Introduction to accounting architecture
The Abiquo accounting architecture consists of accounting tables, triggers for data capture, and procedures.
This detailed diagram shows the basic architecture of the Accounting system.
Triggers and stored procedures
The Abiquo kinton schema contains triggers for accounting integration. The triggers run stored procedures in the kinton_accounting schema to automatically capture data in if/then/when scenarios.
Resource | Triggers |
|---|---|
VMs | update_virtualmachine_update_stats AFTER UPDATE ON virtualmachine |
Storage | create_rasd_management_update_stats AFTER INSERT ON rasd_management delete_rasd_management_update_stats AFTER DELETE ON rasd_management |
IPs | update_ip_pool_management_update_stats AFTER UPDATE ON ip_pool_management update_rasd_management_update_stats AFTER UPDATE ON rasd_management |
VLANs | create_vlan_network_update_stats AFTER INSERT ON vlan_network delete_vlan_network_update_stats AFTER DELETE ON vlan_network |
Racks | rack_update AFTER UPDATE ON rack |
Physical Machines | physicalmachine_create AFTER INSERT ON physicalmachine physicalmachine_delete AFTER DELETE ON physicalmachine physicalmachine_update AFTER UPDATE ON physicalmachine |
VM templates | virtualimage_create AFTER INSERT ON virtualimage virtualimage_delete AFTER DELETE ON virtualimage virtualimage_update AFTER UPDATE ON virtualimage virtualimageconversion_update AFTER UPDATE ON virtualimage_conversion |
Stored procedures for event accounting
The triggers collect the information necessary and call stored procedures responsible for recording accounting events. The stored procedures are:
AccountingVMRegisterEvents AccountingStorageRegisterEvents AccountingIPsRegisterEvents AccountingVLANRegisterEvents
Accounting tables
This section gives a general description of the accounting tables.
The accounting_event_"resource" tables are the definitive source of accounting data and log of customer activity. You must back up these tables to prevent accidental loss of accounting data. The default for removing stale data from these tables is 3 years. If you upgraded to Abiquo 2.4 and you were using default values, they were updated to 3 years. However, non-default values were not updated in the upgrade to Abiquo 2.4.
Accounting triggers are always active. The resultant data is stored in event-based database tables that store resource data, and the time resource usage begins and ends.
These tables all follow a similar design pattern and are prefixed accounting_event_"resource", where "resource" can be substituted depending on the accounting resource type. For example, the data table on virtual machines (CPU, memory, storage) shown below.
Table accounting_event_vm
Field name | Field type | Description |
|---|---|---|
idVMAccountingEvent | BIGINT | ID event unique |
idVM | INTEGER | ID of virtual machine owning the resource |
idEnterprise | INTEGER | ID of enterprise resource owner |
idVirtualDataCenter | INTEGER | ID of virtual datacenter facility owner |
idVirtualApp | INTEGER | ID virtual app resource owner |
cpu | INTEGER | 'cores' units |
ram | INTEGER | Memory, in megabytes (MB) |
hd | BIGINT | Local storage, in bytes (B) |
startTime | TIMESTAMP | When a resource was created |
stopTime | TIMESTAMP | When a resources was destroyed |
consolidated | TINYINT | Flag for processed or not |
costCode | TINYINT | Cost code assigned for pricing purposes |
hypervisorType | VARCHAR | The type of hypervisor hosting the virtual machine |
idDataCenter | INTEGER | ID of datacenter |
VirtualMachine-haHosted | INTEGER |
|
antiAffinity | INTEGER | For VMs in an anti-affinity layer |
idHardwareProfile | INTEGER | ID of hardware profile |
Deprecated - Flag for hosted on HA-enabled PM or not (haEnabled)
Table accounting_event_pm
This table stores details of reserved physical servers - one row for each reserved server.
