VMware vCenter Chargeback Manager - 2.0 Installation Manual

vCenter Chargeback Manager

Installation and Upgrade 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.

EN-000763-00

vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:

http://www.vmware.com/support/

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Contents

About the Guide 5

Introduction to vCenter Chargeback Manager 7

1

What Is Chargeback 7

Chargeback Solution for Virtual Environments 7

Overview of vCenter Chargeback Manager 8

System Requirements 11

2

Hardware Requirements 11

Software Requirements 11

Install and Upgrade Prerequisites 13

3

Network Management Prerequisites 13

Database Management Prerequisites 14

Other System Prerequisites 15

Pre-installation Checklist 16

Download and Extract the vCenter Chargeback Manager Installer 17

Installing vCenter Chargeback Manager 19

4

Install vCenter Chargeback Manager 19

Create a vCenter Chargeback Manager Cluster 24

Install vCenter Chargeback Manager with an Existing Database Schema 28

Services Related to the vCenter Chargeback Manager 32

Accessing the vCenter Chargeback Manager 34

Upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager 35

5

Pre-Upgrade Tasks for vCenter Chargeback Manager 35

Upgrade vCenter Chargeback Manager 36

Upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager and Configuring in DMZ 38

Upgrading a vCenter Chargeback 1.0.x Setup 38

Installing and Upgrading Data Collectors 43

6

Install vCenter Chargeback Manager Data Collector 44

Install VMware Cloud Director Data Collector 46

Install vShield Manager Data Collector 48

Upgrade Data Collectors 50

Uninstall vCenter Chargeback Manager 51

7

Index 53

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About the Guide

The vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide provides information about installing and
upgrading VMware® vCenter Chargeback Manager. This book also describes how to install and upgrade the
different data collectors.

Intended Audience

This book is intended for anyone who wants to install or upgrade vCenter Chargeback Manager. The
information in this book is written for experienced system administrators who are familiar with Windows,
VMware vSphere®, VMware vCloud Director, and basic database administration.

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vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide

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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.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n

“What Is Chargeback,” on page 7

n

“Chargeback Solution for Virtual Environments,” on page 7

n

“Overview of vCenter Chargeback Manager,” on page 8

What Is Chargeback

Chargeback is a mechanism to account for the operational costs involved in providing and maintaining an
IT infrastructure, including the costs for IT services and applications. Measuring resource utilization and
calculating the corresponding IT operational cost enables you to account for the IT resources utilized and bill
for the services provided.

In a non-virtual environment, a physical server and the associated resources like the applications running on
it can be easily mapped to the department using them, making the billing for such resource utilizations
relatively easy. Also, costs incurred due to maintenance and licensing can be directly associated to a
department, thereby enabling you to calculate the complete IT operational costs.

In a virtual environment, however, the task of calculating the IT operational cost for each department becomes
very difficult. Multiple virtual machines run on a physical server, which might be shared across different
departments or cost centers in an organization. As a result, resource utilization for this server and, therefore,
the cost incurred cannot be directly associated to any single department or cost center. The difficulty in
accounting gets further compounded when applications and services get shifted over time to different servers,
based on the load and available infrastructure resources.

Chargeback Solution for Virtual Environments

In a virtual environment, a chargeback solution requires a flexible metering system that can account for the
utilization of resources shared across the organization.

These measurements can be based on allocation or actual usage of individual servers and resources. In the case
of VMotion, DRS, or HA being enabled, the measurements could be based on the allocation or actual usage of
resource pools.

To support chargeback, the virtual environment and the chargeback solution must provide ways to measure
resource usage and associate the usage with a specific costing model. The chargeback solution must also
support the use of different costing models so as to charge the various departments or cost centers differently.

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7

JDBC

vCenter Chargeback

Manager

Load Balancer

vCenter Server

Data Collector

vCenter

Chargeback

Manager

database

vCenter Chargeback

Manager UI

vCenter

Server

database

ESXi

host03

ESXi

host02

ESXi

host01

VIM API

vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade 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 Manager

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 Manager 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 cost and usage
reports. Figure 1-1 shows how vCenter Chargeback Manager interacts with various components of a virtual
environment using VMware vSphere.

