The VMguy

Next up in the new releases: VMWare Chargeback 1.5.  You can download the updated release here.  A 60-day eval version can be found here.  Possibly the biggest feature update of a product at VMworld so far.  Here’s the giant what’s new section from the release notes:

vCenter Chargeback 1.5 provides the following new features:

• Hierarchy management tools, filters, and views
  This release of vCenter Chargeback allows you to backdate the chargeback hierarchy, view hierarchies in more than one inventory view (Host & Clusters, VM & Templates) per vCenter Server, and highlight vCenter Server entities that have not yet been added to a selected chargeback hierarchy.
• Support for resource allocation on chargeback hierarchical entity
  This release of vCenter Chargeback lets you specify allocation units for each computing resource on the entity in a chargeback hierarchy. If a report is generated on the hierarchy using a cost model that has an allocation-based billing policy, vCenter Chargeback accounts for the allocation details set on the entity.
• Auto-Costing for VMware High Availability, VMware Fault Tolerance, and guest operating systems
  vCenter Chargeback lets you charge for additional virtual machine configuration parameters. You can now define a set of fixed costs and have vCenter Chargeback automatically assign the appropriate cost based on the guest operating system or level of availability protection (VMware High Availability, VMware Fault Tolerance) configured for the virtual machine.
• Configuring cost at the host and cluster levels
  You can now configure costs for the resources at the host and cluster levels. The cost configuration data is then applied to each virtual machine created on the host or cluster.
• Enhanced cost model support
  This release adds support for defining one-time costs and overage fees. In addition to hourly rates, you now have the option to define base rates per day, month, and year.
• Support for custom billing policies
  This release of vCenter Chargeback lets you create custom billing policies and specify conditions, such as charging based on the power state of virtual machine or billing linked clones.
• New cost analysis dashboard
  vCenter Chargeback provides a dashboard that displays cost and usage breakdowns by resource type and business group. The dashboard also lets you identify the N most or least expensive virtual machines and access a list of recent reports.
• Customizable reporting interface
  vCenter Chargeback now lets you modify the report view after the report is generated. You can remove rows and columns, and can also rearrange the columns in the generated report.
• Support for generating reports in multiple currencies
  This release supports the ability to generate cost summary reports in multiple currency types within a single vCenter Chargeback instance.
• Support for multiple LDAP servers
  With this release, you can configure more than one LDAP server in vCenter Chargeback. When logging in to vCenter Chargeback, LDAP users must enter the LDAP code that was provided when configuring the LDAP server.
• Resource-based authorization
  Starting with this release, vCenter Chargeback uses resource-based authorization. vCenter Chargeback defines various resource types and authorizes access to a resource based on the role assigned to a user for the resource. A user must have a role assigned to him on the application and for the resources defined in it to enable him to perform any action in the application.
• Full support for vCenter Chargeback APIs
  vCenter Chargeback APIs provide an interface to programmatically use the various features of vCenter Chargeback. As an application developer, you can use these APIs to build chargeback applications or integrate vCenter Chargeback with your internal billing systems and compliance policies. This release of vCenter Chargeback adds full support for these APIs.
• Support for VMware Cloud Director
  vCenter Chargeback enables the delivery of an integrated pay-as-you-go solution for resource tracking and billing in the cloud. This release of vCenter Chargeback provides two new data collectors: VMware Cloud Director Data Collector and vShield Manager Data Collector. These data collectors integrate vCenter Chargeback with VMware Cloud Director and vShield Manager. This release includes support for the following features:
  • Support for VMware Cloud Director resource abstractions and resource management models: Reservation Pool, Allocation Pool, and Pay-As-You-Go.
  • Automated creation of chargeback hierarchies mapping to organizations, virtual datacenters, and vApps defined within VMware Cloud Director.
  • Metering and charging for allocation and usage of VMware Cloud Director resources, including virtual datacenters, vApps, templates and media file storage.
  • Metering and charging for external network bandwidth, network count, and network services, such as DHCP, NAT, and firewall.
  • Delivery of targeted multi-tenant chargeback reports.