CloudCheckr Updates 2016

December 29, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Thursday, December 29, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Updated Bookmark Icon
The bookmark icon has been updated to better reflect that its purpose.

Improved Show/Hide Report Help Text
Reports with help text at the top now have an easily identifiable button to show or hide the text.

AWS Features

Added ability to Lock billing months
In the Reload DBR screen, which is found under Cost > AWS Partner Tools > DBR, you can now lock historic billing months. When a month is locked, its DBR cannot be reloaded, preventing any changes to the cost data. This feature is intended to help reseller customers from adding custom charges or other modifications, and having those applied historically, modifying the numbers after the month has been closed.

Added scoring icons to EC2 Right-Sizing Report
Icons have been added to the EC2 Right-Sizing Report, making it easier to see each instance’s utilization score. This report is found within the Utilization menu.

Added Cost Type option to Dashboard Cost Panes
Dashboard panes for different cost reports now have a Cost Type dropdown, allowing them to be built against Blended, Unblended, or List cost.

‘White List’ has been renamed ‘Ignore List’ in Automation Tasks

New Best Practice Check

  • Auto-Scaling Launch Configuration configured with Previous-Generation instance types

New API call

  • get_best_practices_v2

Azure Features

Cost Budget Alert
You can now configure cost alerts against your Azure subscriptions. The budget alert builder can be found within the Cost menu.

Added Cost Tag Filtering to Advanced Grouping
You can now filter the costs in Advanced Grouping by resource tags. Note: Grouping by tags will be added soon.

Added Resource Group info to reports
You can now see the Resource Group for resources within the Azure inventory reports.

Added Change Monitoring reporting
CloudCheckr will now track when resources are added, modified, or deleted within your Azure accounts. The Change Monitor report can be found within the Inventory menu.

Added additional details to the Virtual Machine Inventory reports
Several additional data points are now present for virtual machines within the Inventory reports.

Added CPU utilization metrics to Virtual Machine reports
CloudCheckr now collects, and reports on, CPU metrics for Azure Virtual Machines.

Added HD Insights to Inventory reports

Added Virtual Networks to Inventory reports

November 26, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Saturday, November 26, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Reorganized Report Navigation under Security and Partner Tools
Both the Cost > AWS Partner Tools and Security sections of the report navigation have been reorganized for more logical report groupings. The AWS Partner tools menu now makes it easier to know where to go to configure options, versus generating reports, versus managing the DBR. Security is now separated by Secure Configuration reports and Activity Monitoring reports.
NOTE: The Invoice Generator can be found within the Report menu of the AWS Partner Tools.

Payee Support costs now calculate during the month
When configuring Payee Support Charges, you will now see the Costs calculated as the month progresses. Previously these costs would only be calculated one the billing month was finalized.

Payee Support costs can now be applied across all accounts within Account Families
When configuring Payee Support Charges within an Account Family you now have the option to have the total support charge billed to a single account within the Account Family, or spread across each account, based on that account’s usage. This setting is managed within Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Account Families.

Added ability to set available reports within each account
CloudCheckr now allows you to hide entire sections of the report navigation (such as Best Practices, Cost, Inventory, etc.) for each of your accounts. You will be presented with these options when adding new accounts. You can also update existing accounts by loading the account and navigating to Account Settings > Navigation Visibility.
NOTE: This does not override user permissions. Users will still be able to access any reports they have been granted access to.

Added User Groups for easier user management
CloudCheckr now allows you to create user groups, and manage users and permissions at the group level. User Groups will make managing permissions easier, especially for customers with hundreds or thousands of users. When creating Groups you can determine which accounts and reports users within that group will be able to access. Groups are an Admin-only feature, and can be accessed by clicking on the Settings link at the top of the app.

Added Datadog Integration
CloudCheckr has added an integration for Datadog, which allows CloudCheckr to pull metrics from Datadog into your CloudCheckr account. CloudCheckr will use the memory usage metrics from Datadog for better right-sizing reporting. The Datadog integration can be managed within the Account Settings > Integrations > Imports menu.

Idle EC2 Instances report CSV can now be sent via email
When configuring the Utilization > EC2 > Idle Instances report to send a daily email, you can now have CloudCheckr include a CSV of the report in the email.

Added Invoice Generator for Azure billing accounts
Azure Billing accounts will now have access to an Invoice Generator, allowing you to generate invoices for your subscriptions.

CloudTrail Events can now be grouped by region
The CloudTrail Events report (which is now found under Security > Activity Monitoring > AWS API (CloudTrail)) now supports grouping events by Region.

EC2 List of Instances data now includes Source/Dest check and ENI details
Two new datapoints have been added to the Inventory > EC2 > List of Instances report: Source/Dest check and Elastic Network Interface.

Edit Users screen & Admin Email Settings now freeze top of grid when scrolling
The top of the grid is now frozen when scrolling through both the Edit Users screen as well as the Admin Email Settings screen.