Field name | Field type | Description |
idPMAccountingEvent | BIGINT | Unique column identifier for the accounting event |
idPhysicalMachine | INT | ID of the physical machine, as defined in the kinton.physicalmachine table.
|
idEnterprise | INT | ID of the ENTERPRISE, as defined in the kinton.enterprise table.
|
cpu | INT | The number of physical CPUs in the machine |
ram | INT | The physical machine’s RAM (in MB) |
startTime | TIMESTAMP | The time at which the machine reservation started |
stopTime | TIMESTAMP | The time at which the reservation finished. This value is NULL if the reservation is still active |
idDataCenter | INT | ID of the physical datacenter, as defined in the kinton.datacenter table.
|
consolidated | TINYINT | Indicates whether this row has been consoliated with other rows. Currently this value is always 0 |
version_c | INT | Software controlled data version |
Table accounting_event_repository
This table contains details of the repository usage. There is one row for each VM Template and Instance stored in the repository. Persistent VM templates are not included in this table, because they are stored as external volumes and charged separately.
Field name | Field type | Description |
idRepoAccountingEvent | BIGINT | Unique column identifier for the accounting event |
idImage | INT | ID of the repository image, as defined in the kinton.virtualimage table. |
idEnterprise | INT | ID of the ENTERPRISE, as defined in the kinton.enterprise table. |
idImageTypeName | INT | The ID of the image type name in the generic accounting name table, |
idImageFormatName | INT | The ID of the image format name in the generic accounting name table, |
imageSize | BIGINT | Physical size of the repository image, in bytes |
idRepository | INT | The ID of the image repository as defined in the kinton.repository table |
idRepositoryName | INT |
|
startTime | TIMESTAMP | The time at which the image was created in the repository |
stopTime | TIMESTAMP | The time at which the image was deleted from the repository. This value is NULL if the image still exists. |
idDataCenter | INT | ID of the physical datacenter, as defined in the kinton.datacenter table. |
consolidated | TINYINT | Indicates whether this row has been consoliated with other rows. Currently this value is always 0. |
version_c | INT | Software controlled data version. |
List of accounting event tables
The accounting event tables include the following.
backup
costcode
detail
ds_storage
firewall
ips
loadbalancer
pm
protect
repository
storage
vlan
vm
vm_off
vm_on
accounting_event_detail table
The accounting_event_detail table contains the information needed for accounting and billing functions. This table should not be accessed directly - if you need to access non-aggregated data then please use the kinton_accounting schema ACCOUNT_PERIOD_USAGE_VW (or the HOURLY_USAGE_MAX_VW or HOURLY_USAGE_MAX_2_VW) views to access the content of this table.
Warning: Running unoptimized or long SQL queries against this table can have a significant impact on the overall performance of the transactional database, and might affect the proper functioning of AbiquoServer. Therefore Abiquo recommends the use of database replication to replicate this table to another database server which has been prepared to process OLAP type queries.
This table may accumulate significant amounts of information over time, and therefore its space requires suitable management.
The following rows are returned from ACCOUNT_PERIOD_USAGE_VW view:
Field name | Field type | Description |
|---|---|---|
starttime | TIMESTAMP | Start of the time slice |
endTime | TIMESTAMP | End of the time slice |
idAccountingResourceType | TINYINT | Resource type posted: virtualmachine-vcpu, virtualmachine-vram, virtualmachine-vhd, ExternalStorage, IPAddress, VLAN, VirtualMachine-hypervisorType |
resourceType | VARCHAR | Resource type (text) |
resourceName | VARCHAR | Resource Name to account for. A new resource type 'VirtualMachine-hypervisorType' is now recorded for each VM. The Hypervisor Type is recorded in this 'resourceName' column. |
resourceUnits | BIGINT | Resource units to account for |
idEnterprise | INTEGER | ID enterprise resource owner |
idVirtualDataCenter | INTEGER | ID virtual datacenter owner |
idVirtualApp | INTEGER | ID virtual app resource owner |
idVirtualMachine | INTEGER | ID virtual machine owning the resource |
enterpriseName | VARCHAR | Company name resource owner |
virtualDataCenter | VARCHAR | Virtual datacenter name resource owner |
virtualApp | VARCHAR | Virtual app name resource owner |
virtualmachine | VARCHAR | Virtual machine name resource owner |
costCode | VARCHAR | Cost code of virtual image. Only valid when the idAccountingResourceType is 1 (virtualmachine-vcpu) |
idStorageTier | INTEGER | Code associated with this storage resource's QoS/Tier level. Only valid for the 'External Storage' resource type |
costCodeName | varchar(255) | Name of cost code |
storageTierName | varchar(40) | Name of storage tier |
idDataCenter | int(11) | ID of datacenter |
dataCenterName | varchar(255) | Name of datacenter |
idHardwareProfile | int(11) | ID of hardware profile |
idAccountingEvent | bigint(20) | ID of accounting event |
hypervisorType | varchar(255) | Hypervisor type (includes public cloud provider type) |
region | varchar(255) | Name of datacenter or public cloud region |
internal_provider_id | varchar(255) | ProviderID of the resource |
account_id | varchar(255) | Optional, can be set with the enterprise property “internal_customer_id” |
Every hour, the status of each resource implemented in the system is recorded, which can generate a large number of rows. Abiquo recommends that the table is periodically purged of resource information which is no longer required.
