Read your budget, your bill and your costs, then estimate before you build

Steps

1. Open AWS CloudShell from the console toolbar. Confirm who you are, then list the budgets in the account:

aws sts get-caller-identity --query Arn --output text
aws budgets describe-budgets --account-id 111122223333 --query 'Budgets[].[BudgetName,BudgetType,TimeUnit]' --output table

The ARN should contain assumed-role/AWSReservedSSO_ (an IAM Identity Center user) or :user/ (an IAM user). If it ends in :root, sign out now: this lab must not run as the root user. In the table, find the budget you made in lesson 1's lab. Write down its exact name and how many budgets the table lists in total; you need both later. 2. Read the alert attached to that budget, clf-zero-spend-budget. If you named yours differently, put your name in its place, keeping the double quotes:

aws budgets describe-notifications-for-budget --account-id 111122223333 --budget-name "clf-zero-spend-budget"

Note the NotificationType (ACTUAL or FORECASTED), the ComparisonOperator and the Threshold. Then open Billing and Cost Management, then Budgets, and open the same budget. Compare its current spend with the amount budgeted. This is what AWS Budgets is for: it watches and warns. Leave the budget exactly as it is. 3. Find out whether your account belongs to an organisation, and which account pays:

aws organizations describe-organization --query 'Organization.[MasterAccountId,FeatureSet]' --output text

If the command fails with AWSOrganizationsNotInUseException, your account is standalone and pays its own bill. If it prints an account ID equal to your own, your account is the management account and pays the consolidated bill for every member account. If it prints a different ID, your account is a member account and that other account pays for it. Write down which case is yours. 4. In Billing and Cost Management, open Bills. Read this month's charges by service, and, if your account is a management account, find where the page lists charges per account. Then open AWS Support Center from the console's help menu and find where an account and billing case is opened. Every plan, including Basic Support, can open one. Read the page only; there is no question to send. 5. Open Cost Explorer from Billing and Cost Management. If it has never been opened in this account, opening it turns it on at no charge, and AWS says data can take up to 24 hours to appear; come back to this step tomorrow if the chart is empty. Set the date range to the last 6 months, the granularity to Monthly, and Group by to Service. Read which service cost the most. Then switch Group by to Linked account if your account is a management account, and find the forecast for this month. This is what Cost Explorer is for: it looks back and analyses, and forecasts from that past. 6. Still in Billing and Cost Management, open Cost allocation tags. Read both tabs, User-defined cost allocation tags and AWS-generated cost allocation tags, and find aws:createdBy and its status. Change nothing. A tag that is not active does not appear in Cost Explorer or the Cost and Usage Report, however many resources carry it. A member account may find the page unavailable: in an organisation, the management account activates tags. 7. Now estimate something that does not exist. Open the Amazon S3 pricing page and list the dimensions S3 charges for. Then open the AWS Pricing Calculator at calculator.aws and start a new estimate. Add Amazon S3, pick a Region near you, and enter 50 GB of S3 Standard storage. Add a second S3 entry with the same storage in a different Region. Compare the two monthly figures, and leave the estimate unsaved and unshared. 8. Write one line for each question below, naming the tool that answers it: how much will a new project cost before anything is built; which service cost the most last quarter; tell me when this month's spend passes a limit; show test and production costs separately; who pays when ten accounts share one bill; and where do I ask about a charge I do not recognise. Check your answers against the lesson's closing list.