How to filter out Azure VM's compute, license, and underlying software cost from cost details data

Question

What are all the line items that give info about the compute cost of VM and its license cost, and any preinstalled software cost for an Azure resource/VM?

Example:

We are running SQL Server on windows , and I want to separate out the cost for VM compute, Windows license, and SQL license.  and we want know more details about what license model this resource follows like BYOL or pay-go etc.

Answer 1

Hello @Jagaari Hemanth Thank you for posting your question on Microsoft Q&A platform. Happy to help!

From the title of the thread, I understand that you are looking for information on "How to Map Azure vm cost to vm license cost from cost details data"

We have three sorts of meters for VM:

1. Meter for Compute + License included -> Standard Paygo scenario
2. Meter for Compute only -> Used for Opensource OS or AHB scenario
3. Meter for License only -> Used for RI/SP scenario

The tricky part is in scenario 1 to separate the Compute from the license cost. This is possible, but IMO only if you use your own reporting.

Following steps should help you map each VM with its license from cost details data, using Azure Cost Management and Billing.

Go to the Azure portal and navigate to the "Cost Management + Billing" page.

1. Select the subscription that contains the VMs that you want to map with their licenses.
2. Click on the "Cost analysis" tab and select the "Usage + charges" view.
3. Add the "MeterCategory" column to the view by clicking on the "Add columns" button and selecting "MeterCategory".
4. Filter the view to show only the VMs that you want to map with their licenses.
5. Export the usage and charges data to a CSV file by clicking on the "Export" button and selecting "Export to CSV".
6. Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.
7. Use the "MeterCategory" column to identify the VMs that are running and the software that they are using.
8. Use the "UsageQuantity" and "PreTaxCost" columns to calculate the usage cost for each VM.
9. Use the Azure portal or other tools to identify the license that is associated with each software that the VMs are using.

By following these steps, you can map each VM with its license from the cost details data. It is important to note that the license information may not be available in the cost details data and may need to be obtained from other sources.

Update:
The Generate Cost Detail Report will be used to extract customer’s existing cost/usage data. 

Hence, if the customer has reservation/savings plan purchased then in the usage data extracted via the Generate Cost Detail Report API will show the compute cost as 0 since it will be absorbed by the reservation purchased and there will be another meter available for license cost if customer is not using Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB) and the license cost is billed via Azure.

 

If the customer does not have any RI/ASP and their VM is not AHB enabled for their Windows OS, then the compute + software cost will be merged in a single meter and we will not show the compute and OS cost separately in the Usage Data extracted via the Generate Cost Detail Report API.

Hope this answers your question. Please write back to us if you have any questions!

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