Connecting AWS CUR

Step-by-step guide on how to enable AWS CUR

PerfectScale has created a detailed guide to help you effortlessly enable AWS CUR.

In order to start using AWS CUR, follow the steps provided below:

Create Cost and Usage Reports

Sign in to the Billing and Cost Management console.
Go to Data Exportsin the navigation pane and choose Create.
In the Export type choose Legacy CUR export.
Enter a Report name for your report (for example: cur-perfectscale-example).
Select Refresh automatically in the Export Content / Data refresh settings.
In the Data export delivery options for Report data time granularity choose one of the following options:
- Hourly to aggregate the line items in the report by hour.
- Daily to aggregate the line items in the report by day.
- Monthly to aggregate the line items in the report by month.
To get more detailed data, PerfectScale recommends aggregating the line items in the report Hourly.
For Report data integration choose Amazon Athena.
In the Data export storage settings, configure the section following one of these steps:
- Select the existing bucket (if you already have S3 bucket).
- Select Create a bucket, enter a bucket name, and choose the Region for the new bucket.
For the S3 path prefix, enter the report path prefix you want to prepend to the name of your report.
Add Tags if needed.
Review the settings for your report and click Create report.

It can take up to 24 hours for AWS to deliver your first report to your Amazon S3 bucket.

CUR master account support

If your AWS account is a part of an AWS Organization or if you manage multiple AWS accounts within the same organization, you can centralize billing data using the management (primary) account of the AWS Organization. This setup allows you to configure AWS CUR only once and get a detailed view of costs and usage across all accounts, enabling better cost management across your entire organization.

When CUR is enabled at the organization level, it automatically collects cost and usage data from all member accounts, simplifying expense tracking and management across multiple accounts in a centralized way. This setup allows you to utilize a single AWS CUR for all pricing profiles, requiring only a change in the region where your Kubernetes cluster is installed.

If you are setting up CUR in the master account, ensure that all subsequent configurations (CUR, Athena, and IAM) are also completed in this account.

Set up Amazon Athena

Set up Amazon Athena using AWS CloudFormation templates.

AWS CloudFormation doesn't support cross-region resources. In order to use an AWS CloudFormation template, all the resources should be created in the same AWS Region. The Region must support the following services:

AWS Lambda
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
AWS Glue
Amazon Athena

Go to the Amazon S3 console.
In the S3 bucket that you opted to receive the AWS CUR report (cur-perfectscale-example) in the folder report path prefix(your-report-path-prefix)/report name (your-report-name) you will find template file crawler-cfn.yml.
AWS generate automatically template file and it can take up to 24h to generate from creating CUR
Go to Object actions, and click Download as.
Navigate to the AWS CloudFormation console.
In case of using AWS CloudFormation for the first time, select Create New Stack and click With new resources (standard) in the dropdown list.
Create new stack
Otherwise - Create Stack.
Select Choose an existing template in Prerequisite - Prepare template.
Select Upload a template file in Specify template.
After clicking Choose file select the downloaded .yml template, and click Open.
As a next step, enter the Stack name for your template, name cur-perfectscale-example, add tags, if needed, and go to the next page.
Tick the check box at the bottom of the page and click Submit. ✅ I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources
The template creates the following resources:
- Three IAM roles
- An AWS Glue database
- An AWS Glue crawler
- Two Lambda functions
- An Amazon S3 notification
To ensure the template is configured properly, check the status in stack info.
Template status

Run Amazon Athena queries

Go to the Amazon Athena service and select Query editor.
Click Edit settings on the top right corner
Amazon Athena settings1
In the Query result location and encryption write down the path to the created for the CUR bucket, or use another bucket (for example, s3://cur-perfectscale-example/athena/ ) and click Save.
Amazon Athena settings2
Return to the Query editor and run the following query to ensure the configuration works properly: select status from cost_and_usage_data_status
Amazon Athena settings3

Configure the authentication method

There are two ways to grant us access to your CUR:

Delegate access across AWS accounts using IAM roles (recommended).
Create a separate IAM user.

How to delegate access with IAM roles

Go to AWS IAM service
Chose Policy and click Create Policy.
Add the following JSON permissions to the policy.

Replace {{S3_BUCKET_NAME}} line 62 and {{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}} line 12,44,45 with your values in the JSON policy below, where ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME is the name of your Athena database created by the CloudFront script.

Example:

💡 NOTE: There is no “-“ in the name of Athena. AWS replaces all “-“with “_“.