Added ability to drill into Adv. Grouping report by clicking on the graph
When generating a report in Advanced Grouping, and choosing Area for the chart type, you can now click on the chart itself to drill into specific datapoints. For example, if you are looking at a cost breakdown by Account and see a spike on a specific day, you can click on that spike and quickly group that day’s data by Service or Description to get a better idea as to the cause of the spike.

Added the ability to search saved filters in Adv. Grouping report
When opening the Saved Filters dropdown in the Advanced Grouping report, you will now have a text box that allows you to easily search through your saved filters.

2 New Dashboard Panes

  • Saved Filter Costs Over Time
  • Best Practice Trends

2 New Best Practice Checks

  • VPC Peering Connections Requester and Peer Not Approved
  • EC2 Instances With Source/Destination Check Set to False

October 19, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Wednesday, October 19, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

IMPORTANT: Alert emails are now sent from alerts@cloudcheckr.com
Alert emails from CloudCheckr will now be sent from alerts@cloudcheckr.com instead of support@cloudcheckr.com. This will make it easier to identify and manage these alerts within your inbox.

Alerts in report navigation moved to their respective modules
The report navigation has been reworked, with the various alerts now being placed within their own modules (Cost, Security, Utilization).

Added Best Practice Check Editor
CloudCheckr Admin users will now have the ability to edit the severity level of best practice checks, as well as disable/enable any check. The Best Practice Editor can be accessed within the Admin Functions dropdown on the main list of accounts. NOTE: Changes made here will reflect across all accounts.

Ability to choose which order Custom Charges are calculated
When creating monthly percent charge or credit custom charges, you now have the ability to ‘stack’ the custom charges, dictating which order they are applied. These can be created/managed within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice > Custom Billing Charges menu. To choose an order, first ensure that the Custom charge stacking and ordering option is enabled for the charge, and then enter a value for the order to be applied (1 will be applied first).

RDS List Cost Support added to Account Families
AWS Accounts that are linked together within Account Families will now be able to share their RDS Reserved Instances when CloudCheckr calculates its List Cost. Account Families can be setup/managed within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice menu.

Ability to have invoices saved to an S3 bucket
When scheduling invoices using the Invoice Generator, you now have the ability to have a copy of the invoice uploaded to a user-defined S3 bucket.
NOTE: For this feature to work, the credentials added to the CloudCheckr account must have “s3:PutObject” and “s3:DeleteObject” permissions on the S3 bucket entered.

Ability to add Custom Credit Memos
Within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice > Custom Credit Memos report, you will now be able to add custom credits to your account. Credits added here will show up in all reports in CloudCheckr that reflect credits, and can also be managed within the Assign Credits report.

Ability to have CloudTrail Alerts sent to Lambda
A new notification method has been added to CloudTrail Alerts (which are now found within the Security > Alerts > CloudTrail menu). You can now enter a valid Lambda function ARN on any alert, and CloudCheckr will send the full event json plus some other useful properties as a payload to the Lambda function. This function can then be used to take automated action on the alert.
NOTE: For this feature to work “lambda:InvokeFunction” permissions must be added to credentials of this CloudCheckr account.

Redesigned the Map Overlay Report
The Map Overlay report has been redesigned, making it easier to read the map. There are also drilldown capabilities, leading to the corresponding inventory report for the service/region selected. This report can be found within the Inventory menu.

Multiple improvements to the Right-Sizing Report

  • Fix Now Button Added – you can now have CloudCheckr automatically stop, resize, and start your EC2 instances based on its right-sizing recommendations.
  • Network utilization added – instance network utilization metrics are now included in the utilization scoring methodology, making for more accurate recommendations.
  • PDF Export added – you can now export the list of recommendations to PDF in addition to CSV.

Historic Month Selector added to the Billing Dashboard
The Billing Dashboard, found under Cost > AWS Billing, now allows you to view the report against historic months.

Chinese Currency displayed in Mutli-Account Views of China Accounts
Multi-Account Views that are based solely on AWS Accounts running within the China region can now have their cost report displaying the proper currency.

New Dashboard Pane – Cost by Service Over Time

September 06, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Tuesday, September 06, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

New Best Practice Report Dashboard View
In addition to the ‘classic’ view, you can now also view your Best Practice report in a dashboard view. To enable this new view, load the report and in the help text at the top of the page enable the new setting. You can toggle between the classic and dashboard view whenever you’d like.

Added ability to let users select tags for Copy DBR
When configuring a DBR Copy you now have the ability to have CloudCheckr pass through all tags, in-use tags, or user-selected tags when building the copy of the detailed billing report. When selecting the tags the columns will be build in the DBR copy whether there is costs or not.

Added ability to bulk add and edit users
Adding and editing users can both be executed in bulk now. For adding, populate the email field with a comma separated list of users to add. When editing, use the checkboxes on the manage users screen to select the users you would like to edit. Whatever user level, account/report access provided in the form will be applied to all users being added or edited. NOTE: managing users is only available for Admin CloudCheckr users.

Added additional EBS Volume details
Additional data points, including the encrypted attribute, to the List of EBS Volumes report. This report can be found under Inventory > EC2 > EBS.

