#Enabling Billing Alerts

Before creating a billing alarm, you must enable billing alerts to monitor your estimated AWS charges. This process involves enabling billing metric data collection, which cannot be disabled once activated, although you can delete any billing alarms you create. Here are the steps to enable billing alerts:

  1. Sign In: Ensure you are signed in using account root user credentials or as an IAM user with permission to view billing information.
  2. Open AWS Billing Console: Navigate to the AWS Billing console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/billing/.
  3. Billing Preferences: In the navigation pane, select Billing Preferences.
  4. Edit Alert Preferences: Under Alert preferences, click Edit.
  5. Enable Alerts: Choose Receive CloudWatch Billing Alerts.
  6. Save Preferences: Click Save preferences.

After enabling billing alerts, it takes approximately 15 minutes before you can view billing data and set billing alarms.

#Creating a Billing Alarm

Once billing alerts are enabled, you can create a billing alarm to receive notifications when your estimated charges exceed a specified threshold. Follow these steps to create a billing alarm using the CloudWatch console:

  1. Open CloudWatch Console: Go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.
  2. Navigate to Alarms: In the navigation pane, select Alarms, then All alarms.
  3. Create Alarm: Click Create alarm.
  4. Select Metric: Choose Select metric, then under Browse, select Billing and Total Estimated Charge.
  5. Choose Metric: Select the EstimatedCharges metric and click Select metric.
  6. Configure Alarm:
    • Statistic: Choose Maximum.
    • Period: Set to 6 hours.
    • Threshold Type: Select Static.
    • Threshold Value: Define the value that triggers the alarm, e.g., 200 USD.
  7. Additional Configuration:
    • Datapoints to Alarm: Specify 1 out of 1.
    • Missing Data Treatment: Choose Treat missing data as missing.
  8. Notification Setup: Under Notification, ensure In alarm is selected. Specify an Amazon SNS topic to be notified when the alarm is in the ALARM state. This can include your email address for notifications.
  9. Finalize Alarm: Enter a name and optional description for your alarm, review the configuration, and choose Create alarm.

#Automating Billing Alerts with Push Notifications

To automate billing alerts and receive them as push notifications on your iPhone using a service like Pushsafer, follow these steps:

  1. Create an SNS Topic:
    • Open SNS Console: Go to the Amazon SNS Console.
    • Create Topic: Click Create topic and choose Standard. Enter a name for your topic and click Create topic.
  2. Create Subscription:
    • Protocol: Select HTTPS.
    • Endpoint: Enter the Pushsafer API URL in the format https://www.pushsafer.com/api.
    • Attributes: Add the necessary attributes, including your Pushsafer private key.
  3. Confirm Subscription: Pushsafer will send a confirmation request to the specified endpoint. Confirm the subscription in your Pushsafer account.
  4. Attach SNS Topic to CloudWatch Alarm: When setting up the CloudWatch alarm, specify the SNS topic created above for notifications.

#Integrating Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

To enhance security, integrate two-factor authentication (2FA) for accessing your AWS account. This ensures that only authorized users can modify billing alerts and access sensitive billing information. Here’s how to enable 2FA:

  1. Sign In to AWS Management Console: Use your root account or an IAM user with administrative privileges.
  2. Navigate to IAM: Go to the Identity and Access Management (IAM) console.
  3. Select Users: Choose the user for whom you want to enable 2FA.
  4. Security Credentials: Under the Security credentials tab, choose Manage MFA device.
  5. Choose MFA Device: Select the type of MFA device you want to use (e.g., virtual MFA device, U2F security key).
  6. Configure Device: Follow the on-screen instructions to configure the MFA device. This typically involves scanning a QR code with an authenticator app and entering the generated code.