vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.0.0 This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at: http://www.vmware.com/support/ The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates. If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com Copyright © 2012 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws.
Contents About the User's Guide 5 1 Introduction to vCenter Chargeback Manager 7 What Is Chargeback 7 Chargeback Solution for Virtual Environments Overview of vCenter Chargeback Manager 8 7 2 Configuring Administration Settings 11 Activate the Application 11 Configuring Generic Settings 12 Managing LDAP Servers 15 Managing vCenter Servers 17 Managing Data Collectors 22 Managing the Application License 29 Manage Report View 30 Managing Attributes 31 Manage System Health Thresholds 33 Manage Computing Res
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 6 Generating Reports 95 About Reports 95 Generate a Cost Report 98 Generate a Usage Report 100 Generate Cost Comparison Report 101 Generate Showback Report 103 Scheduling Report Generation 105 Managing Reports 111 Managing Archived Reports 115 Managing Automatic Report Scheduler 118 Report Dashboard 120 7 Monitoring System Health 123 vCenter Chargeback Manager Events 124 8 Administration Utilities 125 Database Password Change Utility 125 vCenter Chargeback Mana
About the User's Guide The vCenter Chargeback Manager User's Guide provides information about configuring and using the chargeback solution for virtual environments that use VMware Infrastructure or VMware vSphere. Intended Audience This book is intended for anyone who wants to use vCenter Chargeback Manager. The information in this book is written for experienced Windows system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations. VMware, Inc.
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Introduction to vCenter Chargeback Manager 1 vCenter Chargeback Manager is an end-to-end cost reporting solution for virtual environments using vSphere. vCenter Chargeback Manager can also be used with VMware vCloud Director. Before you install and start using vCenter Chargeback Manager, an understanding of what is chargeback and about chargeback solutions for a virtual environment would be helpful.
vCenter Chargeback Manager 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.
Chapter 1 Introduction to vCenter Chargeback Manager When you install vCenter Chargeback Manager, a load balancer and a data collector is also installed and run on the same machine. Although the vCenter Chargeback Manager database can also be installed on the same machine, in a real-world scenario you would install the application and the database on separate machines.
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Configuring Administration Settings 2 As an administrative user, you can perform various administrative tasks, such as configuring the LDAP and SMTP servers in the application and adding as well as updating vCenter Server information. To perform these administrative tasks, you must have the Super User or Administrator role. The user account details provided during the installation has the Super User role defined on it. Log in to the application by using this administrative user account.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Configuring Generic Settings Before you start using the various features of vCenter Chargeback Manager, you must configure few settings in the application. Some of the generic settings can be configured from the Settings tab. You can configure the SMTP server settings and the log level from the General page of the Settings tab. The General page of the Settings tab lists all the vCenter Chargeback Manager instances added to the cluster.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings 2 Click Edit in the Email Setting section. The Manage Email Server screen is displayed. 3 4 Modify the required SMTP server settings. Option Description Server HostName Static IP address of the SMTP server. If the sever does not have a static IP address, ensure that you provide the FQDN. Server Port Port number on which the SMTP server is listening for requests. Email Address Email address that the application must use to send emails.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 3 In the Log Setting section, select the required log level from the Select Log level list. Option Description trace The trace level is the most informative level providing fine-grained information about the events. debug The debug level provides event information that are most useful to debug an application. info (default): The info level provides coarse-grained informational messages that highlight the progress of the application.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings is the complete folder path provided during the vCenter Chargeback Manager installation. The default installation folder is C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Chargeback. Server_Instance_Name is the name that you have provided during the installation. You must restart the Load Balancer service after running the ModifyLBWorkers.bat file. Managing LDAP Servers You can configure one or more LDAP servers in vCenter Chargeback Manager.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide On successfully configuring the LDAP server setting, the details of the LDAP server, except the authentication information, are displayed in the table on the LDAP Servers page. What to do next You can now add the Windows Active Directory users and groups to vCenter Chargeback Manager so that they can access the application using their Windows Active Directory login credentials.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings 5 Click Save. If you have selected Enable LDAPS during the modify LDAP Server setting operation or the SSL certificate on the LDAP server has changed, then a dialog requesting you to accept the SSL certificate is displayed. 6 Accept the SSL certificate. If you click Cancel, the LDAP Server setting configuration fails. The table on the LDAP Servers page lists the modified information for the selected LDAP server.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Prerequisites n Before you add a vCenter Server, you must ensure that the vCenter Server is accessible over the network. Also, ensure that vCenter Server and the vCenter Server database have static IP addresses. If not, you must provide the FQDN for such servers and databases when adding them to vCenter Chargeback Manager.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings Option Description Database URL URL to access the vCenter Server database. For Oracle Database, this URL must have the format: IP address/host name:TNS listener port For example: 123.123.123.123:1521 For Microsoft SQL Server, this URL can be in the following formats: IP address/host name\database instance name or IP address/host name For example: 123.123.123.123\chargeback_db You can also specify a well formed JDBC URL that starts with 'jdbc' and contains t
