Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 patch release rolled out on May 23rd. This new release addresses a major issue found in Usage Meter 4.5.
Why is Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 needed?
The new Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 fixes a user permission issue with Usage Meter 4.5. The problem that it solves is related to the umscheduler account, which does not have enough permissions to run the following Usage Meter cron jobs: umhealth, logarchive, umlogs, umlogsize, and umarchive. As a result, those cron jobs cannot run automatically, and the Usage Meter logging is stopped.
Due to the lack of user permissions, the umscheduler user cannot write and delete log files in /op/vmware/cloudusagemetering/var/logs directory and start or stop Usage Meter processes with start.sh, and stop.sh. The latter can affect the metering in case there is an issue with any of the data collectors. The problem won’t be detected, and the services cannot be restarted.
Another issue that stems from the problem is that some log files older than 90 days are not automatically deleted. Also, old usage data files from /opt/vmware/umdata/, depending on Usage Meter working mode, are not cleaned, e.g., after 90 days for online mode. This will impact the consumed storage capacity on your Usage Meter appliance but won’t influence the reported usage data as only new data goes to Usage Insight.
What will happen with Usage Meter 4.5?
Usage Meter 4.5 will no longer be downloaded after the release of Usage Meter 4.5.0.1. It will be removed from Customer Connect, and soon after that will be out of support.
What to do after Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 is out?
To avoid any incorrect metering and compliance issues, we highly recommend that you take action to upgrade to Usage Meter 4.5.0.1! This is especially true for partners running Usage Meter 3.6.1, 4.1, 4.2, and 4.5. Check out the following information per a Usage Meter version.
Partners running Usage Meter 4.5
If you are a partner running Usage Meter 4.5, you need to upgrade immediately to Usage Meter 4.5.0.1. You can either perform an in-place upgrade or install Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 and add your VMware products anew.
The following information will help you perform an in-place upgrade or fresh install.
Partners running Usage Meter 4.X
Partners running Usage Meter 4.x instances should keep in mind that some of them will soon be out of support. That means that upgrading to Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 is highly recommended!
Check out this information on how to upgrade from Usage Meter 4.x to Usage Meter 4.5.0.1.
Partners running Usage Meter 3.6.1
If you are still running Usage Meter 3.6.1, you will need to upgrade to Usage Meter 4.X by deploying 4.5.0.1 as a new appliance. To save some time and effort, migrate your product configuration to Usage Meter 4.5.0.1. You can use a migration script that will transfer the details of your VMware products, such as endpoint IP or hostname, user credentials, and product version, to a pre-deployed Usage Meter 4.5.0.1 instance.
Check these procedural steps to learn how to do it.
Note: Keep in mind that products metered by Usage Meter 3.6.1 can differ from those supported by Usage Meter 4.5.0.1. Check the VMware Interoperability Matrix before migrating your product configuration to avoid confusion. The migration script will only migrate those products supported by Usage Meter 4.5.0.1
Summary
While we recognize the inconvenience that this issue introduces to you, we will make an extra effort to minimize the risk of having such unplanned releases in the future. We will continue with our attempt to provide transparent and convenient VCPP usage metering to you.
If you have more questions on switching to Usage Meter 4.5.0.1, email us at [email protected] or leave a comment.
