8.16 HP Utility Meter User's Guide (June 2010)

receive any email from HP. A disadvantage of this data transport method is the absence of a
“closed-loop” receipt after the information was successfully transmitted to HP.
CAUTION: The datagram nature of email does not verify that usage data has reached HP. Consequently,
there is no retransmission mechanism to recover from transmission failures. Using the email transport can
result in lost usage data.
For details on verifying the configured data transport method on a fully functioning Utility Meter system, see
Section 4.6: “Verifying the Utility Meter Data Transport Method”.
The frequency of usage reports sent from the Utility Meter to HP are:
• For PPU: 48 times per day per partition
• For URS: 12 times per day per disk array; 144 times per day per VLS device; 4 times per day per SAN
switch
1.8 Missing Usage Reports
IMPORTANT: HP requires that an email address is configured and monitored as the Utility Meter's system
contact. This ensures that HP can send a notification email to the customer in case HP does not receive PPU
or URS usage reports from the Utility Meter.
You can have up to 10 email addresses for the Meter Contact Email. An email alias or distribution
list, which can contain more than one single person's email address, is recommended so that the email
address can be managed independently from the Utility Meter's configuration data. For details about
configuring a Utility Meter system contact, see Section 2.6: “Configuring the Utility Meter Parameters”.
PPU and URS usage reports are written to the /var/opt/meter/sent directory. The Utility Meter system
retains the last 90 days of usage reports. For a longer history of your usage reports, go to the Utility Pricing
Solutions (UPS) Web portal. (For details of the UPS portal, see Section 1.6: “Utility Pricing Solutions Web
Portal”.)
HP computes the average system usage per day. Depending on the type of HP Utility contract (PPU or URS),
the following usage is billed:
• PPU — For the first 14 calendar days of missing data, the missing data is copied from the last day HP
could compute usage. After 14 days, HP assumes 100% utilization for PPU computing resources that
did not report usage.
If on any given day usage data was collected for a minimum of 23/24 percent of the time the meter
was running, the PPU computing resources are considered to have sufficient usage data to compute
the daily average. If HP does not receive sufficient data, the missing data rule is triggered.
• URS — The missing data is copied from the last day HP could compute usage for URS resources (disk
arrays, VLS devices or SAN switches).
If HP receives any valid usage data for a given day, it is used to calculate usage for the day, and the
URS computing resources are considered to have been measured.
If, for whatever reason, HP does not receive PPU or URS usage data for two consecutive days, the Utility
Meter system contact is notified through email and HP applies the missing data rule to derive usage for the
PPU or URS resources. At the same time, a support case is logged within HP for the problem. An HP support
representative will contact the customer regarding the issue.
You can use the Utility Pricing Solutions Portal (http://www.hp.com/go/payperuse) to determine whether
HP is receiving usage data or if the missing data rule has been applied for a particular day.
IMPORTANT: It is imperative that the customer works with HP to repair any communications breakdown
so that an accurate invoice is delivered to the customer.
Most often a problem occurs after one of the following situations:
• A new PPU WBEM partition was created without installing the required WBEM components.
• A new PPU Agent partition was created without installing the PPU Agent software on the partition.
22 Introduction