Checklist - Monitor cost
Use this checklist to monitor the cost of the workload.
Gather cost data from diverse sources to create reports. Start with tools like Azure Advisor, Advisor Score, and Azure Cost Management. Build custom reports relevant for the business by using Consumption APIs.
Use resource tag policies to build reports. Tags can be used to identify the owners of systems or applications and create custom reports.
Use Azure built-in roles for cost. Only give access to users who are intended to view and analyze cost reports. The roles are defined per scope. For example, use the Cost Management Reader role to enable users to view costs for their resources in subscriptions or resource groups.
Respond to alerts and have a response plan according to the constraints. Respond to alerts quickly and identify possible causes and any required action.
Adopt both proactive and reactive approaches for cost reviews. Conduct cost reviews at a regular cadence to determine the cost trend. Also review reports that are created because of alerts.
Analyze the cost at all scopes by using Cost analysis. Identify services that are driving the cost through different dimensions, such as location, usage meters, and so on. Review whether certain optimizations are bringing results. For example, analyze costs associated with reserved instances, savings plans and Spot VMs against business goals.
Detect anomalies and identify changes in business or applications that might have contributed changes in cost. Focus on these factors:
- Traffic pattern as the application scales.
- Budget for the usage meters on resources.
- Performance bottle necks.
- CPU utilization and network throughput.
- Storage footprint for blobs, backups, archiving.
Use Visualization tools to analyze cost information.
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