Cost vs Utilization Reports
Cost vs Utilization (CvU) reports provide per-instance visibility into cloud spend and utilization, updated daily. These reports enable you to easily identify expensive instances and compare them against utilization, type, entities, tags, and data transfer rates.
These multi-dimensional reports also break down information like total versus individual instance costs or the cost for each AWS instance state (Reserved, On-Demand) or Azure instance size.
You can customize reports to provide the information you need to determine if cloud instances are providing the expected value. Use custom tagging to group your instances. and use filters to find resources with spend that meets certain conditions. Create reports to get data for charge-back billing, to identify data transfer costs per entity, to determine which resources might be underutilized and can be hibernated, right-sized, or eliminated, etc. You can then email the reports to appropriate recipients.
CvU Reports are generated daily at 07:00 UTC. Frequency of report generation cannot be modified.
Tip
Virtana Platform reports display currency only in US dollars (USD}. To accurately reflect costs, ensure your data sources have the currency display set to US dollars in the AWS or Azure portal. For Azure, see Set the Currency Option in Azure to USD.
Summary
The default CvU report displays a bar graph that shows the total costs incurred for the AWS or Azure instances monitored by Cloud Cost Management (CCM). Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category. The left-hand axis shows cumulative cost in US dollars. The right-hand axis shows a cumulative percent contribution for CPU or memory utilization. The bars in the graph represent US dollars and the black dots represent the utilization percentage.
You can modify this view by applying a different report filter, by editing the report Settings, and by changing the time range. You can also display the top 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, or 400 results or all results.
Cost Details
You can see further details about your instances by reviewing the contents of the Cost Details table.
This table shows the total costs incurred for all the instances for which CCM does calculations. Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
All cost categories are shown in this chart even if you have incurred no costs of a particular type.
Note
Sometimes the settings for a report do not apply to any resources in your environment. When that happens, the report will be empty, displaying no results. If the report is set up for email, a report might not be sent.
Related Topics
Cost vs Utilization Report Settings
Default Settings for Cost vs Utilization Reports
Use the AWS Cost vs Utilization (CvU) reports to analyze cost data across all of your consolidated or linked AWS accounts. This report provides a breakdown of your costs for EC2, RDS, and S3 resources. The AWS CvU report is generated daily after initial setup.
This report is an ideal place to start your right-sizing planning because it allows you to quickly understand your infrastructure spend on an operational level. For example, you might identify an over-reliance on On-Demand resources, such as using On-Demand for predictable, long-term workloads that are more suited for reservations and savings plans. Or you might note workloads that are less critical and less time sensitive, so they might be good choices for less expensive Spot instances.
Tip
Cloud Cost Management (CCM) relies on the AWS CloudWatch agent to collect Memory metrics. If you have a mix of entities with and without an agent, you will see gaps in the utilization figures where values are not available.
Click the image to enlarge it:
Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
- Left Axis
Always displays the total cost in US dollars.
Ensure your AWS instances have the currency display set to US dollars in the AWS portal.
- Right Axis
Displays a cumulative percent contribution of each of the bars. The label changes based on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic Options selected in the report Settings.
Options are the following:
Utilization Metric: CPU Utilization % or Memory Utilization %
Metric Statistic: Mean, Maximum, 95th Percentile, Minimum
- Legend of Cost Categories
The cost categories displayed in the legend below the chart are reflected in the columns in the Cost Details table.
Click the image to enlarge it:
This table shows the total costs incurred for all the instances for which CCM does calculations. Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
All cost categories are shown in this chart even if you have incurred no costs of a particular type.
You can use this view to determine the following:
- Cost by the Group By Resource
The header in the first column of the table changes depending on the Group By selection in report Settings. (Examples: Entity Name, Location, Account, etc.) View the relative cost of the resources you grouped by and compare their level of utilization.
For example, view the total cost for each entity, as well as the cost per instance state (Reserved, On-Demand, etc.) and data transfer rate. You can also identify the instance type for each Group By resource and the maximum utilization by percentage.
Tip
You can only choose Cumulative Daily Run Rate when the time range is set to Current Month.
When you select a Group Data by option of "Cumulative Daily Run Rate" the chart and table change to be grouped by day of the month, and the chart shows cumulative totals instead of daily totals. (Meaning day 3 shows totals for day 1 + day 2 + day 3).
- Cost by Instance Type
View the maximum utilization for each entity per instance type, such as t3.medium, m5.large, m4.xlarge, etc. Sort any instance type column to see which entities have the lowest or highest cost per instance type.
See Amazon AWS documentation for descriptions of each instance type.
- CPU Utilization or Memory Utilization %
The utilization % column header changes depending on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic selected in the report Settings.
Compare the relative cost and utilization of your instances among their peers. Determine which entities have relatively high utilization and lower cost compared with entities that have lower utilization and higher costs.
The content of the graph and table columns in the report change depending on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic that are chosen.
AWS CloudWatch is required to collect memory metrics.
- Cost by Instance
Compare cost and utilization for Reserved, On-Demand, On-Demand Savings Plan, and Spot Instance pricing models.
See Amazon AWS documentation or glossary for descriptions of the AWS instances.
- Data Transfer
Identify high data transfer rates that might be mitigated by changing instance type or instance pricing model (Reserved, On-Demand, etc.).
