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Implementing resource usage recommendations automatically for AWS VMs

Use the Resource Usage page to analyze the idle VMs and overallocated VMs, and take appropriate actions on them by reviewing the provided recommendations. You can decide to ignore the recommendations, commit VMs to implement the recommendations manually, or request an automatic implementation (for AWS only).

Administering-the-resource-usage-recommendations

Integrating-with-TrueSight-Cloud-Cost-Service-to-enable-automated-implementation-of-recommendations

Analyzing-the-idle-VMs-in-your-multi-cloud-infrastructure

Analyzing-the-overallocated-VMs-in-your-multi-cloud-infrastructure

Scenario

Nathan is an AWS Technology Specialist in a large IT organization. He manages and monitors the AWS infrastructure to ensure that the existing infrastructure capacity has sufficient resources (CPU, memory, and storage) to meet the current and future demands. He also ensures whether the current AWS infrastructure elements are optimally and efficiently utilized.

Current problem: Nathan wants to identify whether there are any overallocated or idle AWS VMs and recommendations to reduce the cloud costs and optimally utilize the infrastructure. In the case of many such VMs, he wants to implement those recommendations automatically for all VMs so that his cloud administrator need not spend time implementing recommendations for each VM manually.

Solution: With the Resource Usage page of the TrueSight Cloud Cost Control, Ethan can quickly get the information that he wants. The Resource Usage page provides a list of overallocated and idle VMs and recommended actions to manage them. He can use the Request Action feature in idle VMs and overallocated VMs pages to implement those recommendations automatically. 

For more information, see the following sections:

Prerequisites

Let us assume that Alan, the TrueSight Cloud Cost Control administrator, has completed the necessary prerequisite tasks to set up the Resource Usage page so that Nathan can view and use this page.

  1. Install TrueSight Cloud Cost Control.
  2. Authorize Nathan to access TrueSight Cloud Cost Control.

  3. Integrate with TrueSight Cloud Cost Service to send action requests for automatic implementation of resource usage recommendations. 

    Review the following steps to integrate with TrueSight Cloud Cost Service
    1. Create an IAM user in the AWS console
      1. Create an IAM group and attach a policy with all permissions to this group.
        1. Open the IAM console, and sign in with your AWS account credentials: https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.
        2. From the left navigation pane, select Groups > Create New Group.
        3. Specify a name for the group (for example: cloud_cost_service_group), and click Next Step.
        4. In the Attach Policy section, select the AmazonEC2FullAccess policy, and click Next Step.
          aws_group_policy.png

        5. Click Create Group.
          For more information, see Creating a new group.

      2. Create an IAM user.
        1. In the IAM console, from the left navigation pane, select Users > Add user.
        2. Enter a user name. For example, cloud_cost_service_user.
        3. Under Select AWS access type, select Programmatic access to access AWS API, CLI, or Tools for Windows Powershell.
          aws_create_user.PNG
        4. Click Next Permissions.
        5. In the Add user to group section, select the group that you created in step a, and click Next: Tags.

          aws_create_user2.PNG
        6. Click Next: Review, and then Create user. The group is associated with the newly created IAM user.

        7. Note down the access key ID and the secret access key.

          For more information, see Creating a new user.

    2. Create credentials in TrueSight Cloud Cost Service
      1. Log on to the TrueSight Cloud Cost Service dashboard.

      2.  Create credentials for the IAM user that you created in the AWS console. 
        For more information, see Managing Credentials in TrueSight Cloud Cost Service.

    3. Configure the integration in TrueSight Cloud Cost Control 
      1. Log on to the TrueSight console.
      2. Expand the left navigation pane and select Cloud Cost Control. By default, Summary > Costs page is displayed. 

      3. Click the Settings icons.pngSettings icon and select Settings. 

        The Settings page is displayed. 

      4. Click the action menu next to the Settings page title and select Edit.

        The Settings page opens in edit mode. The Optimization tab is selected by default. 

      5. Under the TrueSight Cloud Cost Service section, select Enable integration. 
        ccc_ccs_integration.png
      6. Enter the user name and password that you used to log on to TrueSight Cloud Cost Service, and click Verify. 

Steps

1. Access the Resource Usage page.

  1. Log on to the TrueSight console to access TrueSight Cloud Control.
  2. In the navigation pane of the TrueSight console Menu_big.png, select Cloud Cost Control and click Cost Optimization. By default, the Resource Usage page is displayed. 
  3. To view only AWS VMs, select AWS in the global filters.


2. Analyze idle and overallocated VMs.

The Resource Usage page provides information about VMs that are either idle or overallocated and the recommendations to manage these identified VMs. Click the links in the idle and overallocated VMs sections to know more details about these VMs.

Analyze the idle VMs recommendations

  • The widgets on the page show a quick summary of idle VMs, such as a total number of idle VMs, total estimated savings that you can achieve by terminating all VMs, and savings that you can achieve for each provider.
  • The table on the page lists all the idle VMs and their details, such as estimated savings that you can achieve by terminating that VM, number of days the VM was detected to be idle, resource configuration, and resource utilization in percentage. 

ccc_idle_vms_to_termintae_cp.PNG

Analyze the overallocated VMs recommendations

  • The widgets on the page show a quick summary of idle VMs, such as a total number of idle VMs, total estimated savings that you can achieve by terminating all VMs, and savings that you can achieve for each provider.
  • The table on the page lists all the idle VMs and their details, such as estimated savings that you can achieve by terminating that VM, number of days the VM was detected to be idle, resource configuration, and resource utilization in percentage. 

ccc_overallocated_vms_cp.PNG

The VM for which you want to review recommendations, click the recom_efficiency_medium.pngicon. The Recommendations window opens that provides the exact findings along with the recommended actions that you can take to manage the VM.


3. Implement the recommended actions.

  1. In the idle or overallocated VMs page, based on your recommendations review, select the VMs for which you want to implement recommendations.
  2. Click Request Action from the actions list. When you request the action for automatic implementation, you cannot revert it. The warning message is displayed indicating the same. 
    The requested VMs are then displayed under the Action Requested tab. 
  3. Click the icon next to a VM to view the recommendations details.
    ccc_recom_details_actionreq.PNG

  4. Click the link provided to know more details on the action requested workflow. It opens the TrueSight Cloud Cost Service dashboard and provides details on workflow requested such as all recommended actions and whether they are implemented are not.


Using these steps, Nathan can successfully implement the recommendations automatically.

 

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TrueSight Cloud Cost Control 11.5