Start by going to Explore and Search Results… You can use the search box at the upper right to narrow in on a specific group of VMs if you need to.
In my example I searched for machines that have “lab” in their name.
Next, I randomly selected 5 VMs from the search result and then clicked on “Label”
Next I click on “add new field” and give the label a name, in this case “TestChargeBack” and then click “Create”
Now I can select the label and give it a value that will be assigned to the 5 VMs selected in the previous steps. In this case I used “Lab Servers” and then “Save Changes”
(TestChargeBack now functions as a multi-value container… I could go back and select a different set of servers and call them “Prod Servers” etc.)
Now just to test that my label assignment has worked I go back to the search bar and use vm.TestChargeBack:"LabServers" as my search criteria and see that my servers are found and nothing else.
Now I need to move to the reporting console by clicking on “Reporting” and the sub-menu “On-Demand Reporting”. You will see “Chargeback” as one of the default options. Click “Run Report”
The resulting dialog will allow me to give the report a name, set values for the cost of each resource and most importantly click on “Field to summarize by” so that I can select the correct label to run the report against.
In the resulting dialog type “label” in the search box and you should see all labels listed including the one we created earlier.
Now just click “Run Report”
This will send you to the “Report Schedules” page where the completed report should be in the right most column where you can now click “Download” to get the finished report.
(You could also click “Configure” if you would like to schedule this report or configure an email recipient to receive the report.)