Added RDS to the RI Savings Report
In addition to EC2, you can now run the RI Historical Savings report against your RDS reserved instances. This report shows you how much you saved by running an instance with reserved pricing as opposed to On-Demand.

Added new EC2 Right Sizing Report
This new report will look at all available CloudWatch metrics and make instance re-sizing recommendations based on usage. Each instance will be given a score based on the collected CloudWatch metrics. Low scores indicate that an instance is under-utilized, high scores indicate that an instance is over-utilized. This report can be found under the Utilization menu.

3 usability updates to the Advanced Grouping report

  • Added ability to filter by resource ID
  • Added option to display/hide items with zero cost
  • Added option to include/exclude chart data in CSV export

Added CSV Export to the IAM Admin Users report
A CSV export has been added to the IAM Admin Users report. This report can be found within the Security menu.

Added ability to filter the EC2 Instance History by Time report by hours
You can now filter the list of running EC2 instances based on hours running within the EC2 Instance History by Time report. This report can be found within the Inventory > Trending menu.

Added many new Dashboard panes
Several new panes have been added to the account dashboard, including CPU Utilization, Cost Savings, and S3 utilization.

Added ability to edit Dashboard panes
You can now edit already-added Dashboard panes by clicking on the Edit icon in the top-right of the pane.

2 new API Calls

  • get_account_email_settings
  • get_account_family_v2

3 new Best Practice checks

  • Unused CloudWatch Alarms
  • IAM Admin Users Not Attested
  • New IAM Admin Users Not Attested

July 29, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Friday, July 29, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Can now setup Copy DBR by Account Family
In addition to having the ability to have CloudCheckr deliver DBR copies for each individual payee, you can now configure an account family to deliver a DBR copy for the entire family.

Can automatically create a MAV based on an Account Family
When creating or editing an Account Family you now have the ability to have CloudCheckr automatically create a multi-account view made up of the accounts that are part of the Account Family. This setting is configured within the Customer Information section of the Account Families page.

Added RI Purchase Recommendations by Account Family MAV
When create a multi-account view based on an Account Family, CloudCheckr will build RI Purchase Recommendations based on the usage within that family. NOTE: These reports are only available in MAVs tied to an Account Family.

Better visibility into accounts within Account Families
The top of the Account Families page now has a summary table showing the total number of AWS accounts, the total number of Account Families, and the total number of AWS accounts that are not part of an Account Family.

Can now copy the full consolidated DBR
In consolidated payer accounts within CloudCheckr, you now have the ability to have CloudCheckr deliver a copy of the full consolidated DBR to a user-defined S3 bucket. This is configured within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > DBR > Copy menu.

Can create custom billing charges based on tags
Within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice > Custom Billing Charges menu, when using the ‘Add a percent discount or premium for all charges’ option, you can create these custom charges based on tags.

Can select start date for custom billing charges
All custom billing charges allow you to choose the start date for when the custom charges should start being applied to the account.

Added new Cost Alert based on percentages
Within the Alerts > Cost menu, there is now the ability to create a cost alert based on cost fluctuations, instead of by budget. This alert will look at the cost over a user-defined period of time and compares that against the average costs over a previous period of time to find fluctuations.

Added Invoice ID field to invoices
There is now a dedicated Invoice ID field that can be added to invoices. This setting is configured within the Customer Information section of the Account Families page.

Added Due Date to schedule invoices
You can now define a due date on scheduled invoices created within the Invoice Generator.

New Reserved Instance Lifecycle Monitoring Report
Under Cost > Reserved Usage there is a new report named Reserved Instance Lifecycle Monitoring. This report allows you to setup email notifications for any of the various RI-related best practice checks.

Added ‘NOT in this selection’ to the Advanced Grouping report
The Advanced Grouping report now gives you the ability to create filters that will find items that are NOT selected. Previously you could only build reports against selected items.

Added pie chart option to the Advanced Grouping report
Pie charts were added as a chart type option to the Advanced Grouping report.

Added ELBs to Tagged/Untagged Resources Reports
Both the Tagged and Untagged Resources reports, found under the Inventory menu, will report against Elastic Load Balancers.

Account name character limit increased to 256 characters
Previously, accounts added to CloudCheckr needed to have a name that was 30 characters or less. That limit has been increased to 256 characters.

Added 5 new Dashboard panes

  • Cost Savings
  • EC2 CPU Utilization
  • EBS Storage
  • Cost Trending
  • Number of EC2 Instances

Added 5 new API calls

  • get_account_family
  • modify_account_family_copy_dbr
  • get_detailed_billing_with_grouping_v2
  • get_billing_dashboard_v2
  • get_users_v2

June 23, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Thursday, June 23, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

New S3 Encryption Details Report
The S3 Encryption Details report will scan your S3 buckets to find the total number of encrypted, and unencrypted objects being stored. You are able to run a scan against whichever buckets you want, on-demand. This report is found under the Security module.

edit_credentials API call now supports cross-account roles
When executing the edit_credentials API call, CloudChecck will now accept cross-account role ARNs for the new credentials.

Improvements to the RI Rebalancer report
Several enhancements have been made the RI Rebalancer report and functionality.

