Monitoring and managing active stacks using the Consumption Dashboard.
When you order a catalog in Enterprise Marketplace, an order is created that includes one or more resources that will be provisioned as part of that order. A stack is created to track your order and all the resources related to that order.
The stack does not exist until the order is approved and the provider has provisioned the resources. When this occurs, the stack is listed in the
Consumption Dashboard
. Only active stacks are listed. An active stack is one that is has not been destroyed, had its resources deleted from the provider, or been canceled from Enterprise Marketplace.
Roles
The Financial Analyst can use the Consumption dashboard to view which stacks are active and gain a better understanding of what capacity is being utilized. In addition, the Financial Analyst can also export this information for the billing system and to correlate it with the consumption-based pricing that is provided by Enterprise Marketplace.
Consumption Dashboard widgets
To get to the Consumption Dashboard, click the
Actions
icon in the upper left and select
Enterprise Marketplace
→
Consumption Dashboard
.
The table allows you to filter data by clicking the
Date Filter
icon and selecting from the following options:
•
Quick Range:
You can set a custom date range by clicking
Select Range
, and then entering the
Start Date
and
End Date
, and the
Time
for which to show data.
•
Default Billing Cycle:
Selecting this option displays the data for the default billing cycle.
•
Today so far:
Selecting this option provides data on instances quantified on the current day.
•
This Week so far:
Selecting this option provides data on instances quantified on the current week.
•
This Month so far:
Selecting this option provides data on instances quantified on the current month.
•
This Year so far:
Selecting this option provides data on instances quantified on the current year.
•
Yesterday:
Selecting this option provides data on instances quantified the day before.
Depending on your filter selections, the
Billing cycle
(displayed at the top of the table) will change.
The table also allows you to
Export
the data presented in it in CSV format. This exported data is used to add it to your own reporting tool(s) if you have any, or you could use the exported data as offline records for audit or compliance purposes, as required by your processes and policies.
Monthly Active Stacks
The
Monthly Active Stacks
widget presents instances data corresponding to the
Current Month
and the
Previous Month
. The data shown is the total number of instances quantified in the time selected. The
Monthly Active Stacks
widget is basically auto enabled and always visible. It appears as a small panel in the UI with this title in its header.
Average Active Stacks per Month
The
Average Active Stacks per Month
is a bar graph that displays the total number of instances counted in each month. It shows the last 13 months of consumption. The Average Active Stacks per Month graph is basically auto enabled and always visible. It appears as a small panel in the UI with this title in its header.The graph has the following axes:
Y axis:
Shows the number of Monthly Active Stacks and presents numbers going from 0 to 250. The Y axis varies depending on how many you had provisioned and were using (therefore they were active in that timeframe).
X axis:
Shows the months going back a year and a month. The X axis will show you the last 13 months maximum, which provides a Year on Year view that allows you to compare from the same month last year. However, if 13 months of usage have not elapsed and your tenant is just 3 months old, you would then just see 3 months in the X axis.
You can hover over the bars to display the date range for the data represented by the bar, and the total number of instances found in that month.
Additionally, the bar graph has the following options:
Click the arrow at the top right to enlarge the graph for a better view of the data.
Click the
Summary
to view a tabular representation of the following information:
Group:
The group of instances in a particular month.
x-value:
Corresponds to the dates indicated in the graph.
Monthly Active Stacks:
The total number of instances in a given month.
Click
Download as CSV
to save the data as a comma separated value (CSV) file.
Hourly Active Stacks by Hour
The
Hourly Active Stacks by Hour
widget shows the total number of elapsed hours (the current number of hours in the current day) and the total number of active stacks quantified during that time. The
Hourly Active Stacks by Hour
widget is basically auto enabled and always visible. It appears as a small panel in the UI with this title in its header.
Active Stacks by Date and Time
The
Active Stacks by Date and Time
widget presents data in a tabular form with columns that allows toggling between ascending and descending order for most columns. Each column shows the following data:
Date:
The date on which the instances were quantified.
Time:
The exact time when the instances were quantified.
Number of Active Stacks:
The total number of active stacks quantified in each period.
Hourly Change:
This represents the number of instances that was added per hour. It can show an arrow pointing upward, which means instances were added. It can also display a hyphen and a 0, which would indicate no instances have been added. Lastly, a number and an arrow pointing downward would indicate the number of instances that was removed in each hour.