On-Premises Cost Governance
Cost Meter Cards help you calculate the costs for your storage and computing resources. They break down expenses by location, vendor, and how much you use them.
You can apply best practices for cloud cost management to your on-premises data centers by setting the cost per unit of storage and compute with Virtana Platform. Additionally, you can organize this data by Business Units, Regions, Resource Vendors, and other categories that are important to you.
How Costs Are Calculated
To understand how your usage costs are determined, we use Cost Meter Cards alongside your defined cost policies and metric data, which is primarily housed in your Virtana IO instance. Here's how it works for your organization:
Choosing the Right Cost Meter Cards
Cost Meter Cards are selected based on the following conditions:
Both the Region and Vendor have a value, and the charge period is active, such that the Start Date is before the current date and the End Date is after the current date.
Either the Region or the Vendor has a value, and the charge period is active.
Matching Data and Calculating Costs
Once the Cost Meter Cards are selected, the system matches them with your source data using the data center and manufacturer values. If these values align, the unit price from the Cost Meter Card is multiplied by the metric value to calculate the cost. This calculated cost is then saved as a new metric in your metric database.
Customizing Cost Meter Cards for Specific Entities
You can also create a Cost Meter Card for a specific entity. To do this, click the Additional Information fields when you edit the Meter Card. For more details, see Editing Cost Meter Cards to learn how to turn on these additional fields.
Understanding On-Premise Cost Calculation
Our on-premise cost calculation process ensures that your cost tracking and reporting are accurate, relying on your chosen Meter Cards and their associated data. This process runs automatically as a scheduled job every day. Each time it runs, it performs the following steps:
It retrieves the list of all active Cost Meter Cards.
Gathers important fields from each Cost Meter Card, such as region, vendor, and charge period, to match with your entities.
Then it fetches the entities that match these fields and their corresponding usage values.
Finally, it calculates the cost by multiplying the usage values by the unit prices and stores these daily results.
Creating Cost Meter Cards
To see the value of your on-prem storage and compute resources, you first need to create a Cost Meter Card. You can create Cost Meter Cards using the following methods:
Manual Creation: You can manually create Cost Meter Cards by selecting and filling in the required fields. Manually created Cost Meter Cards are displayed alongside other existing Cost Meter Cards.
Uploading a JSON File: Perform the following steps to upload the JSON file:
Download the Sample JSON file for the Cost Meter Card.
Make the changes and save the file.
Upload the JSON file and click Save.
To create the Cost Meter Cards, perform the following steps:
Log in to the Virtana Global View and click Governance.
Select On-Premises Cost Governance and click Cost Meter Cards.
The Cost Meter Cards page opens.
Table 178. Cost Meter Cards Fields DescriptionField
Description
Meter Name
User-defined name for the Meter Card.
Site
Name of the isolated geographic area where the resource or service is provisioned, for example, VI-Appliance.
Vendor
Identifies the entity that made the resources or services available, for example, TESLA.
Category
Specifies the type of resource or service to which the Meter Card applies, for example, GPU, Compute, Storage, or Token.
Price
Indicates the cost of infrastructure resources.
Billing Start Date
Timestamp indicating the start of the billing period.
Billing End Date
Timestamp indicating the end of the billing period.
Status
Indicates whether the Meter Card is Active or Inactive.
Active Status: The Meter Card is used in cost calculations and is considered valid for metering and billing purposes.
In-Active Status: The Meter Card is ignored in cost calculations and is not used for any billing or metering operations.
Click Create/Upload New Meter Card.
The Create New Meter Card window opens.
To create meter cards, you can either upload a JSON file or create them manually.
Enter the following details to create a Meter Card manually:
Table 179. Meter Card Fields and their DescriptionField
Description
Meter Card Title (Mandatory Field)
User-defined title for the Meter Card.
Billing Information (Mandatory Field)
Billing Period Start
Timestamp indicating the start of the billing period.
Billing Period End
Timestamp indicating the end of the billing period.
Currency
Specifies the currency code, for example, USD, INR.
Pricing Information (Mandatory Field)
Category
Specifies the type of resource or service to which the Meter Card applies. The category determines the units available for the following resource:
Compute – used for CPU and memory‑based compute capacity.
GPU – used for GPU time‑based costing.
Token – used for LLM token‑based costing.
Storage – used for on‑premises storage capacity.
Unit
Specifies the measurement unit for the selected category. The available options depend on the selected category:
Compute – CPU or GB for memory.
GPU – time‑based units used to convert GPU usage into cost, for example, per hour.
Token – Input or Output to represent request and response tokens.
Storage – GB, TB, PB (usable or effective capacity).
The unit you choose is used to convert the raw metric values into cost.
Unit Price
Indicates the cost as per the defined units of the Meter Card.
