Billing in Air-Gapped Environments
Describes how billing is enabled in an air-gapped environment.
In an air-gapped environment, manual steps are needed to support billing and activation for a consumption-based fabric. This section describes how to activate an air-gapped fabric and keep the fabric operational.
Using maprcli Commands in an Air-Gapped environment
Some tasks for keeping an air-gapped fabric operational require you to use
maprcli
commands. This is because certain operations are not currently
available in the Data Fabric UI. The
maprcli
commands you need are provided on this page.
To run maprcli
commands, use an ssh
connection to any
node in the fabric.
Understanding the Activation Code and Billing Cycle
When you place an order for the HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric and specify an air-gapped environment, HPE provides you with an activation code. The activation code allows you to register the product and sign usage records for one billing cycle. The billing cycle is one month with a 15-day grace period.
- Start Date – The first day of the one-month billing cycle.
- End Date – The end of the month-long billing cycle and the start of the grace period. This date is usually 30 days after the Start Date.
- Sign in to the Data Fabric UI, and switch to the Fabric manager view.
- Click Fabric administration.
- Locate the Activation card. The Activation code section of the card displays the start date, end date, and current month charges.
Once the activation code is applied, the code is valid (and the fabric is operational) until the End Date. After the End Date, a short grace period is applied to allow you to perform the steps to maintain activation.
Steps for Maintaining Activation
Step | Task | When |
---|---|---|
1. | Add an activation key. | Installation time |
2. | Register the fabric. | Installation time |
3. | Collect usage records. | Monthly |
4. | Send a usage record file to HPE. | Monthly |
5. | Pay the monthly HPE invoice. | Monthly |
6. | Renew your activation to keep the fabric operational. | Monthly |
1. Add an Activation Key
Regardless of your fabric's operational mode, you must obtain a license and add the activation key from the license by using the Data Fabric UI. See Adding an Activation Key.
2. Register a New Air-Gapped Fabric
For a new air-gapped fabric, you must register the fabric by selecting the operational mode and uploading the activation code provided by HPE Support when you ordered the product. See Registering a Fabric.
After registration, the fabric is usable for a month with a 15-day grace period. The fabric continues to be usable as long as you continue to pay your monthly bill and reapply new activation keys.
3. Collect Usage Records
maprcli
command collects your usage
records in a file named usage_file.txt
:maprcli cluster getbillingusage -fileName usage_file.txt -clearText true
Licensing for the HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric is consumption based, meaning that you are charged based on actual usage. Usage is measured in storage-hour units.
maprcli
command:maprcli cluster getmeteringusage -from <date-time> -till <date-time> -cleartext true
For
example:$ maprcli cluster getmeteringusage -from 2021-01-01,00:00 -till 2023-05-13,00:00 -clearText true
userdata metadata total epoch timestamp
1 Mb 0 Mb 1 Mb 1683716400000 Wed May 10 11:00:00 UTC 2023
1 Mb 0 Mb 1 Mb 1683720000000 Wed May 10 12:00:00 UTC 2023
1 Mb 0 Mb 1 Mb 1683723600000 Wed May 10 13:00:00 UTC 2023
1 Mb 0 Mb 1 Mb 1683727200000 Wed May 10 14:00:00 UTC 2023
1 Mb 0 Mb 1 Mb 1683730800000 Wed May 10 15:00:00 UTC 2023
4. Send the Usage Record File to HPE
- Open a support case at https://support.hpe.com using the account you have on the HPE Support Center customer
portal, and include the following information:
- Fabric ID (cluster ID)
- Current activation code
- Usage record file
- When HPE Support updates the ticket, go to your customer portal to get the new activation key.
5. Pay Your Monthly Invoice
Each month you must pay the HPE invoice before the 15-day grace period ends. Otherwise, the fabric can be disabled, as described in Restoring a Disabled Fabric.
6. Renew Your Activation
As long as you continue to provide usage records and pay your monthly invoice within the billing grace period, HPE will continue to provide an activation code that allows you to renew your activation.
maprcli
command to renew your
activation:maprcli cluster startup set -activationkey <path-to-file>
For
example:maprcli cluster startup set -activationkey /tmp/Renew_key_mycluster.text -is_file true -json
Log Information
/opt/mapr/conf/cldb.log