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-000966-00
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/
The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.
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2 VMware, Inc.
Contents
About the Guide5
Introduction to vCenter Chargeback Manager7
1
What Is Chargeback 7
Chargeback Solution for Virtual Environments 7
Overview of vCenter Chargeback Manager 8
Supported Product Integration 9
System Requirements11
2
Hardware Requirements 11
Software Requirements 12
Install and Upgrade Prerequisites15
3
Network Management Prerequisites 15
Database Management Prerequisites 16
Other System Prerequisites 18
Pre-installation Checklist 19
Download and Extract the vCenter Chargeback Manager Installer 20
Installing vCenter Chargeback Manager21
4
Install vCenter Chargeback Manager 21
Create a vCenter Chargeback Manager Cluster 26
Install vCenter Chargeback Manager with an Existing Database Schema 30
Generate an SSL Certificate for vCenter Chargeback Manager 35
Services Related to the vCenter Chargeback Manager 36
Accessing the vCenter Chargeback Manager 37
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Upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager39
5
Pre-Upgrade Tasks for vCenter Chargeback Manager 39
Upgrade vCenter Chargeback Manager 40
Upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager and Configuring in DMZ 42
Installing and Upgrading Data Collectors45
6
Install vCenter Chargeback Manager Data Collector 46
Install vCloud Director Data Collector 48
Install vShield Manager Data Collector 51
Upgrade Data Collectors 53
Uninstalling vCenter Chargeback Manager55
7
Uninstall vCenter Chargeback Manager 55
Uninstall Load Balancer 56
3
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
Uninstall Data Collector 57
Index59
4 VMware, Inc.
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.
VMware, Inc. 5
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
6 VMware, Inc.
Introduction to vCenter Chargeback
Manager1
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:
“What Is Chargeback,” on page 7
n
“Chargeback Solution for Virtual Environments,” on page 7
n
“Overview of vCenter Chargeback Manager,” on page 8
n
“Supported Product Integration,” on page 9
n
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.
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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
To support chargeback, the virtual environment and the chargeback solution must provide ways to measure
resource usage and associate the usage with a specific pricing model. The chargeback solution must also
support the use of different pricing models so as to charge the various departments or cost centers
differently.
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 pricing 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 allocationbased metering of virtual machines. The metered parameters are then associated with the designated
entities, and the pricing 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
8 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 1 Introduction to vCenter Chargeback Manager
vCenter Chargeback Manager runs on an Apache Tomcat server instance. Users interact with vCenter
Chargeback Manager through a load balancer (Apache httpd Server). vCenter Chargeback Manager
connects to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database that stores application-specific information, such as
the defined chargeback hierarchies, pricing 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.
When you install vCenter Chargeback Manager, a load balancer and a data collector can also be installed
and run on the same machine. You can also choose to install the load balancer, vCenter Chargeback
Manager server, and data collector on different machines. 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 pricing
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 Pay-As-You-Go, Reservation, and Allocation Pool.
Supported Product Integration
vCenter Chargeback Manager integrates with various products from VMware and provides utilization and
accounting information for different entities based of the configurations defined on the entities.
VMware vSphere
vCenter Chargeback Manager provides cost reporting solution for virtual environments that are created by
using vSphere. You can integrate a vSphere setup with vCenter Chargeback Manager by installing and
configuring an instance of the vCenter Chargeback Manager data collector. The vSphere inventory and the
corresponding storage information along with the usage statistics is synchronized in the vCenter
Chargeback Manager database by the data collector on a periodic basis. This integration provides cost
reporting solution for virtual environments created by using vSphere. This allows charging for vSphere
inventories such as ESXi hosts, virtual machines, and resource pools.
VMware vCloud Director
You can integrate a vCloud Director setup with vCenter Chargeback Manager by installing and configuring
an instance of the vCloud Director data collector. The vCenter Servers configured in the vCloud Director
must also be added to vCenter Chargeback Manager. You can then generate cost and usage reports for
various org vDCs that are classified under different categories, such as Pay-As-You-Go, Reservation, and
Allocation Pool.
VMware, Inc. 9
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
VMware vShield Manager
To obtain the usage data associated with the network entities from your vCloud Director setup in to vCenter
Chargeback Manager, you must install and configure the vShield Manager data collector. This enables
metering and charging for external network bandwidth.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager
vCenter Chargeback Manager can be integrated with vCenter Operations Manager to generate dashboard
reports on vSphere inventories. The dashboard reports showcase various information, such as, projected
cost for future time period and cost optimization opportunities along with associated cost savings for the
vSphere entities. This integration is done by adding a vCenter Server that is integrated with vCenter
Operations Manager to vCenter Chargeback Manager.
