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.
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
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
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
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:
Load Balancers:
Site to Site VPN:
DNS:
Services
Lumen Cloud offers different services for which the cost estimation can be found under the individual service page.
Backup
Object Storage
Relational DB
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:
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 |