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Version: 76.0.0

a9s Billing

This section describes the operation of the a9s Billing component.

a9s Billing receives event notifications from third-party services such as a9s Data Services and can also fetch events from the Cloud Foundry (CF) Cloud Controller.

The component stores said events, which correspond to running applications or Service Instances. It also processes Start/Stop events into daily Service Instance entries.

These Service Instance entries can then be converted into billable Effort entries.

note

To generate billable entries, a price plan must be configured for the corresponding target Service Plan and Data Services.

Technical Overview​

The a9s-billing BOSH release provides two jobs for a9s Billing: cf_billing and cf_billing_worker.

  • cf_billing is an optional web API that receives custom third-party events over HTTP.
  • cf_billing_worker runs the daily processing chain.

The cf_billing_worker performs the following tasks:

  • Fetch events from the configured CF Cloud Controller.
  • Process events into Service Instance entries.
  • Export each Service Instance entry that has a valid Target Plan and pricing information.

During Service Instance entry processing, existing Service Instance entries are closed at the end of the day. If no stop event occurs, new Service Instance entries are created for the following day.

An OpenAPI description of the a9s Billing API is available at a9s Billing.

Key Concepts​

The following concepts recur across the a9s Billing pages in this section:

  • Service Instance entry: the daily aggregation of a running application or Service Instance, generated by the cf_billing_worker from start and stop events. An entry is closed at the end of the day and, if no stop event occurred, continued as a new entry the following day.
  • Target Plan: a versioned set of application and Service Plan prices with an effective start date. New Target Plan revisions let a price change take effect on a specific date without altering the pricing that applied to earlier billing periods.
  • Effort: a monetized Service Instance entry, generated once a valid target Service Plan and pricing information are available. Efforts are the entries exported to an invoicing system.

A Service Instance entry can only be exported as an Effort once its Service Plan is covered by pricing in the currently effective Target Plan. See Introduce New Service Plans and Manage Price Plans for how to keep pricing coverage up to date.