Daily memory costs calculated far higher than expected

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

In Aria Operations, VM memory costs are calculated high. For example, a VM with 16 GB of memory shows a daily cost far above expected, despite cost drivers (VC Pricing, VCD Pricing) being configured and applied globally and at the object level.

Environment

Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

The VMs for which incorrect cost values are shown are deriving its base cost value from its associated VCD Org/Resource Pool

Resolution

To turn on the Allocation Model for Cost Calculations:

1. Go to Capacity -> Assess
   
   
2. Scroll to the Cluster Utilization widget and click on "Capacity Configuration Details" on the right side
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll Down to "Allocation Model" and click the lock next to it to make changes.
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the checkboxes to turn on Memory and set it to 1:1 Overcommit Ratio and turn on the Allocation Model. 
   
   Note: this will automatically affect and adjust the policy for all clusters.
   
   
5. Now go to Administrations -> Control Panel -> Cost Calculation
   
   
6. Click Run to recalculate the costs using the Allocation Model that was just enabled.
   
   
   

To verify proper Memory Cost Calculation:

1. You can search any VM that was previously affected.
2. Go to Metrics and check the Metrics Cost|Effective Daily Memory Cost and Cost|Effective Memory MTD Cost.
   
   You should now see a lower cost than what was previously calculated.