Reload DBR can now reprocess months on-demand
A Run Billing Update Now button has been added to the Reload Detailed Billing Report screen. This allows you to force CloudCheckr to reprocess the months designed for reprocessing instead of waiting for the next scheduled update.

Improvements to the RI Historical Savings report
Better month filtering and the Upfront Amortized Costs have been added to the RI Historical Savings report. This report can be found under Cost > Reserved Usage menu.

Policy JSON added to the IAM List of Policies report
You can now see the raw JSON for the policy within the IAM List of Policies report. This can be found within the Inventory > IAM > List of Policies menu.

Improved detection for unused groups for the Cleanup Security Groups task
The Cleanup Security Groups Automation task has been enhanced to provide better validation when building its list of unused Security Groups.

Improved the date search within Search Tags
The Search Tags report, found under Cost > Tags, will has a column listing the last time the tag was found in the data, as well as a search against this value.

 

June 06, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Monday, June 06, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Added alert to detect new tag values within user-define tag keys
There is a new Alert within the Alerts > Cost menu that will notify you if a new tag value is discovered within a user-define tag key. This lets you know if new customers, applications, environments, etc., are being added to your AWS account.

Exported invoices will be saved in Invoice Generator for future retrieval
When you export an invoice CloudCheckr will now retain a copy of that invoice within the Invoice Generator, which can be exported at any point in the future.

Added exports to Route53 Inventory reporting
The Inventory > Route53 reports have been updated with export options.

Added an RI Rebalancer to modify unused reserved instances
CloudCheckr has added a Reserved Instance Rebalancer. This report will find all of your unused EC2 RIs and make a recommendation as to what you can modify to take full advantage of the reservation. There is a ‘Fix’ button which will have CloudCheckr make the Modify RI request on your behalf.

Assign Credits report has a condensed option for easier credit management
The Assign Credits report, within the AWS Partner Tools menu, now has a condensed view, making it easier to assign/apply credits that have been split up amongst several different AWS accounts.

Dashboard management has been redesigned
The CloudCheckr dashboard has been updated to make managing several dashboards easier.

Users can now choose their default dashboards to always display
Within the Dashboards, you can now select up to 5 “default” dashboards which will always display when logging into your CloudCheckr account (your other dashboards will be accessible via the ‘Select Dashboard’ dropdown). You can make a dashboard a “default” dashboard by loading it and navigating to Dashboard Actions > Configure Dashboard.

Added warning to the Invoice Generator for when the month isn’t finalized
CloudCheckr will now warn you if you are trying to export an invoice before the month’s data has been finalized and fully loaded into CloudCheckr.

Added notification email to the Invoice Generator to notify when month is finalized
Within the Invoice Generator there is now a button labeled ‘Email’. If you configure this option, CloudCheckr will send you an alert email once the previous month’s billing data been finalized and fully loaded into CloudCheckr.

Added wildcard functionality to CloudTrail Alert ignores
You can now add an asterisk (*) to CloudTrail Alert ignores to act as a wildcard. This allows you to create ignores such as “arn:aws:iam::12345678:user/awseb*” where automated activity adds new IAM users with the same format, that you want to keep from your alerts.

Added additional data to the SES Summary Inventory report
Additional data and charts have been added to the Inventory > SES > Summary report, including Rejected Emails, Bounced Emails, Complaints, and Delivered Emails.

Added saved filters to the EC2 Instance History Trending reports
You can now save your filter and group options within the Inventory > Trending > EC2 > Instance History reports.

Added the Marketplace report data the Copy DBR
The AWS Marketplace billing report will now also be copied when using the Copy DBR feature.

Improved the CSV export for the Historical Billing Summary report
The CSV export from the Cost > AWS Billing > Summary Reports > Historical has been updated to include the by-Service data.

Added a date filter to the Search Tags report
The Search Tags report, located within Cost > AWS Billing > Tags, now has a date range filter.

Added ‘Match Resources Without Key’ functionality to Tag Mapping
This new Tag Mapping function allows you to specify a specific tag key and automatically map costs that do not have that tag key applied. To utilize this feature you will need to select the ‘Match Resources Without Key’ checkbox in the Tag Mapping report.

Added filtering & scheduling capabilities to the Automation Tasks
Filtering options have been added to the Automation Tasks to make it easier to identify the specific resource you would like to take actions against. You are also now able to configure when, and how frequently your Automation Tasks run.

