Report or raw data (.data file format) downloaded from the Usage Meter appliance lacks the structure of the final Broadcom portal TSV report

Products

• VMware Usage Meter

Issue/Introduction

• When downloading billing data from the Usage > Download Usage page on the on-prem Usage Meter (UM) appliance, the output is a .data file type, which is the raw usage data collected from UM.

• This raw .data file is not structured when opened using text editors like Notepad++. This contrasts with the final report downloaded from the Broadcom portal, which is in a structured TSV (Tab-Separated Values) format.

• The UM appliance produces these raw JSON report files (after unpacking the .data file). The cloud then processes this raw data, applies relevant business logic, and generates the final structured report.

Environment

• VCF Usage Meter 9.x

Cause

• The file downloaded from the on-prem UM appliance (the .data file) contains the unpacked, raw usage data collected from the UM appliance for cloud processing. This raw data is partitioned by product stream, year, month, and day.

• Because it is raw data (containing compressed JSON reports after unpacking), it does not have the structured, human-readable format of the final report generated after the cloud processing is complete.

Resolution

• It is not possible to get the same structured output from the on-prem UM's .data file as the TSV report downloaded from the Broadcom cloud portal.

• You should rely on the cloud reports downloaded from the Broadcom portal, as they are generated after the raw data has been processed by the cloud and business logic has been applied.

Additional Information

• The unpacked content of the .data file is structured; if you unzip it (using the attached unpack_usage.py script and the following command format python unpack_usage.py test.data result.json), you will find the raw JSON reports.