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Getting started

Quotas and your bill

A quota caps how much a project can run in a region. Your bill counts what the project actually runs, by the hour, in CAD.

Quotas

Each project has its own quota in each region. A quota sets a ceiling on five resources:

Resource Default for a new project, in each region
Memory 64 GB
Storage 500 GB
Instances 10
vCPUs 20
Floating IPs 5

A request that would go over the quota is refused. A quota is a ceiling, not a charge: unused quota isn't billed. Raising the quota in one region doesn't change the other.

See a project's quota

In the Breqwatr Cloud Portal (Strata), open the project and choose Quota. Each resource shows what's in use against its limit, for the region you've selected. Anyone who can see the project can read its quota.

From the CLI, --usage shows the limit and what's in use side by side:

openstack --os-cloud <cloud-name> quota show --usage
openstack --os-cloud <cloud-name> --os-region-name ca-east quota show --usage

Request an increase

Only org owners and admins can request an increase.

  1. On the project's Quota page, choose Request increase.
  2. For each resource you need more of, enter how much to add. Leave the others blank.
  3. Fill in Reason, and submit the request.

The request covers the region it was made in, and appears under Request history with its status. Support may add a note to it.

Your bill

Billing is always in CAD. The billing country in your organisation's billing details sets the tax that applies, and nothing else.

How usage is billed

  • By resource, by the hour. An instance is priced by its memory; its vCPUs carry no charge. Storage and floating IPs have rates of their own. Resources marked as included on the pricing page carry no separate charge.
  • What exists is billed. A stopped instance, an unattached volume and a floating IP held but not used each still count. Deleting a resource stops its usage.
  • One invoice per project. Each billable project gets its own monthly invoice, issued on the first of the month for the month before.
  • Windows Server images are priced to include the licence. Other licensed operating systems, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, are quoted on request.

Where to look

Owners and admins see billing. Members don't.

Page Where What it shows
Usage The project's Usage page This month's metered usage for the project, by resource type, before tax
Billing overview Billing The month so far and a projected total across all projects, what's outstanding, and when the next invoice is issued
Invoices Billing → Invoices Every invoice, by project and month, with its status and total
Pricing Billing → Settings → Pricing The rate for each resource
Billing details Billing → Settings → Billing Details The billing contact, address and country used on invoices. Needed before an organisation's first project
Payment methods Billing → Settings → Payment Methods The cards on file. A payment method is also needed before an organisation's first project

Impact

  • Quotas stop a project from growing past a set size by accident.
  • Usage shows what a project runs while it runs, so spend can be checked before the invoice arrives.

Common anti-patterns

  • Requesting an increase only when a launch fails: check the Quota page before a large change, and request ahead of it.
  • Reading only the invoice: the usage page shows the month as it happens; the invoice shows it a month later.

Next

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