Added 5 new Best Practice checks

  • Deprecated Oracle Version
  • Publicly Accessible Redshift Clusters With Open Security Group
  • Publicly Accessible RDS DB Instances With Open Security Group
  • S3 Buckets Not Utilizing Network Encryption
  • S3 Buckets Not Utilizing KMS Keys For Encryption

Added 3 new API Calls

  • get_cloudtrail_custom_metric
  • get_resources_route53_hostedzone_details
  • get_resources_route53_healthcheck_details

May 09, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Monday, May 09, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Added Automation Capabilities
Three different automation tasks have been added to CloudCheckr, which will allow you to remove unused resources from your AWS account:

  1. Cleanup Security Groups
    CloudCheckr will detect security groups that are not assigned to any resources and will purge those security groups for you.
    Cleanup Security Groups requires the following IAM permission: “ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup”
  2. Cleanup EBS Volumes
    CloudCheckr will detect Volumes that are older than 4 weeks with a Status that is not “In-Use” and purge those Volumes for you.
    Cleanup Volumes requires the following IAM permission: “ec2:DeleteVolume”
  3. Cleanup Snapshots
    CloudCheckr will detect Snapshots that are older than 8 weeks and purge those Snapshots for you.
    Cleanup Snapshots requires the following IAM permission: “ec2:DeleteSnapshot”

NOTE: You have the option to manually run these tasks yourself, or have CloudCheckr run these automatically. CloudCheckr will not automatically cleanup any resources unless you explicitly configure the tasks to do so. If you do not add the delete permissions to your IAM policy, CloudCheckr will not be able to run the tasks manually or automatically.

More control over RI unsharing
There are now multiple options to help you control how CloudCheckr handles RI unsharing with List Cost. In addition to enabling or disabling the feature, you can now choose to unshare RIs for specific AWS accounts, or to have CloudCheckr pass through the Unblended RI costs when credentials are missing for a payee. This can be manage within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice > Configure Custom Cost menu.

Added All Payee option to Payee Support Charges
The Payee Support Charges screen now has an “Apply to all payees” button which will have this setting apply to all current, and future payee accounts. This can be manage within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice > Payee Support Charges menu.

Added Cost Forecast pane to Dashboard
The Dashboard now has a “Cost Forecast” pane type.

New RI Cost Savings report
A new Reserved Instance Cost Savings report has been added to the Cost > Reserved Usage menu. This report shows you how much you saved by running an instance with reserved pricing as opposed to On-Demand.

New RI Modifications report
The EC2 Reserved Instance Modifications report provides you with a history of the reserved instances you’ve owned that have been modified. It shows you the RI’s original state as well as the new state post-modification. This report can be accessed within the Cost > Reserved Usage > EC2 menu.

New CloudWatch Logs Summary report
The new CloudWatch Logs Summary report provides an overview of the CloudWatch Log Events for the day. This report can be accessed within the Security > CloudWatch Logs menu.

New IAM Admin Users Report
The IAM Admin Users report provides you with a complete list of IAM users that have any administrative permission (such as iam:CreateUser, iam:CreateAccessKey, iam:ChangePassword, etc.). In addition to details about the IAM user, you also have the ability to “attest to” the users, validating whether they should have these permissions or not.

Added Direct Connect Alert
The new Direct Connect alert will check the Direct Connect service every 5 minutes, alerting you with any Direct Connection with a ‘Down’ state is found. This alert can be configured within the Alerts > Utilization menu.

Added Security Group changes Alert
The new Security Group changes alert will alert you if any modifications are made to any security groups, including groups being added or deleted. This alert can be configured within the Alerts > Utilization menu.

Single Day Summary report link to Advanced Grouping
The list of services within the Single Day Summary report, found under Cost > AWS Billing > Summary, will link you directly to the Advanced Grouping report. This is useful in the scenario where you see an unusual number and would like more information. The Advanced Grouping report will be configured to group by Description, filtered to the service and day in question. You simply need to click the Filter button to retrieve the data.

Redesigned Map Overlay and added to MAV
The Map Overlay report has been redesigned to better display the per-region information. This report has also been added to multi-account views and can be found under the Inventory menu.

Added bar and column chart options to Advanced Grouping report
The Advanced Grouping report now has a Chart Type option, where you can choose to display an Area, Bar, or Column chart in your returned data.

Added Summary grouping options to Invoice Generator
Additional grouping options have been added to the Summary invoice within the Invoice Generator. You can now build a Summary invoice that is grouped by Service, Region, or Service and Region.

New API Call to see Alerts Configured
A new API call has been added (alert/get_alerts) that will retrieve the list of configured alerts within an account.

Added throttled events DynamoDB Right Sizing report
The DynamoDB Right Sizing report will now report against the number of throttled events within each DynamoDB table. This report can be found under the Utilization > DynamoDB menu.

Added PDF export to DynamoDB Right Sizing report
The DynamoDB Right Sizing report now has a PDF export button in the top-right of the report.

Added additional notification methods for Best Practice checks
In addition to email, when configuring the notification method for individual Best Practice checks, you can now have your notifications delivered to a Slack channel or to Syslog. These options are managed, per check, within the Best Practice report.

10 New Best Practice Checks

  • S3 Bucket Access Granted To User In A Different AWS Account
  • SQS Queue Access Granted To User In A Different AWS Account
  • IAM Admin User Password Changed
  • Enforce SSL connections
  • Load Balancers Without Access Log Enabled
  • IAM Admin Users Not Utilizing Multi-Factor Authentication
  • New IAM Admin Users Created Or Granted
  • New Access Key(s) Created for IAM User(s)
  • CloudTrail Aggregate Buckets Not Set To Read-Only
  • IAM Admin User Login

April 11, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Monday, April 11, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

IMPORTANT: Moved Customers from Invoice Generator to Account Families
The Manage Customers tab in the invoice generator has been moved to the AWS Partner Tools > Account Families page. The same functionality exists here, and changes made to Account Families will carry over to the invoice generator.

