Viewing the Consumption of an Azure Subscription

Owned by Apostolos Karakaxas
Last updated: Jul 16, 2020 by Panagiotis Papanastasiou
3 min read


Our platform collects Azure usage data on daily basis using the Azure Resource Usage API. These data are accessible from the customer in the subscription details page in Storefront.

Subscription Consumption Overview

The basic details that are displayed on the subscription consumption overview are two:

  • Total Amount: The amount that has been collected over the API and presents the consumption of the services for a particular point in time. 
  • Estimated amount: An estimated projection about total subscription costs until the end of the period

Subscription's Usage Records

For a customer/reseller to view the consumption of his Azure subscriptions, he must log in in CSP's Storefront and to open the subscription details page from the Billing > Subscriptions menu.

In the details page, there is the section Usage Records where the customer can see the usage records for the subscription.
 

 

The usage records are grouped by the resources groups the customer defined in Azure portal. For each usage record, we display the following information:

  • Resource Name (as defined by user in Azure portal) - Name (as defined by Azure)
    The "Name (as defined by Azure)" is not displayed when the Meter Category or Sub Category is Cloud Services, Networking - Basic Application Gateway, Networking - Public IP Addresses and Virtual Machines
  • Resource Meter Category
  • Resource Meter Subcategory
  • Usage for the current billing cycle until the last update
  • Price for the displayed Usage. 
    • If the subscription is for a direct customer, the price is Microsoft's suggested retail price
    • If the subscription is billed to a customer / reseller that has a discount (check Defining the Azure Product for setting a discount), the price is after applying the discount to Microsoft's suggested retail price. 

Export of Usage Records to Excel

The usage records can be exported in an excel file from the  icon. By clicking this icon, the usage records will be downloaded in an excel file that will have as name <SubscriptionDescription_UsageRecords_Timestamp> (timestamp will be in GMT). For usage each record the excel file will include the following info:

  • Resource Name
  • Resource Category
  • Resource Subcategory
  • Consumption per Unit
  • Usage Charges

The resources in the excel file will be grouped by Resource group as they are already are in the Usage Records section. The prices in the excel file are the same that you see in the interface.

 When the Usage Records were Collected?

The usage records are collected by the Azure Usage Update Service and the last time the service ran it is displayed in Updated field.
Although the service can run multiple times per day, the displayed usage records are 24  hours old. This happens because the MS Azure Resources Usage API we are using for collecting the usage records, it may delay up to 24 hours to return the records for a specific day and it may return these records in parts.  

Regardless of how many times the service will run in a single day, it will always ask for yesterday's usage records since these are the most recent records Microsoft's API can return. By setting the service to run multiple times, it helps to collect yesterday's records since Microsoft's API may return these records in parts.

Understanding Subscription's Estimated Amount

In the subscription details page, the customer can see not only the Total Amount,  that is the current cost of the Azure Subscription, but also the Estimated Amount that is a projection of the current consumption until the end of the current billing cycle.  It is calculated as the sum of:

  • The actual consumption which is the Total Amount of the subscription
  • For the active resources that are billed per hour, we estimate the usage by assuming that the specific resources will be fully operative until the end of the billing cycle. For example, on 5th of September for an A0 VM with cost 0.02€ / hour, the estimated usage until the end of the month will be 25 days x 24 hours x 0.02€
  • For the active resources that are not billed per hour, we estimate the usage until the end of the month by multiplying the current usage to the percentage of month spent. For example, on the 5th of September if usage is 12 GB, then the estimated usage will be 12 GB x (30 days for September / 5 days spent) = 72 GB




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