Introducing Octo’s First Feature of the Year!
Managing cloud costs can be a challenge, but Octo makes it easier than ever! Octo helps users optimize cloud costs by providing recommendations and allowing them to apply these suggestions directly within its interface. Currently, Octo supports executing recommendations for AWS, with plans to add support for GCP and Azure soon.
This simplifies AWS resource management and enables quick action on cost-saving opportunities. Let’s dive in to see how this works.
🆕Execute Recommendations
Octo uses AWS Change Manager, a tool within AWS Systems Manager, to execute recommendations. This feature ensures changes are reviewed and approved before execution, reducing risks and maintaining compliance with company policies.
By integrating AWS Change Manager, Octo automates cost-saving recommendations while adding a layer of governance. This allows organizations to implement changes efficiently while following approval workflows and best practices.
But before anything else, please make sure that the AWS account linked to the recommendation has already set up API access as Octo requires specific permissions to perform the execution.
To execute recommendations in Octo, please follow these steps:
1. Create and approve change templates. For recommendations with status “Available”, a change template will be created first. You can click the kebab icon to do so.
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Or click the recommendation to view its details.
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Then, click the “Approve Change Template” button. After that, an Approve Change Template modal will appear.
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Note: Octo uses the Assume Role mechanism to handle change template approvals. When an account is registered, Octo creates an IAM role named OctoChangeTemplateApproverRole for this purpose. Only the linked AWS account can assume this role, preventing Octo from accessing it. This ensures the approval process stays secure and fully controlled by the AWS account.
Click Open Switch Role to redirect you to the AWS Switch Role page. Octo will automatically fill in the necessary fields, allowing you to simply click the “Switch Role” button to complete the process.
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After that, you will be redirected again to the details page of the created change template, as shown in the sample image below. Click the “Approve” button in the upper right corner of the page if you decide to approve the template.
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A pop-up modal will be displayed again to confirm the approval. You can add comments about the template, but feel free to leave it blank since Octo doesn’t record this data.
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Finally, click “Approve”.
2. Execute the recommendation. Once approving the change template you created, go back to Octo. The status of the recommendation should now be changed to “Approved”.
Recommendations with the same combinations, such as stopping an EC2 instance in account ID 123456789012 and region ap-northeast-1, will also have their status updated to approved. As mentioned in the key elements, change templates can be shared across these combinations.
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Note: There’s a delay in updating the status as "approved" because it depends on a scheduled cron job that processes approved templates in groups, ensuring efficient handling of updates in bulk. Understand how Octo updates recommendation status through Cron tasks here.
Now that your recommendations are approved, it's time to execute them. Click on the kebab icon or simply open the recommendation details and click “Execute Recommendation”.
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Before taking action on a recommendation, you need to confirm since the process is irreversible once it’s done. Type “execute” if you wish to proceed.
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Upon successful execution, the recommendation will be transferred to the Optimization History. This process ensures that completed recommendations are appropriately archived, enabling users to monitor past optimizations and evaluate their long-term impact.
🛠️Minor Bug Fixes and Improvements
We have also made some minor bug fixes and improvements to other existing features.
We will continue to improve features based on user feedback.