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 4 Click Add. A dialog requesting you to add an SSL certificate for secure communication with the vCenter Server is displayed. 5 Accept the SSL certificate request. If you click Cancel, the add vCenter Server operation is cancelled. The vCenter Server is added to the application and included in the table listing the vCenter Server instances.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings Option Description Database URL URL to access the vCenter Server database. For Oracle Database, this URL must have the format: IP address/host name:TNS listener port For example: 123.123.123.123:1521 For Microsoft SQL Server, this URL can be in the following formats: IP address/host name\database instance name or IP address/host name For example: 123.123.123.123\chargeback_db You can also specify a well formed JDBC URL that starts with 'jdbc' and contains t
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 4 Click Save. If the SSL certificate on the vCenter Server has changed, a dialog requesting you to accept the new SSL certificate is displayed. 5 Accept the SSL certificate request. If you click Cancel, the modify vCenter Server operation is cancelled. The modified information is reflected in the table displayed on the page.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings n Configure VMware Cloud Director Data Collector on page 26 If you have installed the Cloud Director Data Collector, you must configure its properties from the Data Collectors page of the Settings tab. n Configure vShield Manager Data Collector on page 27 If you have installed the vShield Manager Data Collector, you must specify the user name and password to access the vShield Manager instances.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 2-1. Information About Data Collectors Registered in the Application (Continued) Information Type Description Data Collector Name The name of the data collector provided during the installation. vCenter Server Name The display name of the vCenter Server added to the application. Job Type The type of the synchronization job.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings Modify Job Interval You can control the time interval between two consecutive job runs for jobs that do not run eternally. Ensure that the job interval time specified is sufficient enough to run the job completely. The data collector starts a job run only after the earlier job run is completed. If the specified interval is too small, then the job might not start exactly after the specified minutes post the last synchronization time.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Delete Data Collector A data collector registered with the application can be removed or deleted. IMPORTANT If only a single data collector is running, do not delete it. If deleted, the synchronization jobs will not run and the data in the vCenter Chargeback Manager database will not be in sync with the data in the vCenter Server. Procedure 1 In the Settings tab, clickData Collectors.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings Property Description VMware Cloud Director database port Port on which the VMware vCloud Director database is listening for request. If no port details are specified, vCenter Chargeback Manager considers the default database port. VMware Cloud Director database username VMware vCloud Director database user name. VMware Cloud Director database password Password for the VMware vCloud Director database user.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 3 Select the property from the vShield Manager common properties section and click Edit. You can modify the job interval for the external traffic statistics collector job run by the vShield Manager Data Collector. vShield Manager Data Collector runs a job that collects broadband statistics from vShield Manager for all the registered networks. The broadband statistics collector job interval defines the time in seconds between two such job runs.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings Managing the Application License If you have the Super User role, you can view the details of the current vCenter Chargeback Manager license by clicking License on the Settings tab. The following table lists the license information displayed on the License page. Table 2-2. License Information License Information Description License Key The current license key used to access the application. License Type The type of license used to access the application.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 Select the license and click Delete. A dialog confirming the action is displayed. 3 Click OK to confirm the deletion. Manage Report View vCenter Chargeback Manager provides a report view that is used by all the generated reports. You can configure the report view to display a specific set of information in each of the generated reports. Like most reports, the chargeback report has multiple sections, such as Header, Title, Body, and Footer.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings Option Description Report Description A description of the report provided when generating the report. None (default) No information is displayed in this sub-section in the report. Repeat this step to set the information for each sub-section as required. 8 Click Footer. The Footer section of the report template displays three sub-sections. 9 Select a sub-section from the Footer section of the report template.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Add an Attribute You can define one or more attributes in vCenter Chargeback Manager. You must have the Super User or Administrator role to perform this task. Procedure 1 In the Settings tab, click Manage Attributes. 2 Click Create. The Create Attribute screen is displayed. 3 Enter the name and description for the attribute. A attribute can be attached to an entity to provide additional information about the entity.
Chapter 2 Configuring Administration Settings The attribute is deleted from the application and is removed from the table. Manage System Health Thresholds The System Health tab provides information about the status of the entire system based on the response time of the various servers and databases in the system. The response time limits can be set in the application. You must have the Super User role to perform this task.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Users can perform computing resource-related operations, such as defining base rates and rate factors, and generating reports, only for the selected computing resources. Specifying which computing resources are available to the users does not effect the data collector jobs. The data collector fetches the relevant information for all the computing resources. You must have the Super User role to perform this task.
Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions 3 vCenter Chargeback Manager provides user management features that enable you to manage the various users, roles, and permissions defined in the application. vCenter Chargeback Manager provides resource-based authorization. The application defines different permissions for each resource. The application also provides few predefined roles. In addition, you can create new roles and users as per your requirements.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 3-1. Resource Types Defined in vCenter Chargeback Manager (Continued) Resource Type Description Chargeback Hierarchical Entity This resource type refers to any entity created or added to a hierarchy in vCenter Chargeback Manager. A user must have read permission on the entity and the corresponding hierarchy to access it. Attribute This resource type refers to any attribute created or imported in vCenter Chargeback Manager.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions Table 3-2.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Predefined Roles in vCenter Chargeback Manager vCenter Chargeback Manager provides various predefined roles that can be assigned to the application users. The predefined roles are Super User, Administrator, Hierarchy Manager, Report Generator, vCenter Guest User, No Access, Dependent Resource Update, and Dependent Resource Read. These roles have a set of permissions on the various resource types defined in them.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions Table 3-4.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 3-5. Permissions Defined on the Hierarchy Manager Role (Continued) Resource Type Create Read Update Delete Entity Cost Modify Billing Policy Yes Yes Yes Yes No Automatic Report Scheduler Yes Yes Yes Yes No Report Generator Role Table 3-6 lists the permissions defined in the Report Generator role for each of the resource type. Table 3-6.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions Table 3-7.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 3-8. Permissions Defined on the Dependent Resource Update Role (Continued) Resource Type Create Read Update Delete Entity Cost Modify Report No Yes Yes No No Schedule No Yes Yes No No Role No No No No No Billing Policy No Yes Yes No No Automatic Report Scheduler No No No No No Dependent Resource Read Role Table 3-9 lists the permissions defined in the Dependent Resource Read role for each of the resource type.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions Procedure 1 In the Users & Roles tab, click Roles. A table listing all the roles defined in the application is displayed. 2 Click Create. The Create Role screen is displayed. 3 Enter a name and description for the role. Option Description Role Name A name to uniquely identify the role. Provide a meaningful name to the role so that it is easy to identify the use of the role and the permissions assigned on the role.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 Select the role that you want to delete, and click Delete. A dialog box confirming the action is displayed. 3 Click OK. Managing Users When the application is installed, a user with the Super User role is created. The user name and password for this user are provided during the installation. This is the only user that exists in a freshly installed vCenter Chargeback Manager instance. You can create more users in the application.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions Creating Users You can create multiple users and groups in vCenter Chargeback Manager as per your requirements. You must have the Super User role or the Administrator role to create users. The application lets you create the following types of users and groups: Local User This is a vCenter Chargeback Manager user whose details are defined in vCenter Chargeback Manager. LDAP User This is a Windows Active Directory user.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide The newly created user is added to the table displaying the users and groups created in the application. What to do next The role assigned to the user defines the permission that the user has in the application. You must, however, assign roles to the user on the individual resources for him to access those resources. Create an LDAP User You can add Windows Active Directory users to vCenter Chargeback Manager.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions What to do next The role assigned to the user defines the permission that the user has in the application. You must, however, assign roles to the user on the individual resources for him to access those resources. Create an LDAP Group Like LDAP users you can also add LDAP groups to vCenter Chargeback Manager. You must have the Super User role or the Administrator role to perform this task.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide What to do next The role assigned to the group defines the permission that the group has in the application. You must, however, assign roles to the group on the individual resources for granting access on those resources. Modify a User After a user is created, you can change the password for the user by using the Modify User feature of the application. You can modify the password of only a Local user.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions Assign a Role to a User on vCenter Chargeback Manager The role assigned to the user on vCenter Chargeback Manager defines the actions that the user can perform in the application. A user must have a role assigned to him on vCenter Chargeback Manager or on the resource defined in the application to enable him to perform some actions in the application. When you create a user, no roles or permissions are assigned to it by default.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Assign a Role to a User for a Resource A user can access a resource created in the application only if he has created it or has privileges to access it. A user can be given privileges to access a resource by assigning a role to him for the required resource. If a user is assigned the Super User role, then he can access any resource created in the application.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions 3 Expand the resource type folder and select the resources for which you want to set the role on the user. You can select more than one resource by pressing the Ctrl key and selecting each of the required resources. However, the roles that you can assign on these resources would depend on the intersection of the permissions you have on each of the selected resources. 4 Select the user from the table listing the users.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide The role is revoked from the user. Revoking the role assigned to the user on vCenter Chargeback Manager does not automatically remove the roles explicitly assigned to the user for the various resources. The user can continue to access the resources that he has created and the resources for which he has been assigned a role. vCenter Chargeback Manager User Authentication After a user is created, you can log in to the application using the credentials of this user.
Chapter 3 Authenticating and Managing Users, Roles, and Permissions After registering the application as a plug-in, when you log in to the vCenter Server through the vSphere Client, the application might display a security warning message for installing or ignoring the SSL certificate from the vCenter Chargeback Manager instance. You must install this certificate.
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Managing Chargeback Hierarchies 4 vCenter Chargeback Manager 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 Manager 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 Manager entities.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 3 Select Custom Hierarchy (default). 4 Click Create. An empty chargeback hierarchy with the given name is created. What to do next To add entities to this hierarchy and manage the hierarchy, see “Managing a Chargeback Hierarchy,” on page 58. Synchronize a Chargeback Hierarchy with a vCenter Server You can create a chargeback hierarchy and synchronize it with a vCenter Server. This chargeback hierarchy will be same as the vCenter Server hierarchy.
Chapter 4 Managing Chargeback Hierarchies Prerequisites Before you begin, you must ensure that the .csv file entries are in the correct format. To know more about the format of the .csv file entries, refer to “Format of the CSV File,” on page 57. 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.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide The following sample is an example of the contents of such a file: #version 1.5.0 1,CB-folder,-1,101 2,CB-folder-1,1,101,vCenter Chargeback Manager entity 3,cbm-vc,1,0,12.123.123.123,vm-203,1 4,CBM_1.5_B2,2,0,23.123.123.123,vm-218,2 The first line of the CSV file specifies the version of the chargeback hierarchy population CSV file. The latest version is 1.5.0. If this line is not present, the format of the CSV file entries defaults to that for vCenter Chargeback 1.