Figure 1-1. vCenter Chargeback Manager in a Virtual Environment

vCenter Chargeback Manager runs on an Apache Tomcat server instance. Users interact with vCenter
Chargeback Manager through a load balancer (Apache HTTP Server). vCenter Chargeback Manager connects
to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database that stores application-specific information, such as the defined
chargeback hierarchies, cost models, users, roles, and so on. The application interacts with the vCenter Server
using VIM APIs and with the vCenter Server database through a data collector. The data collector
communicates with the vCenter Server Database using JDBC.

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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.

vCenter Chargeback Manager retrieves the virtual infrastructure inventory and the resource usage information
for each virtual machine from the vCenter Server database through the data collector. The data collector
replicates this information in the vCenter Chargeback Manager database. vCenter Chargeback Manager uses
this information from the vCenter Chargeback Manager database along with the cost model and chargeback
cost calculation formulas to generate the cost reports. A single data collector instance can communicate with
multiple vCenter Server instances and vCenter Server databases and replicate the relevant information in a
vCenter Chargeback Manager database.

vCenter Chargeback Manager also lets you create a cluster of vCenter Chargeback Manager instances that
share a single load balancer. Each user request is routed through the load balancer. The load balancer forwards
the request to a vCenter Chargeback Manager instance in the cluster, while ensuring session affinity for an
instance, based on the number of requests currently being serviced by each instance in the cluster. All the
vCenter Chargeback Manager instances in a cluster are connected to the same vCenter Chargeback Manager
database.

If you have a VMWare vCloud Director setup, you can install the vCloud Director Data Collector and configure
it appropriately so that the vCloud Director setup can be integrated with vCenter Chargeback Manager. You
can then generate various reports of the organizations classified under the different categories, such as Pay­As-You-Go, Reservation, and Allocation Pool.

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System Requirements 2

Before you install vCenter Chargeback Manager, you must ensure that the minimum hardware and software
requirements are met.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n

“Hardware Requirements,” on page 11

n

“Software Requirements,” on page 11

Hardware Requirements

The system on which vCenter Chargeback Manager is installed must meet the minimum hardware
requirements for installing and running the application.

vCenter Chargeback Manager can be run on a computer or a virtual machine that matches or exceeds the
following hardware specifications:

n

2.0GHz or faster Intel or AMD x86 processor

n

4GB or more of RAM

n

A minimum of 2GB disk storage (3GB recommended)

n

10/100 Ethernet adapter (Gigabit recommended)

If you want to install the vCenter Chargeback Manager database on the computer on which vCenter
Chargeback Manager along with the load balancer and data collector is already installed, then additional
storage, memory, and processor capacity are required.

Software Requirements

Other than an operating system, you must have a database management system and a Web browser installed
to run and access vCenter Chargeback Manager.

Operating Systems

vCenter Chargeback Manager can be installed and run on the following operating systems (32-bit and 64-bit):

n

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2

n

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2

n

Microsoft Windows Server 2008

n

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only)

64-bit operating systesm give the App Server more addressable memory and are therfore preferred over 32­bit operating systems.

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vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide

Database Management Systems

vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the Standard and Enterprise edition of the following database
management systems:

n

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (x64) (with Service Pack 2)

n

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (Intel x86) (with Service Pack 2)

n

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (x64) (with Service Pack 2)

n

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Intel x86) (with Service Pack 2)

vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the Enterprise edition of the following database management systems:

n

Oracle Database 11g Release 2

n

Oracle Database 10g Release 2

Web Browsers and Flash Player Plug-In

vCenter Chargeback Manager is a browser-based application that is tested and supported on the following:

n

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x and 8.x

n

Mozilla Firefox 4.x and 5.x

n

Adobe Flash Player for Windows Plug-in version 10.1 or later

n

Adobe Flash Player for Linux Plug-in version 10.1 or later

VMware vCenter Server

vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the folowing vCenter Server releases:

n

vCenter Server 5.0

n

vCenter Server 4.1 and later releases

n

vCenter Server 4.0 and later releases

n

VirtualCenter Server 2.5 Update 3 and later releases

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Install and Upgrade Prerequisites 3

Before installing or upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager, you must peform few pre-installation tasks.

