and unmanaged vROps usage and the impact of unmanaged vROps usage in the VCP monthly billing order
Article ID: 322774
Updated On:
Products
VMware Aria Suite
Issue/Introduction
What is vROps managed and unmanaged usage?
vCenter servers monitored by a vRealize Operations server, which are also registered with Usage Meter, are named “Managed vCenter” servers. vCenter servers monitored by a vRealize Operations server but not registered by Usage Meter are named “Unmanaged Servers”. Both Managed and Unmanaged vCenter servers are listed in Usage Meter vRealize Operations report lines.
“Unmanaged Servers” can be associated with only one vRealize Operations instance if monitored by multiple instances. This will be the vRealize Operations instance with the highest edition. Virtual machines part of that “Unmanaged Servers” will be billed once no matter how many vRealize Operations instances are monitoring them. For the billing of monitored VMs, will be taken the vRealize Operations instance with the highest edition.
“Unmanaged Servers” can be associated with only one vRealize Operations instance if monitored by multiple instances. This will be the vRealize Operations instance with the highest edition. Virtual machines part of that “Unmanaged Servers” will be billed once no matter how many vRealize Operations instances are monitoring them. For the billing of monitored VMs, will be taken the vRealize Operations instance with the highest edition.
In which case, should I remove the unmanaged vROps usage from my MBO?
Case 1: In an environment where there is one vROps monitoring several vCenter servers; however, one of the vCenter servers is only used as a test environment, thus running with a perpetual license.
The vCenter running test environment is not added to Usage Meter for metering; nevertheless, vRops still detects that vCenter and meters that. In this case, Usage Meter will show the usage of that vCenter as vROps (unmanaged).
The vCenter running test environment is not added to Usage Meter for metering; nevertheless, vRops still detects that vCenter and meters that. In this case, Usage Meter will show the usage of that vCenter as vROps (unmanaged).
Workaround: The unmanaged usage of the VMs of this vCenter should be either manually subtracted from the total number of reported vROps usage in the MBO before submission or a local user can be created on vROps excluding the access to the test vCenter objects as per steps in this document.
Use this local user to authenticate the vROps instance on the Usage Meter appliance. Since the user does not have access to the test vCenter, Usage Meter will not meter the VMs running under this vCenter.
Note: This workaround should only be used for the environment which is purely used for test or proof of concept purposes. Any setup running production workload even for internal consumption needs to be metered and does not qualify as a test setup.
Refer to the following document for more details on license categories.
Case:2 Two usage meter metering one vCenter each; however, both vCenters are monitored by the same vROps. Let’s understand with below example and diagram explaining the use case.
Use this local user to authenticate the vROps instance on the Usage Meter appliance. Since the user does not have access to the test vCenter, Usage Meter will not meter the VMs running under this vCenter.
Note: This workaround should only be used for the environment which is purely used for test or proof of concept purposes. Any setup running production workload even for internal consumption needs to be metered and does not qualify as a test setup.
Refer to the following document for more details on license categories.
Case:2 Two usage meter metering one vCenter each; however, both vCenters are monitored by the same vROps. Let’s understand with below example and diagram explaining the use case.
vCenter A running VM1 and VM2, metered by Usage Meter A
vCenter B running VM3 and VM4, metered by Usage Meter B
Usage Meter A will still meter VM3 and VM4 as it is being monitored by vROps and it will show these VMs as un-managed in the Usage Insight MUR (Monthly Usage Report).
Similarly, for Usage Meter B, VM1 and VM2 will be still metered and will be shown as unmanaged in the Usage Insight MUR (Monthly Usage Report).
Why does Usage Meter meter VMs of a vCenter, which is not added to it?
This is expected behavior as Usage Meter A does not know that there is another Usage Meter B that is already metering VMs running on vCenter B so by design it will meter everything which is being monitored by vROps.
Workaround: Create a local vROps user account to look at the right vCenter. This will prevent the double reporting of unmanaged VMs. Check this information to learn how to do it. This user needs to be added to Usage Meter and as a result, the metering will look in the following way:
Note: The recommended metering scenario is that a single VMware product is metered by a single Usage Meter.
Adjusting your MBO in VMware Commerce Portal:
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Take the total unmanaged usage from the Usage Insight Monthly Usage Report.
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Go to VMware Commerce Portal.
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Reduce the Per VM/OSI-specific metric of the vROps [Edition] based on the number from the total unmanaged.
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Provide a reason in VMware Commerce Portal for the adjusted change.
Case 3: vRops monitoring physical hardware other than ESXi hosts. In this case, the physical hardware will also be reported as unmanaged in the UM MUR. See the diagram below:
Resolution: This is a legitimate case and unmanaged usage must be reported.
Environment
VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.x
VMware vCloud Usage Meter 3.6.x
VMware vCloud Usage Meter 3.6.x
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