Added Dashboards to accounts
You now have the ability to create Dashboards around items such as Cost, EC2 Instance Inventory, and Best Practice Checks. When you login to your CloudCheckr account you will see a “+ New Dashboard” button. Click that to get started.

Added ability to ingest custom CloudWatch metrics
CloudCheckr can now ingest on your custom CloudWatch metrics, including memory utilization. These can be enabled/managed within the Utilization > Manage Custom Metrics.
NOTE: You can currently view these metrics within the CloudWatch Historical Export report. They will be added to additional reports with upcoming updates.

Ability to create RDS custom Inventory reports
In addition to EC2, S3, and Workspaces, you can now also create and save custom inventory reports for the RDS service. These reports can be built within the Inventory > Custom Reports > Builder report.

Redesigned the Daily CloudTrail Summary email
The Daily CloudTrail Summary email has been given an update, making it easier to read and understand the data.

New Best Practice Report email frequency delivery settings
In addition to receiving a daily Best Practice email report, you can now choose the frequency of the emails, as well as which day(s) they are delivered. This can be managed within the Settings > Email Settings page.

Added Trusted Advisor option to Best Practice email settings
Within the Settings > Email Settings page you can also choose to include Trusted Advisor checks in the best practice email.

Added wildcard capabilities to Search Tags report
Tags within the Cost > Tags > Search Tags report can now be searched using partial matches.

7 New Security > VPC Reports
Within the Security > VPC menu you will now find reports for:

  • Endpoints
  • Route Tables
  • Virtual Private Gateways
  • NAT Gateways
  • Customer Gateways
  • VPN Gateways
  • Internet Gateways

Added rules to Assign Credits
You can new create rules around assigning credits in order to help you automate their allocation within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice > Assign Credits report. These rules are created using Regular Expressions, and they will apply to new credits only.

2 new IAM Inventory reports
Under the Inventory > IAM menu you’ll now see reports for:

  • List of Open ID Connect Providers
  • List of SAML Providers

Added weekly and monthly options to Custom Report emails
In addition to receiving the custom report emails on a daily basis, you can now also receive those on a weekly or monthly basis.

5 new Built-In CloudTrail Alerts

  • New User detected in CloudTrail
  • New IP Address detected in CloudTrail
  • New Event type detected in CloudTrail
  • New Region used
  • New Service used

Added Marketplace report to Export DBR
The Cost > AWS Billing > Other Features > Export DBR report now gives you the option to also export the Marketplace billing report from the account (if one exists).

Added Group By Account option to Savings report in MAVs
When looking at the Savings report in a multi-account view, you now have the option to group the report by Account or by best practice checks.

New CloudWatch app for Splunk
CloudCheckr now offers an app for Splunk, which will allow Splunk to read data from CloudCheckr.

Added 4 new API calls

  • edit_account_email_settings
  • edit_credential
  • copy_user
  • get_cost_saving

March 22, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Tuesday, March 22, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Payee Support Charge can now be 10% (no $100 minimum)
When configuring Payee Support Charge you now have the option to choose whether to enforce a $100 minimum fee or not. If this option is enabled, and the payee total cost is less than $10k for the month, the payee support charge will be a strict 10% of monthly AWS costs. If the option is disabled, and the payee total cost is less than $10k for the month, the payee support charge will be $100 or 10%, whichever is highest.

Ability to filter payees in Savings Analysis report
In the Savings Analysis report, you now have the ability to filter out whichever payees you’d like from the report’s savings calculations. This allows you to filter out internal accounts, for example, so that your reporting can be more accurate.

Removed items with 0 usage from EC2 Spend Analysis Cost Details report
The EC2 Spend Analysis Cost Details report (found under Cost > Spend Analysis) will no longer display data points where this is no cost or usage.

New Custom Cost options to define “List Cost”
AWS Partners can now define what “List Cost” means within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Custom Cost page. You can choose whether to set the cost baseline to Blended or Unblended, and choose whether RI sharing and/or shared tiering discounts are applied.

Added Summary information to EC2 Custom Report emails
EC2 Custom Inventory Report emails will now have a summary table at the top, showing the total cost.

Custom Charges can now be created against items “NOT in this selection”
When creating custom charges within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Custom Charge menu, you now have the ability to set those against items NOT in the selection.

3 New Best Practice Checks

  • Blocklisted IP Address Making API Calls
  • Console Logins From Blocked IP Addresses
  • Blocklisted IP In AWS Infrastructure

March 11, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Friday, March 11, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Added CloudWatch Log daily summary emails
You can now configure daily summary emails from your CloudWatch log evens within the Security > CloudWatch Logs > Define Events. These emails can be configured on the Summary Report tab.

Added 12 new built-in events to CloudWatch Logs
12 new built-in events have been added to the Security > CloudWatch Logs > Define Events report.

CloudWatch Logs reports added to multi-account views
CloudWatch Log events from general accounts will rollup and be viewable when looking at multi-account views.

