# Using split cost allocation data with Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights
<a name="split-cost-allocation-data-cloudwatch"></a>

Splitting the cost data for Amazon EKS requires that you collect and store metrics from your clusters, including memory and CPU usage. Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights can be used for this purpose.

Once you've opted in to split cost allocation data and set up the CloudWatch agent with EKS observability add-on on your EKS cluster, split cost allocation data starts receiving the two required metrics `(pod_cpu_usage_total` and `pod_memory_working_set`) in the `ContainerInsights` namespace and uses them automatically. To view the full set of container metrics for EKS, see [Amazon EKS and Kubernetes Container Insights metrics](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/Container-Insights-metrics-EKS.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*.

The following sections describe how to send the correct metrics from your EKS cluster to split cost allocation data.

## Prerequisites
<a name="prerequisites-cloudwatch"></a>

As prerequisites for using Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights with split cost allocation data:
+ You need to enable split cost allocation data in the AWS Billing and Cost Management console. For details, see [Enabling split cost allocation data](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/enabling-split-cost-allocation-data.html).
+ You need an EKS cluster for which you want to track split cost allocation data. This can be an existing cluster, or you can create a new one. For more information, see [Create an Amazon EKS cluster](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/create-cluster.html) in the *Amazon EKS User Guide*.

## Setting up Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights to forward EKS metrics
<a name="forward-eks-metrics-cloudwatch"></a>

You need to set up and configure the CloudWatch agent in order to forward EKS metrics. You can use either the [Amazon CloudWatch Observability EKS add-on or the Amazon CloudWatch Observability Helm chart](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/install-CloudWatch-Observability-EKS-addon.html) to install the CloudWatch agent and the Fluent-bit agent on an EKS cluster. For more information on how to install and set up the CloudWatch agent, see [Install the Amazon CloudWatch Observability EKS add-on](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/Container-Insights-setup-EKS-addon.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*.

The following are the minimum versions required for the CloudWatch agent and EKS add-on:
+ CloudWatch agent version: v1.300045.0
+ CloudWatch Observability EKS add-on version: v2.0.1-eksbuild.1

## Estimating your Amazon CloudWatch costs
<a name="estimate-cloudwatch-costs"></a>

Enabling the feature to use Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights with split cost allocation data adds two new metrics to Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights: `pod_cpu_usage_total` and `pod_memory_working_set`. For details on these metrics, see [Amazon EKS and Kubernetes Container Insights metrics](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/Container-Insights-metrics-EKS.html) in the *Amazon CloudWatch User Guide*.

**To understand the costs associated with the feature**

1. Open Amazon CloudWatch Pricing at [https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/pricing/](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/pricing/).

1. Navigate to the **Paid tier** section.

1. Choose the **Container Insights** tab.

1. For a detailed calculation of the costs, navigate to the **Pricing examples** section, and refer to **Example 13 - Container Insights for Amazon EKS and Kubernetes**.