This chapter includes the following topics:

n

“Network Management Prerequisites,” on page 13

n

“Database Management Prerequisites,” on page 14

n

“Other System Prerequisites,” on page 15

n

“Pre-installation Checklist,” on page 16

n

“Download and Extract the vCenter Chargeback Manager Installer,” on page 17

Network Management Prerequisites

To ensure successful installation and upgrade of vCenter Chargeback Manager, the networking-related pre­installation tasks must be completed.

You must perform the following pre-installation tasks:

n

Check whether the required ports are free.

Ensure that the ports that you specify during the installation are free. While installing, you must provide
the port details for the following applications and protocols:

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HTTP port

Load-balancer port

HTTPS port

If any of the specified port is also configured for another service and the service is not running, then the
installer will use the specified port. However, this might result in a port conflict and either of the configured
services might fail.

If you are upgrading an existing vCenter Chargeback Manager setup, then note down the ports currently
used by the application and enter the same port details during upgrade.

This port is used by vCenter Chargeback Manager for communication using
the HTTP protocol. The default port number is 8080.

This port is used by vCenter Chargeback Manager to communicate with the
load balancer. The default port is 8009.

This port is used by the load balancer to listen for user requests. The default
port is 443.

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vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide

n

Set a static IP address on the machine.

Before you install the vCenter Chargeback Manager, you must obtain a static IP address from your network
administrator. Set this IP address on the machine on which you are going to install vCenter Chargeback
Manager. Preferably, obtain and set static IP addresses on all the servers and databases that the vCenter
Chargeback Manager communicates with.

Alternately, you can use the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) for all the servers and databases that
vCenter Chargeback Manager communicates with.

Database Management Prerequisites

Performing the database management-related pre-installation tasks ensures that you have a database and a
database user account with the required privileges that the application can use.

Before you begin the vCenter Chargeback installation you must create a vCenter Chargeback Manager database
and a corresponding database user. vCenter Chargeback Manager stores the application-specific data, such as
cost models, chargeback hierarchies, and users and roles, in the vCenter Chargeback Manager database. You
must, therefore, first create a database for storing this data. The database management systems supported by
vCenter Chargeback Manager are listed in “Software Requirements,” on page 11. You can either create the
database yourself by referring to the corresponding product documentation or ask your database administrator
to create one for you. Ensure that the database is not configured to be case-sensitive.

If you are using an Oracle database as the vCenter Chargeback Manager database, you must configure the
database to use the Unicode (AL32UTF8) character set to support the following scenarios:

n

You want to deploy the vCenter Chargeback Manager database in a non-English environment.

n

You want to synchronize the vCenter Chargeback Manager database with a vCenter Server database that
has non-English data.

You must provide the details of the database and database user when installing vCenter Chargeback Manager.
The installer uses these details to create the database schema and objects. Also, vCenter Chargeback Manager
and the data collector authenticates in to the database by using this database user account to perform the
necessary database operations.

NOTE Instead of using the default database users, such as sa, SYS, and SYSTEM, create a database user with just
the required privileges and access the database with this users credentials. This is a good security practice.

vCenter Chargeback Manager Database User Privileges in Oracle Database

After you create a database instance and a database user in Oracle Database that vCenter Chargeback Manager
can use, you must assign the following system roles and privileges to this user.

n

CONNECT

n

RESOURCE

n

CREATE TRIGGER

n

CREATE TABLE

n

CREATE VIEW

n

CREATE PROCEDURE

n

CREATE SEQUENCE

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Chapter 3 Install and Upgrade Prerequisites

vCenter Chargeback Manager Database User Privileges in SQL Server

After you create a database instance and a database user in SQL Server that vCenter Chargeback Manager can
use, you must assign privileges to this user by running the following commands in SQL Server:

CREATE ROLE CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT ALTER ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT REFERENCES ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT INSERT ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT DELETE ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT UPDATE ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT EXECUTE ON SCHEMA :: DBO TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT CREATE TABLE to CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT CREATE VIEW to CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT CREATE PROCEDURE to CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GRANT CREATE FUNCTION TO CB_ADMIN_ROLE;
GO
sp_addrolemember CB_ADMIN_ROLE, <db_username>

Other System Prerequisites

Apart from the networking and database management related prerequisites, you must perform few other pre­installation tasks to ensure that vCenter Chargeback Manager is successfully installed and upgraded.

