FinOps

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.skyhook.io/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The FinOps dashboard gives you visibility into Kubernetes spend across your connected clusters. It surfaces total cost, potential savings from right-sizing, workload efficiency, and cross-zone/cross-region/internet-egress network costs — all in one place — so you can decide where to optimize before money is wasted. FinOps data is powered by OpenCost, an open-source Kubernetes cost monitoring project. Skyhook bundles OpenCost and Prometheus together as a single addon and wires in cloud billing integration automatically.

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Prerequisites

• At least one connected cluster (see Connecting Clusters)
• The OpenCost addon installed on the clusters you want to monitor

If OpenCost is not installed, the FinOps pages show an empty state with a direct link to the addon.

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Installing the OpenCost addon

FinOps in Skyhook is delivered as a single addon that installs both OpenCost and Prometheus:

• Prometheus — collects metrics from your cluster and containers so efficiency calculations have accurate usage data
• OpenCost — joins that usage data with pricing (either estimated or from your cloud bill) to produce cost numbers

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Summary dashboard

The main FinOps page (FinOps > Overview) summarizes cost and efficiency across all clusters where OpenCost is installed.

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Key metrics

Three headline cards at the top:

• Total Spend — Sum of Kubernetes resource costs: compute (CPU + memory requests), idle capacity, and network transfer, over the selected time range.
• Potential Savings — Estimated cost reduction from right-sizing over-provisioned workloads. Calculated as requested resources minus actual usage.
• Efficiency — Ratio of actual resource usage to requested resources, weighted by cost and averaged across all workloads. Color-coded:
  • Green ≥ 60% (healthy)
  • Orange 30–60% (over-provisioned)
  • Red < 30% (severely over-provisioned)

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Top Inefficient Pods

Lists the five workloads with the worst efficiency (< 60%) and the monthly savings opportunity for each. Clicking View All jumps to the Efficiency Analysis page pre-filtered to those pods.

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Where Your Money Goes

Donut chart breaking total spend into three categories:

• Compute (Used) — active workload cost
• Idle Capacity — unused cluster resources (node headroom, unallocated pods)
• Network — data transfer cost across zones, regions, and internet egress

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Cost Breakdown Over Time

Stacked bar chart of daily or weekly cost, colored by compute/idle/network. Use the time range selector (24h, 7d, 30d, or custom) to change the window — chart buckets resize automatically (7 daily buckets for 7d, 4 weekly buckets for 30d, etc.).

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Action Required

Contextual list of recommended actions derived from the data:

• Efficiency actions for the three worst-performing workloads, linking directly to the pod in the Efficiency page
• Idle capacity actions when idle percentage exceeds 10%, suggesting right-sizing or workload consolidation

Each item shows severity (high/medium/low), a description, the monthly savings potential, and a View Details button.

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Efficiency Analysis

The FinOps > Efficiency page shows resource utilization for every workload, with an interactive table to find over-provisioning at any level.

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Aggregation

Switch the Aggregate dropdown to group by:

• Namespace (default)
• Controller (Deployment, StatefulSet, etc.)
• Pod
• Node — adds a Machine type column cross-referenced from cluster data

Filters reset when you switch aggregation to avoid stale name filters from a different level.

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Columns

Click any column header to sort. Use the Name filter box for multi-select filtering across the current aggregation. A warning icon (⚠️) flags workloads with severely over-provisioned resources.

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Expandable rows

Expand a namespace or controller row to see its child workloads with their individual CPU/memory utilization and inline Apply / Dismiss recommendations where Skyhook can suggest right-sized requests.

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Network Costs

The FinOps > Network Costs page breaks down data transfer spend that often hides in cloud bills.

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Top-line metrics

• Total Transfer — Total data moved across the network in GB
• Total Network — Total network spend
• Cross-Zone — Transfer between availability zones in the same region (usually the largest line item)
• Cross-Region — Transfer between regions
• Internet Egress — Transfer leaving the cloud provider’s network

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Detailed Breakdown

Table with per-namespace (or per-controller, or per-cluster) cost and GB transferred, split across cross-zone, cross-region, and internet egress columns. Click any column header to sort.

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Optimization Suggestions

Skyhook generates contextual suggestions based on the breakdown — for example:

• High cross-zone traffic in a namespace → consider pod affinity rules or topology-aware routing
• Cross-region traffic → co-locate services or use regional caching
• Internet egress → review external API calls for caching opportunities

Each suggestion includes the current cost contribution. Click Ask Skyhook Agent at the top of the suggestions panel to have the AI assistant help dig into the root cause.

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Time range and refresh

Every FinOps page shares a time range selector (24h / 7d / 30d / Custom) and a refresh button. Each cluster is queried independently, so if one cluster’s OpenCost instance is unreachable, the dashboard shows partial results with a warning banner naming the failed clusters. A Last updated timestamp next to the refresh button shows data freshness. The 7-day window is loaded in the background on page open, so switching between time ranges feels instant.

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Troubleshooting