Red Hat Enterprise Linux Optimization Report

IT Asset Management (Cloud)
Red Hat offers several different annual subscriptions for support of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system, with two key alternatives being:
  • The Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription allows you to deploy an unlimited number of VMs running RHEL on hosts with hypervisors supported by Red Hat (such as Red Hat Virtualization, VMware, and Microsoft HyperV). This subscription is best suited for dense virtualized environments.
  • The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription is best suited for physical servers or low-density virtual servers.
In situations of low RHEL density, it may be more economical to use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription to cover physical and virtual machines. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux License Optimization report calculates the optimal subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in virtual environments, on orphaned virtual machines (where the virtual host is unknown), and on free-standing servers. As the subscriptions are renewed annually, you may get a rapid return on improving the mix of your subscriptions for the next renewal.
Tip: Because software installations in containers (whether Docker containers or in Kubernetes clusters) are not currently included in license consumption calculations in IT Asset Management, applications installed in containers are out of scope for this report.
The subscriptions for Red Hat Enterprise Linux work in different ways:
  • For a virtual environment, one Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription authorizes operation of two virtual machines on a host. Rounding of subscriptions is not applied at the level of the individual host (for example, a virtual host with nine VMs requires 4.5 subscriptions); but rounding up is applied finally to the enterprise-wide sum of these subscriptions. For physical devices, one subscription is required for each pair of processor sockets in the device (except that devices with only a single socket require a separate subscription each, as the socket-pair subscriptions cannot be split across devices).
  • The Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription authorizes an unlimited number of VMs running RHEL on a host, and instead counts the number of processors in the virtual host. Each subscription covers two processors running on a virtual host. For example, an eight-processor host with any number of guests running RHEL requires 4 subscriptions under this model.
Tip: These are subscriptions offered by Red Hat. It does not matter for this report what license type(s) within IT Asset Management you use to represent your Red Hat subscriptions. To prepare this report, IT Asset Management attempts to find the internal licenses you have used by assessing the strings used for:
  • The software license name, visible (for example) in the Name field on the Identification tab of the license properties
  • The software product name, visible (for example) in the Product column on the Applications tab of the license properties.
The benefits to this report of finding existing license records are:
  • Any device exemptions, either by device roles or by exemptions applied to individual devices, can be excluded from consuming points in this report (or, in the absence of a matching internal license, no exemptions are considered)
  • The Cost/point value for the appropriate license type may be taken from the Override unit price or the Unit price recorded on that license (or, in the absence of a matching internal license, default values are applied as noted below).
A subtlety of these subscription models is that Red Hat requires that each cluster must be authorized in a uniform way (that is, either one, but only one, of the subscriptions may be used to authorize all installations within the cluster). This requirement is what allows the report to suggest patterns of optimization, working through the following process:
  1. Free-standing devices running RHEL, together with orphaned VMs (with no known host), are calculated as consuming as non-virtual devices from an RHEL Server license, with rounding up on the total. Because a non-virtual rule is applied here, the total requirement for entitlements is half the number of host processor sockets (where orphan VMs are treated as if they are free-standing devices, and their number of assigned processors, if known, is used).
  2. For each virtual host with guests running RHEL, the report calculates two subscription consumption figures and associated costs:
    • Firstly, for the RHEL Server subscription, counting up the VMs and halving the result (because each subscription covers two VMs, in this case without rounding up)
    • Secondly, for an RHEL Virtual Datacenter subscription, counting the number of processors and halving the result (because one subscription covers two processor sockets on the host, and this time with rounding up)
    • Then evaluating the total cost of uniform subscriptions to cover the entire cluster in each of these two ways
    • And finally, proposing the more economical approach to optimization.
Using the optimal mix of subscriptions on different clusters may allow you to save on your next Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription renewal.

