PRTG Manual: AWS Cost Sensor

The AWS Cost sensor monitors the cost of an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account by reading its data from the AWS Cost Explorer API.

AWS Cost Sensor

For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

Dutch: AWS Kosten
French: Coût AWS
German: AWS Kosten
Japanese: AWS Cost
Portuguese: Custo da AWS
Russian: Затраты AWS
Simplified Chinese: AWS 成本
Spanish: Costo AWS

Remarks

Consider the following remarks and requirements for this sensor:

Remark	Description
AWS Cost Explorer	This sensor requires that you activate the AWS Cost Explorer in your AWS account.
IAM User and Role Access to Billing Information	This sensor requires that you enable IAM User and Role Access to Billing Information in your AWS account.
Permissions for the AWS API key	This sensor requires permissions for the AWS API key. The AWS API key requires the following permissions to query data from the AWS API: "ce:GetCostAndUsage" "ce:GetCostForecast" "ce:GetDimensionValues" "ce:GetCostAndUsageWithResources" "ce:GetUsageForecast" For more information, see the Knowledge Base: How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?
Credentials	This sensor requires credentials for AWS.
IPv6	This sensor supports IPv6.
Performance impact	This sensor has a low performance impact.
Sensor creation	After sensor creation, the first data is available after 24 hours. Forecast data is available after a few days.
Scanning interval	This sensor has a fixed minimum scanning interval for performance reasons. You cannot use a shorter scanning interval. Consequently, shorter scanning intervals in the Monitoring settings are not available for this sensor. The minimum scanning interval of this sensor is 1 hour. The recommended scanning interval of this sensor is 6 hours. You can use a shorter scanning interval but it could create extra costs.
Pricing	Amazon charges you for each API call that this sensor sends to the Amazon servers. For more information, see AWS Cost Management Pricing \| Amazon Simple Storage Service.
Sensor creation	You can only set up this sensor for one AWS account per PRTG installation.
Knowledge Base	Knowledge Base: What settings do I have to define in my AWS account to set up the AWS Cost sensor? Knowledge Base: How do I set permissions for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API key to use certain sensors in PRTG?

Basic Sensor Settings

The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:

aws
awscost
cost

For more information about basic sensor settings, see section Sensor Settings.

AWS Cost Specific

Setting	Description
Additional Cost Types	PRTG creates two default channels for blended monthly and yearly cost. If you select this option, you can select additional cost types for which PRTG creates additional channels. Enable Disable
Select Additional Cost Types	This setting is only visible if you select Enable above. Select additional cost types: Amortized cost Net amortized cost Unblended cost Net unblended cost PRTG creates two overview channels (monthly and yearly) for every additional cost type that you select.
Additional Forecast Types	PRTG does not automatically create additional forecast channels. If you select this option, you can select additional forecast types to create additional forecast channels: Enable Disable
Select Additional Forecast Types	This setting is only visible if you select Enable above. Select additional forecast types: Blended cost (default) Amortized cost Net amortized cost Unblended cost Net unblended cost PRTG creates two overview channels (monthly and yearly) for every additional forecast type that you select. Every forecast type that you select creates additional fees. Deselect a forecast type if you no longer want the according channels to create additional fees. You can still see the channels, but they do not receive data anymore.

Sensor Display

Setting	Description
Primary Channel	Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type	Define how this sensor shows different channels: Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel. Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit	This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above. Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how this sensor shows different channels:

Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above.

Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Debug Options

Setting	Description
Result Handling	Define what PRTG does with the sensor result: Discard result (default): Do not store the sensor result. Store result: Store the sensor result and the last response in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file name is Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval. This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Setting

Description

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

Discard result (default): Do not store the sensor result.
Store result: Store the sensor result and the last response in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file name is Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval.

This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance.

In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Channel List

Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel	Description
Amortized Monthly	The amortized cost per month
Amortized Yearly	The amortized cost per year
Downtime	In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status.
Forecast Amortized Monthly	The forecast for amortized cost per month
Forecast Amortized Yearly	The forecast for amortized cost per year
Forecast Monthly	The forecast for cost per month
Forecast Net Amortized Monthly	The forecast for net amortized cost per month
Forecast Net Amortized Yearly	The forecast for net amortized cost per year
Forecast Net Unblended Monthly	The forecast for net unblended cost per month
Forecast Net Unblended Yearly	The forecast for net unblended cost per year
Forecast Unblended Monthly	The forecast for unblended cost per month
Forecast Unblended Yearly	The forecast for unblended cost per year
Forecast Yearly	The forecast for cost per year
Monthly Cost	The monthly cost This channel is the primary channel by default.
Net Amortized Monthly	The net amortized cost per month
Net Amortized Yearly	The net amortized cost per year
Net Unblended Monthly	The net unblended cost per month
Net Unblended Yearly	The net unblended cost per year
Unblended Monthly	The unblended cost per month
Unblended Yearly	The unblended cost per year
Yearly Cost	The cost per year