Getting Started With Kubecost: Open Source Cost Management for K8s

Kubecost is an open source tool designed to provide transparency into Kubernetes resource usage and cost. It provides granular cost insights, multi-cloud cost management, and recommendations for optimizing resource allocation. The tool aims to make it easier for teams to understand and manage their Kubernetes spend.

Kubecost integrates with your Kubernetes cluster and aggregates data from various sources, providing a comprehensive view of resource usage and costs. It offers visibility into how resources are being used, by whom and at what cost. This information can help teams make informed decisions about resource allocation, identify cost-saving opportunities and ensure that their Kubernetes infrastructure is cost-effective.

Source: Kubecost

In addition to cost reporting, Kubecost also provides actionable insights and recommendations to help teams optimize their resource usage and reduce costs. It helps teams understand the cost implications of their Kubernetes configurations and usage patterns and manage your costs effectively. 

Many Kubernetes clusters are managed in the cloud, making Kubernetes a core component of cloud cost management. Read this detailed post on cloud cost management to understand how Kubecost can support your cost optimization efforts.

Benefits of Using Kubecost for K8s Cost Management

Granular Cost Insights

Kubecost offers a detailed view of resource usage and costs at the container, pod, service and namespace level. This level of granularity can help teams understand exactly where their Kubernetes spend is going and identify opportunities for cost savings.

With Kubecost, you can track the cost of individual resources, such as CPU, memory and storage. You can also see how costs are distributed across different services, applications and teams. This information can be invaluable for budgeting, cost allocation and cost optimization.

Kubecost also provides historical cost data, allowing you to analyze trends and patterns in your Kubernetes spend over time. This can help you anticipate future costs and plan your budget accordingly.

Cloud-Agnostic Solution

Kubecost is a cloud-agnostic solution, meaning it can be used with any cloud provider that supports Kubernetes. This makes it a versatile tool for managing Kubernetes costs across different cloud environments.

Whether you’re using Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure or a combination of these, Kubecost can provide a unified view of your Kubernetes costs. It can also integrate with on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, providing comprehensive cost management regardless of where your Kubernetes clusters are running.

This cloud-agnostic approach allows teams to compare costs across different cloud providers and make informed decisions about where to deploy their Kubernetes workloads. It also supports multi-cloud strategies.

Chargeback and Showback Capabilities

Another key benefit of Kubecost is its chargeback and showback capabilities. These features allow teams to allocate Kubernetes costs to the appropriate business units, projects or teams based on their actual resource usage.

Chargeback and showback can be powerful tools for managing Kubernetes costs. They provide visibility into how resources are being used and who is responsible for the costs. This can encourage teams to use resources more efficiently and help ensure that costs are distributed fairly.

With Kubecost, you can generate detailed chargeback and showback reports, showing the cost of each resource and who is consuming it. This can be useful for budgeting, cost allocation and internal billing.

Optimization Recommendations

Kubecost also provides optimization recommendations to help teams reduce their Kubernetes costs. It identifies inefficient resource usage and suggests ways to optimize your configurations and usage patterns.

For example, Kubecost can identify overprovisioned resources that are costing you money without providing any additional value. It can also find underutilized resources that could be scaled down or consolidated to save costs.

These recommendations are based on your actual resource usage and costs, providing practical and actionable advice for cost optimization. By following these recommendations, teams can reduce their Kubernetes spend and ensure their infrastructure is cost-effective.

Getting Started with Kubecost

Installing Kubecost Using Helm

The first step is installing Kubecost in your Kubernetes environment. The recommended way to do this is via Helm, the Kubernetes package manager. Helm allows you to manage Kubernetes applications. It provides packages called Helm Charts that define, install and upgrade complex Kubernetes applications.

Installing Kubecost using Helm is straightforward. First, add the Kubecost helm repo to your Helm client. This can be done using the command: 

helm repo add kubecost https://kubecost.github.io/cost-analyzer/

After adding the repo, you can install Kubecost with the command: 

helm install kubecost kubecost/cost-analyzer –namespace kubecost –create-namespace.

Configuring Data Retention Policies

After installing Kubecost, the next step is to configure data retention policies. Data retention policies determine how long Kubecost retains cost data. By default, Kubecost retains data for 15 days. However, you can configure this to meet your needs.

To configure data retention policies, you need to modify the Kubecost configuration via the Kubernetes command line interface, kubectl. The configuration is stored in a ConfigMap in the Kubecost namespace. You can edit the ConfigMap with the following command: 

kubectl edit configmap cost-analyzer -n kubecost

In the ConfigMap, you can modify the window parameter to set the data retention period. The window parameter accepts a string that specifies the duration. For example, to set a data retention period of 30 days, you can set the window parameter to 30d.

Setting up Cost Allocation and Chargeback

To set up cost allocation and chargeback, you need to assign labels to your Kubernetes resources. These labels are used by Kubecost to allocate costs. For example, you could assign a label team=team1 to all resources used by team one. Kubecost would then allocate costs based on this label.

Once you’ve assigned labels, you can set up cost allocation in the Kubecost UI. In the UI, you can create cost allocation reports based on labels. You can also create chargeback reports, which show the costs incurred by each team or project.

Reading and Interpreting Cost Reports

Kubecost provides detailed cost reports that show the cost of running workloads on Kubernetes. These reports can be accessed through the Kubecost UI. In the UI, you can view cost reports for different time periods and filter cost data by namespace, label or allocation.

When reading cost reports, it’s important to understand the different cost components. The main cost components are compute costs, storage costs, and network costs. Compute costs are the costs of running compute resources, such as CPU and memory. Storage costs are the costs of using storage resources, such as persistent volumes. Network costs are the costs of data transfer.

Setting and Monitoring Budgets for Namespaces or Clusters

Kubecost also provides features for setting and monitoring budgets for namespaces or clusters. This is useful for keeping track of spending and ensuring that costs don’t exceed your budget.

To set a budget, you can use the Kubecost UI. In the UI, you can specify a budget for each namespace or cluster. You can also set alerts that notify you when spending exceeds a certain threshold.

To monitor budgets, you can use the budget dashboard in the Kubecost UI. The dashboard shows the current spending compared to the budget and provides a forecast of future spending. This can help you identify potential budget overruns early and take corrective action.

Identifying Underutilized Resources

One of the main benefits of Kubecost is that it can help identify underutilized resources. Underutilized resources are resources that are not being used to their full capacity and, therefore, represent wasted spending.

Kubecost provides several tools for identifying underutilized resources. One of these tools is the efficiency report. The efficiency report shows the utilization of resources and highlights resources that are underutilized.

Another tool is the savings report. The savings report shows potential cost savings from reducing the size of underutilized resources or deleting unused resources. By identifying and addressing underutilized resources, you can significantly reduce your Kubernetes costs.

Conclusion

In the complex landscape of Kubernetes management, there is a need for cloud-agnostic tools that aid organizations in understanding, allocating and optimizing their Kubernetes expenditures. Kubecost is such a tool, providing granular insights into resource usage at multiple levels to enable multi-cloud Kubernetes cost management.

Kubecost’s capability to offer actionable optimization recommendations backed by historical cost data allows teams to proactively manage their spending and enhance resource efficiency. Furthermore, the chargeback and showback functionalities make it possible to distribute costs among various departments, business units or teams.

As Kubernetes continues to be an integral part of cloud infrastructures, there is an important role for cost management tools. Tools like Kubecost are an invaluable asset for any organization aiming to harness the full potential of Kubernetes without breaking the bank.