Generating the report

Note: This report is scoped to the data that each operator is entitled to see, according to their access rights. While an administrator can see all available licenses, clusters, consumption, and optimizations, another operator who has access rights restricted to EMEA sees only those elements linked to the EMEA location, and to any of its child locations.
  1. Go to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux License Optimization page (Reporting > License Reports > Red Hat Enterprise Linux Optimization).
  2. Click Run report to display the results for all installations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux running in clusters or on stand-alone devices.
All results are shown as of the latest inventory import and license reconciliation process, for which the date and time are shown in the right-hand end of the title bar, against Reconciled:

Reading the report

The following columns (listed alphabetically) are available.
Note: To save space, in several of the following column names these abbreviations are used:
  • (Server) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription
  • (Datacenters) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription
  • RHEL for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Column name Description
Avg RHEL VMs/host

For all the virtual hosts within the same cluster, this is the average number (per host) of guest VMs that are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Cluster cost (Datacenters)

The overall cost (taking account of all servers within the cluster) for the current cluster under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription.
Cluster cost (Server)

The overall cost (taking account of all servers within the cluster) for the current cluster under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription.
Cluster name

The path in the virtualization hierarchy to the cluster (in the form of domain/clustername). Cluster names are not forced to be unique, although giving them unique names is best practice. If you need to differentiate between (for example) two clusters with the same name, check the hosts and instances.
Comment on optimization

For rows where the Device type is VM Host, this comment compares the costs of the two possible subscription approaches for the cluster where this host operates, identifying the cheaper of the two Red Hat subscription options. (The column remains blank for other device types, or where the Optimal license cannot be identified.)
Consumed points

The subscriptions consumed by the virtual host, or orphan VM, or standalone device shown in this row. This is the consumption that will result if this device is covered by the Optimal license.

Consumed value (currency)

The cost of the current consumption for the device in this row. This is the simple multiple of Consumed points times the appropriate Cost/point for the subscription type shown in Optimal license.
Cost/point (Datacenters)
The cost per subscription under a Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription. Each of these subscriptions authorizes use of two processors running on a virtual host. This is the unit cost used for calculating values in this report. This value is taken from the first available of:
  • The Amount field on the Financial tab of the license properties
  • The Override unit price shown at the top of the Purchases tab of the license properties
  • The most recent Unit price in software purchases attached to the license
  • The default value of 2,499 (a hard-coded value based on the US$ list price).
Important: USD currency must be added as a supported currency to your tenant. Note there is no requirement to make USD your default currency. If USD is not added to your list of supported currencies, returned VM host data may contain discrepancies such as missing VM hosts and inaccurate price related data. To add USD currency, navigate to Administration > IT Asset Management Settings > Defaults > Currency Settings. On this page select Add a Currency and then United States Dollar (USD) from the Currency drop down list. When finished select Add.
Cost/point (Server)
The cost per subscription under a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription. Each of these subscriptions authorizes use of two virtual machines running on the same host (with rounding applied only at the overall enterprise level); or, for stand-alone devices that are not virtual hosts, two processor sockets on the same device. This is the unit cost used for calculating values in this report. This value is taken from the first available of:
  • The Amount field on the Financial tab of the license properties
  • The Override unit price shown in the Purchases tab of the license properties
  • The most recent Unit price in software purchases attached to the license
  • The default value of 349 (a hard-coded value based on the US$ list price).
Important: USD currency must be added as a supported currency to your tenant. Note there is no requirement to make USD your default currency. If USD is not added to your list of supported currencies, returned VM host data may contain discrepancies such as missing VM hosts and inaccurate price related data. To add USD currency, navigate to Administration > IT Asset Management Settings > Defaults > Currency Settings. On this page select Add a Currency and then United States Dollar (USD) from the Currency drop down list. When finished select Add.
Count RHEL VMs on host Only for rows where the Device type is VM Host, this shows the number of virtual machines that are guests on this one host and are also running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. You can see which are these VMs in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux VMs installed on host column. (Displays a zero for rows where Device type is anything other than VM Host.)
Device corporate unit

The corporate unit that has been linked to the device shown in this row.
Device cost center

The cost center that has been linked to the device shown in this row.
Device location
The location that has been linked to the virtual machine shown in this row.
Remember: If your system setting Update virtual machine location to match host location is set to true, this location may be inherited from the host where the VM is a guest.
Device name

The name of the inventory device in this row. The compliance calculation updates this field with the machine name returned in inventory (matched by several properties, including serial number).
Device role

Specifies the role assigned to a device. Assigning a role may allow for exemptions that limit license consumption for roles specified in some license agreements. Device roles (where permitted by the product use rights on a license) can exempt devices from consuming entitlements on a license to which they are (and remain) attached. For example, some license agreements may grant an exemption for testing devices. For more details, see Allocations and Exemptions.