Add JSON permissions to the policy

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "BaseAthenaPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "athena:*"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:athena:*:*:workgroup/primary",
                "arn:aws:athena:*:*:datacatalog/{{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}}"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BaseGluePermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "glue:GetDatabase",
                "glue:GetDatabases",
                "glue:GetTable",
                "glue:GetTables",
                "glue:GetPartition",
                "glue:GetPartitions",
                "glue:BatchGetPartition",
                "glue:StartColumnStatisticsTaskRun",
                "glue:GetColumnStatisticsTaskRun",
                "glue:GetColumnStatisticsTaskRuns"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:glue:*:*:catalog",
                "arn:aws:glue:*:*:database/{{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}}",
                "arn:aws:glue:*:*:table/{{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}}/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BaseQueryResultsPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:GetBucketLocation",
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:ListBucketMultipartUploads",
                "s3:ListMultipartUploadParts",
                "s3:AbortMultipartUpload",
                "s3:PutObject",
                "s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::{{S3_BUCKET_NAME}}",
                "arn:aws:s3:::{{S3_BUCKET_NAME}}/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BaseS3BucketPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:GetBucketLocation",
                "s3:ListAllMyBuckets"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BasePricingPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "pricing:GetProducts"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Choose Roles and then choose to Create a Role in the navigation pane.
Choose the An AWS account role type.
Select Another AWS account.
For Account ID, enter 888061904880.
In the Options, choose Require external ID and write down your External ID
External ID is a unique, user-defined string used when setting up cross-account access in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). This additional security measure ensures that only trusted third-party entities can assume a specific role.
The external ID can be any string you define (a combination of random numbers, letters, or both).
Examples: YourCompanyName-Partner-2024-UniqueString 3JdpNfwvkpw4rs1sGsdrF0rM1R2 f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479
Choose Next: Permissions to set the permissions associated with the role.
Select the check box next to the policy you created before.
Name the user and click Next.
(Optional) Add description and metadata to the role by attaching tags as key-value pairs (you may need it for more information about using tags in IAM).
After reviewing the role, choose Create role.
You should now obtain the role's Amazon Resource Name (ARN), a unique identifier for the role you need to add to the PerfectScale AWS CUR Profile. Example: arn:aws:iam::989068116150:role/access-perfectscale-account-to-cur).

How to create IAM user for CUR integration

Go to AWS IAM service.
Go to Policy and click Create Policy.
Add the following JSON permissions to the policy and move to the next step.

Example:

💡 NOTE: There is no “-“ in the name of Athena. AWS replaces all “-“with “_“.

Add JSON permissions to the policy

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "BaseAthenaPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "athena:*"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:athena:*:*:workgroup/primary",
                "arn:aws:athena:*:*:datacatalog/{{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}}"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BaseGluePermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "glue:GetDatabase",
                "glue:GetDatabases",
                "glue:GetTable",
                "glue:GetTables",
                "glue:GetPartition",
                "glue:GetPartitions",
                "glue:BatchGetPartition",
                "glue:StartColumnStatisticsTaskRun",
                "glue:GetColumnStatisticsTaskRun",
                "glue:GetColumnStatisticsTaskRuns"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:glue:*:*:catalog",
                "arn:aws:glue:*:*:database/{{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}}",
                "arn:aws:glue:*:*:table/{{ATHENA_DATABASE_NAME}}/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BaseQueryResultsPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:GetBucketLocation",
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:ListBucketMultipartUploads",
                "s3:ListMultipartUploadParts",
                "s3:AbortMultipartUpload",
                "s3:PutObject",
                "s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::{{S3_BUCKET_NAME}}",
                "arn:aws:s3:::{{S3_BUCKET_NAME}}/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BaseS3BucketPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:GetBucketLocation",
                "s3:ListAllMyBuckets"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "BasePricingPermissions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "pricing:GetProducts"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Name your policy and click Create Policy.
Go to User and click Create User.
Name the user and click Next.
Select your policy in the Attach policies directly and move to the next step.
Create User
Select just created user, go to Security_credentials, and click Create access key.
Copy the generated Access key/Secret access key and paste it into the CUR profile.

Visit the official AWS documentation for more details

Creating Cost and Usage Reports

Setting up Athena using AWS CloudFormation templates

Querying Cost and Usage Reports using Amazon Athena - AWS Data Exports

Configuring AWS pricing integration with AWS CUR profile

After enabling CUR, in order to start using the integration, you need to create an AWS CUR Pricing Profile and apply it to the desired cluster.

🛠️ How to create AWS CUR profile

There are two options for creating a Profile: from the Settings tab or directly from the Overview.

From the Settings tab

Go to the Settings tab on the left panel -> select Pricing -> click the +Add Profile button -> select AWS CUR -> name the profile and put the needed values in the relevant fields -> click Save button.

To verify the accuracy of your AWS CUR Profile configuration, simply click on the Test Integration button. When the configuration is correct, you will see the message AWS CUR Configured Correctly . In case of AWS CUR Configured Wrongly response, check, and ensure the correctness of the data.

