Account usage and limits
On the Account usage dashboard, you can see a snapshot of your usage and limits for your plan type.
Accounts in IBM® NS1 Connect® have a maximum number of resources and monthly limits based on your plan type. Charts on the Account usage dashboard show the limits for each resource in your plan and how much you used in a monthly billing cycle. With this information, you can better understand the usage associated with each resource and track the usage so that you don't exceed your limits.
If you have a plan with basic features, you can track usage for the following in NS1 Connect:
- Incoming query count for all your DNS networks
- DNS records
- Monitoring jobs
- Filter Chain configurations
- HTTPS redirects
Usage for add-on features
If your plan includes add-on features, you can track usage for items such as:
- Pulsar real user monitoring (RUM) decisions
- Queries for Managed DNS for China network
- Spike protection for all your networks that are managed in NS1 Connect
- Cloud Sync network connections
You can request an increase to your plan features and limits by signing up for a new plan.
Query usage details
Interactive charts in the Query usage details section of the Account usage dashboard show data for each network. You can add or remove data for each network to show different scenarios, which can help to identify trends and patterns in your usage. For example, you can view data for all your networks or just one network. If your plan includes spike protection or non-existent domain (NXD) waiver, you can view the usage data with or without those features.
Usage and billing data
The query data shown on the Account usage dashboard is generated daily at 00:30 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). All other data is shown in real time.
The usage data that is available depends on the resource type and your type of plan. Query data is available for a total of 12 billing cycles for paid plans. This includes data for the current billing period and historical data for 11 billing cycles. Data for records, monitoring jobs, and Filter Chain configurations are available for the current billing cycle only. A free edition plan does not follow a billing cycle and so the usage is shown by month.
If you switched your plan to a higher tier or added features, your new limits and features are applied immediately. A message is displayed on the Account usage dashboard indicating that a change was made.
If you switched your plan to a lower tier or removed features, the changes are effective at the end of a billing period. At that time, any changes to the limits and features are shown on the Account usage dashboard.
Alerts for account usage
To make sure that you stay informed about the amount of resources that you use over your billing period, you can create alerts to notify you when your usage reaches a certain percentage of your plan limit.
Usage and billing metrics
On the Account usage dashboard, usage is shown as queries, records, or RUM decisions, and by Filter Chain or monitor. Charges on your invoice or the quote that you received from IBM, however, use different terminology. The following table describes the differences in terminology and how usage is quantified.
| Account usage dashboard terminology | Invoice terminology | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Query |
Request |
10 million queries = 1 request This applies to any network that NS1 Connect manages. |
| Record |
Record |
1 thousand records on the Account usage dashboard = 1 record on the invoice |
| RUM decision |
Interaction |
1 million DNS decisions (queries) used for RUM = 1 interaction |
| Monitor |
Job |
1 monitor = 1 job |
| Filter Chain |
Resource unit |
1 Filter Chain = 1 resource unit |