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How To Monetise & Bill CloudStack
A Practical Open Approach
K B Shiv Kumar / CTO@IndiQus
www.apiculus.com

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Introduction
● This is a Techno-Functional Talk
● Focuses on CloudStack and Billing
● Laid out in a Questions and Suggestion Format

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What All Can We Monetize?
● VM – Disk, CPU, RAM, OS
● VPC – VPC, VR CPU, VR RAM, VR Throughput, Data Transfer
● Networks – Count, Type, Throughput
● VPN Users – Count
● Rules – Firewall Rules, Port Forwarding Rules, Static Routes
● IP – Count
● Containers – Nodes, Count, Size
● Secondary Storage – Data Usage, Period of Storage
● Data Transfer – Account Level
● Services – Managed Services, Professional Services

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What Billing Models Are Possible?
● Invoicing Perspective
○ Postpaid
○ Prepaid
● Period Perspective
○ Monthly
○ Quarterly
○ Annually
● Offering Perspective
○ Contractual (mo/qtr/yr)
○ One Time
○ Pay As You Go(PAYG)
● Aggregation Perspective
○ Account Level
○ Resource Level
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How Do We Offer Services?
● Plans
○ Smallest Atomic Unit of Service
○ Priced (Recurring, One Time, Fixed or
Variable)
○ Has Inclusions Optionally
○ Has Limits
○ Can be of type One Only, Always One,
Many
● Catalogues
○ It’s a Menu Card
○ Can be Multiple – Regional/Customer
Type/Account Specific/Sectoral
○ Price Override is Done Here
○ Selective Offerings are Possible

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What Are The Billing Processes?
● Subscribing – Entering into a Contract for a Resource.
● Mediating – Collecting, Normalizing, Adjusting and Aggregating the Usage Data.
● Rating – Rating of that Resource Usage Data.
● Invoicing – Billing Users Periodically on the Charges Incurred Above.
● Apportioning – Processing Payments and/or Advances.
● Dunning – Steps to Recovering Dues.

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How Do All These Fit In?
Select Offering
From
Marketplace
Create
Resource In
CloudStack
Identify and
Map The
Applicable Plan
Generate &
Record
Contract
Collect Usage
Mediate and
Adjust Rate and Store Invoice
Receive
Payments
Apportion
Payments
Implement
Dunning

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How Do We Subscribe/Contract?
● Plan Mapping
○ Identify Unique Plan(s) and Price
○ Zero-in via Combination (CPU, RAM, disk,
OS, Zone, Region, Account, Bill Type etc.)
○ Plan can be a Monolith(VM) or Smaller
(Compute, Disk, Network, OS)
○ Identify Billing Details (Fixed/Variable;
Monthly/Hourly; OTC/Recurring)
○ Plan Should Map to the Correct Service
Offering, Disk Offering, Template Offering,
Zone, Region etc. in CloudStack. Tags, Tags,
Tags!
○ Use CloudStack Identifiers for above - UUID,
Name, Description, DB ID - All Work Fine
● Contracting/Subscribing
○ Store Plan Rate & Unit – Can be at Plan
Level or Component level
○ Store Date, Period, Un-billed charges and
Line Items (Consider Pro-ration vs Full)
○ Store Contract Type
○ Store Allowances (Consider Period, Unit,
Quantity, Pro-ration)
○ Store the CloudStack Resource Identifier
(UUID, Tags, DB ID - All Work Fine)
○ Store Custom Metadata if Required
○ Use Any Entry Point (CMP, AMQP, Events,
Poll - All Work Fine)

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How Do We Collect Data?
● cloud_usage DB and CloudStack Usage API are Your Best Friends!
● It is Recommended to Use Separate Collectors for Separate Types of Resources.
● Collect Periodic Usage for all Rateable Resources(VM, Disk etc.) or Resource Components(CPU,
Network, DT etc.)
● Make sure to Obtain the Resource Identifier as Stored in the Contract. Most Important!
● This can be done via DB Queries or using CloudStack Usage API and Relevant Resource APIs
or a Combination of Both Approaches.
● UUID can be found in almost all CloudStack API Responses while Resource’s DB ID is Present
in usage_id Column of cloud_usage.cloud_usage Table.

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Important Settings For Hourly Usage Tracking
● Usage Related Settings In CloudStack
enable.usage.server
usage.sanity.check.interval
usage.execution.timezone
usage.stats.job.exec.time
usage.stats.job.aggregation.range
usage.aggregation.timezone
● For Hourly Usage Set usage.stats.job.aggregation.range as 60.

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How Do We Mediate?
● Aggregate at Resource, Period & Granularity Level
○ GROUP BY usage_id, start_date, end_date if using DB. Make sure to join resource tables to obtain
identifier used in the contract.
○ Pass start_date, end_date and type if using the listUsageRecords API.
● Aggregate Resource Usage at the Account Level Where Required
● Map Each Resource ID to the Corresponding Contract
● Obtain the Pricing and Allowances (if any)
● Reduce the Usage by the Allowance Balance
● Provide Final Quantity and UOM for Final Rating

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How Do We Rate?
● Apply the Contract Rate on Final UOM
● Better To Rate Till 4 Decimals
● Store in Un-billed Charges Against the Contract
● Aggregate on a Resource or Component Level
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How Do We Invoice/ShowBack/ChargeBack?
● Needs to Run Every Bill Cycle
● Can be run Everyday
● Aggregate all Un-billed Charges at Contract Level
● Normalize Here for Percentile Billing
● Apply Taxes as Applicable
● Mark Un-billed Charges as Processed

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How Do We Implement Dunning?
● Plays Around the Following
Parameters
○ Exposure Limit
○ Unbilled Charges
○ Due Date
○ Payment Amount
○ Outstanding
● Rules may be a Combination of Above
● Actions Can Be
○ Notify – Email, SMS, CMP
○ Curtail Exposure – Set CloudStack
Limits
○ Reversible Block – Disable In
CloudStack
○ Permanent Removal - Delete Account
In CloudStack

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Use Case - Hourly Billing Of A VM
User Chooses A VM Config
Ex: 2Core, 4GB, 100GB
Ubuntu 20.04
This Is Mapped To A Plan
Ex: ‘Classic’ VM With Ubuntu
20.04
Plan Contains Service
Offering, Disk Offering and
Template Mapping
Ex: serviceoffering=<uuid>;
templateid=<uuid>
Resource Created In ACS
And UUID/Tag/DB ID
Obtained
Ex: deployVirtualMachine
Identifier(s) Stored In Contract
Ex: cloudstack_resource_uuid
Field
Allowed Usage Stored In The
Contract
Ex(24 Hrs/mo Free)
VM Usage Collected
Perioddically
Ex: Join
cloud_usage.usage_id With
cloud.vm_instance.id
Locate Contract’s
Components Via Identidfiers
Ex: VM’s UUID, Template
UUID, Disk UUID
Absorb Usage Till 24 Hours
Ex: Put Value as 0 Till 1st 24
Hours
Rate Individual Components
Based On Rate
Ex: VM @ USD 0.01/hr; OS
@USD 0.02/hr
Store Un-billed Against
Contract and Period
Ex: VM XYZ 14Nov2022
15:00 to 16:00 0.01
Aggregate All Unbilled Per
Resource
Ex: VM XYZ 1Nov to 30 Nov
USD 696
Apply Percentile If Any Apply Taxes Generate Invoice

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Thank You!
“Ask no questions and you’ll be told no lies” – Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
K B Shiv Kumar / Chief Technology Officer @IndiQus Technologies
shiv@indiqus.com / shiv@apiculus.io / (91) 9810 527 448