Introduction

IBM Cloud® Usage Metering is a platform service that enables service providers to submit metrics collected for resource instances provisioned by IBM Cloud users. IBM and third-party service providers that are delivering an integrated billing service in IBM Cloud are required to submit usage for all active service instances every hour. This is important because inability to report usage can lead to loss of revenue collection for IBM, in turn causing loss of revenue share for the service providers.

The IBM Cloud Usage Metering API is mostly internal for IBM service providers like IBM Cloudant, API Connect, dashDB, with the exception of third party service providers. Before using the IBM Cloud Usage Metering API, users need the following prerequisite knowledge. Cloud computing, security, error handling, Webapp interaction, and alerts and monitoring.

SDKs for Java, Node, Python, and Go are available to make it easier to programmatically access the API from your code. The client libraries that are provided by the SDKs implement best practices for using the API and reduce the amount of code that you need to write. The tab for each language includes code examples that demonstrate how to use the client libraries. For more information about using the SDKs, see the IBM Cloud SDK Common project on GitHub.

Installing the Java SDK

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.ibm.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>usage-metering</artifactId>
    <version>${version}</version>
</dependency>

Gradle

compile 'com.ibm.cloud:usage-metering:{version}'

View on GitHub https://github.com/IBM/platform-services-java-sdk

Installing the Node SDK

npm install @ibm-cloud/platform-services

View on GitHub

https://github.com/IBM/platform-services-node-sdk

Installing the Python SDK

pip install --upgrade "ibm-platform-services"

View on GitHub

https://github.com/IBM/platform-services-python-sdk

Installing the Go SDK

Go modules (recommended): Add the following import in your code, and then run go build or go mod tidy

import (
	"github.com/IBM/platform-services-go-sdk/usagemeteringv4"
)

Go get

go get -u github.com/IBM/platform-services-go-sdk/usagemeteringv4

View on GitHub

https://github.com/IBM/platform-services-go-sdk

Prerequisites

You must be approved to deliver an integrated billing service in IBM Cloud.
You must have a registered service in the resource management console.
Your pricing plan must be successfully published to the IBM Cloud catalog, and updated with prices for all chargeable metrics in the plans of the resource.
Metering and rating definitions for all the plans in the resource have been verified.

Usage records

Usage records contain metrics that are accumulated over a small window of time. Depending on the metric, the accumulation window can be anywhere between 15 minutes to 24 hours. Service providers should ensure that the metrics are not accumulated with overlapping time windows. A usage record has the following fields.

| Field Name | Description | |:---------------------|:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | resource_instance_id | The ID of the resource instance as registered in the resource controller (the IBM Cloud provisioning layer) | | plan_id | The contract by which the usage record should be aggregated and rated. | | start | Time from which the usage was measured. This value is specified in milliseconds since epoch. | | end | Time to which the usage was measured. This value is specified in milliseconds since epoch. | | region | The service provider region in which the usage was measured. | | measured_usage | An array of measures with its accumulated values. | | consumer_id | Optional field. If aggregation is required at a consumer level, then this field is required. Having a value for consumer_id for any other reason might result in incorrect aggregation. The consumer_id is known only to the service provider. |

Guidelines

The start time and end time represent the time range during which the measures were collected, and they are not dependent on the time at which the usage record is submitted to the metering APIs.
Usage records are facts. After a usage record is created, its contents can't be altered. The metering service acknowledges with a location when a usage record is successfully created. If an error code is returned, see the error description for the actions that you might have to take.
A usage record is uniquely identified by the signature account_id/resource_group_id/resource_instance_id/consumer_id/plan_id/region/start/end. After a usage record is processed, any other usage record with the same signature is rejected as a duplicate.
Usage records must be submitted within two days from the time at which the measurement was completed. Older usage records are rejected.

Submitting usage records

Metering supports submitting multiple usage records in one API call. A maximum of 100 usage records can be submitted per API call. When the HTTP response status code is 202, the response body will include the acceptance status of every usage record. Any status other than 201 is accompanied with an error code and indicates that there is some problem with the usage record and was not accepted. See Error handling for the usage acceptance status codes and the necessary action that's required.

Best practices

All service providers must submit usage every hour so that the end user doesn't see a delay between the time that the resource was used and the time that the cost is reflected in their accounts.
Retry submission of usage records only if there was a genuine failure with the previous request. Do not resubmit usage records that were successfully accepted.

Aggregation levels

Usage is always aggregated to the service plan and pricing plan. For example, your service might have a standard plan with a pricing plan of $0.80 per 1,000 API calls. Additional aggregations happen at the following three levels.

Instance and consumer
Resource group
Account (Invoices are generated from the aggregated values in the account)

After an instance is provisioned, it has the same pricing plan for the entire billing period (month). The pricing plan is determined based on the date on which the instance is provisioned.

Endpoint URLs

The Usage Metering API uses the following global endpoint URL for all regions. When you call the API, add the path for each method to form the complete API endpoint for your requests.

https://billing.cloud.ibm.com

If you enabled service endpoints in your account, you can send API requests over the IBM Cloud® private network at the following base endpoint URLs. For more information, see Enabling VRF and service endpoints.

