Re: How to calculate/predict VM costs

iNik26 · ‎09-01-2015

Hello,

i'm new to VSPP and i'm trying to understand how to calculate the costs of a VM (for us and for billing to customers).

I'm evaluate to subscribe to "VMware vCloud Service Provider Bundle – Premier-X Edition" and in product usage guide i find:

"..10 points per 1 GB Reserved RAM (based on average monthly usage) (GB = 1024 MB)

Total points capped at 24 GB of Reserved RAM per virtual machine (see Reporting and Operational Details) "

What does it mean "based on average monthly usage" ? If i have a VM that run continuously and i reserve to it 1 GB but it has for example 4 GB assigned, what will be the cost at the end of the month ? 10 Points ?

Does exist a method that permit to exactly calculate the cost of a VM with specified resources (pre-assigned and not pay-per-use) ?

Thanks, kind regards,

Nicola

Matt23220111014 · ‎09-02-2015

This is an older Product guide but you can find newer ones in Partner Central (they just aren't easy to link to);

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/vspp/VSPP-Product-Usage-Guide.pdf

take a look at page 11 and 12

Again this is an older Program Guide but the Rental Reporting (and most of the document) is worth a read but perhaps get the current version from Partner Central first.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/vspp/VSPP-Program-Guide.pdf‌

I'd recommend finding those same references in the latest equivalent VCAN guides in Partner Central

VMware Partner Programs: Requirements and Benefits | VMware Australia

When you are in partner central checkout the Partner University and check out the subscription licensing courses in there as well.

Matt23220111014 · ‎09-02-2015

What does it mean "based on average monthly usage" ? If i have a VM that run continuously and i reserve to it 1 GB but it has for example 4 GB assigned, what will be the cost at the end of the month ? 10 Points ?

average monthly usage factors in the amount of time that they VM was on and the average vRAM and I'd assume reservation you have in place. Take a look at the example in the first reference I provided it should clarify it for you.

linotelera · ‎09-02-2015

Hi and welcome to VSPP world!

<<What does it mean "based on average monthly usage" ?>> Means that your VM could be powered off and on... but meter should consider an average usage based on Power ON hours per months.

<<If i have a VM that run continuously and i reserve to it 1 GB but it has for example 4 GB assigned, what will be the cost at the end of the month ?>> This is a vCloud Directory story, because doesn't exists a vDC in best effort in your infrastructure. When you set vDC for organization you should set parameters like reservation... and minimum reservation is 50% (I don't know if this value is changed... Ask to your aggregator for confirm). So in your example 4GB must be 20 points in a bronze vDC, 30 points in silver vDC (75% guarantee) and 40 point in gold (100%).

In my experience, with a brainless people, I calculate i 3 vDC the cost for a VM with this sum:

[vDC X]

- Cost for PowerOn GB/month * %reserved (min. 50%) -> Use Chargeback to keep costs updated

- Cost for physical infrastructure (power and cooling too)

- Cost for bandwidth

- Cost for additional licenses (like Windows, SQL server)

- Cost for additional services (like antivirus, ...)

- Cost for protection (like backup, DR,...)

- Cost for men power (implementation, maintenance, support)

Good luck with your calculation... and remeber: excel is your firend now!

iNik26 · ‎09-02-2015

Hi,

sorry but i'm not sure to correctly understand..

In vCloud, when i configure an Org vDC (Allocation Pool Model for example) i can set:

A) CPU Allocation (GHz)

B) CPU resources guaranteed (% GHz)

C) Memory allocation (GB)

D) Memory resources guaranteed (% GB)

I create an Org vDC with A=10 B=10 C=10 D=20 (the minimum possible).

Inside this Org vDC i create a VM with 1 vCPU and 4 GB vRAM. Since in Allocation Pool the resource allocation per VM is not managed through the vCD UI should i set the reservation of 1 GB in Web Client ?

It's better to use Reservation Pools and set per VM reservation from vCD UI ?

How do you calculate "..Cost for PowerOn GB/month" ?

Thanks,

Nicola

linotelera · ‎09-03-2015

I'm trying to find an answer by my aggregator, because I know, if VSPP has not been changed, that the minimum tolerable reservation is 50% and the max per VM is 24GB.

In your case I think that you can assing reservation under 50%, but the meter will calculate 50% -> 2GB vRAM.

I suggest to use reservation per vDC not per VM and define your quality of service using the vDC as the minimun piece for the customer tenant.

Eg: vDC in best effort (reservation at 20%) -> cost 50% but infrastructure saving

vDC for heavy apps (reservation > 50%) -> cost 50%

vDC for critical apps (reservation 90% or 100%) -> cost 100%

In the company where I'm working, we don't have an integration from chargeback with CRM and billing system... We should do vDC in allocation mode and predict all costs for our customer, but it isn't the right way to sell cloud IaaS (Hope my management will understand it...), for this reason we apply a formula based on vDC best effort: license VSPP for 1GB PoweredOn RAM costs 2€/month and the max RAM per VM is 24GB.

Hope this could be useful

regards