User`s guide

A chargeback solution for a virtual environment defines a hierarchy with different types of entities such as
departments, divisions, business units, cost centers, physical servers, virtual machines, and so on. For each
entity type, a cost model is defined that determines the rate for each unit of a resource utilized. The chargeback
solution determines the resource usage by using either utilization-based metering or allocation-based metering
of virtual machines. The metered parameters are then associated with the designated entities, and the cost
model defined for that entity along with specific chargeback formulas are used as part of the overall chargeback
solution.
Overview of vCenter Chargeback
Determining the resource utilization and calculating the corresponding cost for a virtual environment that uses
VMware vSphere typically involves VMware professional services’ work or use of partner solutions. These
solutions are built using custom methods for VMware vSphere resource data collection and chargeback cost
calculation for organizations.
vCenter Chargeback is an end-to-end cost reporting solution for virtual environments that use VMware
vSphere. This Web-based application interacts with the vCenter Server Database to retrieve usage information,
calculates the cost by using the defined chargeback formulas, and generates reports. Figure 1-1 shows how
vCenter Chargeback interacts with various components of a virtual environment.
Figure 1-1. vCenter Chargeback in a Virtual Environment
vCenter
Chargeback
database
vCenter
Server
database
vCenter Server
VIM APIJDBC
Data Collector
vCenter Chargeback
Load Balancer
ESX
host02
ESX
host03
ESX
host01
vCenter Chargeback
UI
vCenter Chargeback runs on an Apache Tomcat server instance. The user interacts with the vCenter
Chargeback application through a load balancer (Apache HTTP Server). vCenter Chargeback connects to a
vCenter Chargeback database that stores application-specific information, such as the defined chargeback
hierarchies, cost models, users, roles, and so on. The application also interacts with the vCenter Server and
vCenter Server database through a data collector. The data collector communicates with the vCenter Server
using VIM APIs and with the vCenter Database using JDBC.
vCenter Chargeback User’s Guide
8 VMware, Inc.