CloudWatch Logs Define Events now has a resource ID parameter
When configuring your CloudWatch Log events you will now have the option to add a resource ID parameter.

Added threshold to fire in CloudWatch Logs Events
When configuring your CloudWatch Log Events you can now set a threshold to fire, dictating how many events need to occur before the event is saved.

Added configuration to “Unused WorkSpace(s)” check to set number of days
The “Unused WorkSpace(s)” best practice check has a new configuration option, allowing you to set how the number of days the check looks for unused workspaces to report against.

Added Redshift Spend Analysis Reports
Under Cost > Spend Analysis > Redshift you will now see a Summary and Details report.

Added Direct Connect inventory reports to multi-account views
In multi-account views you will now find Direct Connect reports under Inventory.

Monthly Billing Summary – added By Service grouping option

Added S3 bucket policy to List of S3 bucket CSV Export
CloudCheckr will now grab your S3 bucket policy, which you can view by exporting, to CSV, from the Inventory > S3 > List of Buckets report.

CloudTrail Alerts can be configured to only trigger when new parameters are discovered
CloudTrail Alerts have a new option that allows you to only have an alert triggered when a new parameter is detected. This allows you to be notified when an event from a new IP, User, Region, etc., is captured by CloudTrail.

CloudTrail Alerts can be configured to trigger without saving results in CloudCheckr
In the CloudTrail Alert Builder you will now have an option to not save the results for the triggered alert in CloudCheckr. This is useful if you are having the alert results delivered to SysLog.

Reorganized the AWS Partner Tools navigation
The Cost > AWS Partner Tools menu has been organized by report type to make it easier to find the features and reports you need.

Added the ability to suppress the due date in invoice generator
The Create Invoice tag of the Invoice Generator now has a checkbox that allows you to suppress the due date from the invoice output.

Added the ability to create custom charges against not-selected AWS services
When creating custom charges within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Invoice menu, you can now choose to create custom charges against selected services, or services that are not selected.

New Best Practice Check: S3 Buckets Without Encryption Policy

February 29, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Monday, February 29, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Added Summary and Detail VPC Peering Connection reports
Under the Security > VPC menu you’ll now see a Summary and Detailed report for VPC Peering Connections.
NOTE: For CloudCheckr to be able to report on this data, you must have "ec2:DescribeVpcPeeringConnections", permissions in your CloudCheckr IAM policy. If you are using the default AWS Read Only policy, this is already included and you won’t need to make any changes.

Added the ability to modify usage rates for custom charges
You can now modify the List Cost per-hour usage rate for your payees. These custom usage rates can be added and managed within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools menu.

Added Lambda Inventory reports
A Lamdba Summary and Detailed report have been added to the Inventory menu.
NOTE: For CloudCheckr to be able to report on this data, you must have "lambda:ListFunctions",, permissions in your CloudCheckr IAM policy.

Added Bucket URL to S3 List of Buckets report
Within the per-bucket details within the S3 List of Buckets report, you will now be able to see the bucket URL. If the bucket is publicly accessible, you can use this URL to access the contents within the bucket.

Added CSV export for Cost Savings report
The Cost Savings report now has a CSV export.

Added select all capabilities to Payee Support Charges
The Payee Support Charges report under the Cost > AWS Partner Tools menu now has select all checkboxes, so you no longer have to check each account individually.

Added List Cost Analysis report
A List Cost analysis report has been added, providing visibility into the modifications CloudCheckr made when calculating list cost. This can be found within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools menu.

February 19, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Friday, February 19, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Improved the CloudTrail Alert Builder
The UI for the CloudTrail Alert Build (both custom and built-in) has been redesigned, to make it easier to create alerts.

Added summary charts to CloudTrail Alert Results
You now have the ability to add summary charts to the CloudTrail Alert Results report. You can build charts AWS Account, IP Address, Service, etc.

Tweaked CloudTrail Alert emails
Minor updates to the CloudTrail Alert emails to make them easier to read.

Added new DynamoDB Reserved Capacity Summary report
The DynamoDB Reserved Capacity Summary report provides high-level details about the reserved capacity purchased for the DynamoDB service. This report can be found under the Cost > Reserved Usage > DynamoDB menu.

Added new DynamoDB List of Reserved Capacity report
The DynamoDB List of Reserved Capacity report provides details about the reserved capacity purchased for the DynamoDB service. This report can be found under the Cost > Reserved Usage > DynamoDB menu.

Added new DynamoDB Reserved Usage Report
The DynamoDB Reserved Usage report gives visibility into the amount of Reserved Capacity purchased, used, and provisioned, as well as the amount of capacity that is On-Demand. This report can be found under the Cost > Reserved Usage > DynamoDB menu.

Added additional details to Reload DBR
The Reload DBR screen now shows the status of the months being reloaded, as well as the Start and End time for the updates. This page is found under the Cost > AWS Partner Tools menu.

Added ability to Suppress AWS Support in Payee Support Charges
The Payee Support Charges screen now has a second checkbox to have CloudCheckr suppress AWS Support Charges being written to the account if you want to use the CloudCheckr Payee Support Charge feature. This ensures the accounts do not get double-billed for support.

