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Keystone

Miscellaneous scenarios for Keystone billing

Contributors netapp-manini netapp-aruldeepa netapp-shwetav netapp-bcammett
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Understanding Keystone billing for specific configurations can help optimize service usage and manage costs. The scenarios include cloned volumes, advanced data protection, temporary volumes, QoS policies, SnapMirror destinations, LUNs, and system/root volumes.

Billing for cloned volumes

If volumes are cloned in ONTAP and you use them for backing up and restoring your data, you can continue using the clones without any additional payments. However, cloned volumes used for any other purpose in your business for an extensive duration are charged.

Note the following:

  • Clone volumes are free from charging as long as their size is less than 10% of the parent volume (the physical capacity used in the clone volume compared to the physical capacity used in the parent volume).

  • There is no 24-hour grace period for cloned volumes, only the size of the clone is considered.

  • Once the clone volume exceeds 10% of the physical size of the parent, the clone is billed as a standard volume (logical used capacity).

Billing for advanced data protection

Advanced data protection uses NetApp MetroCluster to mirror data between two physically separated clusters. For MetroCluster mirrored aggregates, data is written twice, once on each cluster. The Keystone service charges for consumption on each side independently, resulting in two identical consumption records. The add-on charges are applied on all the capacities in the subscription, irrespective of whether the data is at the source, or it is mirrored or unmirrored data.

If you monitor your clusters through ONTAP System Manager (System Manager) or Active IQ Unified Manager (Unified Manager), you might see a discrepancy between the consumption reported on these tools and Keystone. System Manager and Unified Manager do not report volumes on the mirrored (remote) cluster, and in doing so, reports half the consumption metrics that the Keystone service reports.

Example:

Site A and Site B are set up in a MetroCluster configuration. When a user creates a volume of 10TB in site A, an identical volume of 10TB is created in site B. Keystone identifies 10TB of consumption in each site, for a total increase of 20TB. System Manager and Unified Manager report a 10TB volume created in site A, but do not report a 10TB volume in Site B.

Additionally, all volumes created on a Keystone system with advanced data protection will be counted towards the consumption of advanced data protection, regardless of whether those volumes are mirrored or not.

Billing for temporary volumes

Occasionally, temporary (TMP) volumes are created by ONTAP when moving volumes. These temporary volumes are short-lived, and the consumption on these volumes is not measured for billing.

Billing and adaptive QoS policies

Keystone measures consumption based on service levels. Each service level is associated with a specific adaptive quality of service (QoS) policy. During deployment, you will be informed of the details of each adaptive QoS policy for your subscribed Keystone services. During storage management operations, ensure that your volumes have the appropriate adaptive QoS policies assigned as per your subscribed service levels to avoid unexpected billing.
For more information about adaptive QoS policies in ONTAP, see Guarantee throughput with QoS overview.

Billing for SnapMirror destinations

The pricing for the SnapMirror destination volume is governed by the adaptive QoS policy for the service level assigned on the source. However, if the source does not have an associated adaptive QoS policy, the destination is billed based on the lowest available service level.

Billing for LUNs

For LUNs, the same billing pattern is followed as for the volumes that are governed by adaptive QoS policies. If separate adaptive QoS policies are set on LUNs, then:

  • The size of the LUN is counted for consumption according to the associated service level of that LUN.

  • The remainder of the space in the volume, if any, is charged according to the adaptive QoS policy of the service level set on the volume.

System and root volumes

System and root volumes are monitored as a part of the overall monitoring of the Keystone service but are not counted or billed. The consumption on these volumes is exempted for billing.