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Table Of Contents
- vCenter Chargeback User’s Guide
- Contents
- About This Book
- Introduction to vCenter Chargeback
- Installing vCenter Chargeback
- Configuring Administration Settings
- Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions
- Managing Chargeback Hierarchies
- Create a Chargeback Hierarchy
- Manage a Chargeback Hierarchy
- View a Chargeback Hierarchy
- Add a vCenter Server Entity
- Add a vCenter Chargeback Entity
- Rename a Chargeback Hierarchy or a Chargeback Entity
- Delete an Entity from the Hierarchy
- Delete a Chargeback Hierarchy
- Assign Attributes
- Move Entities Within a Hierarchy
- Share Virtual Machine Cost
- View Properties of a vCenter Server Entity
- Creating and Configuring a Cost Model
- Generating Reports
- System Health, Utilities, and Troubleshooting
- System Health
- Events
- Utilities
- Troubleshooting
- Unable to Send Report Through Email
- Storage Syncing Job Fails
- Unable to use Custom SSL Certificates
- Unable to View the vCenter Chargeback Plug-In in the VI Client
- Report Does not Display the Memory Usage Value and the Corresponding Cost
- Report Does not Display the Network Transmitted and Network Received Stats
- Report Does not Display the Disk Read and Disk Write Stats
- Unable to Add vCenter Server in vCenter Chargeback
- Changed Timezone Setting is not Reflected
- Installer Throws the SQL Driver not Found Error
- Status of Failed Data Collector is not Reflected Immediately on the System Health tab
- Non-English Characters are not Correctly Stored in the vCenter Chargeback Database
- Service Temporarily Unavailable Error Thrown when Accessing vCenter Chargeback
- Text and Messages on the vCenter Chargeback User Interface are not Correctly Displayed
- Error Occurs While Importing a Hierarchy from a CSV File
- Changes to Chargeback Hierarchy are not Reflected in the Concurrent User-Sessions
- Changes to the vCenter Server Hierarchy are not Reflected in vCenter Chargeback
- Unable to Fetch the Primary Group of a LDAP User
- Unable to Access the vCenter Chargeback Application
- Index
VMware, Inc. 9
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BeforeyouinstallandstartusingthevCenterChargebackapplication,anunderstandingofwhatchargeback
isandchargebacksolutionforavirtualizedenvironmentwouldbehelpful.Thischapterprovidesaquick
overviewofthevCenterChargebackapplication.
Thischapterincludesthefollowingtopics:
“WhatIsChargeback?”onpage 9
“ChargebackSolutionforVirtualizedEnvironments”onpage 9
“OverviewofvCenterChargeback”onpage 10
What Is Chargeback?
Chargebackisamechanismtoaccountfortheoperationalcostsinvolvedinprovidingandmaintainingan
IT infrastructure,includingthecostsforITservicesandapplications.Measuringresourceutilizationand
calculatingthecorrespondingIToperationalcostenablesyoutoaccountfortheITresourcesutilizedandbill
fortheservicesprovided.
In
anon‐virtualizedenvironment,aphysicalserverandtheassociatedresourcesliketheapplicationsrunning
onitcanbeeasilymappedtothedepartmentusingthem,makingthebillingforsuchresourceutilizations
relativelyeasy.Also,costsincurredduetomaintenanceandlicensingcanbedirectlyassociatedtoa
department,thereby
enablingyoutocalculatethecompleteIToperationalcosts.
Inavirtualizedenvironment,however,thetaskofcalculatingtheIToperationalcostforeachdepartment
becomesverydifficult.Multiplevirtualmachinesrunonaphysicalserver,whichmightbesharedacross
differentdepartmentsorcostcentersinanorganization.Asa
result,resourceutilizationforthisserverand,
therefore,thecostincurredcannotbedirectlyassociatedtoanysingledepartmentorcostcenter.Thedifficulty
inaccountinggetsfurthercompoundedwhenapplicationsandservicesgetshiftedovertimetodifferent
servers,basedontheloadandavailableinfrastructureresources.
Chargeback Solution for Virtualized Environments
Inavirtualizedenvironment,achargebacksolutionrequiresaflexiblemeteringsystemthatcanaccountfor
theutilizationofresourcessharedacrosstheorganization.Thesemeasurementscanbebasedonallocationor
actualusageofindividualserversorresources.InthecaseofVMotion,DRS,orHAbeingenabled,the
measurements
couldbebasedontheallocationoractualusageofresourcepools.
Tosupportchargeback,thevirtualizedenvironmentandthechargebacksolutionmustprovidewaysto
measureresourceusageandassociatetheusagewithaspecificcostingmodel.Thechargebacksolutionmust
alsosupporttheuseofdifferentcostingmodelsso
astochargethevariousdepartmentsorcostcenters
differently.
Introduction to vCenter Chargeback
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