Using aws costexplorer with route53domains

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

The goal is to use AWS Cost Explorer to manage costs and usage associated with Route 53 domains. AWS Cost Explorer is a service that allows you to visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time. AWS Route 53 is a scalable and highly available Domain Name System (DNS) web service, and Route 53 domains refer to domain name registration services provided by AWS.

To achieve this, we would use the AWS Cost Explorer and Route 53 domains' Pulumi resources to create a system for tracking domain-related costs. Here's how we would approach it with Pulumi and TypeScript:

1. We would define an AWS Cost Explorer Cost Category resource to organize our costs by custom categories. This would allow us to create specific rules to categorize costs related to Route 53 domain services.

2. Next, we would define Route 53 domain resources using the RegisteredDomain resource type to register and configure our domains.

3. We could then set up an AWS Cost Explorer Anomaly Monitor and Anomaly Subscription to get notifications about anomalous spend, particularly for our domain registration and renewals.

Let me walk you through a Pulumi program in TypeScript that sets up a basic AWS Cost Explorer categorization for Route 53 domains and creates a domain registration:

```typescript
import * as aws from "@pulumi/aws";

// Define a Cost Category for Route 53 domains.
const route53DomainCostCategory = new aws.costexplorer.CostCategory("route53DomainCostCategory", {
    name: "Route53DomainCostCategory",
    ruleVersion: "CostCategoryExpression.v1",
    rules: [{
        rule: {
            // Define the rule to categorize costs related to Route53 domain services.
            ors: [{ dimension: { key: "SERVICE", values: ["Amazon Route 53"] } }],
        },
        type: "REGULAR",
        value: "Route53Domains",
    }],
    // Specify the effective date for the cost category's rules.
    effectiveStart: new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0], // Using the current date as the start date
});

// Register a domain using AWS Route 53.
const domainRegistration = new aws.route53domains.RegisteredDomain("exampleDomain", {
    domainName: "example.com",
    adminContact: {
        firstName: "John",
        lastName: "Doe",
        addressLine1: "123 AWS Ave",
        city: "AWS City",
        state: "AWS State",
        countryCode: "US",
        zipCode: "12345",
        phoneNumber: "+1.1234567890",
        email: "admin@example.com",
    },
    registrantContact: {
        // The registrant contact can be the same as the admin contact.
        // However, make sure this reflects accurate information for domain registration.
        ... // The rest of the contact information should be populated similarly to adminContact.
    },
    techContact: {
        // Technical contact information, populate as necessary.
        ... // The rest of the contact information should be populated similarly to adminContact.
    },
    autoRenew: true,
});

// (Optional) Set up an Anomaly Monitor and Subscription for Route 53 domains.
const route53AnomalyMonitor = new aws.costexplorer.AnomalyMonitor("route53AnomalyMonitor", {
    monitorType: "DIMENSIONAL",
    monitorDimension: "SERVICE",
    monitorSpecification: JSON.stringify({
        "And": [
            { "Dimensions": { "Key": "SERVICE", "Values": ["Amazon Route 53"] } },
            // Further filters can be added here to refine monitoring.
        ],
    }),
});

const route53AnomalySubscription = new aws.costexplorer.AnomalySubscription("route53AnomalySubscription", {
    monitorArnLists: [route53AnomalyMonitor.arn],
    subscribers: [{
        type: "EMAIL",
        address: "alerts@example.com", // Replace with the email to receive alerts.
    }],
    threshold: 10, // Set the threshold for cost anomalies (e.g., $10 over expected).
    frequency: "DAILY", // Frequency for anomaly detection evaluation.
});

// Export the Domain Name and Cost Category Name for reference.
export const domainName = domainRegistration.domainName;
export const costCategoryName = route53DomainCostCategory.name;
```

In this program, we define a cost category specific to Route 53 domain costs using the `aws.costexplorer.CostCategory` resource. This allows us to categorize costs and use them for budgeting and alerts. The `rules` parameter defines how costs are matched and categorized, based on the service type, in this case, "Amazon Route 53".

We also create a domain with Route 53 using the `aws.route53domains.RegisteredDomain` resource, specifying all the necessary contact details which are required for domain registration.

Furthermore, we optionally set up an anomaly monitor and subscription using `aws.costexplorer.AnomalyMonitor` and `aws.costexplorer.AnomalySubscription` resources, which allow us to receive alerts if there is an unusual spike in costs that could be indicative of a problem or unexpected change in usage patterns.

Note that this program assumes you have the necessary AWS credentials configured for Pulumi, and you should replace placeholders like "example.com" and contact details with actual values. When you run `pulumi up`, the program will provision these resources in your AWS account.

By using Pulumi, we've programmatically defined cloud resources to manage AWS costs related to Route 53 domain registrations, which could be particularly helpful for organizations with multiple domains and a need to closely monitor their cloud spending.