Extracting Resource Allocation Data for Chargeback in a HP Virtual Server Environment for HP Integrity Servers

Abstract
Chargeback is of growing interest to IT organizations that are implementing shared services on
virtualized servers. A key element of a chargeback solution is the collection of usage data when
workloads belonging to multiple different end users share the same physical resources. This paper
describes the data of interest and the tools used to report it in a computing environment that
implements the HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) suite of platform virtualization technologies.
Chargeback and VSE Concepts
Virtualization and chargeback represent two of the most significant changes being integrated into IT
organizations today. Virtualization allows IT organizations to increase the utilization of their server
platform resources and to become more flexible in responding to business needs. At the same time,
chargeback becomes more important and more complex as the traditional “one server, one end-user
organization” relationship is less and less the norm.
Chargeback
Chargeback is the practice of charging individual business units for the IT services they use. The
definition of chargeback is simple, but the IT services being measured and associated chargeback
solution can be complex. This section discusses the position of VSE in an overall chargeback solution.
Components of a complete chargeback solution
To fully measure the usage of business units and to bill them, a chargeback solution requires multiple
subcomponents, including a database of resources, asset management and accounting information,
user organizations, a rate and cost structure, a billing/invoicing engine, and a data collection
mechanism. Figure 1 illustrates these components and their relationship. Of these components, this
paper describes only the data that VSE can provide to a data collection mechanism.
Business Unit
Service
Resources
Consumer
Database
Tariff and Rates
Database
Billing and
Invoicing
Usage Data
Collection
Resource/Asset
Database
Focus of whitepaper
Figure 1 Chargeback components
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