VMware IT Business Management Suite
The vCenter Chargeback Manager connector for IT Business Management Suite is a Windows-based
application that obtains the virtualization costs from vCenter Chargeback Manager and provides this cost
data to IT Business Management Suite so that it can include the virtualization costs in the Cost Model. The
connector scans vCenter Chargeback Manager for a specific hierarchy and creates a report schedule in
vCenter Chargeback Manager to generate cost report for this hierarchy on a daily basis. The connector also
fetches the generated and archived report, and provides the cost data for each virtual machine in the
hierarchy to IT Business Management Suite. IT Business Management Suite populates detailed analysis and
reports in its Cost Model and dashboard.
In an integrated setup, the connector and the vCenter Chargeback Manager are deployed on site, while the
IT Business Management Suite is deployed as a SaaS application. The integration of vCenter Chargeback
Manager with IT Business Management Suite provides CIOs visibility across all IT assets, and enables them
to easily identify the cost reduction opportunities by comparing virtualization costs and physical costs.
10 VMware, Inc.
System Requirements2
Before you install vCenter Chargeback Manager, you must ensure that the minimum hardware and
software requirements are met.
This chapter includes the following topics:
“Hardware Requirements,” on page 11
n
“Software Requirements,” on page 12
n
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 Server
vCenter Chargeback Manager can be run on a computer or a virtual machine that matches or exceeds the
following hardware specifications:
2.0GHz or faster Intel or AMD x86 processor; preferably a multi-core processor
n
4GB or more of RAM
n
A minimum of 2GB disk storage (3GB recommended)
n
10/100 Ethernet adapter (Gigabit recommended)
n
If you install the load balancer and data collector on the same machine as the vCenter Chargeback Manager,
then additional storage, memory, and processor capacity are required. Each data collector instance requires
at least 1GB of RAM.
vCenter Chargeback Manager Database
Preferably, do not install the vCenter Chargeback Manager and the corresponding database on the same
machine. The hardware requirements for the database depends on the database type. vCenter Chargeback
Manager supports Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle Database. Refer to the product documentation of your
database management system for the hardware specifications.
If you are using Oracle Database, then ensure that database is allocated at least 4GB of memory.
The size of the vCenter Chargeback Manager database can be estimated by using the database size
calculation tool, CBM DB Size Calculator.xlsm. This file is located at
In addition to the database size, ensure that you provide sufficient log space. If possible, configure the logs
to unrestricted growth mode.
VMware, Inc.
11
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
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 64bit):
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2
n
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2
n
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2
n
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only)
n
64-bit operating systems give the App Server more addressable memory and are therefore preferred over
32-bit operating systems.
Database Management Systems
vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the following database management systems:
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (32-bit and 64-bit) (Standard and Enterprise)
n
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 (32-bit and 64-bit) (Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter)
n
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 4 (32-bit and 64-bit) (Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter)
n
vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the Standard and Enterprise edition of the following database
management systems (both 32-bit and 64-bit):
Oracle Database 11g Release 2
n
Oracle Database 11g Release 1
n
Oracle Database 10g Release 2
n
Oracle Database 10g Release 1
n
If you are using an Enterprise edition database management system that supports database partitioning,
then the vCenter Chargeback Manager installer creates partition tables in the vCenter Chargeback Manager
database. The partitioning of the database helps in enhancing the performance of vCenter Chargeback
Manager.
Web Browsers and Flash Player Plug-In
vCenter Chargeback Manager is a browser-based application that is tested and supported on the following:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.x and 8.x
n
Mozilla Firefox
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
n
VMware vCenter Server
vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the following vCenter Server releases:
vCenter Server 5.1
n
12 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 2 System Requirements
vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1b
n
vCenter Server 4.1 and later releases
n
vCenter Server 4.0 and later releases
n
IMPORTANT We recommend that you do not add a vCenter Server 5.0 or vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1 server
to vCenter Chargeback Manager because of a known memory leak issue. Also, do not add a vCenter Server
5.0 Update 1a server because of a known upgrade issue in vCenter Server. If you have a vCenter Server 5.0,
vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1, or vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1a server, then first upgrade this to vCenter
Server 5.0 Update 1b and then configure it in vCenter Chargeback Manager.
