Tariffs
Tariff is a set of rules on how a particular resource provided by the platform should be charged. You can review and manage the list of existing ones via the appropriate Billing > Pricing Models > Tariffs section in JCA.
In case, when there is at least one reseller, a dedicated drop-down list appears at the tools panel, allowing to switch between the main and all of the assigned sub-platforms. Use it to select the required installation.
The displayed table provides the following information:
- Name - lists tariffs, which are grouped by type (Dynamic Cloudlets, Reserved Cloudlets, Dynamic Disk Space, Reserved Disk Space, Network, Option, Licence, and External Resources)
- Template - shows whether the tariff is applied to the additional resource (e.g. SSL or public IP) or software stack (e.g. MSSQL). The “default” value refers to all of the provided stacks at once
- Description - provides a description for the tariff
Selecting a particular tariff within the list will display its tiers details in the panel to the right with additional information on the Minimum Cloudlet Limit number and the Cloudlet Increment value for the tariffs of the Dynamic/Reserved Cloudlets types.
Below, we’ll overview how to:
Manage Tariff List
Use the tools panel at the top of the Tariffs section to manage tariffs available on the platform.
1. Click the Add button and apply configurations from the linked section to set up a new tariff.
2. Select the existing record and click Edit or double-click the required line.
In the opened Edit Tariff dialog you can adjust all the tariff configurations, except for the Type and Template fields.
3. To Remove a particular tariff, select it within the list and click on the same-named button at the top tools panel.
Confirm your choice via the pop-up window.
Configure Tariff
When adding or editing a tariff, you need to configure the target resource and the charging behavior correctly. The process is divided into three main parts:
Basic Data
1. First, you need to provide some general data, which is required for all of the tariffs.
Here, the following fields should be fulfilled:
- Name - set any preferable name for your tariff
- Description - provide any preferred description for your tariff (optional)
- Type - select tariff’s type from the list (listed in the next step)
- Currency - choose the currency for prices configured within tiers (the platform’s main one is selected by default)
Note: If a non-default currency is selected, the Tiers table is provided with an additional column. It automatically converts the specified price into the platform’s main currency (i.e. the amount to be charged from the user balance).
Be aware that the displayed price is estimation as the exact value can vary slightly based on the currency conversion rate during the particular withdrawal operation. The management of these rates is performed via system settings:
- currency.exchange.server.url - host/IP of the service with the currency exchange rates (https://platforms-info.jelastic.com/getcurrencyrates?all=true by default)
- currency.exchange.update.period - interval (hours) between currency rates update
2. Next, based on the selected Type, some additional fields can appear:
- Dynamic/Reserved Cloudlets
- Template - allows selecting a particular stack (or all of them) for the tariff
- Minimum Cloudlet Limit - sets the minimum allowed cloudlets
- Cloudlet Increment - configures cloudlets increment
- Dynamic/Reserved Disk Space
- Template - allows selecting a particular stack (or all of them) for the tariff
- Network
- Template - allows selecting a particular stack (or all of them) for the tariff
- Option
- Template - allows selecting an additional resource, i.e. SSL or Public IPv4/IPv6
- License
- Template - allows selecting a particular stack (or all of them) for the tariff
- Strategy - selects the charge strategy from the predefined options (listed in the next step)
- Strategy Resource - specifies a resource used to calculate the tier
- Documentation URL - additional information on the tariff (optional)
- External Resources
- Resource - defines a resource used
- Strategy - selects the charge strategy from the predefined options (listed in the next step)
- Strategy Resource - specifies a resource used to calculate the tier
- Documentation URL - additional information on the tariff (optional)
Note: The platform does not track the consumption of the External Resources type, which is used for charging your custom software. The appropriate values should be provided manually (or via your custom script). Use the following API methods:
- GetResources - returns a list of all resources on the platform or details on a particular one (defined via the optional id or name parameter)
- AddResource - adds a new resource to the platform
- AddStatistics - provides statistics on the resource usage by a particular user
3. The License and External Resources tariff types can use the following charging strategis:
- Volume - is charged according to the final tier (the default strategy for the platform). For example, if you have three tiers (from 1, 3, and 10) and consumes 12 units of a resource - all of them are charged based on the third tier price
- Graduated - is charged via tiers sequentially. For example, you have three tiers (from 1, 3, and 10) and consume 12 units of a resource. In this case, the first three units are charged as the first tier, next seven as the second tier and the remaining two as the third tier
- Accumulated - is charged according to the tier cumulatively achieved during this month (resets monthly)
- Accumulated Graduated - is a combination of the Graduated and Accumulated approaches
- Flat - is charged a fixed price within each tier (i.e. the number of consumed resource units is not multiplied on the tier price). It is calculated based on the specified Strategy Resource
The following data may be required:
When all the fields are specified, proceed to the advanced data and tiers configuration.
Advanced Data
Advanced tariff settings allow you to configure complex pricing scenarios. The following options are available:
Resource Scope - defines if the tariff is applied to the whole Environment or per Node
If a Flat strategy is selected, you can configure the Paid and Free resources scopes separately.
Rounding
- Mode - configures a rounding behavior using the appropriate constant (e.g. Up, Down, etc.)
- Scale - sets the number of digits to the right of the decimal point
Minimum Fee
- Price - applies a minimum fee for the tariff (even if resource was not used)
- Resource Amount - defines an equivalent in resource units for the minimum fee
Use for running environments only - defines if the tariff should be charged for stopped environments
Tiers
The Tiers subsection provides a table of prices for a specific tariff (resource) based on its consumption level. Usually, this implements a discount policy, i.e. the higher volume usage is automatically cheaper. To adjust the rates according to your needs, perform the following:
1. Click the Add button to create a new tier or double-click on the existing record to edit it.
2. Specify the needed values within the following columns:
- From - the number of resource units consumed per hour required to enter the tier
- Free - the number of resource units provided for free within this tier
- Price per hour - the cost per one resource unit for the current tier
Note: When configuring tiers for the Network type, be aware that it is calculated based on the previous month’s consumption (not the last hour). New accounts are always charged based on the first tier option, as they don’t have the previous month’s consumption yet.
Check a few examples according to the tiers in the image above:
- 500MB previous month’s consumption – first tier.
- 10GB previous month’s consumption – second tier.
- 500GB previous month’s consumption – second tier.
- 7000GB previous month’s consumption – third tier.
- 15000GB previous month’s consumption – fourth tier.
Once the Basic Data, Advanced Data, and Tiers configurations are done, click Save for your tariff to add/update it in the list.