Location (Optional)
Site
Name of the isolated geographic area where the resource or service is provisioned, like Boston or Los Angeles.
Lineage of Charge (Optional)
Vendor
Identifies the entity that made the resources or services available.
Additional Information (Optional)
IO Instance
System-generated universally unique identifier associated with a specific appliance or device.
Entity Name
Descriptive name or label representing the resource, service, or organizational entity related to the charge.
Change the status of the meter card to Active.
(Optional) You can add additional fields for cost calculations, such as SKU information or Lineage of Charge from the Edit Meter Card Fields option.
Click Save to create the Meter Card. You can create multiple Meter Cards with different criteria for various use cases.
(Optional) To export Cost Meter Cards, select the Meter Cards you want to export using the checkboxes and click Export in the Cost Meter Cards window.
You will receive a JSON file containing the selected meter cards, which will be downloaded automatically.
Based on the Cost Meter Cards, the On-Premises Storage and Compute Dashboards will show the cost of consumed resources. See Editing Cost Meter Cards to edit and update the existing Cost Meter Cards.
Behavior of Cost Meter Cards in Dashboard
The cost is calculated correctly if a Cost Meter Card is created and kept active for at least a month.
If the Meter Card is not active for a few days, the cost is not calculated for those inactive days. However, you can view the sum of previous days on the On-Premises Storage Array Cost And Capacity Summary page. It displays the price for the month.
If the unit price of a Meter Card is edited, the updated cost does not immediately reflect on the Cost and Capacity Dashboard. The cost is updated only after the cron job runs, usually overnight or by the next day.
Editing Cost Meter Cards
The Update Meter Card function allows you to modify the configuration and properties of an existing Meter Card. For example, you can open a card to adjust the billing period dates or add new charge information to the card. This is useful when new or unique information comes in that you want to track for a card, for example, there are changes in your environment, like a price increase, or a change in discount percentage. This task assumes you are logged in to Virtana Global View.
To edit a Cost Meter Card, perform the following steps:
Select the meter card that you want to edit from the list of cards.
The Update Meter Card window opens.
Use the following table to learn the description of each field provided in the Update Meter Card dialogue box.
Field
Description
Meter Card Title (Mandatory Field)
User-defined title for the Meter Card.
Billing Information (Mandatory Field)
Billing Period Start
Timestamp indicating the start of the billing period.
Billing Period End
Timestamp indicating the end of the billing period.
Currency
Specifies the currency code, for example, USD, INR.
Pricing Information (Mandatory Field)
Category
Specifies the type of resource or service to which the Meter Card applies, for example, GPU, Compute, Token, or Storage.
Unit
Specifies the vendor-defined measurement unit.
Unit Price
Indicates the cost as per the defined units of the Meter Card.
Location (Optional)
Site
Name of the isolated geographic area where the resource or service is provisioned, like Boston or Los Angeles.
Lineage of Charge (Optional)
Vendor
Identifies the entity that made the resources or services available.
Additional Information (Optional)
IO Instance
System-generated universally unique identifier associated with a specific appliance or device.
Entity Name
Descriptive name or label representing the resource, service, or organizational entity related to the charge.
Update the existing field values in the Update Meter Card window, for example, update the billing information.
(Optional) To add more fields to your card, click the Edit Meter Card Fields.
The Add More Fields window opens.
Select the field you want to add to the card.
When you select a field using the category dropdown menu, both the category and the field are added to the card. For example, if you select Charge Period in the Charge category, the Charge category now appears on the card with the selected fields. For the list of categories and fields you can add, see Cost Meter Card Optional Fields Description.
Use the following table to add fields to your Cost Meter card.
Card Category
Optional Fields
SKU Information
SKU ID: Unique identifier for a specific product offering used for billing and cost tracking.
SKU Price ID: Identifier linked to the pricing details of a product SKU, representing a unique rate or price point for that service.
Account Hierarchy
Sub Account ID: Unique identifier for a sub-account under the main account within an organizational hierarchy.
Sub Account Name: Readable name or label assigned to a sub-account for easier identification and management.
Billing Information
Account ID: The unique identifier for your billing account incurring the charges.
Account Name: The user-assigned display name of the billing account, used for easy recognition in reports and the dashboard.
Charge
Charge Period: The start and end dates represent the time window the charge applies to.
Frequency: Depicts how often the charge recurs, for example, one-time, hourly, or monthly.
Cost Category: User-defined labelling used to group or organize costs for analysis.
Class: Indicates the classification or type of charge, for example, usage, recurring fee, or tax.
Description: A textual explanation providing details about the charge, such as service type or resource usage.
Location
Region ID: Identifier for the geographic region, like US-East-1, where the resource is located, or the charge is incurred.
