Create and Implement an AWS Budget for EC2 Actual Cost

We will create a monthly EC2 actual cost budget, which will notify us if/when the actual costs of EC2 instances exceeds the specified budgeted amount.

1. Click Create budget:

2. Select Cost budget, and click Next:

3. Enter the following details:

   • Period: Monthly
   • Budget effective date: Recurring budget
   • Start month: (current month)
   • Choose how to budget: Fixed
   • Budgeted amount: 1.00 (enter a dollar amount a lot LESS than last months cost)
   • Other fields: leave a defaults

4. Create a filter to only include EC2 instances in the budget:

   • Scroll down and under Budget Scope select the Filter Specific AWS Cost Dimensions button:
   • Scroll down and under Filters select the Add filter button:

5. Select the filter options:

   • Under Dimension select Service from the dropdown
   • Under Values select EC2-Instances (Elastic Compute Cloud - Compute)
   • Select the Apply filter button:

6. Finish the budget details:

   • Remove Upfront reservation fees by selecting the X to the right of the name
   • Budget name: EC2_actual
   • Select the Next button:

7. To create an alert for our new EC2_actual budget select Add an alert threshold:

8. For Alert #1 select:

   • Threshold: 100% of budgeted amount
   • Trigger: Actual
   • Notification preferences: Input your email address in the Email recipients field
   • Click on Next:

9. Here you can attach actions that can be taken when you budget exceeds its threshold. We will not be attaching any actions for this lab. Select Next to move to the next page:

10. Review the configuration, and click Create budget:

11. You can see the current amount exceeds the new EC2_actual budget (you may need to refresh your browser):

12. You will receive an email similar to the previous budget within a few minutes.