You must perform the following pre-install tasks:

n

Ensure that system time of all the servers and databases are in sync.

You must ensure that the system time of the machines on which you install vCenter Chargeback Manager
and vCenter Chargeback Manager database are in sync. If you plan to install one or more data collectors
on different machines, then the system time of these machines must be in sync with that of the machines
on which vCenter Chargeback Manager and vCenter Chargeback Manager database are installed.

Also, the system time of the vCenter Servers and the vCenter Server databases that you configure in
vCenter Chargeback Manager must be in sync with the that of the machine on which vCenter Chargeback
Manager is installed. In short, the system time of the machines on which vCenter Chargeback Manager
and the applications and databases that it communicates with are installed must be in sync.

n

Ensure that MSI Installation is enabled.

Before you start the installation, you must ensure that MSI installation is enabled on the machine. If not,
you must manually install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86) before running the
vCenter Chargeback Manager installer.

n

Ensure that port exceptions are configured on the Windows firewall.

If the Windows Firewall is enabled, you must set the port exceptions for the HTTP, load balancer, and
HTTPS ports on the Windows Firewall. If these exceptions are not set, the application will be not be usable.

n

Ensure that the Windows user has the Log on as a service permission.

If you want to use the Windows authentication option for the vCenter Chargeback Manager database, you
must ensure that the Windows user has the Log on as a service permission. If this permission is not set
on the user, the installation will fail. Also, the installer must be run in the context of this Windows user.

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vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide

Pre-installation Checklist

The pre-installation checklist helps you ensure that you have all the required information and have performed
the necessary pre-install tasks.

Table 3-1 lists the pre-install requirements.

Table 3-1. vCenter Chargeback Manager Pre-Install Checklist

Item Requirement Checked

Hardware Configuration

CPU 2.0GHz or faster Intel or AMD x86 processor

RAM 4.0 GB or more

Disk space Minimum 2.0 GB; Recommended 3.0 GB or more

Card 10/100 Ethernet adapter (Gigabit recommended)

Network Configuration

FQDN or static IP Address Write down the FQDN or IP address of the machine on which you plan

to install vCenter Chargeback Manager. If you are using an IP address,
ensure that the machine has a static IP address.

Port Numbers HTTP Port (default: 8080)

Load-balancer Port (default: 8009)

HTTPS Port (default: 443)

Ensure that the default ports are free. If not, use any other free ports.
Note down the port numbers that you want to use.

Database Configuration

Type Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or later

Oracle Database 10g or later

Database name Create a database for vCenter Chargeback Manager and note down the

database name.

URL IP address of the vCenter Chargeback Manager database. Ensure that

the machine on which the database is installed has a static IP address.

TNS listener port for Oracle database

Database instance name for SQL Server database

Database user name and
password

Software Configuration

System Time Ensure that system time of all the servers and databases are in sync

Microsoft SQL Server Ensure that the SQL Server Browser service is running if you are using

User name of the database user who has privileges to create and delete
schema, as well as to read from and write to the database.

Password for this user

If you are using Windows Authentication for a Microsoft SQL Server
database, then you must have the Windows user account name. This
user must have the Log on as a service permission.

Password for this Windows user account

If you are using Windows authentication, ensure that you run the
installer in the context of this Windows user.

a database instance name and dynamic database instance port to
connect to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database.

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Chapter 3 Install and Upgrade Prerequisites

Table 3-1. vCenter Chargeback Manager Pre-Install Checklist (Continued)

Item Requirement Checked

MSI Installation Is MSI installation enabled?

If not, install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86).

Port Exceptions on
Windows Firewall

If you have enabled Windows Firewall, you must set the port exceptions
for the HTTP port, load balancer port, and HTTPS port.

Download and Extract the vCenter Chargeback Manager Installer

You must first download the installer files and extract its contents on to the machine on which you want to
install vCenter Chargeback Manager. You must run the installer on the local machine and not from a remote
machine.

Procedure

1 Download the installation-related files, vCenter-CB-

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-chargeback/overview.html.

2 Extract the content of this ZIP file to the machine on which you want to install the application.

The vCenter-CB.exe file is the installer file.

What to do next

Run the installer to install vCenter Chargeback Manager.

version_number-build_number

.zip, from

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