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Thischapterincludesthefollowingtopics:
“WhatIsvCenterChargeback?”onpage 7
“RESTArchitectureonpage 7
“ChargebackAPISyntax”onpage 9
“A P I Versioning”onpage 10
What Is vCenter Chargeback?
vCenterChargebackisacostreportingsolutionforenvironmentsvirtualizedusingvSphere.ThisWebbased
applicationinteractswiththevCenterDatabasetoretrieveusageinformation,calculatesthecostbyusingthe
definedChargebackformulas,andgeneratesreports.
vCenterChargebackrunsonanApacheTomcatserverinstance.Theuserinteractswiththe
vCenter
Chargebackapplicationthroughaloadbalancer(ApacheHTTPServer).vCenterChargebackconnectstoa
Chargebackdatabasethatstoresinformationsuchasthedefinedhierarchies,costmodel,users,roles,andso
on.TheapplicationalsointeractswiththevCenterServerandvCenterDatabasethroughaDataCollector.The
DataCollector
usesVIMAPIstocommunicatewiththevCenterServerandJDBCtocommunicatewiththe
vCenterDatabase.
vCenterChargebackAPIsprovideaninterfaceforapplicationdeveloperstoprogrammaticallyusethe
functionalityofvCenterChargeback.
FormoreinformationaboutChargebackanditscapabilities,seethevCenterChargebackUser’sGuide.
REST Architecture
vCenterChargebackAPIsimplementtheRepresentationalStateTransfer(REST)architecture.RESTbased
APIshelpyousendHTTPrequestsforresourcesoverthenetworkandreceiveresponses.
vCenter Chargeback APIs
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