Using Cost Estimates in Control Portal

Updated by Brandy Smith on Aug 05, 2021
Article Code: kb/331

Contents

Overview

One of the best features of the Control Portal is the cost estimation in every level within the account. In this knowledge article, we will have a look at what is included in each level of the Control Portal. Monthly and hourly estimates are found in the following levels of the Portal:

  • Main Dashboard
  • Data Centers
  • Groups
  • Server
  • Services (Simple Backup, Object Storage, Relational Database)
  • Network
  • Monthly Usage Summary

Main Dashboard

When logging into the Lumen Control Portal, the main dashboard is displayed. There are four estimates at the top of the page.

Dashboard

There are four values at the top of the dashboard.
Month Estimate includes (assuming full usage):

  • All infrastructure costs (CPU, Memory, disk) and OS licenses (where applicable) from all datacenters
  • Managed Services costs (Managed OS, Active Directory, Databases, Web server)
  • Microsoft SQL licenses(account wide)
  • VLANs (across all datacenters) and Site to Site VPNs
  • Shared Load Balancer
  • Object Storage
  • Public IP addresses
  • Simple Backup Usage
  • Relational Database Services

Current Hour includes (MSSQL is no longer included as billing has been changed to monthly):

  • All infrastructure costs (CPU, Memory, disk) and OS licenses (where applicable) from all datacenters
  • Managed Services costs (Managed OS, Active Directory, Databases, Web server)

One Time Changes includes:

  • Any Service Task charges

Month to Date

  • Base on Current Hour data, this is the month to date estimate

For the following views, the estimations are displayed with the following data:
Month Estimate represents the estimation of the usage cost from the creation of the server til the end of the month.
Current Hour is the cost of the current hour.
Month to Date is the accumulated cost since the creation of the server.

Data Center View

Datacenter

Jumping from the main dashboard to an individual data center, the cost estimation will be more data center infrastructure focused. The list of items included in the cost estimation in the data center level are:

  • All infrastructure costs (CPU, Memory, disk) and OS licenses (where applicable) within the data center
  • Managed Services costs (Managed OS, Active Directory, Databases, Web server)

Group View

Group

For an indiviual group, its estimate is similar to the Data Center View.

  • All infrastructure costs (CPU, Memory, disk) and OS licenses (where applicable) from the data center
  • Managed Services costs (Managed OS, Active Directory, Databases, Web server)

Server View

Server

The estimate for a server will show:

  • All infrastructure costs (CPU, Memory, disk) and OS licenses (where applicable) from the data center
  • Managed Services costs (Managed OS, Active Directory, Databases, Web server)

Network

Under Network menu, the cost of VLANs, Share Load Balanacer, DNS and Site to Site VPN can be found within the configuration page of the service.

Networks:

Network

Load Balancers:

LoadBalancer

Site to Site VPN:

VPN

DNS:

DNS

Services

Lumen Cloud offers different services for which the cost estimation can be found under the individual service page.

Backup

Backup

Object Storage

ObjectStorage

Relational DB

Database

Billing

Billing

If a detailed breakdown of the usage is required, "Usage History" can be found under "Settings" -> "Billing". In this section, a monthly usage report can be viewed and downloaded for accounting purposes. The details include:

  • Usage Total of the account
  • Group sub-total of each Group
  • Simple Backup Service usage for individual server
  • Microsoft SQL licenses for individual server including server name
  • Managed Services (if applicable) for each server
  • Other license costs
  • Service Task breakdown
  • Bandwidth usage based on data center
  • Public IP per data center
  • Support costs
  • Discount or credit if applicable

Screesnshot of the detail usage breakdown:
Billing Details

Summary

Below is a table to summarize the services included in portal cost estimation:

Portal Estimates
Main Dashboard Month Estimate CPU
Memory
Disk
OS license
Database License
VLANs
VPN
Load Balancer
Object Storage
Public IP
Simple Backup Service
Relational DB
DNS
Data Center View
Group View
Server View
CPU
Memory
Disk
OS license
Network VLANs
Load Balancer Load Balancer
Site to Site VPN VPN
DNS DNS
Backup Simple Backup
Object Storage Object Storage (month estimate/current hour/month to date)
Relational DB Relational DB
Billing CPU
Memory
Disk
OS license
Database License (per server)
VLANs
VPN
Load Balancer
Object Storage
Public IP (per data center)
Simple Backup Service
Relational DB
DNS
Bandwidth
Support
Credit