VCF Operations tag-based pricing policies do not apply to virtual machines managed by VCF Automation.

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• Virtual machines managed by VCF Automation display incorrect pricing values, even when matching tag-based hourly rates and pricing policies are assigned in VCF Operations.
  
  

• Reviewing pricing data under Summary > Metering > Pricing reveals inconsistent behavior based on the deployment origin of the workload:

  • Virtual machines managed by VCF Operations: Reflect the assigned tag-based hourly rates and pricing policies accurately.

  • Virtual machines managed by VCF Automation: Ignores tag-based hourly rates and pricing policies assigned in VCF Operations.

Cause

• This behavior is by design and follows the VCF Operations pricing hierarchy rules:

  • Standard Hierarchy: VCF Operations normally assigns pricing policies at the vCenter or Cluster level. Virtual machine costs calculate based on these assignments and roll up to the vCenter. Cluster-level policies take precedence over vCenter-level policies for all resources within that cluster.

  • Automation Override: When a virtual machine falls under both the VCF Automation hierarchy and the vCenter hierarchy, the system prioritizes the VCF Automation hierarchy. The virtual machine is dynamically excluded from the vCenter resource calculations and grouped under VCF Automation resources.

• Because VCF Automation maintains authoritative control over its deployed workloads, its synchronized Pricing Cards completely override local vCenter or cluster policies. This built-in integration feature cannot be disabled.
• For further details regarding the pricing hierarchy, refer to Broadcom Technical Documentation: Pricing Overview.

Resolution

Configure the VCF Automation Pricing Card to mirror the VCF Operations pricing policy. This ensures final cost calculations align with the intended tag-based rates, even though the system prioritizes the automation hierarchy.

Workaround

1. Login to the VCF Automation UI.
2. Navigate to the Pricing Cards configuration interface.
   • Reference: Using Pricing Cards in VCF Automation
     
     
3. Select the active Pricing Card applied to the affected virtual machines
4. Modify the Pricing Card settings to replicate the compute hourly rates and tag-based pricing rules defined in the VCF Operations policy
5. Save the configuration.
6.  Allow the automated synchronization cycle to complete. VCF Operations then reflects the updated rates derived from the VCF Automation Pricing Card.