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Using the Azure Cost Explorer | Pure CBS on Azure

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This guide shows how to plan and estimate Azure's deployment costs using Azure Price Calculator. The second part of this guide explains how to monitor the cost of an existing Cloud Block Store on Azure deployment

How to Estimate Azure Pricing?

Azure provides a free cost management tool that allows to estimate and calculate the cost for new Azure resources deployment. The tool is configured to get Azure products and services pricing in real-time, and can help customize the cost of your deployment plan through one dashboard.

Before start estimating the cost, Use the Cloud Block Store Support Matrix for Azure to get familiar with the major Azure services that construct a single Cloud Block Store. 

You can enter the components in the table below into the Azure Pricing Calculator to get an estimated static cost of a specific CBS model and capacity point. For more accurate comparison of CBS total cost versus the native Azure storage costs, please consult with the Pure Storage account team or Pure Storage account partner to leverage the CBS TCO tool which factors in important factors like data reduction, thin provisioning, etc. 

Model V20MP2-R2

Azure Service Service Type Specification
Virtual Machines (Controllers)

Memory Optimized: E32bds_v5 (for V20MP2-R2 Model)

Operating System: Linux

Type: Ubuntu

Tier: Standard

Number of virtual machines: 2 

Managed Disks: - Tier: Premium SSD

                            - Redundancy: LRS

                            - Disk Size: 128 GiB

Storage Account (NVRAM) Managed Disks    

Tier: PremiumV2 SSD Disk

Number of Disks: 2 

Disk size: 64 GiB per disk

Provisioned IOPS: 15,000* IOPS per disk

Provisioned Throughput: 450* MB/s per disk

Storage Account (Persistent Disk) Managed Disks

Tier: PremiumV2 SSD Disk

Number of Disks: 14

Disk size: 512* GiB per disk

Provisioned IOPS: 8,422* IOPS per disk

Provisioned Throughput: 178* MB/s per disk

Cosmos DB Account Standard provisioned throughput

Total throughput: 4800 RU/s

Backup type: Periodic, 2 copies. 

Load Balancer SKU: Standard 

Load Balancer rules: 2

Data processed: ~10 - 50GB

 

Models V20MU-R1 and V10MU-R1

 

Azure Service Service Type Specification
Virtual Machines (Controllers)

General Purpose:   D32s v3 (For 10 Model)

General Purpose:  D64s v3 (For V20 Model)

Operating System: Linux

Type: Ubuntu

Tier: Standard

Number of virtual machines: 2 

Managed Disks: - Tier: Premium SSD

                            - Redundancy: LRS

                            - Disk Size: 128 GiB

Storage Account (NVRAM) Managed Disks    

Tier: Ultra Disk

Number of Disks: 2 

Disk size: 64 GiB

Provisioned IOPS: 15000*

Provisioned Throughput: 450*

Storage Account (Persistent Disk) Managed Disks

Tier: Ultra Disk

Number of Disks: 14

Disk size: 64* GiB

Provisioned IOPS: 2857*

Provisioned Throughput: 55*

Cosmos DB Account Standard provisioned throughput

Total throughput: 4800 RU/s

Backup type: Periodic, 2 copies. 

Load Balancer SKU: Standard 

Load Balancer rules: 2

Data processed: ~10 - 50GB

*  Every model has different capacity point differs in disk size, provisioned IOPS, and provisioned throughout. Get back to CBS on Azure Architecture Matrix to get the correct sizing. 

CBS does use other Azure service, that are not be listed above due to no cost or minimal cost associated. This includes Azure Key Vault, network interfaces, Azure Identities, etc.

To start estimating using Azure Cost Calculator, follow the below: 

  1. Go to Azure Cost Calculator, (make sure to login with an Azure account in order to save and reuse previously saved estimation).

    clipboard_e4eb22e00d29d9a6ff10e2922338bd501.png
  2. Use the table above and search for the products and then apply the configuration. (Full CBS V10 model example under appendix A).
    Note: Make sure all the products are under the same designated region of your choice. Every Azure region has different set of prices. 

    clipboard_ee0605efdab9da49f2e89caec935cbeb2.png

Pure Highly recommend purchasing pre-committed VM instance (Reserved Instance "RIs"). See CBS General Prerequisites - Reserve Instance.

  1. Add Support (IF not included already into your account), and if you have program/offer select it that as well.  
  2. Check the end of the page to see the estimated cost. 
  3. Lastly, you can export the estimation to an excel sheet, save it, or share a link with others. 

    clipboard_eb92afd6a9cb6dc544c3ba37699f30411.png

How to Manage Azure Cost? 

For cost management, Azure provides free and always-on cost analysis and monitoring features as part of the Azure portal. It helps to understand your spending by providing visualized insights for the ongoing service utilization. It also helps optimize the cost by identifying anomalies in spending patterns.

This section shows how to use Azure Cost Management, to better understand your Cloud Block Store underlying resources spending. 

  1. Go to CBS Managed Application, then click on Managed Resource Group
    clipboard_e87093490eaef836eb8990aa92f2c0fb1.png
  2. On the lift panel, under Cost Management, select Cost Analysis. 

    clipboard_ec5c48012e4d9d1b6b95a152206de47f9.png
  3. The dashboard (shown on the screenshot below) visualized the all the services cost under the scoped managed resource group, with the default view as Accumulated Costs. You can also find customized donut charts showing breakdown of spending for Service, Location, and Resource. 

    clipboard_e82f5f670d0c3a75ee0fb78d7e0521c70.png
  4.  You can also switch between built-in views to get better insights. (Screenshot below shows tabular cost views, part of Cost analysis preview). 

    clipboard_e8e7423b9060b7df6ce836527561dcb6b.png
  5. For more information, please check Explore and analyze costs with cost analysis.

Appendix A

Base V20MP2-R2 Deployment Example

Link to interactive estimate of V20MP2-R2 deployment in Azure Cost Calculator

 

1. Virtual Machines 

azure.microsoft.com_en-us_pricing_calculator_.png

2. Storage account (NVRAMs)

 

clipboard_ee174a890a9bf2256b7a4e54f5e94a93e.png

3. Storage account (Persistent Disks)

clipboard_ec3f417e11002c9258a13b17348f78059.png

 

4. Azure Cosmos DB 

clipboard_e895111b3a9ba4330ee37405d1ef9381c.png

5. Load Balancer 

clipboard_e927c1e1f7c364449494e9b2795c75937.png