StepDetails

Subscribe to the Google Cloud Platform.

Important:Ensure that you create a billing account in US dollar only. The connector does not support other currency formats.

 Steps to subscribe to the Google Cloud Platform

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
2. Select your email preferences, accept the terms of service, and click Agree and continue.
3.  Sign up for a free trial or apply for a paid subscription.

Create projects to manage virtual machine instances, billing, and Cloud Platform services.

 About projects

All the Google Cloud Platform resources, such as Google Compute Engine virtual machines, Google Cloud Storage buckets, and Google App Engine instances are grouped under a project. Projects are required for using all Cloud Platform services, managing APIs, enabling billing, adding and removing collaborators, and managing permissions.

 Steps to create a project in the Google Cloud Platform

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.

2. On the title bar, next to Google Cloud Platform, click Select a project.

   If you have already created projects and updated any of them, the name of the last project that you worked on is displayed besides Google Cloud Platform. In this scenario, click the project name.

3. Click New project. In the Project name field, specify a name for your project. The project ID is generated automatically.
4. Click Create.
5. On the upper-left corner of the page, click Select a project or the project name next to Google Cloud Platform. Your recently created project name is displayed in the list.
6. Select the project, and click Open.
   The project dashboard is displayed, and you can start working in the project.
   

Create a service account to authenticate applications that run on your virtual machine instances to access other Google Cloud Platform services. 

If you want to retrieve data from multiple projects by using a single connector, create a separate service account key file for each project.

 About service accounts

A service account acts as an identity for an instance or an application that runs on a virtual machine. You can use service accounts to create instances and other resources. A single instance can belong to a single service account only, and you can change the service account for the instance.

 Steps to create a separate service account for each Google project

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
2. From the title bar, select the project for which you want to create the service account.
3. From the left navigation pane, click IAM & admin > Service accounts.
4. Click Create Service Account.
5. On the Create service account page, complete these steps:
   1. Specify a name for the service account.
      The service account ID is generated automatically when you enter the service account name.
   2. (Optional) Specify the service account description.
   3. Click Create.
   4. On Service Account Permissions page, select Compute Engine > Compute Viewer.This role provides read-only access to Compute Engine resources.
      
6. Click Add Another Role, and select Monitoring > Monitoring Viewer. This role provides read-only access to monitoring and configuration data. Click Continue.
7. Click Create Key, and retain the default selection as JSON for the key type.

8. Click Create.
   The settings are saved, and a confirmation message is displayed. The private key for the account is saved in a service account key json file and downloaded to your computer.
   Repeat this procedure for each new Google Cloud Project for which you want to collect the performance data.

   Ensure that you save this key file securely. If this file is lost or tampered, you need to create a new key.

Create a billing account.

 About billing account

A billing account is a payment profile that contains payment-related settings, such as payment method and a billing address. Each project is attached to a billing account, and any costs that are incurred for the project are added to the billing account. Multiple projects can be attached to a single billing account.

 Steps to create a billing account

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
2. In the left navigation pane, click Billing > Manage billing accounts.
3. If this is your first billing account, complete the following steps. Otherwise, go to step 4.
   
   1. Click Add billing account.
   2. On the Try Cloud Platform for free page, specify your country, accept the terms of service, and click Agree and continue.
   3. On the customer information page, add the details, such as account type, tax status, name and contact, and the credit card number.
   4. Click Start my free trial.
      If the specified details such as card number are correct, a confirmation message about the generation of the billing account is displayed.
4. If you already have some existing billing accounts and want to create a new billing account, complete these steps:
   1. Click Create account.
   2. In the Name field, specify a name for the billing account, and click Continue.
   3. Verify your country and currency, and click Confirm.
   4. On the payments profile page, enter your billing information, such as account type, tax status, name and address, credit card details, and click Submit and enable billing.
   5. On the verification page, enter the 3-letter CVV number that is on the back of your card, and click Continue.
      The billing account is created and is added to the list of existing billing accounts.
      

