Understanding vCloud Usage Reports

Understanding vCloud Usage Reports

vCloud Usage Insight is the VMware Cloud service that aggregates the data received from Usage Meter and sends it to the VMware Commerce Portal at the beginning of the following month.

The processes that happen in the cloud service include: aggregating the received data, mapping the received data with a license edition, and then pushing it to VMware Commerce Portal.

The received data is stored separately by Usage Meter UUID in an S3 bucket and ikept for for 36 months. Since Q3 2021 vCloud Usage Insight is available in Cloud Partner Navigator along with other VMware products and services.

Figure 1: vCloud Usage Insight part of VMware Cloud Partner Navigator

What types of reports does vCloud Usage Insight support?

The vCloud Usage Insight service aggregates the usage data received from Usage Meter and generates the following reports:

1. Monthly Usage Report (MUR) – Includes information on what products have been used throughout the month and their associated usage. This summarized data will also be pushed to VMware Commerce Portal where the usage will be translated into a Monthly Billing Order.
2. vSAN Cluster History – Presents information about the storage capacity, license edition and features used by a vSAN cluster.
3. Virtual Machine History Report (VMH) – Provides information on the individual vRAM usage per a VM and if it has been managed by other VMware products like vROps, VCD, vRNI, etc. or not.
4. Customer Monthly Usage – Shows information about the aggregated product usage per customer label.

What information does the Monthly Usage Report provide?

The data that is shown in the Monthly Usage Report (MUR) is the total aggregated usage associated with a VMware product or a bundle of products for the reporting month. Products that are not part of a bundle are reported as a separate line in the MUR. The following data can be seen in the report:

• Hostname – Specifies the anonymized hostname of the product with which the usage is associated.
• Version – Specifies the version of the product.
• VC UUID – Shows the vCenter server UUID.
• Unit of Measure – Specifies the unit of measure for the product usage.
• Unit to be Reported – Specified the number of reported units.

Here is an example of the MUR report:

Figure 2: Monthly Usage Report

What data does vSAN cluster history report provide?

The vSAN Cluster History report helps you gain a granular view of the usage of vSAN clusters. This type of report shows the detected vSAN license edition, the consumed storage capacity and used features by a vSAN cluster.

The following information is shown in the report:

• VC – The position of the vCenter server that appears in the Usage Meter web application web interface.
• VCHostName – The name of the vCenter server with which the vSAN cluster is associated. The name is anonymized.
• vSAN ClusterId – Shows the cluster id.
• vSAN ClusterName – – The vSAN cluster name, which is by default anonymized.
• vSANLicense – The enabled vSAN license of the vSAN cluster.
• vSAN Used (MB) – The used storage capacity by a vSAN cluster.
• From – The start time of the vSAN usage by the cluster.
• To – The end time of the vSAN usage by the cluster.
• Interval(hours) – Aggregated time interval for which a cluster uses vSAN.
• vSANFint – Represent the sum of the features that have been used by the cluster for the time interval.

For more information on vSAN metering and reporting, read: Understanding vSAN Metering and Reporting.

See an example of the report below:

Figure 3: vSAN Cluster History Report

What data can be seen in the VMH report?

The Virutal Machine History (VMH) report shows detailed information about the consumption of vRAM of all detected vCenter server VMs by Usage Meter.

It also provides information on the type of VM (TKG, SPU, or other), if the VM is managed by vROPs, VCD, vRNI, etc. It also shows if a VM is associated with a customer label.

Here is a detailed explanation of each column in the report:

• Name – Specifies the anonymized name of the VM.
• Instance UUID – Specifies the UUID of the VM.
• From – The start time of the VM usage.
• To – The end time of the VM usage
• Interval – The period of the VM usage.
• powerState – The state of the VM. Currently, only powered-on VMs are reported.
• RAM (MB) – The vRAM used for the VM.
• Res (MB)– The Reserved vRAM for the VM.
• Billing (MB) – Billable memory in MB.
• MB-Hours –  Billable MB hours (MB * hrs).
• ESXI Host Name – The anonymized name of the ESXI host with which the VM is associated.
• vSphere License – The vSphere license with which the VM is associated.
• vROps – Specifies if the VM is managed by vROPs by showing its license edition. Possible values here are: S (Standard), A (Advanced) , and E (Enterprise). If the VM is not managed by vROps, the value will be ‘-‘.
• NSX – Specifies if the VM is using NSX. The values indicate the NSX Editions. For example a value of ‘A’ means the NSX edition is Advanced.
• NSXFint – The int sum of the NSX features used by the VM. See for reference Usage Meter 4.5 Product Detection white paper to learn how to find them.
• vRNI – Specifies if the VM is managed by vRNI. The values indicate the vRNI editon: A (Advanced) or E (Enterprise).
• vCD – Specifies if the VM is managed by VCD. The values include: True or False.
• vmType – Specifies If the VM is Tanzu-related or not. The values here could be: SUP, POD, TKG and Other.
• vCF – Shows if the VM is managed by VCF or not. Specifies the VCF edition. For example, Standard w/o vSAN will be presented as ‘S-‘.

• Customer Label – Specifies the name of the customer label with which the VM is associated.

See an example below:

Figure 4: Virtual Machine History Report

What information does Customer Monthly Usage provide?

The Customer Monthly Usage (CMR) provides information on the consumed usage by product and customer label. Customer labels help providers associate the usage of a particular resource (vCenter, host, resource pool, etc.) with a customer name. For more information, read: Customer Monthly Usage Reports.

The following information is presented in the report:

• Customer label – Provides the name of the customer in plain text.
• Product – Specifies the product which has been used and associated with a customer label.
• Unit of Measure – Shows the unit of measure for the used VMware product.
• Units to be Reported – Specifies the usage units per VMware product and customer label.

Figure 5: Customer Monthly Usage

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