Chapter 4 Managing Chargeback Hierarchies Add a vCenter Chargeback Manager Entity You can add vCenter Chargeback Manager entities to a chargeback hierarchy to logically group vCenter Server entities in the hierarchy. A vCenter Chargeback Manager entity can represent the departments, cost centers, and business units in an organization. To add a vCenter Chargeback Manager entity to a chargeback hierarchy, you must have update privilege on the chargeback hierarchy and the parent entity.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 Expand the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign (+) to the left of the hierarchy name. The first-level entities in the hierarchy are displayed. You can view all the entities in the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign to the left of the entities that have sub-entities. 3 Right-click the entity to which you want to add a vCenter Server entity and select New vCenter Server Entity from the pop-up menu.
Chapter 4 Managing Chargeback Hierarchies Procedure 1 In the Manage Hierarchy tab, select the required chargeback hierarchy from the drop-down menu on the left pane of the page. The collapsed view of the chargeback hierarchy is displayed. 2 Expand the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign (+) to the left of the hierarchy name. The first-level entities in the hierarchy are displayed. You can view all the entities in the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign to the left of the entities that have sub-entities.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Procedure 1 In the Manage Hierarchy tab, select the required chargeback hierarchy from the drop-down menu on the left pane of the page. The collapsed view of the chargeback hierarchy is displayed. 2 Right-click the hierarchy and select Delete this hierarchy from the pop-up menu. A dialog box confirming the action is displayed. 3 Click OK. The chargeback hierarchy is deleted permanently from the application.
Chapter 4 Managing Chargeback Hierarchies Procedure 1 In the Manage Hierarchy tab, select the required chargeback hierarchy from the drop-down menu on the left pane of the page. The collapsed view of the chargeback hierarchy is displayed. 2 Expand the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign (+) to the left of the hierarchy name. The first-level entities in the hierarchy are displayed. You can view all the entities in the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign to the left of the entities that have sub-entities.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 3 Right-click the chargeback entity for which you want to allocate computing resource units and select Set allocation units from the pop-up menu. The Define allocation units for the selected entity screen is displayed. 4 Define the time period for which the allocation is applicable. The default selection is Update from now onwards indicating the allocation is applicable from the time of setting the values till it is changed at a future date.
Chapter 4 Managing Chargeback Hierarchies 6 Set the share percentages and click Apply. The share percentages must total up to 100. The shared virtual machine is displayed in the hierarchy. You can change the share percentage or share the virtual machine again with more entities, by performing the same steps. Backdate a Chargeback Hierarchy You can backdate a chargeback hierarchy so that the resource utilization details for the last three months from the current date are considered.
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Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements 5 vCenter Chargeback Manager provides various cost-related elements. These elements enable you to define the cost to be charged for each computing resource, fixed costs, and the cost calculation formula. You must set the various cost-related elements in vCenter Chargeback Manager to successfully generate the required cost reports.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Chargeable Computing Resource A chargeable computing resource is any computing resource that must be accounted for when calculating the IT operational costs. The usage of the computing resources is measured and the corresponding charge is calculated. vCenter Chargeback Manager accounts for the following computing resources: CPU The CPU usage is measured in GHz. Memory The memory usage is measured in GB.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements Table 5-1. Sample Base Rate Values Chargeable Resource Unit Duration Base Rate ($) CPU GHz Hourly 0.0399 Memory GB Hourly 0.0048 Network Received and Transmitted GB/hour Hourly 0.0008 Storage GB Hourly 0.0013 Disk Read and Write GB/hour Hourly 0.0008 vCPU Count Hourly 0.04 The base rate duration is configurable.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide A one-time fixed cost is a charge that you want to levy once on an entity for a service provided. For example, virtual machine provisioning fees. This is a one-time cost that you want to charge for every virtual machine provisioned. If the time when the fixed cost is applied on an entity falls within the reporting duration, then the report generated on the entity or its parent includes this cost.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements reserved units of that day and accounts for the maximum of the two. If for any days of the week the daily samples are unavailable, then vCenter Chargeback Manager uses the 2 hour samples only for those days to calculate the total CPU and memory units to be charged.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide vCPU Count and Memory Size This policy takes into account the number of virtual CPUs, the total amount of memory allocated to the virtual machines, and the actual utilization of other chargeable computing resources for calculating the total cost.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements Cost Model A cost model defines base rates for the chargeable computing resources, the currency, the billing policy to be used for calculating the total cost, and other costs. The other costs include cost for the guest operating system installed on the virtual machine and cost for vServices such as, High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and virtual machine creation and deletion cost.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide n Delete a Cost Model on page 77 You can remove invalid or unwanted cost models from the application. However, you cannot delete the Default Chargeback Cost Model and Default Allocation Based Chargeback Cost Model. Create a Cost Model You can create multiple cost models in vCenter Chargeback Manager. Defining multiple cost models enables you to charge different sets of entities or hierarchies differently.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements 7 Set the base rate and the corresponding duration for the computing resources. The duration specifies how often the specified rate is charged for the corresponding computing resource. The duration can be Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly, or Yearly.