Amazon Web Services - Cost and Usage Extractor


Use the Amazon Web Services - Cost and Usage Extractor to collect the cost and usage data of the virtual machines (EC2 instances) that are provisioned in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. TrueSight Cloud Cost Control uses this resource usage and cost data to provide forecasting, simulated migration, and cost estimations. 

This ETL works in conjunction with the Amazon-Web-Services-AWS-API-Extractor. The cost and usage data that is collected is associated with the entities and business services that the AWS API ETL collects.

To learn more about the collection of business service data by ETLs, see Collecting-business-service-data.

Information

In the first couple of days of a month, there might be a data latency of up to two days for the cost and usage data to be available for collection.

Collecting data by using the AWS Cost and Usage ETL

To collect data by using the AWS Cost and Usage ETL, do the following tasks:

I. Complete the preconfiguration tasks.

II. Configure the ETL.

 

Step I. Complete the preconfiguration tasks

The ETL requires the following information to connect to AWS and collect data:

  • Access key and secret key of the newly-created IAM account
  • S3 bucket name
  • Name of the daily billing report and its prefix
  • Business service tag key

To fetch these details, complete the following preconfiguration tasks. If you have multiple AWS accounts, the owner of the master AWS account must perform the preconfiguration tasks.

Step II. Configure the ETL

You must configure the ETL to connect to AWS for collecting the cost and usage data of AWS entities. ETL configuration includes specifying the basic and optional advanced properties. While configuring the basic properties is sufficient, you can optionally configure the advanced properties for additional customization.

A. Configuring the basic properties

Some of the basic properties display default values. You can modify these values when required.

To configure the basic properties:

  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, navigate to Administration ETL & System Tasks, and select ETL tasks.
  2. On the ETL tasks page, click Add > Add ETL. The Add ETL page displays the configuration properties. You must configure properties in the following tabs: Run configuration, Entity catalog, and Amazon Web Services Connection
  3. On the Run Configuration tab, select Amazon Web Services - Cost and Usage Extractor from the ETL module list. The name of the ETL is displayed in the ETL task name box. You can edit this field to customize the name.

    aws_cu_etl_conf_page.png

  4. Click the Entity catalog tab, and select one of the following options:
    • Shared Entity Catalog:Retain the default selection to share the entity catalog with the AWS API ETL, which extracts infrastructure data of the AWS resources.
      • From the Sharing with Entity Catalog list, select the entity catalog name that is shared between ETLs.
    • Private Entity Catalog: Select if only this ETL is used for extracting data from the AWS resources.
  5. Click the Amazon Web Services Connection tab, and configure the following properties:

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    The following image shows sample configuration values for the basic properties.

    aws_cu_etl_configured_values.png

  6. (Optional) Override the default values of properties in the following tabs:

    Run configuration
    ETL task properties
  7. Click Save.
    The details of the newly configured AWS Cost and Usage ETL are displayed.

    aws_cu_run_configuration.png

(Optional) B. Configuring the advanced properties

You can configure the advanced properties to change the way the ETL works and to define the data collection period.

To configure the advanced properties:

  1. On the Add ETL page, click Advanced.
  2. Configure the following properties:

    Run configuration
    Property
    Description
    Run configuration name
    Specify the name that you want to assign to this ETL task configuration. The default configuration name is displayed. You can use this name to differentiate between the run configuration settings of ETL tasks.
    Deploy status
    Select the deploy status for the ETL task. For example, you can initially select Test and change it to Production after verifying that the ETL run results are as expected.
    Log level
    Specify the level of details that you want to include in the ETL log file. Select one of the following options:
    • 1 - Light: Select to add the bare minimum activity logs to the log file.
    • 5 - Medium: Select to add the medium-detailed activity logs to the log file.
    • 10 - Verbose: Select to add detailed activity logs to the log file.
    Use log level 5 as a general practice. You can select log level 10 for debugging and troubleshooting purposes.
    Datasets
    Specify the datasets that you want to add to the ETL run configuration. The ETL collects data of metrics that are associated with these datasets.
    1. Click Edit.
    2. Select one (click) or more (shift+click) datasets from the Available datasets list and click >> to move them to the Selected datasets list.
    1. Click Apply.
    The ETL collects data of metrics associated with the datasets that are available in the Selected datasets list.

