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Getting Started

Deploying North & signing up

Step 1

You can create a new North account, or access your current account at anytime at app.north.cloud

Step 2

Create an account through email or SSO (Google, Microsoft, GitHub)

Step 3

Select your cloud service provider(s) of choice. You can integrated both your AWS and GCP billing accounts through with North.

More on AWS integration here

More on GCP

AWS Onboarding

After you successfully created an account you can add your AWS billing accounts.

Add your payer account number(s)

Best practice: If your AWS account is part of an AWS organization, please signup using the billing account (also called manager account) only. This will allow North to analyze usage throughout all your accounts and centralize savings opportunities into one view.

Select your integration method

We recommend using the CloudFormation option. This deploys all the required permissions within a couple of minutes through a couple clicks. Or you can use Terraform, CLI, or console commands to deploy the required permissions.

Click here to open a pre-configured CloudFormation stack in a new tab.
Once in the page, scroll to the bottom and click "I acknowledge".
Finally, click "Create stack" to create the stack.

Create .tf file

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1" # Specify your AWS region
}

resource "aws_iam_role" "my_iam_role" {
  name               = "NorthCostAndUsageRole"
  assume_role_policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Effect    = "Allow"
        Principal = {
          AWS = "arn:aws:iam::480850768557:root"
        }
        Action    = ["sts:AssumeRole"]
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_policy" "my_iam_policy" {
  name        = "NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyPolicy"
  description = "Read-only policy for cost and usage reporting"
  policy      = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Sid    = "NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyPolicyID"
        Effect = "Allow"
        Action = [
          "ce:Get*",
          "ce:Describe*",
          "ce:List*",
          "ce:Start*",
          "account:GetAccountInformation",
          "billing:Get*",
          "payments:List*",
          "payments:Get*",
          "tax:List*",
          "tax:Get*",
          "consolidatedbilling:Get*",
          "consolidatedbilling:List*",
          "invoicing:List*",
          "invoicing:Get*",
          "cur:Get*",
          "cur:Validate*",
          "freetier:Get*",
          "ec2:DescribeCapacity*",
          "ec2:DescribeReservedInstances*",
          "ec2:DescribeSpot*",
          "rds:DescribeReserved*",
          "rds:DescribeDBRecommendations",
          "rds:DescribeAccountAttributes",
          "ecs:DescribeCapacityProviders",
          "es:DescribeReserved*"
        ]
        Resource = "*"
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "attach_policy_to_role" {
  policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.my_iam_policy.arn
  role       = aws_iam_role.my_iam_role.name
}

resource "aws_iam_role" "north_premium_iam_role" {
  name               = "NorthCostAndUsageRolePremium"
  assume_role_policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Effect    = "Allow"
        Principal = {
          AWS = "arn:aws:iam::480850768557:root"
        }
        Action    = ["sts:AssumeRole"]
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_policy" "north_premium_iam_policy" {
  name        = "NorthCostAndUsagePremiumPolicy"
  description = "Premium read-only policy for cost and usage reporting"
  policy      = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy1"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole"
        Resource = "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForComputeOptimizer*"
        Condition = {
          StringLike = {
            "iam:AWSServiceName" = "compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy2"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = "iam:PutRolePolicy"
        Resource = "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForComputeOptimizer"
      },
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy3"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = [
          "compute-optimizer:*",
          "ec2:DescribeInstances",
          "ec2:DescribeVolumes",
          "ecs:List*",
          "autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups",
          "lambda:ListFunctions",
          "lambda:ListProvisionedConcurrencyConfigs",
          "organizations:ListAccounts",
          "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
          "rds:DescribeDBRecommendations",
          "rds:DescribeReservedDBInstances*"
        ]
        Resource = "*"
      },
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy4"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = "organizations:EnableAWSServiceAccess"
        Resource = "*"
        Condition = {
          StringEquals = {
            "organizations:ServicePrincipal" = "compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "attach_premium_policy_to_role" {
  policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.north_premium_iam_policy.arn
  role       = aws_iam_role.north_premium_iam_role.name
}

output "role_arn" {
  value = aws_iam_role.my_iam_role.arn
}

output "role_arn_premium" {
  value = aws_iam_role.north_premium_iam_role.arn
}

Run the following command on the AWS CLI

aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyCloudFormationStack --template-url https://north-cloudformation-template-public.s3.amazonaws.com/billing-and-usage-read-only-cf-stack/north-read-only-access.yaml --region us-east-1 --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

