GCP Recommender

Connect GCP Recommender to CloudZero to enrich your cost data with Google Cloud optimization insights. Recommender data feeds into Optimize for savings recommendations and into Dimensions for deeper cost organization. Like the billing connection, CloudZero reads your Recommender data from BigQuery tables using a read-only service account with the BigQuery Data Viewer role.

For details on what CloudZero accesses, see GCP Permissions and Security.

What you need

• CloudZero user with data configuration permissions
• An existing GCP billing connection
• A GCP Data Transfer for Recommendations configured in BigQuery, producing both an insights_export and a recommendations_export table. If you do not have one, follow Google's guide to create a Data Transfer for Recommendations. New transfers can take 24-48 hours to produce their first data drop.
• Permission to share BigQuery tables in the project that contains your Recommender data

Step 1: Retrieve your table names from BigQuery

1. In the Google Cloud console, navigate to BigQuery.
2. In the navigation panel, expand the project and dataset you specified when you configured the Data Transfer. You should see two tables: insights_export and recommendations_export.
3. Copy the fully qualified table name from the Table ID field for each table. You will paste these into CloudZero in Step 2.

The fully qualified table names follow the format project.dataset.table:

• billing-administration-123456.all_recommender_data.insights_export
• billing-administration-123456.all_recommender_data.recommendations_export

Step 2: Configure the connection in CloudZero

1. In CloudZero, go to Settings > Cloud Connections.
2. Select Create Connection +.
3. Select the GCP tile, then choose Get Started on the GCP Recommender tile.
4. Enter a Connection Name. This name appears throughout CloudZero. It cannot contain spaces, periods, or special characters, except for hyphens and underscores.
5. Paste the insights table name you copied in Step 1 into the Fully Qualified Insights Table Name field.
6. Paste the recommendations table name you copied in Step 1 into the Fully Qualified Recommendations Table Name field.
7. Copy the Service Account ID value shown on the page. You will need this in Step 3.
8. Select Save & Connect.

Step 3: Grant CloudZero read access to your Recommender data

Grant the CloudZero service account read access to both Recommender tables.

1. In the Google Cloud console, navigate to BigQuery in the project that contains your Recommender data.
2. Select the insights_export table.
3. Select +SHARE.
4. Select +ADD PRINCIPAL.
5. In the New principals field, paste the Service Account ID you copied in Step 2.
6. In the Role field, select BigQuery Data Viewer.
7. Select Save.
8. Repeat steps 2-7 for the recommendations_export table.

Step 4: Verify the connection

1. In CloudZero, go to Settings > Cloud Connections.
2. Select your GCP Recommender connection in the Billing Connections table.
3. Confirm that the Fully Qualified Insights Table Name and Fully Qualified Recommendations Table Name match the table names you copied in Step 1 and that the Service Account ID matches the value you used in Step 3.

CloudZero periodically scans the connection. Once it detects that access has been granted, the status changes to Pending Data while CloudZero processes the first ingest.

If the status still shows an error after 24 hours, reach out to your account manager.

What to expect

After CloudZero processes the first data ingest, the connection status changes from Pending Data to Healthy. This can take several hours. Your GCP Recommender data then appears in Optimize alongside recommendations from your other cloud providers and is available for cost organization through Dimensions.