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 6 In the Other Cost section, specify the other costs incurred. These costs can include license costs, maintenance cost, overheads, and so on. If the specified cost is applicable for each of the servers individually, then select the checkbox next to the cost. If the cost is a recurring cost, then select the checkbox under the Recurring Cost column corresponding to the specified cost. You can add and delete additional costs using the Add and Delete buttons.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements 5 In the Base Rates tab, modify the base rates for the chargeable computing resources, the duration, and the effective time period. a (Optional) To fetch the historical base rate values, select the Update for the effective period option, specify the required time period, and click Get. b Click the Show link next to Historical values.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide n Create a Fixed Cost on page 78 You must create the fixed costs that you want to charge on the entities and hierarchies. These costs can include periodically charged costs and one time costs. n Modify a Fixed Cost on page 79 You can modify the fixed costs as and when required. n Delete a Fixed Cost on page 80 You can delete invalid or unwanted fixed costs from the application.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements 4 In the Cost Details tab, set the period for which the cost will be effective. The default selection is Update from now onwards, indicating the defined cost will be effective from the time of creation of the fixed cost till it is changed at a future date. The other option is Update for the effective period. If you select this option, you must specify the start and end date of the period for which the cost will be effective.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 6 Enter the value of the cost and select the duration indicating how often the cost is incurred. The duration can be Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly, or Yearly. For one time costs, duration is not applicable. 7 If you are defining the cost for a specific time period, click Set. You can set more than one value and duration for different time periods by repeating Step 4, Step 6, and Step 7. 8 Click Save.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements Create a Cost Template Entity-specific cost configuration, such as the rate factors and fixed costs, must be defined on the entity. If you want to apply a standard entity-specific cost setting on more than one entity, you can create a cost template that contains these settings, and apply the same to the required entities.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Procedure 1 In the Manage Cost tab, click Cost Template. A table listing all the cost templates created in the application is displayed. 2 Select the cost template that you want to modify and click Edit. The Cost Template screen is displayed. 3 Modify the name and description as required in the General tab. NOTE The name of the cost template is mandatory information and does not have any default values. Also, you cannot modify the currency type.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements The expression can be set to obtain the maximum of available attributes. You can also define an expression that calculates the resource units only if the virtual machine is on. Also, for storage resources, you can specify whether the expression must account for thin provisioned disks as thick provisioned. A billing policy can also account for the fixed costs and the state of the virtual machine.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 6 (Optional) Select Add/Include Fixed Cost to consider the fixed costs during cost calculation. 7 Click Create. The created billing policy is displayed in the table on the Billing Policy page.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements Delete a Billing Policy You can delete custom billing policies if they are no longer required. You must have delete privilege on the billing policy to perform this task. NOTE The system-defined billing policies cannot be deleted. Procedure 1 In the Manage Cost tab, click Billing Policy. A table listing all the billing policies created in the application is displayed.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Edit Cost Configuration of an Entity The entity-specific cost configuration details can be set from the Configure Cost tab. The cost configuration is applied on an entity for the specified cost model and time period. These cost configuration details will be considered when a report is generated on the entity using the specified cost model. IMPORTANT Ensure that you follow the sequence stated in this procedure.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements If you have selected a cost template, the fixed costs included in the cost template and on which you have read privilege are added to the list of fixed costs to be applied on the selected entity. You can add more fixed costs to this list or remove existing fixed costs from the list.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Prerequisites You must have read privilege on the vCenter Server, entity cost modify privilege on the chargeback hierarchical entities, and update privilege on the cost models to perform this task. Procedure 1 In the Configure Cost tab, click Edit Infrastructure Cost. 2 Select Hosts & Clusters from the drop-down menu. 3 Expand the Hosts & Clusters folder by clicking the plus sign.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements Create a Datastore Tier You can create a datastore tier in vCenter Chargeback Manager and add various datastores and storage profiles to it. This enables you to define a standard rate factor for a set of datastores. You must have create privilege for the tier resource type on vCenter Chargeback Manager to perform this task. Procedure 1 In the Configure Cost tab, click Edit Infrastructure Cost.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Set the Rate Factors on a Tier, Datastore, or Storage Profile vCenter Chargeback Manager lets you define rate factors at the datastore level. You can set the rate factors on individual datastores, storage profiles, and tiers. NOTE You cannot set rate factors on individual datastores that are already grouped under a storage profile or tier. Also, you cannot set rate factors on storage profiles that are grouped under a tier.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements 2 Select DataStores from the drop-down menu. 3 Expand the tier folder containing the datastore or storage profile that you want to move. 4 Right-click the datastore or storage profile that you want to move to another tier and select Move this Datastore to another tier. 5 Right-click the tier folder to which you want to move this datastore and select Put the Datastore/Storage Profile in this tier.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide If any row in the matrix is deleted, then the corresponding fixed cost is also deleted and is not considered during reporting. Similarly, if a cost matrix is deleted, then the costs defined in the matrix is lost and is not considered when a report is generated on the virtual machine, the parent entity, or hierarchy. You must have a Super User role to create and manage virtual machine instance pricing matrix.
