Question

Difficulty: MediumCost Allocation Tags and Resource Tagging Strategies

An organization utilizes consolidated billing in AWS Organizations. A SysOps Administrator has deployed an organization-wide Tag Policy to enforce the tag key `BillingID` on all newly created Amazon EC2 instances across all member accounts. The policy is successfully validated, and resources are being launched with the correct tag. However, when the administrator attempts to create a custom cost filter in AWS Cost Explorer to track spending for these instances, the `BillingID` tag key is unavailable. Which action must be taken to resolve this issue?

  1. Access the Billing console using the organization's management account, open the Cost Allocation Tags page, and select the tag key to activate it.Answer
  2. B
    Wait for the next consolidated billing cycle to complete, which automatically promotes tags enforced by Tag Policies to active status.
  3. C
    Enable resource tag sharing within the AWS Organizations Settings console to allow member accounts to sync tags with AWS Billing.
  4. D
    Modify the existing Tag Policy to include a registration parameter that automatically publishes the tag keys to AWS Cost Explorer.

Answer

Access the Billing console using the organization's management account, open the Cost Allocation Tags page, and select the tag key to activate it.
In AWS Organizations, user-defined cost allocation tags must be activated manually from the management (payer) account via the Billing console before they can be used to filter or group costs in tools like AWS Cost Explorer or AWS Budgets. Enforcing tag keys via Tag Policies ensures resource compliance but does not bypass the requirement for billing activation.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the account type required for managing billing configuration.
Confirm that only the management (payer) account of the AWS Organization can administer cost allocation tags.
Member accounts do not have permission to activate cost allocation tags for consolidated billing.
2
Locate the cost allocation settings in the AWS Billing console.
Access the Cost Allocation Tags dashboard in the management account.
This is the centralized console where user-defined and AWS-generated tags must be activated for billing tracking.
3
Activate the specific tag key.
Find the `BillingID` tag key under the user-defined cost allocation tags list and select 'Activate'.
Activating the tag key prompts AWS to begin tracking and organizing cost data by this tag, making it available in Cost Explorer and Budgets.

Key Concept

Activation of Cost Allocation Tags
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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