# First steps

This guide walks you through the first steps of using
Zadara Cost and Usage (CAU) Explorer.

## Enabling Zadara Cost and Usage (CAU) Explorer

The CAU Explorer must be enabled for your environment before you can use it.
Contact Zadara Support to enable the CAU Explorer.

To verify that the CAU Explorer is enabled:

1. Sign on to your Global Provisioning Portal account
   at [https://manage.zadarastorage.com](https://manage.zadarastorage.com).
2. If the CAU Explorer is enabled, its icon appears in the icon
   collection on the Provisioning Portal’s top navigation bar.

   ![cost-explorer-icon](media/cost-explorer-icon.png)

   Clicking the icon opens the CAU Explorer, displaying the default view.

## CAU Explorer access eligibility

CAU Explorer is available to users with a valid Zadara account in the
Global Provisioning Portal at [https://manage.zadarastorage.com](https://manage.zadarastorage.com).

Only users who have the **Organization Admin** or **Organization Billing**
role can see their organization’s costs and usage.

The CAU Explorer in the Global Provisioning Portal enables any user with a
valid Zadara account to view their costs and usage, regardless of whether
their account is associated with an on-prem implementation of Zadara
services.

The CAU Explorer is a service that operates at the organization level.
When enabled, it can be accessed by multiple personas in the organization.

**Organization Admins** who want to grant CAU Explorer permissions to other
members of the organization should proceed with
[Inviting Users to CAU Explorer](#inviting-users-to-cau-explorer).

<a id="inviting-users-to-cau-explorer"></a>

### Inviting Users to CAU Explorer

Users with the **Organization Admin** role can invite others to use
CAU Explorer.

1. In the Global Provisioning Portal account, select **Management** from
   the options bar at the top right.
2. In the **Management** screen, select the **Users** tab.

   A list of users and their roles appears.
3. At the top right of the **Users** tab header, click **Invite User**.

   The **Invite User** dialog opens.
   1. In the **Invite User** dialog, enter the user’s details:
      * **Username**:

        Enter a sign-on username for the user.

        Minimum length: 3 characters

        Maximum length: 75 characters

        Alphanumeric characters and the following are permitted in the
        **Username**:
        * Hyphen: `-`
        * Underscore: `_`
        * At-symbol: `@`
        * Plus-symbol: `+`
      * **Email address**:

        Enter the user’s email address.

        An email invitation will be sent to this address. It includes:
        * A link to the Provisioning Portal sign-on screen, that
          activates the account.
        * The sign-on username and a temporary password.
      * **Organization name**:

        From the dropdown, select the organization that the user can
        access for viewing billing data.
      * **Organization role**:

        From the dropdown, select one of the following roles:
        * **Organization Admin**:

          Full admin privileges in the Provisioning Portal.
        * **Organization Billing**:

          A role that can access the CAU Explorer, and can also manage
          service inventory items and provision new Zadara services for
          the account.

          This role grants access to CAU Explorer in addition to
          permissions to manage service inventory items and provision
          Zadara services.
   2. Click **Invite User**.

      The user receives an email invitation to access the Provisioning
      Portal as a member of the specified role.

      On first sign-on, users are prompted to change their password.

## How usage is detected

Both public and private Zadara clouds track and report usage activity
for provisioned resources to a centralized service, which is later securely
visualized in Zadara’s Global Provisioning Portal.