Chapter 5 Managing and Configuring vCenter Chargeback Manager Cost Elements Update Hierarchy Selection Criteria and Virtual Machine Instance Cost Matrix You can update the hierarchy selection criterion and the corresponding virtual machine instance cost matrix. You can modify the hierarchy selection criteria defined for a cost model as and when required.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 4 Move the selected criterion in the table by clicking Move Up or Move Down, as required. 5 (Optional) Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 to reorder other hierarchy selection criteria. 6 Click Update Criteria Order. The modified criteria order is displayed on the page.
6 Generating Reports After creating and configuring chargeback hierarchies and defining cost models, you can generate various cost reports, usage reports, cost comparison reports, and showback reports. The reports provide you with valuable information such as the usage of resources, the charge to levied on each entity, and the total cost.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 6-1. Report Summary 96 Field Description Name Report name provided during report creation Description A short description about the report. This information is provided during report creation. Bill Date The date on which the report is generated. Bill Period The start and end date of the time period for which the report is generated. The resource usage details for this time period is considered when generating the report.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports utilization details at each entity level. In a cost report, this section also includes the following graphs for each entity level starting with the entity on which the report is generated: n Cost per Resource n Cost per Child Entity n Usage per Child Entity If the cost and usage data is not available for a specified period, then the graphs for this period are excluded from the exported report.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide n Showback Report No graphs are available in the resource summary. A showback report lets you analyse how the costs are distributed among the entities based on a specified distribution policy. This report type is useful when you know the total cost and want to analyze how this cost is distributed among the entities by selecting different distribution policies.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports Option Description Select a cost model Select the cost model to be used for generating the report. If you are generating a report for multiple entities, you can choose to use different cost models for each entity by selecting the Use different cost models for entities option and then select the required cost models for each entity. Ensure that the selected cost models have the same currency type.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Generate a Usage Report You can generate resource usage reports for a hierarchy and for individual entities in a hierarchy. You must have create privilege on the report resource type and at least the read privilege on the hierarchy, chargeback hierarchical entities, and cost models to perform this task. Procedure 1 In the Reports tab, click Create Reports. 2 Select the required chargeback hierarchy from the drop-down menu on the left pane of the page.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports 7 8 On the Details page, select the usage-related details and other information to be displayed in the report, and click Next. Option Description Show these details in report Select this option if you want to include information about the selected cost model or the entity attributes, or some information messages in the Usage Details section of the report.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 5 Option Description Report Duration Select the Generate this report now option (default) and specify the effective time period for generating the report by providing the start date and end date for the reporting duration. This reporting duration is the time period for which the usage stats of computing resources will be retrieved and used for calculating the costs.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports Generate Showback Report You can generate a showback report to analyse how the cost is distributed among the entities based on a specified distribution policy. A showback report is a configurable report that does not include any costs when it is generated. You can specify the total cost, fixed cost, and resource weightage in the generated report to obtain the cost for each entity and for each resource per entity.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 5 Option Description User Name (Optional) Enter the name of the user to whom the report is addressed to. The report is not automatically emailed to this user. Report Duration Select the Generate this report now option (default) and specify the effective time period for generating the report by providing the start date and end date for the reporting duration.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports What to do next On the generated report, you can specify the total cost. The cost is distributed across the entities based on the selected distribution policy. You can also specify weightage (a percentage value) for each selected resource to identify the resource cost for each entity. You can also modify the distribution policy for the child entities.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Range of Recurrence n Monthly: In this case, the reporting period is one month. You can select the date of the month starting from which the billing has to be done. You can also define a schedule policy that defines when the report has to be generated. For example, suppose you want to generate a report on the 5th of each month for the period from the 2nd of the previous month through the 1st of the current month.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports 2 Select the required chargeback hierarchy from the drop-down menu on the left pane of the page. The collapsed view of the chargeback hierarchy is displayed. You can expand the hierarchy by clicking the plus sign (+) to the left of the hierarchy name. The first level entities of the hierarchy is displayed. To further expand, click the plus sign to the left of the entities that have sub-entities.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 9 Click Next. 10 On the Details page, select the fixed cost details, usage-related details, and other information to be displayed in the report, and click Next. 11 Option Description Show these details in report Select this option if you want to include information about the selected cost model or the entity attributes, or information messages in the Cost Details section of the report.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports 4 5 Enter relevant values for the scheduling parameters. Option Description Report Creation Time When the report has to be generated. Recurrence Pattern How often the report has to be generated. Range of Recurrence Till when the report has to be generated periodically. Click Schedule. The revised report generation schedule is listed in the table. Remove a Schedule An existing and valid report generation schedule can be deleted from the application.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 4 5 Provide the email details. Option Description To The email address of the recipients. The email addresses should be separated by commas. Subject A subject for the email. Body The body text for the email. Click Save. The email details are saved.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports Managing Reports After you generate a report, the report is displayed in the application. You can remove rows and columns form the displayed report and also rearrange the columns in the report. You can also archive, schedule, email, and export the report. n Modifying the Report in the Interactive Report View on page 111 After a report is generated and displayed in the application, you can make few modifications to the report.