Cost Manager FAQ

Common questions about Cost Manager billing, data queries, dashboards, and permissions.

Does Cost Manager incur extra fees?

No. All versions of Cost Manager, along with the associated Project and Tablestore instance, are free of charge.

Unable to view data in the Logstore

The new version of Cost Manager stores bill data in Tablestore and associates it with an SLS Logstore as an instance_bill external table. Bill data is not directly visible on the Logstore query and analysis page. Run the * | select * from instance_bill statement to query the data.

Query returns no data

• Check the time range.

  Cost Manager fetches instance bill data with a one-day delay, so data for the current day is unavailable. If your query returns no data, verify that the selected time range is not too recent. Use a preset time range such as Yesterday, The Day before Yesterday, 1 Week, 30 Days, This Week, or This Month.

• If you use the new version of Cost Manager, the query must reference the external table. Include from instance_bill in the query. For example, a valid statement is * | select * from instance_bill .

Filter conditions do not take effect

In the new version of Cost Manager, place all filter conditions in the WHERE clause. Because the new version queries an external table, conditions before the vertical bar (|) are ignored. For example, a valid statement is * | select * from instance_bill where ProductCode='sls'

Why is bill data delayed or inaccurate?

• Bill data is delayed by one day, so you cannot query data for the current day.

  The billing time for an instance is recorded as 00:00 of that day. Make sure your query time range includes 00:00 of the target day.

• If you use the previous version of Cost Manager, upgrade to the new version for improved data accuracy and timeliness. The new version performs a full data update automatically every morning.

  To continue using the previous version, go to the Settings page in Cost Manager and select Re-import Bills.

  The re-import process takes about three hours, depending on the volume of bill data.

• After you upgrade to the new version of Cost Manager, SLS submits a data import job automatically. The data is available in about one to two hours, depending on the volume of bill data.

• If you just enabled Cost Manager, go to the Settings page to check whether an import job has been submitted. After the job is submitted, the data is available in about one to two hours, depending on the volume of bill data.

Resource not found error

If an error such as "xxx not found" occurs, go to the Settings page, click Next, and then click Update Resources & Next.

Cannot subscribe to a dashboard

Cost Manager dashboards are templates and do not support direct subscriptions. To subscribe, save the dashboard as a new one in the corresponding Project first.

1. In the target dashboard in Cost Manager, click Save As.

2. Enter a name for the dashboard and click Confirm.

3. Return to the homepage of the SLS console. In the project list, click the Cost Manager Project, named bill-analysis-${Alibaba Cloud account ID}.

4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Dashboard > Dashboards, and then click the target dashboard.

5. On the dashboard page, click Subscribe.

Cannot modify a dashboard

Cost Manager dashboards are templates and do not support direct editing. To modify a dashboard, save it as a new one in the corresponding Project first.

1. In the target dashboard in Cost Manager, click Save As.

2. Enter a name for the dashboard and click OK.

3. Return to the homepage of the SLS console. In the project list, click the Cost Manager Project, named bill-analysis-${Alibaba Cloud account ID}.

4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Dashboard > Dashboards, and then click the target dashboard.

5. On the dashboard page, click Edit.

Re-importing bills for the new version

No. The new version of Cost Manager performs a full data update automatically every day, so bill re-import is unnecessary.

When you click Re-import Bills, a message appears stating, "The current version is the new Cost Manager, and bill re-import is not required!" Click OK to close the message.

RAM user permission issues

If a RAM user encounters a permission error such as "role_invalid" when enabling or upgrading Cost Manager, make sure the RAM user has the LogFullAccess permission.

Upgrading alerts for the previous version

Run the following script to upgrade alerts automatically. Download the upgrade script.

To use the script:

# Download the script, navigate to its directory, replace the placeholders with your actual parameters, and run the command.
# Parameters: The Cost Manager Project is bill-analysis-{Alibaba Cloud account ID}.
# The endpoint is the SLS endpoint for the Project.
# Replace accesskey_id and accesskey_secret with an AccessKey pair that has permissions for alerts.
python UpdateBillAlert.py {project} {endpoint} {accesskey_id} {accesskey_secret}

Disabling public network access for Tablestore

The Tablestore instance created by Cost Manager does not require internet access, so you can safely disable its public network access.