Deploy a CloudFormation stack in the AWS console that will create a read-only cross-account role. This will enable North to recommend the best savings posture based on your usage.
In the AWS Management Console, select CloudFormation and “Create Stack”.
Select the "Specify an Amazon S3 template URL" and enter the URL below:

https://north-cloudformation-template-public.s3.amazonaws.com/billing-and-usage-read-only-cf-stack/north-read-only-access.yaml

On the "Specify stack details" page, enter the following information:
- Stack name: Enter "NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyCloudFormationStack" (or your desired stack name)
Click the "Next" until you are able to click “Create stack”

Verify access

We will automatically verify your access after your deployment. We recommend that you wait until all the permissions are successfully deployed. You can also verify manually or send over the instructions by email to another team member.

Make sure to have the proper permissions on your billing account to create roles and policies.

Start saving!

You will get a confirmation email once North AI has the perfect savings report ready and have access to all our features for free. You can even start savings that same hour.

GCP Onboarding

After you successfully created an account you can add your GCP billing accounts.

Make sure you have the following minimum role BigQuery Data Owner within the billing account to share the billing data set with North.

The following steps are for users that want to share a new billing dataset OR do not have a billing dataset created yet. If you already have a billing dataset created and want to share that one you can skip to step 4.

Go to the page.

Select the billing organization you want to add and click Edit Settings.

Enable billing export for all

You will repeat the step 3 below for all billing reports.

Standard usage cost
Detailed usage cost
Pricing

Select project and billing data set

All you are doing is selecting what project the data will be hosted in. Don't worry, all projects under your billing account will be available as well.

You can set the dataset name to whatever convention you prefer or "north_billing_dataset"

Select the billing data set that you chose for North.
Click Sharing button > Permissions button

Add principal (below)

principalSet://iam.googleapis.com/projects/411677214765/locations/global/workloadIdentityPools/north-aws-pool-id/attribute.aws_role/NorthGCPReadOnlyRole

Attach the following role to the principal

BigQuery Data Viewer

BigQuery Metadata Viewer

(Advanced) Recommendation export

In addition to the billing and usage data, we also use the recommendations data to align some of our more advanced AI recommendations with GCP. This allows us to provide rightsizing, anomaly detection, and advanced visibility into your architecture.

Make sure that you have roles/recommender.exporter

GCP Onboarding

After you successfully created an account you can add your GCP billing accounts.

Make sure you have the following minimum role BigQuery Data Owner within the billing account to share the billing data set with North.

Go to the page.

Select the billing organization you want to add and click Edit Settings.

Enable billing export for all

You will repeat the step 3 below for all billing reports.

Standard usage cost
Detailed usage cost
Pricing

Select project and billing data set

All you are doing is selecting what project the data will be hosted in. Don't worry, all projects under your billing account will be available as well.

You can set the dataset name to whatever convention you prefer or "north_billing_dataset"

Select the billing data set that you chose for North.
Click Sharing button > Permissions button

Add principal (below)

principalSet://iam.googleapis.com/projects/411677214765/locations/global/workloadIdentityPools/north-aws-pool-id/attribute.aws_role/NorthGCPReadOnlyRole

Attach the following role to the principal

BigQuery Data Viewer

BigQuery Metadata Viewer

(Advanced) Recommendation export

Make sure that you have roles/recommender.exporter

AWS Onboarding

After you successfully created an account you can add your AWS billing accounts.

Add your payer account number(s)

Select your integration method

Click here to open a pre-configured CloudFormation stack in a new tab.
Once in the page, scroll to the bottom and click "I acknowledge".
Finally, click "Create stack" to create the stack.