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 To remove row from the displayed report, select the row and click the Delete Selection icon (a cross sign) above the report. The selected entity and its child entities are removed from the report. You can add the entities back to the report by clicking the Undo Delete icon. However, the undo delete operation is available only for the last delete operation performed.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports Procedure 1 Log in to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database. Ensure that you have modify privilege on the CB_SERVER_PROPERTY table. 2 Configure the server properties for precision data in the CB_SERVER_PROPERTY table. The table contains three properties that enable you to configure the precision value for numbers displayed in the PDF report. Option Description reporting_pdf_report_cost_pattern Pattern used to display all the cost values. The default value is #,##0.00.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 3 Enter relevant values for the scheduling parameters. Option Description Report Creation Time When the report has to be generated. Recurrence Pattern How often the report has to be generated. Range of Recurrence Till when the report has to be generated periodically. Click Schedule. The report is generated periodically as per the scheduling options set. The report schedule can be accessed from the Scheduled Reports page.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports 2 Click the Click to download link. The application exports the report to the specified format. If the report name contains any special characters, then such characters are replaced with an underscore (_) in the exported report file name. If you have chosen to view the report in the .rtf format, an Opening filename.rtf dialog is displayed. NOTE If the temp folder in the Tomcat installation folder is deleted, the export to .rtf might fail.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 4 Select the Click to download link. The application exports the report to the specified format. If the report name contains any special characters, then such characters are replaced with an underscore (_) in the exported report file name. If you have chosen to export the report to the .rtf format, an Opening filename.rtf dialog is displayed. NOTE If the temp folder in the Tomcat installation folder is deleted, the export to .rtf might fail.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports Procedure 1 In the Reports tab, click Archived Reports. A table listing all the archived reports is displayed. 2 Select the archived report that you want to delete. 3 Click the delete icon (a red cross) above the table. A dialog box confirming the action is displayed. 4 Click OK. The archived report is permanently deleted from the application.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Managing Automatic Report Scheduler An automatic report scheduler creates report schedules for hierarchies and entities that match the criteria specified in the automatic report scheduler. The automatic report scheduler scans all the vCenter Chargeback Manager hierarchies and creates report schedules for the hierarchies and entities that match the specified criteria. The scheduler runs every 30 minutes.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports 4 5 On the Schedule page, specify the report schedule details and click Next. Option Description Report Creation Time When the report has to be generated. Recurrence Pattern How often the report has to be generated. Range of Recurrence Till when the report has to be generated periodically. On the Resource Summary page, select Include resource summary in report. Select this option to include the summary of costs for the selected resources in the report.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 5 Modify the report summary details and click Next. 6 Specify the information to be included in the report and click Submit. The modified automatic report scheduler is displayed on the page. Delete Automatic Report Scheduler You can delete unwanted report schedulers from the application When you delete an automatic report scheduler, the report schedules created by the scheduler are automatically deleted.
Chapter 6 Generating Reports n For each optimization opportunity, the corresponding virtual machines along with the configured and recommended resource-cost details are listed. NOTE n The graphs and optimization reports are generated only if the vCenter Server user, which was used for adding the vCenter Server to vCenter Chargeback Manager, has either the Global.vCenter Operations User privilege or the Global.vCenter Operations Admin privilege assigned on the root folder.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Procedure 1 In the Reports tab, click Dashboard. 2 Select the hierarchy from the drop-down menu. The collapsed view of the hierarchy is displayed. If the hierarchy contains entities from a vCenter Server that is integrated with vCenter Operations, the right pane of the dashboard shows two tabs: Cost Projection and Cost Optimization. 3 Expand the hierarchy and select the entity for which you want to view the resource cost and usage statistics.
Monitoring System Health 7 The System Health tab acts as a dashboard, providing you with information about and status of the entire system. Only a user with Super User role has access to this tab. The dashboard shows colored status indicators next to the URL for each server and service. The significance of the colors is as is described in the table Table 7-1. Table 7-1. Significance of Dashboard Status Indicator Colors Color Significance Green Normal The response time within the acceptable range.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 7-2. Section in the System Health Tab (Continued) Section Information Data Collectors Names of all the data collector instances along with name of the machine on which they are installed is listed. When you move the cursor over the data collector name, a tool tip displays the name of the data collector, the name of the host on which it is installed, and the status of the data collector.
Administration Utilities 8 vCenter Chargeback Manager interacts with various servers and databases. It also stores information about users and various components, such as hierarchies and entities. To ensure that the application and the corresponding components are working properly, one must monitor the health of the entire system periodically. vCenter Chargeback Manager provides a few utilities and database management scripts that enable you to manage the application efficiently.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 2 3 Enter the existing and new passwords. n Existing password n New password n Confirmation of the new password Restart the vCenter Chargeback Manager service and the data collector services. What to do next If you have installed the VMware Cloud Director Data Collector and vShield Manager Data Collector with vCenter Chargeback Manager or individually installed any of the data collectors, then you must copy the hibernate.cfg.
Chapter 8 Administration Utilities 3 Press the Y key to confirm the information provided. The IP address for vCenter Chargeback Manager is modified in the database and relevant configuration files. Statistics Collection Scripts vCenter Chargeback Manager provides few SQL scripts that help you collect different resource usage and allocation statistics.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Table 8-1. Column Details of the GOS Licensing Database View (Continued) Column Name Data Type Nullable Description VC_SERVER_UUI D NVARCHAR2(255 CHAR) No UUID of the vCenter Server on which the virtual machine exists. HIERARCHY_NA ME NVARCHAR2(255 CHAR) No Name of the chargeback hierarchy in which the virtual machine exists. RESOURCE_TYPE NVARCHAR2(255 CHAR) No The type of resource.
