Commander generates some recommendations and retrieves others from AWS to help you optimize VM performance and minimize cost. The following types of recommendations are available:
- Rightsizing recommendations
- Power schedule recommendations
- Reserved Instance recommendations
To view all recommendations:
- Go to Tools > Recommendations.
About cloud expense management
To benefit most from Commander's cloud expense management, carry out these steps in the following order:
- Rightsize VMs and Instances.
For more information, see Rightsizing recommendations below.
- Set Power Schedules.
For more information, see Power schedule recommendations below.
- Use Reserved Instance Recommendations for AWS to guide your RI purchases.
For more information, see Reserved Instance recommendations below.
If you begin by purchasing RIs, you may end up purchasing the wrong size or quantity of RIs, which can be an expensive mistake.
- Monitor and repeat as necessary.
Cost optimization is an ongoing, iterative process. Once you've rightsized, set power schedules and purchased RIs, it's critical to monitor your cloud platform infrastructure and your bill, and continually optimize.
Rightsizing recommendations
Commander generates rightsizing recommendations for VMs based on data retrieved from cloud accounts (and optionally from third-party performance monitoring tools).
You can use the search field on the Recommendations page to view a subset of the information:
- To view only memory rightsizing recommendations, enter "memory" in the search field.
- To view only instance type rightsizing recommendations, enter "instance type" in the search field.
- To view only downsizing recommendations, enter "down" in the search field.
If you see the table view on the Recommendations page with the filter displayed, click Show Quick Search to hide the filter. For more information, see Filter Searches on Tables.
To customize the rules used to generate rightsizing recommendations:
- Go to Configuration > Groups > Rightsizing.
For more information, see Rightsizing VMs and Instances and Configuring Rules for VM Rightsizing.
Power schedule recommendations
To minimize cost without hindering productivity, power schedule groups help to ensure that VMs are powered on when needed and powered off when not needed. Commander issues power schedule recommendations for VMs.
You can use the search field on the Recommendations page to view a subset of the information:
- To view only power schedule recommendations, enter "power" in the search field.
If you see the table view on the Recommendations page with the filter displayed, click Show Quick Search to hide the filter. For more information, see Filter Searches on Tables.
To customize the rules used to generate power schedule recommendations:
- Go to Configuration > Groups > Power Schedule
- Click Configure Recommendations.
For more information, see Power Schedule Recommendations.
Reserved Instance recommendations
Commander retrieves recommendations to purchase EC2 RIs from AWS. Purchasing RIs provides a significant discount compared with paying for on-demand pricing. Based on your EC2 instance uptime, Commander retrieves and displays potential EC2 RI purchases for each region and shows you the projected savings for each purchase, based on regions.
There's a fee of $0.01 USD per request to AWS to retrieve recommendation data. Generally, only one request is required per consolidated billing account. For cloud accounts with many resources, multiple requests may be required. These request fees will be visible on the Cost Dashboard.
You can use the search field on the Recommendations page to view a subset of the information:
- To view only RI recommendations, enter "reserved" in the search field.
If you see the table view on the Recommendations page with the filter displayed, click Show Quick Search to hide the filter. For more information, see Filter Searches on Tables.
To customize the rules used to retrieve RI recommendations:
- Go to Configuration > Costs.
- Navigate to the RI Recommendation Configuration tab.
For more information, see Manage Reserved Instance Recommendations or AWS Reserved Instance Recommendations Report.
Although the Recommendations page currently only includes reserved instance recommendations for AWS, you can view reserved instance recommendations for Azure by running a report. For more information, see Azure Reserved Instance Recommendations Report.