Private endpoint URL for VPC infrastructure: https://private.billing.cloud.ibm.com
Private endpoint URLs for classic infrastructure:
- Dallas: https://private.us-south.billing.cloud.ibm.com
- Washington DC: https://private.us-east.billing.cloud.ibm.com

Authentication

Authorization to the Usage Metering API is enforced by using an IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) access token. The token is used to determine the actions that a user or service ID has access to when they use the API.

Obtaining an IAM token for an authenticated user or service ID is described in the IAM Identity Services API documentation.

To use the API, add a valid IAM token to the HTTP Authorization request header, for example, -H 'Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>'.

When you use the SDK, configure an IAM authenticator with the IAM API key. The authenticator automatically obtains the IAM access token for the API key and includes it with each request. You can construct an authenticator in either of two ways:

Programmatically by constructing an IAM authenticator instance and supplying your IAM API key
By defining the API key in external configuration properties and then using the SDK authenticator factory to construct an IAM authenticator that uses the configured IAM API key

In this example of using external configuration properties, an IAM authenticator instance is created with the configured API key, and then the service client is constructed with this authenticator instance and the configured service URL.

For more information, see the Authentication section of the IBM Cloud SDK Common documentation.

To call each method, you'll need to be assigned a role that includes the required IAM actions. Each method lists the associated action. For more information about IAM actions and how they map to roles, see Assigning access to account management services.

To retrieve your access token:

curl -X POST \
  "https://iam.test.cloud.ibm.com/identity/token" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --data-urlencode 'grant_type=urn:ibm:params:oauth:grant-type:apikey' \
  --data-urlencode 'apikey=<API_KEY>'

Replace <API_KEY> with your IAM API key.

Setting client options through external configuration

Example environment variables, where <SERVICE_URL> is the endpoint URL and <API_KEY> is your IAM API key

export USAGE_METERING_URL=<SERVICE_URL>
export USAGE_METERING_AUTHTYPE=iam
export USAGE_METERING_APIKEY=<API_KEY>

Example of constructing the service client

import {
    "github.com/IBM/platform-services-go-sdk/usagemeteringv4"
}
...
serviceClientOptions := &usagemeteringv4.UsageMeteringV4Options{}
serviceClient, err := usagemeteringv4.NewUsageMeteringV4UsingExternalConfig(serviceClientOptions)

Setting client options through external configuration

Example environment variables, where <SERVICE_URL> is the endpoint URL and <API_KEY> is your IAM API key

export USAGE_METERING_URL=<SERVICE_URL>
export USAGE_METERING_AUTHTYPE=iam
export USAGE_METERING_APIKEY=<API_KEY>

Example of constructing the service client

import com.ibm.cloud.platform_services.usage_metering.v4.UsageMetering; 
...
UsageMetering serviceClient = UsageMetering.newInstance();

Setting client options through external configuration

Example environment variables, where <SERVICE_URL> is the endpoint URL and <API_KEY> is your IAM API key

export USAGE_METERING_URL=<SERVICE_URL>
export USAGE_METERING_AUTHTYPE=iam
export USAGE_METERING_APIKEY=<API_KEY>

Example of constructing the service client

const UsageMeteringV4 = require('@ibm-cloud/platform-services/usage-metering/v4');
...
const serviceClient = UsageMeteringV4.newInstance({});

Setting client options through external configuration

Example environment variables, where <SERVICE_URL> is the endpoint URL and <API_KEY> is your IAM API key

export USAGE_METERING_URL=<SERVICE_URL>
export USAGE_METERING_AUTHTYPE=iam
export USAGE_METERING_APIKEY=<API_KEY>

Example of constructing the service client

from ibm_platform_services import UsageMeteringV4
...
service_client = UsageMeteringV4.new_instance()

Error handling

HTTP status codes

| HTTP Status Code | Descriptions | |:-----------------|:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 400 | The payload is in an incorrect format. | | 401 | The IAM token that was used in the authorization header is invalid or expired. | | 403 | The subject in the supplied token does not authorization to submit usage. Contact IBM representative to get access. | | 413 | The number of usage records in the payload exceeds 100. | | >=500 | Resubmit the usage record. If problem persists, contact your IBM representative. |

Usage acceptance status codes

| Status Code | Action Required | |:------------|:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 400 | The usage record is not in a correct format. Possible reasons for this status include that the schema validation failed, the measures in the usage records are incorrect, or the start and end times do not fall between the provisioned and de-provisioned times. Fix the usage record and resubmit. | | 404 | The metering definition has not been onboarded. Work with your IBM representative to check if the resource is onboarded, and resubmit the usage record. | | 409 | The usage record is a duplicate. Do not retry. | | 424 | The resource instance's metadata in the resource controller has some errors. Fix the resource instance details and resubmit usage. | | >=500 | Resubmit the usage record. If problem persists, contact your IBM representative. |

Usage Metering | IBM Cloud API Docs