Patent ID: 7702779

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of host computers, each of which includes a processor coupled to memory, wherein each of at least two of the plurality of host computers stores program instructions executable to implement one of a plurality of application processes, wherein the plurality of application processes are included within an application service; wherein each of the at least two host computers stores program instructions executable to implement a respective one of a plurality of meter agents; wherein one of the plurality of host computers stores program instructions executable to implement a meter aggregator; wherein each of the plurality of meter agents includes program instructions executable on a respective one of the at least two host computers to: collect usage data indicative of usage, by one or more of the plurality of application processes, of one or more resources of the respective host computer; and provide the collected usage data to the meter aggregator; and wherein the meter aggregator includes program instructions executable to: aggregate the usage data provided by each of the plurality of meter agents, wherein the aggregated usage data is indicative of aggregate usage of the one or more resources of each of the at least two host computers by at least two of the plurality of application processes within the application service; and compute a billing amount for the application service based on the aggregated usage data; wherein one of the plurality of host computers stores program instructions executable to implement a meter manager configured to provide centralized management for the plurality of meter agents; wherein the meter manager includes program instructions executable to dynamically install meter agents on one or more of the plurality of host computers in response to a configuration command.