User`s guide

Managing Chargeback Hierarchies 5
vCenter Chargeback interacts with the vCenter Server to determine the utilization of the computing resources
by various virtual machines that are created in the vCenter Server hierarchy. vCenter Chargeback enables you
to create multiple chargeback hierarchies, which can be different from the vCenter Server hierarchies.
A chargeback hierarchy is an organization of vCenter Server entities and vCenter Chargeback entities.
The vCenter Server entities include virtual machines, ESX Server hosts, data centers, resource pools, host
folders, and virtual machine folders. A chargeback hierarchy can contain entities from more than one vCenter
Server. The vCenter Chargeback entities are custom entities that could represent a logical parent for the vCenter
Server entities. For example, the vCenter Chargeback entities could represent the departments, cost centers,
or business units in an organization. A vCenter Chargeback entity can contain one or more vCenter Server
entities and vCenter Chargeback entities.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Creating a Chargeback Hierarchy,” on page 75
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“Managing a Chargeback Hierarchy,” on page 78
Creating a Chargeback Hierarchy
To identify the resource utilization and generate a usage or cost report, you must first create a chargeback
hierarchy and add the required entities to it.
You can create one or more chargeback hierarchies in the application as per your requirements. Creating
multiple chargeback hierarchies lets you organize a set of vCenter Server entities in multiple ways and also
identify and compare the costs for each of these hierarchies. You can also create one hierarchy for each vCenter
Server.
Create a Custom Chargeback Hierarchy
You can create a custom chargeback hierarchy and add vCenter Server entities and vCenter Chargeback entities
to it.
To perform this task, you must have a role with the create privilege for the hierarchy resource type assigned
to you on vCenter Chargeback.
Procedure
1 In the Manage Hierarchy tab, click Create Hierarchy.
The Create Hierarchy screen is displayed.
2 Enter a name and description for the hierarchy.
The name must not exceed 255 characters and the description must not exceed 512 characters in length.
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