Create .tf file

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1" # Specify your AWS region
}

resource "aws_iam_role" "my_iam_role" {
  name               = "NorthCostAndUsageRole"
  assume_role_policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Effect    = "Allow"
        Principal = {
          AWS = "arn:aws:iam::480850768557:root"
        }
        Action    = ["sts:AssumeRole"]
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_policy" "my_iam_policy" {
  name        = "NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyPolicy"
  description = "Read-only policy for cost and usage reporting"
  policy      = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Sid    = "NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyPolicyID"
        Effect = "Allow"
        Action = [
          "ce:Get*",
          "ce:Describe*",
          "ce:List*",
          "ce:Start*",
          "account:GetAccountInformation",
          "billing:Get*",
          "payments:List*",
          "payments:Get*",
          "tax:List*",
          "tax:Get*",
          "consolidatedbilling:Get*",
          "consolidatedbilling:List*",
          "invoicing:List*",
          "invoicing:Get*",
          "cur:Get*",
          "cur:Validate*",
          "freetier:Get*",
          "ec2:DescribeCapacity*",
          "ec2:DescribeReservedInstances*",
          "ec2:DescribeSpot*",
          "rds:DescribeReserved*",
          "rds:DescribeDBRecommendations",
          "rds:DescribeAccountAttributes",
          "ecs:DescribeCapacityProviders",
          "es:DescribeReserved*"
        ]
        Resource = "*"
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "attach_policy_to_role" {
  policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.my_iam_policy.arn
  role       = aws_iam_role.my_iam_role.name
}

resource "aws_iam_role" "north_premium_iam_role" {
  name               = "NorthCostAndUsageRolePremium"
  assume_role_policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Effect    = "Allow"
        Principal = {
          AWS = "arn:aws:iam::480850768557:root"
        }
        Action    = ["sts:AssumeRole"]
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_policy" "north_premium_iam_policy" {
  name        = "NorthCostAndUsagePremiumPolicy"
  description = "Premium read-only policy for cost and usage reporting"
  policy      = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy1"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole"
        Resource = "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForComputeOptimizer*"
        Condition = {
          StringLike = {
            "iam:AWSServiceName" = "compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy2"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = "iam:PutRolePolicy"
        Resource = "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForComputeOptimizer"
      },
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy3"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = [
          "compute-optimizer:*",
          "ec2:DescribeInstances",
          "ec2:DescribeVolumes",
          "ecs:List*",
          "autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups",
          "lambda:ListFunctions",
          "lambda:ListProvisionedConcurrencyConfigs",
          "organizations:ListAccounts",
          "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
          "rds:DescribeDBRecommendations",
          "rds:DescribeReservedDBInstances*"
        ]
        Resource = "*"
      },
      {
        Sid     = "NorthPremiumPolicy4"
        Effect  = "Allow"
        Action  = "organizations:EnableAWSServiceAccess"
        Resource = "*"
        Condition = {
          StringEquals = {
            "organizations:ServicePrincipal" = "compute-optimizer.amazonaws.com"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  })
}

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "attach_premium_policy_to_role" {
  policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.north_premium_iam_policy.arn
  role       = aws_iam_role.north_premium_iam_role.name
}

output "role_arn" {
  value = aws_iam_role.my_iam_role.arn
}

output "role_arn_premium" {
  value = aws_iam_role.north_premium_iam_role.arn
}

Run the following command on the AWS CLI

aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyCloudFormationStack --template-url https://north-cloudformation-template-public.s3.amazonaws.com/billing-and-usage-read-only-cf-stack/north-read-only-access.yaml --region us-east-1 --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

Deploy a CloudFormation stack in the AWS console that will create a read-only cross-account role. This will enable North to recommend the best savings posture based on your usage.
In the AWS Management Console, select CloudFormation and “Create Stack”.
Select the "Specify an Amazon S3 template URL" and enter the URL below:

https://north-cloudformation-template-public.s3.amazonaws.com/billing-and-usage-read-only-cf-stack/north-read-only-access.yaml

On the "Specify stack details" page, enter the following information:
- Stack name: Enter "NorthCostAndUsageReadOnlyCloudFormationStack" (or your desired stack name)
Click the "Next" until you are able to click “Create stack”

Verify access

Make sure to have the proper permissions on your billing account to create roles and policies.

Start saving!

You will get a confirmation email once North AI has the perfect savings report ready and have access to all our features for free. You can even start savings that same hour.