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Activate TrueWatch Exclusive Plan on Alibaba Cloud Marketplace

This article introduces the relevant activation and usage operations for purchasing the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan on Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.

Step 1: Purchase TrueWatch Exclusive Plan

  1. Log in to Alibaba Cloud and navigate to the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace TrueWatch Exclusive Plan, then click Activate Now.

  1. A prompt for Activate Pay-as-You-Go Service will appear. After agreeing to the terms, click Activate.

  1. After activation, proceed to the console.

Step 2: Direct Login to TrueWatch

After confirming the activation request, you will be redirected to the list of purchased services on Alibaba Cloud to view the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan instance.

Click Direct Login on the right side of the instance. In the pop-up dialog, click Confirm.

On the TrueWatch side, if the current Alibaba Cloud account ID is not bound to a TrueWatch Billing Center account, two scenarios may occur:

No Billing Center Account: You need to register a TrueWatch account and Billing Center account, then bind the cloud account for billing;

Existing Billing Center Account: You can directly bind the Billing Center account to enable cloud account billing.

What is a Billing Center Account?

The Billing Center account is an independent account within the TrueWatch Billing Center platform used to manage Commercial Plan billing. It allows a single account to associate multiple workspaces for unified billing of these workspaces.

The overall process is as follows:

Register TrueWatch Commercial Plan

If you do not have a Billing Center account, click Next to automatically redirect to the registration page. After completing the registration process, you will obtain a TrueWatch account and Billing Center account.

  1. Fill in basic information;
  2. Fill in enterprise information;
  3. Select activation method: Enter the workspace name, select workspace language, and input Account ID, Product Instance ID;
  4. Click Confirm;
  5. Review and agree to the TrueWatch Platform User Service Agreement, then click Next.

Warning
  • The TrueWatch and SLS joint solution only supports the "China Region - Hangzhou" and "China Region - Zhangjiakou" sites. After selecting the SLS data storage solution, it cannot be changed;
  • The Username entered is also used to register the TrueWatch Billing Center account. The Billing Center username checks for uniqueness and cannot be modified once registered;

Bind Alibaba Cloud Account

On the Bind Alibaba Cloud Account page, TrueWatch provides two authorization methods to ensure your data security: RAM Account Authorization and Third-Party Quick Authorization.

RAM Account Authorization

Select RAM Account Authorization, download the SLS authorization file, and create an Alibaba Cloud RAM account in the Alibaba Cloud Console, then obtain the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret information for this account.

For specific operations on using the SLS authorization file to authorize a RAM account, refer to RAM Account Authorization.

Enter the AccessKey ID and AccessKey Secret for verification. If verified, proceed to the next step.

Third-Party Quick Authorization

Select Third-Party Quick Authorization, then click Go to Authorize Now. You will be redirected to Alibaba Cloud to log in and perform the authorization operation.

Click Agree to Authorize, and a Vendor UID Verification window will pop up. You can view the UID by clicking Vendor Permission Instructions.

Enter the UID and click Confirm, then you will be automatically redirected to Alibaba Cloud Marketplace > Purchased Services, where the authorization is complete.

Return to the TrueWatch Bind Alibaba Cloud Account page and click Verify. After successful verification, click Confirm Activation.

Some issues you may encounter

  • The TrueWatch Exclusive Plan uses SLS storage. If your cloud account has not activated Alibaba Cloud Log Service SLS, the log storage service will not function properly;

  • Cross-account role authorization operations require the use of an Alibaba Cloud master account or a sub-account with RAM access control permissions for GetRole, GetPolicy, CreatePolicy, CreatePolicyVersion, CreateRole, UpdateRole, and AttachPolicyToRole;

  • During verification, if a sub-account is being verified, it will automatically locate the master account to which the sub-account belongs and pull the project and Logstore under the master account;

  • If verification fails, check if cloud resource access authorization has been completed. Go to Alibaba Cloud RAM Console > RAM Access Control > Roles/Authorizations to view;

Step 4: Successful Activation

After successful verification, click Confirm Activation, and a prompt for Successful Activation of TrueWatch Commercial Plan will appear.

Bind TrueWatch Workspace

If you already have a TrueWatch account, you can click Existing Billing Center Account, Go to Bind, and a prompt for How to Quickly Bind Alibaba Cloud Account for Billing will appear.

Click Got it to start binding the TrueWatch workspace. Before binding the workspace, you need to bind the TrueWatch Billing Center account.

Bind TrueWatch Billing Center Account

  • Site: Supports selecting the site for subsequent workspace creation;
  • Username: If you already have a TrueWatch Billing Center account, directly enter the Username of the TrueWatch Billing Center account and bind it via email verification;
  • Register: If you do not have a TrueWatch Billing Center account, you can register first.

Bind TrueWatch Workspace

If you have a bindable workspace under this TrueWatch Billing Center account, click Bind directly and confirm the binding in the pop-up dialog.

