As you already know we started showing and warning you about the expiration date of the reserved instances in your account. Now we are also monitoring whether they are being used effectively.
Note : We remind you that a reserved instance is not a server. It is a reserved “position” that is purchased, where there may or may not be a server running. There is no “migration” of a server to it. Either the reservation is being occupied by a powered-on server or it is not. There is no clear criteria for how AWS occupies these positions and depending on the number of servers it has and the frequency with which they are created and destroyed, the allocation can vary greatly. For this allocation, you must pay attention to:
- the availability zone;
- if you are in VPC;
- instance size;
- operational system;
- if there is specific software running on the server.
See an example, kindly provided by one of our customers, of how AWS allocates servers in a reservation. This customer uses Auto-Scaling in conjunction with the reservations they purchased.
In this scenario, servers are created by Auto-Scaling and are allocated to reservations. When the number of Auto-Scaling servers no longer fills the reserves, Amazon starts using servers that it keeps on at all times.
If you have already purchased reserved instances, access the Cloud8 dashboard and click on the “Reserved Instances” link below the “Costs” item in the left menu and check your usage.
Reserved Instance Usage Alert Email
You will now receive a weekly alert email if any Reserved Instances are being underutilized:
- Heavy Utilization: if usage is below 100%;
- Medium Utilization: if usage is below 40%;
- Light Utilization: if usage is below 25%.
Server list integration with reserved instances
We made it clearer in the server list if it was used by any reservations. This allocation, as previously mentioned, may vary and the star will represent the last used by a reservation in your account. With this visualization, combined with the column for the date the server was turned on, it is possible to make an analysis of how the ‘on demand’ usage is vs. ‘reserved’ and whether it would be worth purchasing a new reservation.
More news
- Improvements for consolidated accounts;
- How to use Cloud8 with a custom security credential;
- Costs: Amazon Import / Export;
- Costs: Amazon Elastic Transcoder;