Resource IDs
The resources in the accounting_event_detail table are represented with a numerical value, as defined in the table below in the idAccountingResourceType column.
Parameter name | idAccountingResourceType
|
VirtualMachine | 1 |
VirtualMachine-vcpu | 1 |
VirtualMachine-vram | 2 |
VirtualMachine-vhd (datastores) | 3 |
ExternalStorage | 4 |
IPAddress/IPAddress (public IP) | 5 |
VLAN | 6 |
VirtualMachine-hypervisorType | 7 |
VirtualMachine-haHosted | 8 |
ReservedPhysicalMachine-cpu | 9 |
ReservedPhysicalMachine-ram | 10 |
RepositoryStorage | 11 |
VirtualMachine-antiAffinity | 12 |
VirtualMachine-tierhd (datastore tiers) | 13 |
backup_usage/backup_policy | 14 |
vm_usage_on/vm_on - cpu_usage_on/cpu_on | 15 |
vm_usage_off/vm_off - cpu_usage_off/cpu_off | 16 |
memory_usage_on/memory_on | 17 |
memory_usage_off/memory_off | 18 |
firewall_usage/firewall | 19 |
loadbalancer_usage/loadbalancer | 20 |
cost_code_usage | 24 |
draas_protection_usage/draas_protection | 25 |
Resource owners
Abiquo records resource ownership at the following levels:
virtual machine
virtual datacenter
enterprise
Description of resource owners
1. Virtual machine
Cores
RAM
Local storage
Cost codes (if the VM template has a cost code)
Grouped virtual machine components and virtual machines are accounted per group, not per individual virtual machine.
2. Virtual appliance
Groups of virtual machines
Cores
RAM
Local storage
Cost codes (if the VM template has a cost code)
3. Virtual datacenter
Groups of virtual machines
Groups of virtual appliances
Cores
RAM
Local storage
VLANS
Public IPs
External storage
4. Enterprise
An Enterprise has no managed resources that do not belong to a Virtual Datacenter, so there is no accounting per Enterprise. However, the Enterprise associated with each resource is recorded for aggregating resources at Enterprise level, and this information can be retrieved through the database views.
Legacy accounting views
For accounting and billing, Abiquo has previously implemented database views (in both the kinton and kinton_accounting schemas) to help you access the resource usage information correctly. However, the use of these views is no longer recommended for scalability and performance reasons. Instead, use the equivalent queries described above.
**ACCOUNT_PERIOD_USAGE_VW - **Returns the resource use for the accounting period with the maximum values. If the same resource has been used more than once in the same time zone, it takes the greater value. Not grouped by virtual machine and virtual appliance. The columns returned ar the same as the HOURLY_USAGE_MAX_2_VW but the name has been changed to reflect the change to the accounting period.
Legacy maximum usage views
HOURLY_USAGE_MAX_VW - Returns the resource use for hours with their maximum values. If the same resource has been used more than once in the same time zone, it takes the greater value. Not grouped by virtual machine and virtual appliance.
HOURLY_USAGE_MAX_2_VW
Legacy sum views
HOURLY_USAGE_SUM_VW - Returns the resource use for hours with their values added together. The data is aggregated to virtual datacenter level, but can be further aggregated to enterprise level if required.
DAILY_USAGE_SUM_VW - Returns the resource use for days with their values added together. The data is aggregated to virtual datacenter level, but can be further aggregated to enterprise level if required.
MONTHLY_USAGE_SUM_VW - Returns the resource use for months with their values added together. The data is aggregated to virtual datacenter level, but can be further aggregated to enterprise level if required.
Configuration view
ACCOUNTING_CONFIG_VW - Returns the current accounting configuration as a single row