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Posted to dev@cloudstack.apache.org by Syed Ahmed <sa...@cloudops.com> on 2018/03/05 20:21:50 UTC

Include resource tags in the usage record for chargebacks

Hi Guys,

Currently the usage record in CloudStack doesn't include the resource tags
and we are having more and more use cases where we feel like including tags
will immensely help with the chargeback logic. Currently, we go back and
query Cloudstack to give us the tags associated with a resource. What do
you guys think about adding tags as a field in the usage record?

Thanks,
-Syed

Re: Include resource tags in the usage record for chargebacks

Posted by Syed Ahmed <sa...@cloudops.com>.
That's something I hadn't thought of. Adding tags when the usage job runs
sounds like a better approach. It will also limit the potential number of
places where changes need to be made. I'm planning to include tags as an
array in a field or possible comma separated values.

Thanks,
-Syed

On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 4:47 AM, Dag Sonstebo <Da...@shapeblue.com>
wrote:

> Hi Syed,
>
> I see the use case and yes this could work – couple of things:
>
> - Any resource could have multiple tags – would they all be included as an
> array in a single DB field, or would you want to just define one specific
> tag ( e.g. “owner” or “costcentre”) and include that single field?
> - How granular would you make it – do you expect to be able to distinguish
> that a VM had “costcentre” tag 100 for the first 10 days of a month and tag
> 200 for the remainder? The problem with this would be that tags would
> potentially change mid month without there being an event tied to it, so
> all you would see is the startVM and stopVM events with different tags and
> no way to determine when it changed. You would potentially be better just
> parsing the tags when the usage job runs and include them in
> cloud_usage.cloud_usage only – i.e. possibly not even in the helper tables.
>
> Regards,
> Dag Sonstebo
> Cloud Architect
> ShapeBlue
>
> On 05/03/2018, 20:21, "Syed Ahmed" <sa...@cloudops.com> wrote:
>
>     Hi Guys,
>
>     Currently the usage record in CloudStack doesn't include the resource
> tags
>     and we are having more and more use cases where we feel like including
> tags
>     will immensely help with the chargeback logic. Currently, we go back
> and
>     query Cloudstack to give us the tags associated with a resource. What
> do
>     you guys think about adding tags as a field in the usage record?
>
>     Thanks,
>     -Syed
>
>
>
> Dag.Sonstebo@shapeblue.com
> www.shapeblue.com
> 53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London  WC2N 4HSUK
> @shapeblue
>
>
>
>

Re: Include resource tags in the usage record for chargebacks

Posted by Dag Sonstebo <Da...@shapeblue.com>.
Hi Syed,

I see the use case and yes this could work – couple of things:

- Any resource could have multiple tags – would they all be included as an array in a single DB field, or would you want to just define one specific tag ( e.g. “owner” or “costcentre”) and include that single field?
- How granular would you make it – do you expect to be able to distinguish that a VM had “costcentre” tag 100 for the first 10 days of a month and tag 200 for the remainder? The problem with this would be that tags would potentially change mid month without there being an event tied to it, so all you would see is the startVM and stopVM events with different tags and no way to determine when it changed. You would potentially be better just parsing the tags when the usage job runs and include them in cloud_usage.cloud_usage only – i.e. possibly not even in the helper tables. 

Regards,
Dag Sonstebo
Cloud Architect
ShapeBlue

On 05/03/2018, 20:21, "Syed Ahmed" <sa...@cloudops.com> wrote:

    Hi Guys,
    
    Currently the usage record in CloudStack doesn't include the resource tags
    and we are having more and more use cases where we feel like including tags
    will immensely help with the chargeback logic. Currently, we go back and
    query Cloudstack to give us the tags associated with a resource. What do
    you guys think about adding tags as a field in the usage record?
    
    Thanks,
    -Syed
    


Dag.Sonstebo@shapeblue.com 
www.shapeblue.com
53 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London  WC2N 4HSUK
@shapeblue