A company wants to adopt a charge-back model for their virtual infrastructure.

To satisfy the requirement where a user mustmanually entera value (Cost Center) at request time, and have that specific value applied to the resulting VM'sCategory, the administrator must use aRuntime Variablecombined with aTask.

Runtime Variable:Configuring a variable (e.g., @@{cost_center}@@) as "Runtime" in the Blueprint ensures that the Self-Service Marketplace prompts the user to input this data when they click "Launch."

Task for Categorization:In standard Self-Service blueprints, Categories defined in the VM configuration pane are typically static or tied to the Project/Environment defaults. To apply adynamiccategory based on a specific user input string, the administrator creates aTask(typically a script using the API or a "Set Category" action if available in the version) that runs post-create. This task takes the value from the runtime variable and updates the VM entity with the corresponding CostCenter:Value category tag.

Why not others?

Option Auses a "Pre-Defined" variable, which typically implies a static value fixed by the admin, not input by the user.

Option Csuggests using the Environment to set the value. Environments are used to map deployments to infrastructure (e.g., "Production" vs "Dev" clusters) and do not support dynamic injection of arbitrary user strings into category values during the launch process.

Option Dsuggests associating the variable to the Category in theProject. Project-level categories are generally static defaults applied toallworkloads in that project (e.g., all VMs in the "HR Project" get CostCenter:HR), which contradicts the requirement for therequesterto enter the specific cost center at launch.