Possible roles include:
  • Backup / Archive — This device cannot be started without first restoring it from an archive copy. Typical publisher terminologies include backup, or archival.
  • Cold Standby / Disaster Recovery — This device is not currently running, but could be started at any time. Typical publisher terminologies include disaster recovery, cold standby, cold disaster recovery, or failover.
  • Development — This device is used exclusively for system development. It does not carry any production load.
  • Hot Standby / Active Failover — This device is running, and probably doing work such as mirroring database changes. Typically, this system requires a license, so that it would be unusual to select this role for an exemption. Typical publisher terminologies include hot standby, active, active clusters, mirroring, HA, standby, or remote mirroring.
  • Production — Specifies that the device is being used in the production environment, and it consumes license entitlements for its installed software. This is the default value for all newly imported devices, and you need to change it to reflect any other specific role.
  • Test — Specifies that the device is being used exclusively in system testing, and does not carry any production load.
  • Training — Specifies that the device is being used for training purposes. Most publishers require that this use is exclusive, and may also require that the device is within a dedicated training facility.
  • Warm Standby / Passive Failover — This device is on, but is idling and not carrying any production load.
Device status The condition of this device at the most recent inventory import and compliance calculation. Possible values include:
  • Active — A device for which the inventory information is received from an inventory source.
  • Ignored — The device that is not managed. An ignored device is not considered in license consumption calculations.
    Tip: If an inventory device is linked to an asset record, and that asset is given a status of either Retired or Disposed, this Ignored value is automatically set for the linked inventory device.

Provided that the inventory device has not been linked to an asset record (which would be extremely unlikely for a VM), this value is editable in the General tab of the inventory device properties.
Device type
The kind of computer (or other device) represented in this row. Possible values include:
  • Computer
  • Virtual Machine
  • VM Host.
Host value (Datacenters) (currency) The cost of the ESX host server shown in this row under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription. This value could contribute to the savings available through switching to the suggested Optimal license (see also Saving for host). The value is the multiple of the Consumed points for this host and the Cost/point (Datacenters). This value is blank when either:
  • The Device type has any value other than VM Host
  • The Optimal license is not displaying Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server.
Latest RHEL in cluster

For all devices within the current cluster that are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, this is the most recent version reported.
Operating system

The operating system running on this device. This value is collected from the device inventory record.

Value may be blank for rows that do not represent a single inventory device.

Editable in the Hardware tab of the inventory device properties (for manually-created records).
Optimal license
The preferred subscription model to apply to the cluster/hosts in this row. This will be one of:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription, chosen when the value of Cluster cost (Datacenters) is greater than the value of Cluster cost (Server)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtualized Datacenters subscription at other times.
In short, the lower cost option is the one proposed.
Overall optimization (currency)

The sum of all the Saving for host values for all the hosts that are covered by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription (that is for all rows where this is shown as the Optimal license in this report).

Processors
Depending on the Device type in this row, this is:
  • The number of processors in the standalone device (for a Computer)
  • The number of processors in the ESX server (for a VM Host)
  • The number of processors assigned to the VM (for a Virtual Machine).
RHEL VMs in this cluster

For all the hosts that are in the same cluster as the current host shown in this row, this is the total number of virtual machines that are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. (To investigate this more thoroughly, it may be convenient to click the Show column groupings icon [right-hand side above the listing], and drag the Cluster name column heading into the grouping work space to have the appropriate hosts collected together in the appropriate sets.)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux VMs installed on host

Shows a list of the VMs that are guests on the virtual host shown in this row, and are also running Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Saving for host (currency)
The difference between the cost of including the ESX host server in this row under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription and the cost under the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription. This value is blank when either:
  • The row does not relate to a virtual host (that is, when Device type has any value other than VM Host)
  • The Optimal license is not displaying Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server.
Total optimized consumption (Datacenters)
The total exposure (for the next subscription renewal) of consumption for all rows relating to clusters covered by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters subscription, if the proposed optimization is applied in your environment.
Tip: Shows a zero for rows containing an ESX VM Host in a cluster where the recommended license is Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server.
Total optimized consumption (Server)
The total exposure (for the next subscription renewal) of consumption for all rows relating to clusters covered by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription, if the proposed optimization is applied in your environment.
Tip: Shows a zero for rows containing an ESX VM Host in a cluster where the recommended license is Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters.

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

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