Create and implement an AWS Budget for EC2 actual cost

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

  1. Click Create budget: Images/AWSBudget11.png

  2. Select Cost budget, and click Set your budget >: Images/AWSLab0.png

  3. Create a cost budget, enter the following details:

    • Name: EC2_actual
    • Period: Monthly
    • Budget effective dates: Recurring Budget
    • Start Month: (current month)
    • Budget amount: Fixed
    • Budgeted amount: $1 (enter an amount a lot LESS than last months cost),
    • Other fields: leave a defaults
    • Under FILTERING click on Service: Images/AWSLab1.png

  4. Type Elastic in the search field, then select the checkbox next to EC2-Instances(Elastic Compute Cloud - Compute) and Click Apply filters: Images/AWSLab2.png

  5. De-select Upfront reservation fees, and click Configure alerts >: Images/AWSLab3.png

  6. Select:

    • Send alert based on: Actual Costs
    • Alert threshold: 100% of budgeted amount
    • Email contacts: (your email address)
    • Click on Confirm budget >: Images/AWSLab4.png

  7. Review the configuration, and click Create: Images/AWSLab5.png

  8. You can see the current amount exceeds the budget (it is red, you may need to refresh your browser): Images/AWSLab6.png

  9. You will receive an email similar to the previous budget within a few minutes. Images/AWSLab15.png

You have created an actual cost budget for EC2 usage. You can extend this budget by adding specific filters such as linked accounts, tags or instance types. You can also create budgets for services other than EC2.