Tip
If Data Transfer values display as $0.00, it is because the real value is only a fraction of a cent and is rounded off to zero.
Click the image to enlarge it:
Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
- Left Axis
Always displays the total cost in US dollars.
Ensure your AWS instances have the currency display set to US dollars in the AWS portal.
- Right Axis
Displays a cumulative percent contribution of each of the bars. The label changes based on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic Options selected in the report Settings.
Options are the following:
Utilization Metric: CPU Utilization %, Disk Space Used %, or Disk I/O %
Metric Statistic: Mean, Maximum, 95th Percentile, Minimum
- Legend of Cost Categories
The cost categories displayed in the legend below the chart are reflected in the columns in the Cost Details table.
Click the image to enlarge it:
This table shows the total costs incurred for all the instances for which CCM does calculations. Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
All cost categories are shown in this chart even if you have incurred no costs of a particular type.
You can use this view to determine the following:
- Cost by the Group By Resource
The header in the first column of the table changes depending on the Group By selection in report Settings. (Examples: Entity Name, Location, Account, etc.) View the relative cost of the resources you grouped by and compare their level of utilization.
For example, view the total cost for each entity, as well as the cost per instance state (Reserved, On-Demand, etc.) and data transfer rate. You can also identify the instance type for each Group By resource and the maximum utilization by percentage.
Tip
You can only choose Cumulative Daily Run Rate when the time range is set to Current Month.
When you select a Group Data by option of "Cumulative Daily Run Rate" the chart and table change to be grouped by day of the month, and the chart shows cumulative totals instead of daily totals. (Meaning day 3 shows totals for day 1 + day 2 + day 3).
- Cost by Instance Type
View the maximum utilization for each entity per instance type, such as t3.medium, m5.large, m4.xlarge, etc. Sort any instance type column to see which entities have the lowest or highest cost per instance type.
See Amazon AWS documentation for descriptions of each instance type.
- Cost by Utilization % (CPU, Disk Space Used, or Disk I/O)
The utilization % column header changes depending on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic selected in the report Settings.
Compare the relative cost and utilization of your instances among their peers. Determine which entities have relatively high utilization and lower cost compared with entities that have lower utilization and higher costs.
The content of the graph and table columns in the report change depending on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic that are chosen.
- Cost by Instance
Compare cost and utilization for Reserved, On-Demand, On-Demand Savings Plan, and Spot Instance pricing models.
See Amazon AWS documentation or glossary for descriptions of the AWS instances.
- Data Transfer
Identify high data transfer rates that might be mitigated by changing instance type or instance pricing model (Reserved, On-Demand, etc.).
Click the image to enlarge it:
Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
- Left Axis
Always displays the total cost in US dollars.
Ensure your AWS instances have the currency display set to US dollars in the AWS portal.
- Right Axis
Displays a cumulative percent contribution of each of the bars. The label changes based on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic Options selected in the report Settings.
Utilization Metric: Bucket Size (bytes) or Number of Objects
Metric Statistic: Mean, Maximum, 95th Percentile, Minimum
- Legend of Cost Categories
The cost categories displayed in the legend below the chart are reflected in the columns in the Cost Details table.
Click the image to enlarge it:
This table shows the total costs incurred for all the instances for which CCM does calculations. Use this view to see the total cost of your environment and total contributions by category.
All cost categories are shown in this chart even if you have incurred no costs of a particular type.
You can use this view to determine the following:
- Cost by the Group By Resource
The header in the first column of the table changes depending on the Group By selection in report Settings. (Examples: Entity Name, Location, Account, etc.) View the relative cost of the resources you grouped by and compare their level of utilization.
For example, view the total cost for each entity, as well as the cost per instance state (Reserved, On-Demand, etc.) and data transfer rate. You can also identify the instance type for each Group By resource and the maximum utilization by percentage.
Tip
You can only choose Cumulative Daily Run Rate when the time range is set to Current Month.
When you select a Group Data by option of "Cumulative Daily Run Rate" the chart and table change to be grouped by day of the month, and the chart shows cumulative totals instead of daily totals. (Meaning day 3 shows totals for day 1 + day 2 + day 3).
- Cost by Bucket Size or Number of Objects
The utilization % column header changes depending on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic selected in the report Settings.
View the mean, minimum, maximum, or 95th percentile utilization for each entity, relative to data flow, put/get requests, storage type, etc. Sort column or filter the table to see which entities have the lowest or highest cost.
Compare the relative cost and utilization of your instances among their peers. Determine which entities have relatively high utilization and lower cost compared with entities that have lower utilization and higher costs.
The content of the graph and table columns in the report change depending on the Utilization Metric and Metric Statistic that are chosen.
- Cost by Data In/Out, Put/Get Requests
Identify, per resource, any high data in/out rates and put/get request rates that might be mitigated.
- Cost by Direct Connect Data in/Out
Consider if you might save costs by moving a heavy-bandwidth workload to Direct Connect, so data is transferred directly to and from AWS rather than an internet service provider (ISP).
- Cost by Storage Type
Determine costs based on storage type relative to bucket size, data in/out, and get/put requests. Storage types include the following;
Standard Storage
Glacier Storage
Standard Infrequent Access (SIA) Storage
Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS)
Tag Storage
Direct Connect Data in and Out
Other
Unknown
See the AWS product website or glossary for descriptions of storage and storage classes.