ROLE-BASED ACCESS NOTE: Some of the features and functionality described in this article require the assignment of the Admin user role to your user account, which is automatically assigned when you create a company account.
Step 1: Create Your Account
Getting started with Aimably is easy! To create your account, go to https://app.aimably.com/registration, then just enter your name, email address and create a password.
Step 2: Integrate With AWS
Once you have created your account and you have signed in, you should connect Aimably to your AWS account. To get started click on the Aimably logo that appears on your home screen.
If you have already dismissed this window, you can get started with connecting to AWS by opening the Configure navigation menu group and selecting Connect to AWS from the options displayed, then clicking the blue "Add using Wizard" button.
Once you've begun the AWS connection process, the screens take you through a step-by-step series of instructions. For a more detailed walkthrough of the AWS integration, go to our help article on Connecting to AWS.
Step 3: Invite your Users
To get started with user invitations, open the Configure navigation menu group and select Manage Users from the options displayed.
Once on the user management screen, you can add anyone to your Aimably account and assign them at least one of the following roles: Accountant, Admin, Developer, Devops and/or Manager. Once the appropriate permissions are assigned, feel free to send them an invite.
For more information on what each role means, refer to our article on Users, Roles & Permissions.
Step 4: Try Out Aimably Reduce*
A popular starter project with Aimably Reduce is the Work Scheduler functionality. To try it out, open the Reduce navigation menu group and select Work Scheduler from the main navigation menu. This will present you with a blank scheduling calendar.
Click on the blue plus button in the bottom right of the screen to create a new server schedule.
Here is where the fun begins. Using the scheduling functionality, decide when you want specific servers to start, to shut off, or to be running for a specific timeframe. You can specify the timezone you want the schedule to adhere to, set up a recurring pattern if necessary, and establish what time and date servers should stop and start. For example, save costs on any of your QA environments by scheduling them to turn off once the workday has finished.
For detailed explanations of server scheduling and its impacts, jump to our guide on Scheduling.
Step 5: Customize Aimably Warn
By default, Aimably is configured to send a variety of warnings to each user type based on events that are notable for their role. To review the default settings, open the Configure navigation menu group, select Configure Warn Notifications from the options displayed, then use the tabs across the top of the page to compare by role.
While Aimably will manage your schedules, you can also set up alerts in order to be notified of any increased costs, spikes in storage, and/or summaries of cost savings. These can be configured to be unique towards each role. For example, your accountant would be more interested in cost predictions and overall savings whereas a DevOps team member would be focused on new servers getting launched or storage amounts increasing. This is particularly useful if an expensive server was created and left running.
Get a walkthrough of our Alerts functionality
Step 6: Explore Aimably Insight
Now that you've reviewed a variety of our features it's time to roll up your sleeves and start researching. Click on the Home icon to visit your main insights dashboard.
On the dashboard you will find a summary of your current inventory as well as a time-based breakdown of costs by day, month, inventory type, region and child account.
For a deeper review, open the Insight navigation menu group and explore the additional views provided in each of the menu options:
*Many features of Aimably reduce require the use of the advanced Data & Scheduling AWS policy permission. For more information on this policy and the procedure for selecting it, please view Connecting Aimably to AWS.