Note: Only SLS storage spaces are listed here. If your account has not created an SLS storage workspace, you can choose to create a workspace.

You will be redirected to the Bind TrueWatch Workspace page, indicating successful binding.

Click Confirm, and a successful activation message will appear.

If you have already registered a TrueWatch account but have not created a workspace, click Create Workspace first.

Enter the workspace name, select the workspace language, and enter the email used to register the TrueWatch account, then verify via email.

Note: The workspace is the collaborative space for TrueWatch data insights. The workspace language option affects templates for events, alerts, SMS, etc., within the workspace. If English is selected, the corresponding templates will default to English. Once created, the template language for this workspace cannot be modified, so choose carefully.

After successfully creating the workspace, you need to bind the Alibaba Cloud account. You can download the SLS authorization file, create AK/AKS in the Alibaba Cloud Console, and authorize it, then enter the AK/AKS information in the following dialog for verification.

After successful AK/AKS verification and confirmation of activation, you will be automatically redirected to the Bind TrueWatch Workspace page, indicating that the workspace is Bound.

Click Confirm, and you will be redirected to the Successfully Bound the Following TrueWatch Workspace page.

If you have not used TrueWatch services before, register a TrueWatch account and create a workspace first.

Click Register TrueWatch Account, enter the relevant information, and verify via email.

Note: The workspace is the collaborative space for TrueWatch data insights. The workspace language option affects templates for events, alerts, SMS, etc., within the workspace. If English is selected, the corresponding templates will default to English. Once created, the template language for this workspace cannot be modified, so choose carefully.

Start Using TrueWatch

After registration, you can start using the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan.

Sync SLS Data

TrueWatch supports syncing and viewing other SLS data under your Alibaba Cloud account by binding log indexes.

How to Get Account ID

Alibaba Cloud Master Account

Log in to Alibaba Cloud with the master account, enter the Alibaba Cloud Console, and click the account avatar in the upper right corner to find the account ID.

How to Get Product Instance ID

After TrueWatch confirms the activation request on Alibaba Cloud Xuanxuan, you will be directly redirected to the list of purchased services on Alibaba Cloud. Under the purchased TrueWatch service, you can view the Instance ID of the product. Copy this Instance ID and enter it into the Product Instance ID field in the change billing method dialog.

FAQ

Plan

Can a workspace that has already activated and used the TrueWatch Commercial Plan also activate the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan?

Yes, activate it through the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace > TrueWatch Exclusive Plan product entry and create a new SLS workspace.

Can a workspace that has already activated the TrueWatch Commercial Plan switch to the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan?

No, the main difference between the Commercial Plan and the SLS Exclusive Plan is the location of the backend data storage. Once a workspace is activated, the index storage location cannot be changed. Therefore, regardless of the billing method used for the previously activated Commercial Plan, it cannot be converted to an SLS Exclusive Plan workspace.

Can a Free Plan workspace created during registration be upgraded to the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan?

No, currently, only the activation of an SLS Exclusive Plan workspace through the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace - TrueWatch Exclusive Plan product entry is supported. The normal upgrade process does not support the activation of an SLS Exclusive Plan workspace.

Data Viewing

Why are there logs in SLS but they are not displayed in TrueWatch?

The Default index must have logs, i.e., logs collected by the TrueWatch DataKit, for the TrueWatch Log Explorer to display SLS logs.

Why is the content empty after SLS logs are reported?

Since the content field in SLS is "content" and TrueWatch uses "message", this needs to be resolved through field mapping.

How to determine if the data in the SLS console is user-generated or TrueWatch access data?

You can judge by the project name. If the project name is in the format guance-wksp-WorkspaceID, it can be considered as resources and data indexes created during the activation of the TrueWatch SLS Exclusive Plan. If you need to view it, you can obtain the Workspace ID from the Workspace > Management > Basic Settings page and find the corresponding data in the SLS console.

Can user-generated SLS storage data be viewed using TrueWatch?

User-generated SLS storage data can be viewed and analyzed in the TrueWatch workspace. Currently, only bound index data is supported for viewing and analysis, and it does not support correlation analysis with other feature module data.

For how to bind indexes, refer to Bind Index.

Data Storage

How is data stored in the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan?

The TrueWatch Exclusive Plan stores Metrics, Logs, Backup Logs, Synthetic Tests, CI, Security Check, and Incident data in SLS. Apart from the above data, infrastructure, APM, and RUM data are currently stored in the TrueWatch ES cluster.

  • Metrics: SLS Metricstore;
  • Logs, Synthetic Tests, CI Visualization, Security Check, Incidents: SLS Standard Logstore;
  • Backup Logs: SLS Query Logstore.

