Add a New AWS Data Source in Stratusphere and Apply The Integration

Prerequisites:

• AWS user account login(s) with administrative access to the AWS Payer account for your AWS Organization(s).
• Stratusphere™ FinOps user account login with the Admin or Owner role.

Instructions:

1. Log into your AWS Payer account as an administrative user.

2. Ensure you are in the us-east-1 region.

3. Go to the AWS Organizations service and find the OU ID you want to be in scope for the integration (we recommend the “Root” user ID - e.g. “r-fwxf”). Copy this ID as it will be used in a later step.

    

    

    

   

4. Copy the Account ID for your AWS Payer account into your clipboard.

   

5. Ensure you have Stacksets enabled (Go to the Stacksets page in the AWS CloudFormation console and click Activate if not already enabled).

6. Log into Stratusphere as a user with the admin or owner role rights for the organization.

7. Go to Settings > Data Sources, and click "Add Data Source" and then "Amazon Web Services"

    

   
   
   

    

8. If you are onboarding a standalone AWS account without an AWS organization, omit the organization ID. Otherwise, every field is required.
   
   

9. After you add the AWS account, you will see it in the list. Click "Quick Create" to be redirected to CloudFormation (you can also click "Get Template" to download the JSON and apply it manually in the CloudFormation console). 
   

10. When using "Quick Create", you will be to a CloudFormation “Create Stack” page.

11. The Organization Unit ID(s) that you entered in the form will populate in the “What organization units would you like included?” parameter field (e.g. “r-fwxf”). Check the box to acknowledge IAM resources will be created, and click Create Stack
    
    
12. You should now see the CloudFormation stack with the “UPDATE_IN_PROGRESS” status.
    
13. Wait until the status is “UPDATE_COMPLETE”. Once this is done, your integration is complete! You should will start seeing data in your Stratusphere™ FinOps account within 24 hours. Your integration status will also update from “Incomplete” to “Healthy” after the first successful ingestion.
    
14. [Optional] Open up a support ticket for backfilling your data 

Troubleshooting Q&A

Incomplete Data Source Status

Question: Why is the data source showing incomplete after I've successfully deployed the AWS CloudFormation stack for Stratusphere?

Answer: Stratusphere runs data ingestion on approximately a daily basis. Typically you will see this data source status change to Healthy after about 24 hours. If you still see that the data source is Incomplete or Unhealthy, after 24-36 hours, please reach out to your StratusGrid account team to request support.

Delete Stratusphere Data Sources

Question: I accidentally entered an incorrect AWS Organization ID, when I created a new data source. How do I delete and recreate a cloud data source once I've added it?

Answer: At this time, we do not allow data sources to be deleted through the Stratusphere user interface. Please contact StratusGrid support to request deletion of a cloud data source or your data. You can, of course, delete the AWS CloudFormation stack, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template, or remove any other related resources, to disable the connection between Stratusphere and your cloud environments.

Historical AWS Billing Data

Question: After creating a new AWS data source and deploying the CloudFormation stack for Stratusphere, I am only able to see the latest ~30 days of data.

Answer: In order to see historical AWS billing data in Stratusphere, you will need to request a Cost and Usage Reporting (CUR) "backfill" from AWS Billing Support. You can learn how to do that in this article. It's essentially a one-time dump of your historical billing data into the S3 bucket that's created  in your AWS payer (Management) account during the Stratusphere onboarding process.

Cost Optimization Findings Not Loading

Question: After onboarding my AWS environment to Stratusphere, I am not seeing any cost optimization recommendations showing up in the Findings view. What can I do to see this information?

Answer: Stratusphere typically does initial data loading within about 24 hours. If you still are not seeing cost optimization Findings, it's possible that you do not have Business or Enterprise AWS Support for one or more of your AWS environments. Business or Enterprise AWS Support is required for Stratusphere to ingest findings from AWS Trusted Advisor and Support APIs.

Another potential reason for not seeing Findings in your Stratusphere organization is due to Service Control Policies (SCP) applied in the AWS Organizations service. Please ensure that you do not have any SCPs applied to your AWS Organizations (including child OUs) that would interfere with the required permissions defined in the CloudFormation template for Stratusphere.

BONUS: Download Your FinOps Guide to Effective Cloud Cost Optimization Here ⤵️