This is my preparation for VCAP-CID based on vCAT3.1 document

1. vCenter charge back manager
By Preetam Zarey
For vZare.com
Version 1.0.1
Sunday, October 08, 2013

2. Why vCloud Metering
• To accurately measure consumer usage
• To Shape consumer behavior through
chargeback (for public cloud) or showback Policies (for private
cloud)
• To enable cost transparency and accountability
• Exposes heavy or demanding users who can
monopolize vCloud resources
• When no showback or chargeback in place
▫ Little incentive to change consumption behavior
▫ No Penalties to curb excessive uses
 Remember demanding users asking 32 vCPU,
though they hardly use 4 vCPU)
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3. Introduction
• vCenter Chargeback Manager provides the
metering capability to (MAR)
▫ Measure,
▫ Analyze, and
▫ Report on resources used in private and public vCloud
environments.
• vCloud providers can configure and associate
various pricing models to vCloud Director entities.
• The cost transparency enabled by vCenter
Chargeback allows vCloud providers to validate and
adjust financial models based on the demand for
resources.
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4. Architecture
• Based on Windows Server
• Has three stack (may run separate servers for resiliency, scalability)
▫ Web Application
▫ Load Balancer
▫ Data collector services
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Recommended Specification
CPU 2.0 GHz or faster
Memory 4 GB RAM
Disk Space 3 GB
Network 1 Gbps

5. High Availability
• Can be Clustered using Apache Load balancer
• Apache load balancer is bundle with the product
• Up to three nodes but must be of same version
• Apache Load balancer
▫ Is Active/Active
▫ Balances report processing load by leveraging
internal quartz scheduler
▫ Load balancer cannot be replaced by 3rd Party
load balancer
▫ Load balancer is controlled via windows service
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6. • Load balancer server using stickiness. This
allows session to stick same vCenter Charge
back manager
• If there are multiple sessions
▫ The load balancer selects the worker by checking
the load on the worker by using the number of
requests
▫ Access is distributed according to the lbfactor (it is
the same for all the servers in the cluster) in a
sliding time window.
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7. Database
• Multiple Chargeback environments (separate vCenter
Chargeback Manager & DB) can work with a single vCD
instance, but this increases the load on the vCloud
Director instance.
• The vCenter Chargeback DB stores
▫ Organization hierarchies ( Feeded by data collector)
▫ cost/rate plans, and
▫ Global chargeback configuration data.
• Supported databases include
▫ Microsoft SQL Server Express
▫ Microsoft SQL Server, and
▫ Oracle
• Unsupported Databases
▫ DB2 or PostgreSQL (Part of vCSA)
• Database partitioning helps to improve the performance
of vCenter Chargeback Manager.
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8. Data Collectors
• vCenter Chargeback Manager integration with vCloud
Director is handled through data collectors
• Chargeback Manager Data Collector (CMDC)
▫ vCenter must be registered with CMDC
▫ Talks with registered VCs to gather VMs metrics
▫ All VCs controlled by vCD must be registered with CMDC,till then
VMs are absent
• vCloud Data Collector (VDC)
▫ Connect to vDC via vCloud API to monitor all charge back related
events
▫ VDC populates vCenter Charge back manager’s DB with
organization hierarchies and allocation unit information
• vCloud Networking & Security Manager Data Collector
(vCNSDC)
▫ Connects with vDC’s vShield Manager (vCNS Manager) to collect
network statistics for networks in Organizations hierarchies
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9. • Install additional VDC and or vCNSDC on additional servers for HA
• But multiple data collector works in Active-Passive configuration
only
• One can have multiple data collector but it can connect to only one
vCD instance
vCenter Chargeback Maximums
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Constraint Limits
VCs in a Chargeback system 10
VCs per data collector 5
VMs per data collector 15000
VMs/Entities in a chargeback system 35000
VM/Entities per hierarchy 1000
Hierarchies in a charge back system 5000
Concurrent reports (3000 pages) per
chargeback system
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10. User Roles
• Highest privileged are assigned to Superuser
role
• Administrator role privileges are controlled by
Superuser
• Users created by Administrator A1 is not visible
to Administrator A2 and vice versa
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11. Cost Calculation
• Set allocation units based on parameters of the
allocation model configured in vCloud Director.
• Allocation units are variables associated with
charge back metrics based on the allocated size
of the resource
• Allocation units of organization vDC are not
calculated when you use PAYG model. As units
do not get consumed till we power ON VMs
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12. Pricing Models
• Installing VCDC & vCNSDC creates default cost models
and Billing policies
• Billing Policies
▫ Controls costs based on resources consumed
▫ Charged based on allocation of
 vCPU
 Memory
 Storage
▫ Cost time interval include
 Hourly
 Daily
 Weekly
 Monthly
 Quarterly
 Half-yearly
 Yearly
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13. Pricing Models - Rate Factors
• Rate Factors allow scaling of base cost for
specific chargeable entity.
• Use cases
▫ Promotional rate
 Offering 10 % discount for renewal of contracts.
Then simply modify the rate factor as 0.9 instead of
modifying base cost
▫ Rates for unique configurations
 When customer is requesting off the catalog service
offering
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14. Pricing Models – VM Instance
• VM instance assign fixed price to a hard bundle
of vCPU and Memory
• VM Instance linked with pricing model
• Pricing Model Includes
▫ Hierarchy selection criteria
▫ Fixed pricing table and a
▫ Default fixed price
• VM instance use step function, if the VM is
configured with vCPU & Memory which is not
per the catalog, then charge is based on the
next large instance size
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15. Reporting
• Can generate Cost, Usage and Comparison
(CuC) reports for hierarchies and entities. Match
the hierarchy with appropriate cost model when
generating reports
• Chargeback API can pull results in following
format
▫ PDF
▫ XML
▫ XSL
• Create service accounts with read-only
privileges to run reports from the UI or charge
API
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16. Thank you vZare.com
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