    Amazon Web Services Connection

    To define a period during which the ETL must collect data, click Advanced, and configure the following property:

    Property

    Description

    Extraction mode

    The extraction mode denotes the data collection period. Depending on the period you want to collect data for, select one of the following options:

    • Regular - daily import: Select to collect daily data. In the first run, the ETL collects data for the past six months. On the subsequent runs, it collects the daily data (after the last counter value).
    • Historical - import historical data (do not use for daily scheduling): Select to collect the historical data for the period that you specify in the Extraction months property.
      The default historical data collection period is 12 months.

    Recommendation

    BMC recommends that you create a separate Run configuration to extract historical data. Do not use the same Run configuration for your daily runs and historical data extraction.

    By default, Regular is selected. After you run the ETL, the last counter value (LAST_EXTRACTION_MAX_TIME) is set to the day when the data was last extracted.

    Additional properties

    Property

    Description

    List of properties

    Specify additional properties for the ETL that act as user inputs during run. You can specify these values now or you can do so later by accessing the "You can manually edit ETL properties from this page" link that is displayed for the ETL in the view mode.

    1. Click Add.
    2. In the etl.additional.prop.n field, specify an additional property.
    3. Click Apply.
      Repeat this task to add more properties.
    Loader configuration

    Property

    Description

    Empty dataset behavior

    Specify the action for the loader if it encounters an empty dataset:

    • Warn: Generate a warning about loading an empty dataset.
    • Ignore: Ignore the empty dataset and continue parsing.

    ETL log file name

    The name of the file that contains the ETL run log. The default value is: %BASE/log/%AYEAR%AMONTH%ADAY%AHOUR%MINUTE%TASKID

    Maximum number of rows for CSV output

    A numeric value to limit the size of the output files.

    CSV loader output file name

    The name of the file that is generated by the CSV loader. The default value is: %BASE/output/%DSNAME%AYEAR%AMONTH%ADAY%AHOUR%ZPROG%DSID%TASKID

    Capacity Optimization loader output file name

    The name of the file that is generated by the TrueSight Capacity Optimization loader. The default value is: %BASE/output/%DSNAME%AYEAR%AMONTH%ADAY%AHOUR%ZPROG%DSID%TASKID

    Detail mode

    Specify whether you want to collect raw data in addition to the standard data. Select one of the following options:

    • Standard: Data will be stored in the database in different tables at the following time granularities: Detail (configurable, by default: 5 minutes), Hourly, Daily, and Monthly.
    • Raw also: Data will be stored in the database in different tables at the following time granularities: Raw (as available from the original data source), Detail (configurable, by default: 5 minutes), Hourly, Daily, and Monthly.
    • Raw only: Data will be stored in the database in a table only at Raw granularity (as available from the original data source).

    For more information, see Accessing data using public views and Sizing and scalability considerations.

    Remove domain suffix from datasource name (Only for systems) 

    Select True to remove the domain from the data source name. For example, server.domain.com will be saved as server. The default selection is False.

    Leave domain suffix to system name (Only for systems)

    Select True to keep the domain in the system name. For example: server.domain.com will be saved as is. The default selection is False.

    Update grouping object definition (Only for systems)

    Select True if you want the ETL to update the grouping object definition for a metric that is loaded by the ETL. The default selection is False.

    Skip entity creation (Only for ETL tasks sharing lookup with other tasks)

    Select True if you do not want this ETL to create an entity and discard data from its data source for entities not found in Capacity Optimization. It uses one of the other ETLs that share a lookup to create a new entity. The default selection is False.