Add the email addresses of the service accounts for the projects (projects that are linked to the billing account) to the billing account, and assign the Billing Account Viewer role to each service account that you want to use for the connector.

 Steps to add service account email addresses to billing account for multiple service accounts

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
2. In the left navigation pane, click Billing.
3. Click ALL BILLING ACCOUNTS and then select the billing account that is linked to your projects.
   
4. In the right pane, click SHOW INFO PANEL and do the following:
   
   1. In the Add members field, add the email addresses of the service accounts that you have created for each project in earlier steps.
   2. From the Select a role list, select Billing > Billing Account Viewer.
   3. Click Add.
      The settings are saved, and a confirmation message is displayed.

Link projects to a billing account so that the costs that are incurred for the projects are added to the billing account. You can link all your projects to a single billing account or can link each project to a separate billing account.

 Steps to link a billing account to projects

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
2. On the upper-left corner of the page, click Select a project or the project name next to Google Cloud Platform, and select a project from the list.
3. In the left navigation pane, click Billing > Link a billing account.
4. From the Billing account list, select the required billing account, and click SET ACCOUNT.
   You are directed to the billing summary page that displays the current status of remaining credits, and a list of projects that are attached to the billing account.
   If a billing account is not available, you are prompted to create the billing account.

Create a BigQuery dataset

 About datasets

Datasets are top-level containers that are used to organize and control access to your tables and views. A table or view must belong to a dataset, so you need to create at least one dataset before loading data into BigQuery.

 Steps to create a BigQuery dataset

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
2. On the upper-left corner of the page, click Select a project or project name besides Google Cloud Platform, and select the project that you have set up to contain your dataset.
3. In the left navigation pane, click BigQuery.
4. In the BigQuery navigation pane, select your project.
5. Click Create dataset.
6. On the Create Dataset page, complete the following steps:
   

   1. Enter a Dataset ID.

      Dataset ID must be used as an input in the Billing Dataset Name field in the connector configuration.

   2. Select a Data location.

      The data location specifies the region where your data is stored. All tables within this dataset will share this location. When creating a dataset, the Default location is the US multi-region. After you create the dataset, the location cannot be changed. 

   3. Select the Default table expiration.

      For data that needs to be preserved, select Never. If you enter a specific number of days, any new table created in this dataset will be automatically deleted after the specified number of days of creation. If you delete any exported data (such as Cloud Billing data records), GCP cannot backfill the deleted records.

   4. Select the Encryption option. For Cloud Billing export, select Google-managed key.
      
   5. Click Create dataset.
      

Enable Cloud Billing export to the BigQuery dataset so that the connector can collect the billing details of your project resources.

 Steps to enable Cloud billing export

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
2. In the left navigation pane, click Billing.

3. If you have more than one Cloud Billing account, do one of the following:

   • To manage Cloud Billing for the current Cloud project, select Go to linked billing account.
   • To locate a different Cloud Billing account, select Manage billing accounts and choose the account for which you want to enable Cloud Billing data export to BigQuery.
4. In the Billing navigation menu, select Billing export.
   
5. Select the BigQuery export tab.
   
6. Enable the Daily cost detail type of data export.
   1. Click Edit settings.

   2. From the Project list, select the project that you have set up to contain your BigQuery dataset.
      

      The selected project is used to store the exported Cloud Billing data in the BigQuery dataset. The exported Cloud Billing data includes usage/cost data for all Cloud projects paid for by the same Cloud Billing account.

   3. From the Billing export dataset list, select the dataset that you have set up to contain your exported Cloud Billing data.
      
   4. Click Save.
      

Enable the billing APIs to collect the billing and usage data.

 Steps to enable APIs

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
2. In the left navigation pane, click APIs and services > Dashboard. A list of APIs that are enabled is displayed.
3. Verify that the Google Cloud Billing API is enabled.
4. If the APIs are disabled, perform these steps to enable them:
   1. Click Enable APIs and Services.

   2. Search for the required APIs, select them, and click Enable.
      The APIs are added to the list of enabled APIs.