An organization wants to categorize their infrastructure spend by environment using the custom tag key 'Environment'. Additionally, they want to track which IAM user created each resource by using the AWS-defined tag 'aws:createdBy'. The tags have been applied to all resources, but the billing administrator notices that neither tag is appearing in AWS Cost Explorer. What action is required to resolve this issue and make these tags available for cost analysis?
- Activate both the 'Environment' and the 'aws:createdBy' tags in the Billing and Cost Management console, as cost tracking only begins from the time of activation forward.Answer
- BConfigure an IAM policy that allows the billing service to read resource metadata, as user-defined tags require explicit permission policies to appear in billing reports.
- CUse AWS Resource Groups to consolidate the resources, which automatically enables cost allocation tracking and retroactively updates the previous month's billing data.
- DRegister the tags inside AWS Resource Explorer, which will index the resources and retroactively populate cost data for the historical billing periods.
Answer
Activate both the 'Environment' and the 'aws:createdBy' tags in the Billing and Cost Management console, as cost tracking only begins from the time of activation forward.
To use cost allocation tags in AWS Cost Explorer or billing reports, they must first be applied to the resources and then activated in the Billing and Cost Management console. This applies to both user-defined tags (such as 'Environment') and AWS-generated tags (such as 'aws:createdBy'). Furthermore, cost allocation tags do not apply retroactively; they only track costs from the time they are activated in the billing console.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Activation of User-Defined and AWS-Generated Cost Allocation Tags