    Scheduling options

    Property

    Description

    Hour mask

    Specify a value to run the task only during particular hours within a day. For example, 0 – 23 or 1, 3, 5 – 12.

    Day of week mask

    Select the days so that the task can be run only on the selected days of the week. To avoid setting this filter, do not select any option for this field.

    Day of month mask

    Specify a value to run the task only on the selected days of a month. For example, 5, 9, 18, 27 – 31.

    Apply mask validation

    Select False to temporarily turn off the mask validation without removing any values. The default selection is True.

    Execute after time

    Specify a value in the hours:minutes format (for example, 05:00 or 16:00) to wait before the task is run. The task run begins only after the specified time is elapsed.

    Enqueueable

    Specify whether you want to ignore the next run command or run it after the current task. Select one of the following options:

    • False: Ignores the next run command when a particular task is already running. This is the default selection.
    • True: Starts the next run command immediately after the current running task is completed.
  3. Click Save.
    The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured AWS Cost and Usage ETL.

Step III. Run the ETL

After you configure the ETL, you can run it to collect data. You can run the ETL in the following modes:

A. Simulation mode: Only validates connection to the data source, does not collect data. Use this mode when you want to run the ETL for the first time or after you make any changes to the ETL configuration.

B. Production mode: Collects data from the data source.

Important

Ensure that you first run the AWS API ETL before running the AWS Cost and Usage ETL.

A. Running the ETL in the simulation mode

To run the ETL in the simulation mode:
  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, navigate to Administration ETL & System Tasks, and select ETL tasks.
  2. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.

    aws_api_etl_configured.png

  3. In the Run configurations table, click Edit edit icon.png to modify the ETL configuration settings.
  4. On the Run configuration tab, ensure that the Execute in simulation mode option is set to Yes, and click Save.
  5. Click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
  6. On the ETL tasks page, check the ETL run status in the Last exit column.
    OK Indicates that the ETL ran without any error. You are ready to run the ETL in the production mode.
  7.  If the ETL run status is Warning, Error, or Failed:
    1. On the ETL tasks page, click edit icon.png in the last column of the ETL name row.
    2. Check the log and reconfigure the ETL if required.
    3. Run the ETL again.
    4. Repeat these steps until the ETL run status changes to OK.

B. Running the ETL in the production mode

You can run the ETL manually when required or schedule it to run at a specified time.

Running the ETL manually

  1. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.
  2. In the Run configurations table, click Edit edit icon.png to modify the ETL configuration settings. The Edit run configuration page is displayed.
  3. On the Run configuration tab, select No for the Execute in simulation mode option, and click Save.
  4. To run the ETL immediately, click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
    When the ETL is run, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the TrueSight Capacity Optimization database.

Scheduling the ETL run

By default, the ETL is scheduled to run daily. You can customize this schedule by changing the frequency and period of running the ETL.To configure the ETL run schedule:
  1. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL, and click Edit. The ETL details are displayed.

    aws_api_etl_schedule_run.png
  2. On the Edit task page, do the following, and click Save:
    • Specify a unique name and description for the ETL task.
    • In the Maximum execution time before warning field, specify the duration for which the ETL must run before generating warnings or alerts, if any.
    • Select a predefined or custom frequency for starting the ETL run. The default selection is Predefined.
    • Select the task group and the scheduler to which you want to assign the ETL task.
  3. Click Schedule. A message confirming the scheduling job submission is displayed.
    When the ETL runs as scheduled, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the TrueSight Capacity Optimization database.

Step IV. Verify data collection

Verify that the ETL ran successfully and the AWS cost data is refreshed in the TrueSight console.

To verify whether the ETL ran successfully:

  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, click Administration > ETL and System Tasks > ETL tasks.
  2. In the Last exec time column corresponding to the ETL name, verify that the current date and time are displayed.

To verify whether the AWS cost data is refreshed:

  1. Log in to the TrueSight console.
  2. Click Cloud Cost Control, and verify whether the AWS cost data is refreshed.

 

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