FAQ
How to troubleshoot Windows Azure Pack (WAP) and System Center Usage Pipeline?
Visit the following link http://www.cloudassert.com/Blogs/how-to-troubleshoot-windows-azure-pack-wap-and-system-center-usage-pipeline-52932
Is it easy to integrate the payment gateway with any existing or new payment systems?
Yes. Since every customer tends to have a different type of payment systems that they use, we defer the customer to have choice of their payment system and we just provide integration with it.
Will you do this integration or we need to do it?
We will work with you to understand the best way to integrate with your choice of payment system and we will create mechanisms to accomplish the integration. If the integration requires lot of custom work, then we will add it to the deployment cost and you will know firsthand how much the total solution will cost.
We do lot of offline payments; how do you take care of it? And how do you disable user for non-payments?
Precisely because every customer has different way to collect payments, this solution doesn’t involve the real payment collection instead it builds on top of Azure Pack constructs and integrates with existing payment systems. For example, if you disable a user in your billing system, say WHMCS for any reason such as payment not received, this solution can automatically disable the subscription in Azure Pack, however this solution itself doesn’t track payments etc.
Can we offer trial periods and discount periods?
Yes. You can run plan-level promotions that are recurring or valid for a specific number of days. You can also offer hourly credits for metered resources, or offer credits per user.
How do I Update my Bank Account information with CyberSource?
Visit the following link: https://support.CyberSource.com/cybskb/index?page=content&id=C285&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1471408348091
When can I see the updated cost take effective, once I change the unit price of a meter resource in a pricing profile?
Once the unit price is changed in the pricing profile, the usage cost for the records will take effective only for records that are newly generated. It would take a minimum time of 2 hours (in case of VMs) to a maximum time of 48 hours (in-case of Databases). Note: For existing records the newly set unit price will not take effective.
Can I update the usage cost of records that are already generated once I change the unit price of meter resource in a pricing profile?
Yes, you can. Change the unit price of a meter resource in a pricing profile and follow the steps in Run Reset Usage (1). It will take about three to ten minutes to generate the records with the newly set unit price.
Is it possible to inject non-WAP Usage details into Usage and Billing pipeline?
Yes, it is possible to set price for meters that are not listed by WAP. Visit the following link to know more.
How often does the usage cost reflect in the tenant portal?
The usage in the tenant portal updates every 60 seconds. It is also depending on the Resource providers that you have. For example, Systemcenter VMs update the usage record every two hours and SQLServers update usage records every two days in the WAP database. Usage and Billing solution checks for the usage records every 60 seconds and updates in the tenant portal after computing the usage cost.
What is the best practice for the “AppPool identity credentials” required during the setup? Apppool identity or a separate account?
By default, AppPool identity will suffice.
What is the username and password of the “API credentials”? What is the criteria for this?
The API credentials are used for registering the U&B API service in WAP. It doesn’t have to be a valid user account it can be any username and password.
Would there be any problem with the Usage and Billing setup, if the WAP admin and tenant URLs are changed to a custom URL “AFTER” Usage and Billing is installed?
If the WAP URLs change, then they need to be updated appropriately under the WAP Admin Portal Usage & Billing Settings section (across WAP Usage, WAP Admin API tabs). If Usage & Billing is setup in same machines where WAP admin components exist, then Usage & Billing API Service URL will also change, so you need to update the U&B resource provider configurations using PowerShell API. Refer to this article.
Usage and billing - resource provider settings needs to be updated accordingly in tenant config file. Refer to Step 4 – Configuring Tenant Site .
Under section “STEP 2.1 CONFIGURING USAGE PROCESSOR SETTINGS” the steps to create usage endpoint username and password Can it be any account name and password? OR does it need to follow certain naming convention? Is this a local computer user account?
It can be any user name and password. There are no conventions and it is not a local computer user account. It is a user account which will be used to access the WAP Usage component which is running in WAP.
Is it possible to disable a subscription of a specific tenant after they cross a quota? (a) Without shutting down VMs and (b)By shutting down VMs / Is it possible to disable a VMs network access if it exceeds the quota?
It can be done by using runbook scripts which will suspend the subscription (with and without shutting down the VM) and prevent Network access when it meets the criteria(quota).
Is it possible to track the usage of a network in terms of GBs instead of bandwidth?
It is already reported in GB. You could change the custom formula to report it in MB/KB/GB. The below is the formula for reporting the same in GB. (The meters for network usage are ‘*NICKBSentPerSecond-Average’ and ‘*NICKBReceivedPerSecond-Average’).
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