How do I troubleshoot “No export named cid-CidExecArn found” error when installing Health Events Dashboard with Legacy CUR 1.0

Description

The AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR) is a comprehensive billing and cost management tool that provides detailed information about an organization's AWS resource usage and associated costs. Its primary purpose is to help AWS customers understand, analyze, and optimize their cloud spending by providing granular data on resource consumption, pricing, and cost allocation. CUR enables businesses to track their AWS expenses across multiple accounts, services, and regions, facilitating informed decision-making and cost optimization strategies.

CUR 2.0 was launched at AWS re:Invent 2023 as part of the AWS Billing and Cost Management Data Exports initiative. This new version was introduced to address limitations in the Legacy CUR 1.0 and to provide enhanced capabilities, improved performance, and better integration with other AWS services. CUR 2.0 aims to offer more flexible data delivery options, increased data granularity, and improved query performance, allowing customers to gain deeper insights into their AWS costs and usage patterns.

Regarding Cloud Intelligence Dashboards, both Legacy CUR 1.0 and CUR 2.0 support various dashboards, but with some differences:

Legacy CUR 1.0 supports:

1. CUDOS Dashboard
2. Cost Intelligence Dashboard
3. The KPI and Modernization Dashboard

CUR 2.0 supports all the dashboards mentioned above and additionally introduces:

1. Cost Anomaly Dashboard
2. Extended Support- Cost Projection
3. Graviton Savings Dashboard
4. Health Events Dashboard
5. AWS News Feeds
6. AWS Budgets Dashboard

Customers may be disinclined to upgrade from Legacy CUR 1.0 to CUR 2.0 due to a variety of factors, despite the potential benefits offered by the new version. Many organizations have invested significant time and resources in developing custom scripts, integrations, and reporting systems tailored to the Legacy CUR 1.0 format. The formidable task of migrating these existing processes to accommodate CUR 2.0 can be challenging, particularly for companies with complex multi-account setups or those using third-party cost management tools. Operational concerns, such as potential disruptions to current cost analysis workflows, the need for staff retraining, and possible downtime during the transition, further complicate the decision. Technical challenges, including the reconfiguration of custom QuickSight dashboards and updates to CloudFormation templates, add another layer of complexity. Additionally, some organizations may face budget cycle constraints or strict change management processes that hinder immediate adoption. Consequently, many customers choose to delay the upgrade until they can build a compelling business case, allocate necessary resources, or until their existing systems require major updates. This approach allows them to minimize disruption to their current cost management practices. However, these customers still need access to the enhanced features offered by CUR 2.0 dashboards.

To address this need, customers may attempt to install CUR 2.0 dashboards while maintaining their Legacy CUR 1.0 infrastructure. This hybrid approach, however, presents its own set of challenges. During the installation of these new CUR 2.0 Dashboards with Legacy CUR integration, customers are encountering various technical issues and error messages.

This post specifically addresses one such scenario where a customer faced issues while deploying the Health Events Dashboard. We will examine a specific error "No export named cid-CidExecArn found" encountered during the CloudFormation stack deployment process as shown in the Figure 1. This error indicates that the CloudFormation stack is unable to locate required exports from dependent stacks, typically occurring when there are remnants or conflicting configurations from Legacy CUR 1.0 deployments interfering with the new CUR 2.0 installation process.

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Resolution

To resolve this issue, the first critical step is to ensure the correct version of Foundational Dashboards(Cloud-Intelligence-Dashboards) is installed using CloudFormation template version 4.0.0. This foundational layer creates the necessary exports and resources that CUR 2.0 dashboards, such as the Health Events Dashboard in this example, depend on. Once the correct version of Foundational Dashboards is deployed, the missing export error will be resolved as the required 'cid-CidExecArn' export will be available for the Health Events Dashboard to reference. This solution ensures proper stack dependencies and enables successful deployment of CUR 2.0 dashboards, such as the Health Events Dashboard in this example, while maintaining compatibility with the existing Legacy CUR 1.0 setup.

Here are the steps to update the stack with correct version:

1. In the AWS account with existing CUR installed , Navigate to the AWS CloudFormation console.
2. Locate the existing Foundational Dashboards stack in the list of stacks or use Create stack to update. For example , default name is "Cloud-Intelligence-Dashboards"
3. Select the stack and click on the *"Update" *button.
4. Choose "Replace current template" and select "Amazon S3 URL" as the template source.
5. Enter the following S3 URL for the v4.0.0 template: cid-cfn.yml.
6. 6. Click "Next" and review the stack parameters.
7. Make any necessary adjustments to the parameters, ensuring they align with your CUR configuration as shown below:

8. Proceed through the remaining steps, reviewing and acknowledging any capabilities if prompted.
9. Validate the changes on the final review page and click "Update stack" to initiate the update process.
10. Monitor the stack update progress in the CloudFormation console.
11. Once the update is complete and the stack status shows "UPDATE_COMPLETE", the Foundational Dashboards will be running on version 4.0.0.

After completing these steps, the required 'cid-CidExecArn' export should be available, resolving the previous error and allowing for successful deployment of the Health Events Dashboard.

Retry installing Health Events Dashboard by following Health-Events Dashboard deployment process.

Below is the screenshots to help you with the Parameters :

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Conclusion

By following the update steps outlined above, customers can successfully install CUR 2.0 dashboards while maintaining their Legacy CUR 1.0 infrastructure. This solution provides a path forward for organizations that need access to enhanced dashboard capabilities but are not yet ready to fully migrate to CUR 2.0. For additional assistance or questions about CUR 2.0 dashboard installations, please refer to our documentation or reach out to AWS Support. Remember to always test such updates in a non-production environment first and ensure you have proper backups before making any changes to your existing configurations.

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Related Information

Cloud Intelligence Dashboards

Well Architected Labs

How and why you should move to cost and usage report cur 2.0

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About the authors
	Jatinder Singh is a Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS who specializes in helping customers with their cloud migration and innovation endeavors. He brings his expertise and enthusiasm for technology to help clients efficiently scale their businesses so that they can focus on their core activities. Outside of work, he enjoys spending moments with his family and indulging in hobbies such as reading, culinary arts, and chess.
	Puneetha Kumara is a Senior Technical Account Manager at AWS, with over 15 years of industry experience, including roles in cloud architecture, systems engineering, and container orchestration.