Microsoft SPLA OS reporting

[derekf]

Hi there,
Has anybody used Veeam Reporter to track Microsoft OS usage for Microsoft SPLA reporting purposes?

[rbrambley]

Derek,

Not too familiar with MS SPLA reporting and what exactly you need to include in the report, but check out the Reporter Quick Start Guide for an example of what you can do with the Base Report Pack. Specifically, the VM IP Address Report shows Guest (Windows in your case) OS capacity and free space. Maybe this is what you need? Otherwise can you list specific VM data you need reporting on and maybe I can help point you in the right place?

Reporter Quick Start Guide - http://www.veeam.com/quick-start-veeam- ... ley_ds.pdf

My blog post about the VM IP Address Report example - http://vmetc.com/2011/04/22/veeam-repor ... t-example/

[derekf]

Hi Rich,

I'll have a play with it and see if it can help.

The reporting requirements for SPLA are that if any maching (VM) is powered on at any time during a month then we need to report that as an instance of an OS for the purposes of SPLA licensing.

Let's assume the cost for Windows Web Server is £6 per month, Windows Server Standard is £10 per mont and WIndows Server Enterprise is £35 per month we need to track and report and bill for these.

Examples:
- If a VM runs all month then it will get fixed charge for the month
- If a VM is left powered off all month then no charge
- If a VM is created on the 15th, powered on for an hour then powered off and deleted it should get fixed charge for the month

[derekf]

I seem to be missing some report packs as in the base report pack I only see Infrastructure Changes (template), Infrastructure Report (template) and Storage Capacity (template).

I've gone to the download page but can't see where to download additional report packs.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Derek, the report templates you have in the Base report pack is everything that is currently available. With the given templates you can configure any set of parameters as Rich has explained above and proceed with creating custom reports. Also please take a look at our Inactive VMs report part of Get to know Reporter pack, you should it find it useful.

[rbrambley]

Derek,

Also check out the Base Report Pack > Infrastructure Changes template. You will see Adds, Deletes, and Modifys for whatever time period you specify. If you look at object type Virtual Machine, then In Modifys, power state of a VM shows up as a modifcation. So if a VM shows up in the modify list there's a 99.99% chance it was used that period.

As Vitaly pointed out, you use those templates you see to create reports you like and then save them with your own Report names.

[derekf]

OK - thanks for that - I have been creating a number of templates and playing with them - I just wondered if I was missing something (obviously not).

I'll do some more investigations...

[derekf]

Looks like none of this is going to work as I can't find a way to set the correct guest OS (VMware does not allow me to differentiate between Windows 2008 R2 Web, Standard, Enterprise etc...)

[rbrambley]

Are you using our free Veeam Business View?

If so, you can create Categories and Groups for your VMs however you want / need (dynamically place VMs in those cats and groups), and then Reporter can use the Business View Groups for reports.

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-business-view.html

[derekf]

Hi Rich - we are (and use some of the dynamic features for other requirements), however there's no way we can tell from the underlying VM what the OS is to categoise it though

[Vitaliy S.]

Derek, I might be missing something, but what about using BV's dynamic group to categorize VMs based on the full guest OS version?

See our User Guide for the example: http://www.veeam.com/files/guide/veeam_ ... _guide.pdf (page 42)

[derekf]

The guest OS version will not differentiate between Windows Server 2008 Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions. VMware has confirmed this, and we can't modify the list of guest OS versions in a supported manner (according to VMware).