Cloudability Set up Cost Management for Cloudability Azure Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) customers

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Note:

Cloudability recommends using Azure exports for credentialing Microsoft Azure.

Note:

Microsoft Azure also recommends using exports as a best practice for large datasets (more than 2 GB month-to-month).

Cloudability Credential Setup for Azure MCA Customers

Credential setup does the following:
  • Creates a CSV file for actual cost  data.
  • Creates a CSV file for amortized cost  data.
  • Creates a custom IAM role called CloudabilityCostDataReader for getting the cost and usage data using the permissions as mentioned below:
    • Azure built in Storage Blob Data Reader that includes:
      • Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/read
  • Microsoft.Storage/storage.Accounts/blobServices/generateUserDelegationKey/action
    • Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/read
    • Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/read
    • Enrollment Reader permission to access the Azure data
  • Adds Cloudability’s Service Principal “CloudabilityUtilizationDataCollector” and assigns “CloudabilityCostDataReader” role to it
  • Adds Cloudability ’s Billing Account Reader Service Provider to your MCA. This is a read-only role and enables Cloudability to view products purchased for your account, such as Azure Reservation purchases, Azure Marketplace purchases, and information like Azure product price sheets and taxes.
Note:

Both CSV formatted files are required by the� Cloudability platform and must be present in the storage account used to collect cost management data.

Before you begin the steps below, ensure you log in to the Azure portal and have access to your organization's billing account for your MCA . For example:

Creating Billing Data Exports in the Azure Portal
  1. From the Azure Portal, search for Cost Management + Billing and select it from the list to open the Billing Scope page. For example:

  2. From the Cost Management + Billing page, ensure you have selected the correct Billing Scope. If you have multiple, select the scope with the majority of your cloud spend.
  3. From the Cost Management + Billing console, select Exports from the navigation panel to open the Azure export utility.

  4. Select Create to open the export page for creating a new CSV export.

    Note:

    We don't support FOCUS spec data ingestion yet.

  5. Create a new export for Actual cost:
    • Type of data: Cost and Usage details (actual)
    • Export name: Customer Defined Unique File Name
    • Dataset version: 2021-10-01
    • Frequency: Daily export of month to date costs
    • Export Description: Optional
  6. Click Add
  7. Select Destination
  8. Choose the Format as CSV .
  9. Choose the Compression type as None .
    • Storage type: Azure blob storage
    • Destination and storage: Select to use an existing subscription and resource group or create new
    • Subscription: Select destination subscription
    • Storage account: Select storage account
    • Container: Enter a valid container name meeting your naming standards
    • Directory path: Enter a valid directory name meeting your naming standards
    • File partitioning: Leave as is
    • Overwrite data: Leave as is

  10. Click Review and Create

  11. Click Create

    For example:

  12. Create a new export for an Amortized Cost report:
    • Type of data: Cost and Usage details (amortized)
    • Export name: Customer Defined Unique File Name
    • Dataset version: 2021-10-01
    • Frequency: Daily export of month to date costs
    • Export Description: Optional

Ensure that the same subscription, storage account container and directory are used as in the previous Export creation, click Review and Create, and then Create.
Note:

Both CSV formatted files are required by the� Cloudability platform and must be present in the storage account used to collect cost management data.

Note:

Ensure the below setting are applied for the Storage account configured for exports:

Network Access: Enable public access from all networks

Encryption Type: Microsoft managed keys (MMK)

Enable infrastructure encryption: Disabled

Gather billing data information for your� Cloudability credential setup

After you've created a billing data export, you need some information from your Azure Portal for the� Cloudability credential setup.

What information does� Cloudability  need?

You can find the list of all properties� Cloudability in the Azure Portal Cost Management  console:

Property Name� How to find it�

Billing account id

Go to Essentials and copy and save your Billing account ID .

"?>

Tenant id �

Search for Microsoft Entra ID and select it to load the Active Directory Overview page.

Copy and save the tenant id, as in the given examples:

Subscription ID

Storage account name

Container name �

Directory name

Cost export name

Amortized export name

  1. Search for Cost Management + Billing and select it from the list to open the Billing Scope page.�
  2. Select the billing account scopes for your MCA, then navigate to Exports to display a table with your billing data storage account .
  3. Select the storage account for your billing data to open the Overview page, where you can view the Storage account name, Storage account subscription ID, Storage container name, Storage directory name, and both the actual cost export and amortized cost export file names, as in this example:

Resource group name

  1. From the storage account Overview page, click the storage account link to view the Resource group name as in this example:

Configure your� Cloudability credential using the billing data information

Once you’ve gathered the information listed in the table, you can enter it into Cloudability to update your MCA credential.

Cloudability will use that information to generate a PowerShell script that you can download and run from your Cloud Shell to create and grant Cloudability with the CloudabilityCostDataReader role to provide access to the storage account.
  1. In Cloudability , navigate to Settings > Vendor Credentials > Add Datasource > AZURE . The Add AZURE Account panel opens.

    Or

    In Cloudability , navigate to Settings > Vendor Credentials > AZURE . Select Add a Credential . The Add a Credential panel opens.

  2. Select Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) .
  3. Enter the information gathered from your Azure Portal into the corresponding fields.
  4. Select Generate Setup Script to download the new script file.
  5. Select Close . You will return to verify the changes later.

Grant� Cloudability access from the Azure Portal

The next step is to grant� Cloudability access to read the cost and usage data from your Azure storage by running the setup script in your Azure Portal Cloud Shell.

These commands will create and enable the CloudabilityCostDataReader role for� Cloudability to access the storage account that contains the exported CSV files.

To run the script:
  1. Log in to the Azure Portal and switch to the required tenant
    (the directory that is the at highest level in Azure for the target enrollment).
  2. From the Azure Portal, launch the Cloud Shell and select PowerShell as the scripting language.
  3. From the Azure Portal, launch the Cloud Shell and select PowerShell as the scripting language.
  4. After the Cloud Shell has initialized, select Upload from the Cloud Shell terminal menu.

  5. Upload the setup script file provided by� Cloudability.
  6. Run the script by typing:

    >: ./<YOUR_SCRIPT_NAME_HERE>.ps1

Grant Billing account reader role to the Cloudability Service Principal (SP)
  1. Return to your account billing scope in the Azure Portal and open the Cost Management + Billing console.
  2. Navigate to Access Control (IAM) .
  3. From the Access Control page, select Add , then select the Billing account reader role from the panel.

  4. Search for Cloudability 's SP CloudabilityUtilizationDataCollector by typing in the first few letters, then select it from the search results.

  5. Select Save .

Confirm your credentials are set

The final step is to verify your updated� Cloudability MCA credential.
  1. Return to the� Cloudability credentials Azure page at Settings > Vendor Credentials> AZURE .
  2. Select the edit icon next to your MCA credential.
  3. Select Verify Credential in the panel that opens; your Azure credential has a green checkbox under the Billing Reports column after it has been validated.

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