AWS Scenario 1: Create a Monthly Cost Report
A common action in your cloud account is likely to be creating monthly total cost reports for management.
Let’s say you want to explore a breakdown of your bill across resource locations for the past month (30 days). How would you do that? Watch the video or read the instructions to learn how.
Prerequisites
Report filters, if being used, must have already been created. See Create or Edit Report Filters.
Steps
Watch the video or read the steps below. (Note that the Optimize module is now known as Cloud Cost Management (CCM).)
Log in to Virtana Platform, access the CCM module, and navigate to Bill Analysis.
Select a report Filter.
Click image to enlarge.
Select a Data Source.
Select the report Settings to modify and click
to edit the report.Under Report Format, select the following:
Select Stacked View.
Stacked View displays a color-coded stacked breakdown of spend based on two categories that you select.
Select Group Data by AZ and then by Service.
For Sort Data By, select Total Cost and Descending.
Limit the number of groups in the chart to Top 10.
Under Additional Data Filtering, clear any selected items.
Under Options, select Unblended.
Under Matching Conditions, delete any conditions.
Apply the configuration to view the report.
Click the time range selector and choose
.Your report might look something like this:
Hover over any bar in the chart for a line-item breakdown.
Hover over or click any parameter (for example, time range) in the legend below the chart to include or exclude the data associated with that parameter.
Click Save and select Save Report Setting as...
Give your report a unique descriptive name and click Save.
For example, AZ x Services total cost.
Tip
Note that you can modify a report and save it using Save > Update Selected Report Settings.
Click the report scheduler icon
and then click Add Scheduled Report.Provide an email address, for an individual, a team, etc.
Email updates can be turned on or off at any time by editing the saved report schedule.
Tip
Make a note of the names of the report filter, data source, and saved report you created. You will use them in future scenarios.
Practice
EC2 - Other is a large spending category for many AWS users. Based on what we did above, create a report that breaks that spending down more.
Configuration Settings
Apply the following:
Time Range: Latest 30 Days
Report Format: Stacked View
Group Data By: Usage Type and then by Service.
Limit number of groups...: Top 10
Additional Data Filtering: Service > EC2 - Other
Result
You should see a breakdown of EC2 - Other spend by Usage Type.
You can contextualize this data even further by using the Period Comparison report format. Simply change the report format to Period Comparison and retain the other settings. The report should now indicate whether your spending is increasing or decreasing over time across different dimensions.
It’s helpful to save various reports that slice your billing data using different dimensions and levels of granularity so that you can discover cost trends, cost deltas, and highlight saving success over time.
Save this report too, as it’s a great basis for exploring cost deltas.