From the Overview tab

Go to the Overview tab on the left panel -> find the cluster to which you want to apply the custom Pricing Profile and click three dots button -> select Cluster Settings -> go to Customizations -> click on Add New Profile in the Pricing Profile drop-down list -> select AWS CUR type -> name and configure your profile -> click the Save And Apply button -> click the Save Changes button.

AWS CUR profile configuration

athena_result_bucket: the S3 bucket, where Athena stores query results.

athena_region: the AWS region where Athena is running.

athena_database: the name of the database created on Athena setup.

athena_table: the name of the table, created on Athena setup.

aws_account_id: AWS account, where the cluster is running.

aws_account_id refers to the account where the cluster is running, NOT the AWS billing account ID.

aws_external_id: the ID for cross-account access in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

asw_external_id is a unique, user-defined string used when setting up cross-account access in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). This additional security measure ensures that only trusted third-party entities can assume a specific role.

The external ID can be any string you define (a combination of random numbers, letters, or both).

Examples: YourCompanyName-Partner-2024-UniqueString 3JdpNfwvkpw4rs1sGsdrF0rM1R2 f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479

role_arn: the Amazon Resource Name associated with the role possessing the necessary credentials to execute calls on your behalf.

The complete configuration might look like the following example:

athena_database: athenacurcfn_access-perfectscale-account-to-cur
athena_region: us-east-1
athena_result_bucket: s3://access-perfectscale-account-to-cur/
athena_table: access-perfectscale-account-to-cur
aws_account_id: '888061904880'
aws_external_id: f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479
role_arn: arn:aws:iam::693587426073:role/access-perfectscale-account-to-cur

NOTE: Alternatively, you can authenticate using credentials. To authenticate with the credentials, replace role_arn with the two following fields in the configuration above:

access_key_id: the ID of a long-term credential for a specific user in AWS (IAM, root).

secret_access_key: the Secret Key for an Access Key (can only be retrieved upon creation). If the access is lost, the secret key must be recreated.

As a result, your configuration will look like this:

aws_account_id: ''
aws_external_id: ''
athena_result_bucket: ''
athena_region: ''
athena_database: ''
athena_table: ''
access_key_id: ''
secret_access_key: ''

Global discount for on-demand nodes

If you have a global discount for on-demand nodes (from a cloud provider or cloud reseller) that isn’t included in your custom cloud billing, you can apply it in addition to your AWS CUR integration.

Add the following parameters to your AWS CUR profile to enable applying the globalDiscount on top of your cloud billing integration:

global_discount (optional block):

percentage - the percentage (0–100, floats supported) of the discount to apply on top of standard on-demand node pricing. This field is required when global_discount exists.
start_date (optional) - the effective start date for applying the global_discount. If this field is empty, it defaults to today.

If you change the percentage or start_date, only newly generated Trends report will reflect the update. Historical reports will not update automatically. Contact [email protected] if you need them recalculated.

The complete configuration might look like the following example:

global_discount:
  percentage: 15
  start_sate: 2025-31-12
athena_database: athenacurcfn_access-perfectscale-account-to-cur
athena_region: us-east-1
athena_result_bucket: s3://access-perfectscale-account-to-cur/
athena_table: access-perfectscale-account-to-cur
aws_account_id: '888061904880'
aws_external_id: f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479
role_arn: arn:aws:iam::693587426073:role/access-perfectscale-account-to-cur

AWS CUR configuration verification

To verify if AWS CUR is configured properly, click the Test Integration button.

🟢 When the configuration is correct, you will see the message AWS CUR Configured Correctly.

🔴 In case of AWS CUR Configured Wrongly response, check the Show integration failure details dropdown and fix the displayed issues.

🛠️ How to apply AWS CUR profile

Apply to a single cluster

To apply AWS CUR Pricing Profile to the cluster, go to the Overview tab on the left panel -> find the cluster to which you want to apply the AWS CUR Pricing Profile and click three dots button -> select Cluster Settings -> go to Customizations -> select the needed profile in the Pricing Profile drop-down list.

Apply to multiple clusters

To apply the profile to multiple clusters from a single view, use the Manage Assignments feature.

Go to the Settings tab on the left panel -> select the Pricing -> click the Manage Assignments button -> apply the profiles for the needed clusters -> click the Save Changes button.

Configuring AWS pricing integration with CRD

To configure AWS CUR pricing using a Custom Resource Definition (CRD), you’ll need to define and apply a Custom Resource (CR) that specifies your unique billing conditions. This approach allows you to manage accurate pricing directly through Kubernetes manifests.

The Custom Resource (CR) must be created in the perfectscale namespace.

Setup instructions

Enable the AWS CUR in your AWS account.
Set up the report to export data to an S3 bucket and integrate it with AWS Athena.
Create an IAM Role for cross-account access (recommended) or an IAM User with the required permissions.
Configure the CR.