Chapter 8 Administration Utilities Table 8-2. Sample Output for a SELECT Query on the CB_VIEW_GOS_LICENSE_INVENTORY View (Continued) VM_NA ME VM_M OID VC_SERVER_U UID HIERARCHY_ NAME RESOURCE_TY PE RESOURCE_ VALUE START_ TIME vm02 vm-112 07F6FF05-9546-4 D01B9C0-0170AA21 9579 QA-Hierarchy VM_VCPU_COU NT 2 2011-06-0 1 12:12:21.4 63 vm02 vm-112 07F6FF05-9546-4 D01B9C0-0170AA21 9579 QA-Hierarchy VM_GUEST_FUL L_NAME Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) 2011-06-0 1 12:12:21.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide For example, SELECT * from TABLE(CB_FN_GOS_LICENSE_PAYG('Test Hierarchy',to_timestamp('20110114 00:00:00', 'YYYYMMDD HH24:MI:SS'), to_timestamp('20110714 23:59:59', 'YYYYMMDD HH24:MI:SS'))); NOTE The CB_FN_GOS_LICENSE_PAYG function is created based on the assumption that all the virtual machines in vCenter Chargeback Manager under the Pay as You Go model for any hierarchy organization is present under Pay as You Go > Any_OrgVDC > vApps Folder > vApps.
Chapter 8 Administration Utilities Table 8-4. Sample Output for a SELECT Query on the CB_VIEW_STORAGEALLOC_INVENTORY View VM_NAM E VM_MOI D VC_SERVER_U UID RESOURCE _TYPE RESOURCE_ VALUE vm01 vm-1044 7BF5FFD5F56C-4205-808D329BB92636F0 Storage vm02 vm-4417 7BF5FFD5F56C-4205-808D329BB92636F0 vm03 vm-4418 vm04 vm-1049 START_TIME END_TIME 80 28-AUG-11 07.12.56 PM 30-NOV-99 11.59.59 PM Storage 80 30-AUG-11 10.53.57 AM 30-NOV-99 11.59.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide For example, SELECT * from TABLE(CB_FN_STORAGE_ALLOC_PAYG('Test Hierarchy',to_timestamp('20110114 00:00:00', 'YYYYMMDD HH24:MI:SS'), to_timestamp('20110714 23:59:59', 'YYYYMMDD HH24:MI:SS'))); NOTE The CB_FN_STORAGE_ALLOC_PAYG function is created based on the assumption that all the virtual machines in vCenter Chargeback Manager under the Pay as You Go model for any hierarchy organization is present under Pay as You Go > Any_OrgVDC > vApps Folder > vApps.
Chapter 8 Administration Utilities After the view is created, you can run SELECT queries on the view to obtain the necessary information. Table 8-6 shows the sample output for a SELECT query on the CB_VIEW_VC_STAT_INVENTORY view. Table 8-6.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Running the Guest OS Licensing Script in Oracle You must have the SELECT permission on the tables in the vCenter Chargeback Manager database to run the guest OS licensing script. On running the script, two database objects are created. n The CB_VIEW_VC_STAT_INVENTORY database view. n The CB_FN_VC_STAT_PAYG function.
Chapter 8 Administration Utilities Generic Scripts vCenter Chargeback Manager provides few generic SQL scripts that let you fetch certain statistical data about the vCenter Chargeback Manager database. Prerequisites for Running the Generic SQL Scripts You must have the SELECT permission on the tables in the vCenter Chargeback Manager database to run these scripts.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide Data Purging Scripts The data purging scripts enable you to remove data older than the specified number of months from the vCenter Chargeback Manager database tables. Prerequisites for Running the Data Purging Scripts You must have the SELECT and DELETE permissions on the vCenter Chargeback Manager database tables to run the data purging scripts. Before you run the scripts, take a backup of the vCenter Chargeback Manager database.
Index A application activate 11 authenticate in to 52 configure log level 13 configuring generic settings 12 configuring settings 11 managing users, roles, and permissions 35 permissions defined in 36 resource-based authorization 35 archived reports delete 116 email 116 manage 115 search 117 view 115 attributes add 32 assign 62 delete 32 manage 31 modify 32 automatic report scheduler create 118 delete 120 managing 118 modify 119 B base rate 68 base rate calculator 75 billing policy create 82 delete 85 man
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide delete 82 managing 80 modify 81 D data collector delete 26 disable 25 enable 25 information about 23 manage 22 modify job interval 25 modify super user password for 28 view 23 data collectors configure VMware Cloud Director Data Collector 26 configure vShield Manager Data Collector 27 database management scripts about 134 data purging scripts 136 generic scripts 135 space calculation scripts 135 datastore tier add datastore 89 create 89 managing 88 modify name 89 mo
Index report generation schedules 105 schedule 113 types 95 view in interactive report view 111 resource, permissions defined for 36 roles assign user role for a resource 50 assign user role on vCenter Chargeback Manager 49 create 42 delete 43 managing 37 modify 43 predefined roles 38 revoke role for a resource 51 revoke role on vCenter Chargeback Manager 51 S scripts data purging scripts 136 generic scripts 135 guest OS licensing script 127, 130 performance statistics script 132 space calculation scripts
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide 140 VMware, Inc.