Availability Zone: A more granular location within a region, useful for cloud or data center environments.
Discount
Discount Category: Type or classification of the discount, for example, Reserved Instance, Savings Plan, or promotion.
Discount ID: Unique identifier assigned to the individual discount applied.
Discount Name: Readable label or name for the discount.
Discount Type: The method by which the discount is applied, for example, upfront, recurring, or usage-based.
Discount Status: Current state of the discount, for example, active, expired, or pending.
Lineage of Charge
Publisher: The entity or provider responsible for the service or product.
Invoice Issuer: The organization or partner that generates and issues the billing invoice for the charges.
Additional Information
IO Instance: System-generated universally unique identifier associated with a specific appliance or device.
Entity Name: Descriptive name or label representing the resource, service, or organizational entity related to the charge.
Additionally, you can view and select the custom properties defined in IO. You can use these custom properties to customize a meter card to a specific business context, for example, a specific time zone, business unit, project tag on a data center, or host.
After you make your selections, click Save to return to the card.
Note
To remove optional fields in a card, click the X next to the field name that you want to delete in the Add More Fields window.
Optionally, click the dropdown menu of the category, clear the check box, and click Save.
On the Update Meter Card window, click Save.
When you open the card, you can view these new or updated fields. These changes are also visible to other users in your organization.
On-Premises Cost Governance - Cost Calculation Policies
The Cost Calculation Policy page in the Virtana platform provides an overview of defined policies related to cost governance. These policies define the rules and parameters for mapping usage metrics to meter cards and applying aggregation rules for resources such as compute, storage, and GPU. The platform mandates the presence of at least one cost calculation policy, which can be created manually or, if absent, is automatically generated by a scheduled cron job. This dual mechanism guarantees that cost calculations are never disrupted, even in newly deployed environments or after all existing policies are deleted.
Cost calculation policies are highly customizable, allowing organizations to tailor cost computations to their specific needs by incorporating parameters such as region, vendor, and resource type. The default policy, automatically created when needed, provides a broad and reliable baseline, ensuring continuity in cost management until custom policies are defined.
The following is a detailed breakdown of the cost calculation policy process:
Priority: The order in which policies are evaluated. A lower number indicates a higher priority.
Cost Calculation Definition: Describes the policy applied for cost calculation. It helps Administrators identify the purpose of the policy.
Created Time: Indicates the exact date and time when the policy was initially created. The created time provides a timestamp for when the policy was introduced into the system. Accurate timestamps are critical for tracking policy changes and ensuring compliance.
Created By: Specifies the user or system account that created the policy.
Last Updated Time: Displays the most recent time the policy was updated. Keeping track of the latest updates is essential to ensure that the most recent version of the policy is in effect.
Last Updated by: Indicates the user who last modified the policy.
Editing a cost calculation policy
Editing a cost calculation policy allows you to refine how Virtana Platform computes on-premises costs by adjusting the policy’s core parameters, such as utilization calculation frequency, the customization of specific data points used within each interval, and whether cost is based on total or allocated capacity.
To edit the existing cost calculation policy, perform the following steps:
Log in to the Virtana Platform, select Global View in the header.
In the left navigation pane, click Governance and click the On-premises Cost Governance dropdown.
Select Cost Calculation Policies.
In the Cost Calculation Policies table, click the policy name.
The Cost Calculation Policies configuration window opens.
The Cost Calculation Policies configuration window contains the following fields:
Cost Calculation Definition: You can edit the default name of the policy.
Calculate CPU Utilization: You can customize the frequency at which CPU utilization data is evaluated for cost, such as Hourly, Daily or Monthly and also customize specific data points used within each interval, such as maximum, minimum, Average, last read, or all.
Calculate MEMORY Utilization: You can customize the frequency at which memory utilization data is evaluated for cost, such as Hourly, Daily or Monthly and also customize specific data points used within each interval, such as maximum, minimum, Average, last read, or all.
Calculate STORAGE Utilization: You can customize the frequency at which storage utilization data is evaluated for cost, such as Hourly, Daily or Monthly and also customize specific data points used within each interval, such as maximum, minimum, Average, last read, or all.
Calculate GPU Utilization: You can customize the frequency at which GPU utilization data is evaluated for cost, such as Hourly, Daily or Monthly and also customize specific data points used within each interval, such as maximum, minimum, Average, last read, or all.
Calculate cost based on: Cost calculation will happen for both the total and used capacity of the resource. You can select the cost calculation based on the total and used capacity. The dashboard will show the cost data based on this selection.
Note
View the customized cost in the On-Premises Compute Cost and Capacity under Global View Dashboards. See On-Premises Compute Capacity Summary.
Edit the policy according to your preference and click Save.