VMware vCloud Director
vCenter Chargeback Manager supports the following vCloud Director releases:
vCloud Director 5.1
n
vCloud Director 1.5 and later releases
n
VMware, Inc. 13
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
14 VMware, Inc.
Install and Upgrade Prerequisites3
Before installing or upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager, you must peform few pre-installation tasks.
This chapter includes the following topics:
“Network Management Prerequisites,” on page 15
n
“Database Management Prerequisites,” on page 16
n
“Other System Prerequisites,” on page 18
n
“Pre-installation Checklist,” on page 19
n
“Download and Extract the vCenter Chargeback Manager Installer,” on page 20
n
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:
Check whether the required ports are free.
n
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:
VMware, Inc.
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.
Set a static IP address on the machine.
n
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.
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.
15
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
Alternately, you can use the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) for all the servers and databases that
vCenter Chargeback Manager communicates with.
IMPORTANT In the case of a multi-homed machine, you can configure vCenter Chargeback Manager
with only one interface. That is to say, although you can install vCenter Chargeback Manager on a
multi-homed machine, you can use only the IP address or FQDN that you provide during the
installation to access and use vCenter Chargeback Manager. Also, if the different components, such as
data collectors and vCenter Servers, in a vCenter Chargeback Manager setup are installed on multihomed machines, vCenter Chargeback Manager communicates with these components by using the
URL specified when configuring the components in vCenter Chargeback Manager.
Chargeback Port Details used by Server and its Components
CBM to LoadBalancer - port (default) 8009
n
End user (webbrowser) to LB/CBM - port (http default) 8080
n
End user (webbrowser) to LB/CBM - port (https default) 443
n
CBM collector to vCenter DB - port (default) 1521/1433
n
CBM collector to vCenter - port (default) 8080
n
CBM collector to CBM DB - port (default) 1521/1433
n
vCloud collector to vCD DB - port (default) 1521/1433
n
vCloud collector to vCD - port (default) 443
n
vCloud collector to CBM DB - port (default) 1521/1433
n
vShield collector to vShield Manager - port (default) 443
n
vShield collector to CBM DB - port (default) 1521/1433
n
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 pricing 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 12. 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:
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
n
that has non-English data.
16 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 3 Install and Upgrade Prerequisites
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.
CONNECT
n
RESOURCE
n
CREATE TRIGGER
n
CREATE TABLE
n
CREATE VIEW
n
CREATE PROCEDURE
n
CREATE SEQUENCE
n
DROP TABLE
n
This privilege is required when upgrading vCenter Chargeback Manager.
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 ALTER ANY DATASPACE 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>
The commands provided assume that DBO is the default schema for the database user. Ensure the you
provide the ALTER ANY DATASPACE privilege. This is privilege is required to run the database
partitioning scripts during upgrade.
VMware, Inc. 17
vCenter Chargeback Manager Installation and Upgrade Guide
Maximum Number of Connections to the Database
The vCenter Chargeback Manager and corresponding data collectors, including the vCloud Director data
collector and vShield Manager data collector, connect to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database to read
and write data. You must configure the database to ensure that the maximum number of connections can be
made to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database by each of the components.
Table 3-1 lists the maximum number of connections made to the vCenter Chargeback Manager database by
a single instance of vCenter Chargeback Manager, vCenter Chargeback Manager data collector, vCloud
Director data collector, and vShield Manager data collector. The table also lists the maximum connections
made to the vCenter Server database by a single instance of the vCenter Chargeback Manager data collector.
vCloud Director data collectorvCenter Chargeback Manager
vShield Manager data collectorvCenter Chargeback Manager
vCenter Chargeback Manager data
collector
vCenter Chargeback Manager
database
database
database
vCenter Server database5
50
35
10
Although a single connection is made,
the connection pool requires 10
connections
10
Although a single connection is made,
the connection pool requires 10
connections
If you have a vCenter Chargeback Manager cluster and also multiple instances of the vCenter Chargeback
Manager data collector, then you must configure the database connection numbers appropriately.
Other System Prerequisites
Apart from the networking and database management related prerequisites, you must perform few other
pre-installation tasks to ensure that vCenter Chargeback Manager is successfully installed and upgraded.
You must perform the following pre-install tasks:
Ensure that system time of all the servers and databases are in sync.
n
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.
18 VMware, Inc.
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