Added Exports to the Cost Savings report
The Cost Savings report now has a PDF export.

Added additional grouping options to Monthly Summary Report
Under Cost > Summary Reports > Monthly, you now have the ability to group the data by Account, by Account / Service, or by Day / Service.

Added ability to add monthly custom charges by service
You can now have custom monthly charges applied to specific AWS services (whereas before they were against the entire account). These can be added/managed under the Cost > AWS Partner Tools menu.

Added Slack and Syslog integration into CloudWatch Logs
You can now have your CloudWatch Logs Events delivered to a Slack Channel or to Syslog. You can set these up under Security > CloudWatch Logs.

Added instance ID to CloudWatch Logs raw data
The raw data in the CloudWatch Logs results not includes instance ID(s).

Added check Ids to the output of the “get_best_practices” API call
The output for the “get_best_practices” API call will now include XXX

January 22, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Friday, January 22, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

Enhancements to CloudTrail Alerts:
-Added ability to deliver notifications to Slack and Syslog: You can now have your CloudTrail alerts delivered to a Slack Channel or Syslog Host.
-Added new Response Type to differentiate between Errors and Unauthorized Access Attempts

New Cost Dashboard report
This new Cost Dashboard report, which will be listed under the Cost > AWS Billing menu, will display graphs showing spend summary and a cost breakdown by service.

Added ability to choose which credits to funnel to payee accounts
In payer accounts, within the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Assign Credits page, you can choose to assign credits to payees, as well as choose whether the credits should funnel down to the payee account reports.

Added ability to view custom charges in payee summary reports
Custom charges added in the Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Custom Billing Charge menu will not display in the payee account’s summary reports.

Added new DynamoDB right-sizing report
This new report recommends the proper number of provisioned reads and writes for each of your DynamoDB tables, based on their consumed usage. This report can be found under Utilization > DynamoDB.

Added support for aggregated AWS Config buckets
CloudCheckr now support AWS Config logs being stored in aggregated S3 buckets. These must be setup within multi-account views in CloudCheckr, under the Security > AWS Config > Aggregated S3 Buckets > Configure.

Added ability to add payee accounts without credentials to populate cost reports
When configuring new accounts in CloudCheckr, you will now see a third option named “Map to Payer”. This option allows you to add a payee account without connecting the account to AWS (as long as the payer is already added to CloudCheckr). CloudCheckr will build the payee account cost reports only, allowing you to grant access to payees to manage their costs without asking them to hand over AWS credentials. If you would like additional security and inventory reporting credentials can be added to this account at any time.

Added reset password email link to the list of users page
When editing users, CloudCheckr Administrators now have the ability to automatically email someone a forgot password link.

ElastiCache & Redshift List of Reserved Instances report now looks across consolidated accounts
Both ElastiCache and Redshift List of Reserved Instances reports will display purchased RIs across all consolidated accounts, when looking at the report at the master payer level (as long as the payees have been added into CloudCheckr). You can find these reports under Cost > Reserved Usage > ElastiCache & Redshift.

Invoice Generator description text now honors hard line breaks
When adding descriptions to the Invoice using the Invoice Generator, line breaks will be properly reflected in the output.

Added Cost Savings report to multi-account views
The Cost Savings report has now been added to multi-account views. You will find this report above Best Practices in the report navigation.

2 new API calls
These new calls allow you to add or delete account-level tags to be used with multi-account views:

  • account/add_tag
  • account/delete_tag

New Best Practice Check: EC2 Reserved Instances With Unused Hours

January 05, 2016

CloudCheckr will be performing a scheduled system update on Tuesday, January 05, 2016. This update will roll-out new features and reports to the application.

There is no expected service outage during this update. However, it is recommended that users clear the cache or temporary internet files of their browser after the update. All new features and reports may not appear in your account until CloudCheckr performs its next scan of your AWS deployment.

Details of the update:

The color of the app’s green bar can now be customized
Within the Settings menu at the top of the CloudCheckr app you can now control the color of the green bar that spans the app.

Added tags to API call get_resources_ec2_load_balancer_details
The output from the inventory.xml/get_resources_ec2_load_balancer_details API call will now include the resource tags for the ELBs.

Added Committed Amount to EC2 RI Purchase (Frequency) report
The EC2 Reserved Instance Purchase Recommendation (by Frequency) report will now show the total committed amount for the recommendations. You can find this report within the Cost > Reserved Usage > EC2 menu.

Improvements to the Idle DynamoDB Tables best practice check
The Idle DynamoDB Tables best practice check will now clearly show the provisioned/consumed/utilized percentage details for both reads and writes for each “idle” table.

Ordered the filters and columns in the EC2 and RDS List of RIs reports
The columns in List of Reserved Instances reports, for both EC2 and RDS, have been reordered to make it easier to read and understand the report.

Custom Charges can be added against List or Unblended totals
When adding custom charges based on percentage (under Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Custom Charges), you now have the option to have those charges based off of the Unblended total or the List Cost total.

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