Note: Since the SLS data expiration policy only supports automatic cleanup after TTL expiration, the TrueWatch approach of adjusting the data retention policy for Measurements to reduce the number of time series does not take effect in the SLS Exclusive Plan workspace.

Can the data storage region of the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan be changed?

No, TrueWatch will synchronously create Project, Metricstore, and Logstore data indexes in the same Region as the selected activation site in SLS. Unless a new SLS Exclusive Plan workspace is created, the data storage Region cannot be changed. Currently, the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan only supports the "China Region 1 (Hangzhou)" site and the "China Region 3 (Zhangjiakou)" site.

  • Activating the SLS Exclusive Plan in the China Region 1 (Hangzhou) site will store data in the SLS "cn-hangzhou" Region;
  • Activating the SLS Exclusive Plan in the China Region 3 (Zhangjiakou) site will store data in the SLS "cn-zhangjiakou" Region;

Billing

How is log data collected by the TrueWatch collector DataKit billed after activating the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan?

Log data collected by DataKit is billed according to the TrueWatch log billing method.

How is log data in SLS billed when viewed, searched, and filtered in the TrueWatch console through the bound log index function provided by TrueWatch?

SLS log data obtained through index binding is still billed according to SLS.

If you perform data processing, delivery, or stream data reading from external network access points, Log Service will charge for processing computation, data delivery, and external network reading traffic.

For more details, refer to Billing Items.

Can prepaid cards previously purchased in the Billing Center be used to pay for TrueWatch Exclusive Plan bills? How is the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan billed?

Yes, the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan requires the use of an Alibaba Cloud account for billing. For cloud account billing, the TrueWatch pay-as-you-go bill deduction order is: ordinary vouchers, full reduction vouchers, prepaid cards, and cloud account cash balance. SMS and Testing pay-as-you-go consumption can only be paid with prepaid cards and cloud account cash balance.

Function Queries

Why are some query functions unavailable?

SLS storage uses promql, and some functions are unavailable.

For more information on SLS functions, refer to DQL Functions.

Show function tag related

show_tag_key, show_tag_value, show_tag_key_cardinality, show_tag_value_cardinality these four functions only support querying data from the last 5 minutes, i.e., if there is no data in the last 5 minutes, the results of these show functions will be 0. Currently, the TrueWatch workspace uses show tag functions in the following scenarios:

  • View variables using show_tag_key, show_tag_value, etc.;
  • Tag data displayed in the slide details page on the Metrics Management page;
  • All chart configuration Metrics data queries, group by dropdown list, or filter condition addition.

Does SLS Metrics query support querying multiple Metrics data in one DQL query?

No, and * queries are also not supported.

Why might there be incomplete data display for large logs in log data?

Currently, only complete message returns based on docid and default list page queries are guaranteed. Other complex filter conditions may truncate the message, which is determined by SLS internal implementation.

Field Filtering

Why is field filtering unavailable after activating the TrueWatch Exclusive Plan?

TrueWatch automatically creates field indexes for log data containing the same fields for field filtering. However, if the data volume is small, automatic creation will not be triggered. In this case, you cannot query data through field filtering in TrueWatch. You can resolve this by reporting more log data containing the same fields.

Note: If the time interval between data reported before and after field index creation is too long, data reported before field index creation may not be queried through field filtering. For example, if 2 pieces of data with the same fields were reported yesterday without field index creation, and 100 pieces of data with the same fields were reported today with automatic field index creation, the 2 pieces of data reported yesterday may not be found during field filtering.

Exclusive Plan vs. Commercial Plan

Why is there no highlight display in SLS Exclusive Plan log search?

Because the SLS log search highlight function is temporarily not open to the public and is only supported in the SLS console, currently, there is no highlight effect when certain keywords match logs in TrueWatch.

Does the SLS Exclusive Plan workspace support deleting a single Measurement?

No, currently only deleting all Measurements is supported.

Why can't newly reported field data in the SLS Exclusive Plan workspace support filtering and sorting?

Currently, SLS field indexes have a 1-minute delay. For example, new fields split through Pipeline can only be searched after 1 minute, and data within that 1-minute delay still cannot be filtered or searched; ES split new fields can be searched immediately. This issue also affects the use of "Generate Metrics" and other chart query functions.

Does the SLS Exclusive Plan workspace support index merging?

No, the SLS Exclusive Plan workspace defaults to enabling multi-index. The Commercial Plan workspace defaults to enabling index merging to reduce index generation.

For multi-index, refer to Log Index.

Why is the log time order in the SLS Exclusive Plan workspace out of order?

Since the SLS date field is accurate to the second level, and the TrueWatch log data time is accurate to the millisecond level, log sorting in the SLS workspace may appear abnormal. By default, only single-page data order is guaranteed, and global order across pages is not guaranteed.

Why are time series data duplicated in SLS?

Time series data in SLS will be duplicated at the same timestamp, which is caused by SLS characteristics.