Recommended CR configuration

We recommend configuring a CR using the IAM Role authentication method.

apiVersion: perfectscale.io/v1
kind: ClusterSettings
metadata:
  name: cluster-settings-main
  namespace: perfectscale
spec:
  profiles:
    pricing:
      - type: aws_cur
        name: aws-cur-integration
        assigned: true
        value:
          global_discount:
            percentage: 7.5
            start_date: 2025-12-31
            
          # Authentication - IAM Role (recommended)
          role_arn: "arn:aws:iam::your-account-id:role/your-role-name"
          aws_external_id: "your-unique-external-id-here"

          # Athena Configuration
          athena_database: athenacurcfn_perfectscale_cur_report
          athena_region: us-east-1
          athena_result_bucket: s3://perfectscale-cur-results/
          athena_table: perfectscale_cur_report_hourly

          # AWS Account ID (where cluster is running, NOT billing account)
          aws_account_id: "your-aws-account-id-here"

⚙️ CR parameters:

Parameter

Description

global_discount (optional block)

The discount to apply on top of standard on-demand node pricing. percentage - the percentage (0–100, floats supported) of the discount. This field is required when global_discount exists. start_date (optional) - the effective start date for applying the global_discount.

role_arn

The Amazon Resource Name associated with the role possessing the necessary credentials to execute calls on your behalf.

aws_external_id

The ID for cross-account access in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

athena_database

Name of the database that was created during the Athena setup.

athena_region

AWS region where Athena is running.

athena_result_bucket

S3 bucket where Athena stores query results.

athena_table

Name of the table that was created on the Athena setup

aws_account_id

AWS account where cluster is running, NOT billing account

If a global_discount percentage is provided without a start_date in the CRD profile, we won’t default to today’s date as we do for profiles configured in the UI, and the discount will not be applied. The pricing profile appears broken in the UI.

Alternative CR configuration

Alternatively, you can configure a CR using the IAM User authentication method.

apiVersion: perfectscale.io/v1
 kind: ClusterSettings
 metadata:
   name: cluster-settings-main
   namespace: perfectscale
 spec:
   profiles:
     pricing:
       - type: aws_cur
         name: aws-cur-integration-user
         assigned: true
         value:
           global_discount:
            percentage: 7.5
            start_date: 2025-12-31
            
           # Authentication - IAM User (alternative)
           access_key_id: "your-aws-access-key-id-here"
           secret_access_key_from:
             secretKeyRef:
               name: aws-credentials
               key: secret-access-key

           # Athena Configuration
           athena_database: your_athena_database_name
           athena_region: us-east-1
           athena_result_bucket: s3://your-athena-results-bucket/
           athena_table: your_athena_table_name

           # AWS Account ID (where cluster is running, NOT billing account)
           aws_account_id: "your-aws-account-id-here"

To configure AWS CUR pricing with IAM User authentication, a secret is required:

piVersion: v1
 kind: Secret
 metadata:
   name: aws-credentials
   namespace: perfectscale
 type: Opaque
 stringData:
   secret-access-key: "your-aws-secret-access-key-here"

Ensure that the secret is created in the same namespace as the exporter - perfectscale.

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hashtagCreate Cost and Usage Reports

hashtagCUR master account support

hashtagSet up Amazon Athena

hashtagRun Amazon Athena queries

hashtagConfigure the authentication method

hashtagHow to delegate access with IAM roles

hashtagHow to create IAM user for CUR integration

hashtagConfiguring AWS pricing integration with AWS CUR profile

hashtag🛠️ How to create AWS CUR profile

hashtagFrom the Settings tab

hashtagFrom the Overview tab

hashtagAWS CUR profile configuration

hashtagGlobal discount for on-demand nodes

hashtagAWS CUR configuration verification

hashtag🛠️ How to apply AWS CUR profile

hashtagApply to a single cluster

hashtagApply to multiple clusters

hashtagConfiguring AWS pricing integration with CRD

hashtagSetup instructions

hashtagRecommended CR configuration

hashtag⚙️ CR parameters:

hashtagAlternative CR configuration

Create Cost and Usage Reports

CUR master account support

Set up Amazon Athena

Run Amazon Athena queries

Configure the authentication method

How to delegate access with IAM roles

How to create IAM user for CUR integration

Configuring AWS pricing integration with AWS CUR profile

🛠️ How to create AWS CUR profile

From the Settings tab

From the Overview tab

AWS CUR profile configuration

Global discount for on-demand nodes

AWS CUR configuration verification

🛠️ How to apply AWS CUR profile

Apply to a single cluster

Apply to multiple clusters

Configuring AWS pricing integration with CRD

Setup instructions

Recommended CR configuration

⚙️ CR parameters:

Alternative CR configuration