Question #558
A company with multiple AWS accounts uses AWS Organizations. The accounts host EC2 instances, Amazon RDS databases, and serverless applications. The development team has deployed testing environments across these accounts, tagged with a key of 'environment' and a value of 'testing'. The company wants to accurately calculate the cost of these testing resources to charge the development team's AWS account. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?
In the management account, activate the 'environment' user-defined tag. Configure monthly AWS Cost and Usage Reports to an Amazon S3 bucket in the management account. Use the tag breakdown in the report to obtain the total cost for 'environment:testing' resources.
In the member accounts, activate the 'environment' user-defined tag. Configure monthly AWS Cost and Usage Reports to an S3 bucket in the management account. Schedule a Lambda function to parse the reports and calculate the total cost for 'environment:testing' resources.
In the member accounts, activate the 'environment' user-defined tag. From the management account, enable AWS Budgets with custom reports filtered by the 'environment:testing' tag to track monthly costs.
Use AWS Resource Groups in the management account to create a group filtered by the 'environment:testing' tag. Configure Amazon QuickSight to visualize the aggregated costs from all member accounts.
Explanation
Answer A is correct because AWS Organizations allows the management account to activate cost allocation tags, which are then inherited by all member accounts. By activating the 'environment' tag in the management account, the AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR) will include cost data aggregated across all accounts, with the ability to filter by the 'environment:testing' tag. This provides a centralized and accurate way to calculate costs for chargeback.
Other options are incorrect because:
- B: While activating tags in member accounts is necessary, using a Lambda to parse CUR adds unnecessary complexity. CUR already supports tag-based filtering natively.
- C: AWS Budgets is designed for budget tracking and alerts, not detailed cost allocation for chargeback.
- D: Resource Groups and QuickSight require additional setup and do not directly provide cost allocation by tags.
Key Points:
1. Activating cost allocation tags in the management account applies to all member accounts in AWS Organizations.
2. CUR provides detailed cost data with tag breakdowns, enabling accurate chargeback calculations.
3. Avoid manual processing (e.g., Lambda) when AWS-native tools like CUR suffice.
Answer
The correct answer is: A