Configure options in the RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report

The RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report provides historical usage from the HostMetric table, applying deduplication and showing real historical usage for renewal guidance purposes.

To generate this report, set the report type to METRICS_UTILITY_REPORT_TYPE=RENEWAL_GUIDANCE.

Important

This report is currently a tech preview solution. It is designed to provide more information than automation controller when built in the awx-manage host_metric command.

Storage and invocation
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The RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report supports the use of only local disk storage to store the report results. This report does not have a gather data step. It reads directly from the controller HostMetric table, so it does not store any raw data under the METRICS_UTILITY_SHIP_PATH.

# All parameters the RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report needs
export METRICS_UTILITY_SHIP_TARGET=controller_db
export METRICS_UTILITY_REPORT_TYPE=RENEWAL_GUIDANCE
export METRICS_UTILITY_SHIP_PATH=/path_to_built_report/...

# Will generate report for 12 months back with ephemeral nodes being nodes
# automated for less than 1 month.
metrics-utility build_report --since=12months --ephemeral=1month

Generate reports to show ephemeral usage
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The metrics-utility command-line tool can generate reports showing ephemeral usage of managed nodes.

The RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report has the capability to list additional sheets with ephemeral usage if the -ephemeral parameter is provided. Using the parameter --ephemeral=1month, you can define ephemeral nodes as any managed node that has been automated for a maximum of one month, then never automated again. Using this parameter, the total ephemeral usage of the 12-month period is computed as maximum ephemeral nodes used over all 1-month rolling date windows. This sheet is also added into the report.

# Will generate report for 12 months back with ephemeral nodes being nodes
# automated for less than 1 month.
metrics-utility build_report --since=12months --ephemeral=1month

Select a date range for your RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report
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The default behavior of the RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report is to build a report for the current date. The following examples describe how to override this default behavior to select a specific date range for your report:

The RENEWAL_GUIDANCE report requires a since parameter as the parameter is not supported due to the nature of the HostMetric data and is always set to now. To override a report date range that is already built, use parameter -force with the command. For more information, see the following examples:

# Build report for a specific date range, including the provided days
metrics-utility build_report --since=2025-03-01

# Build report for a last 12 months from a current date
metrics-utility build_report --since=12months

# Build report for a last 12 months from a current date overwriting an existing report
metrics-utility build_report --since=12months --force