DB Guide: Budget Monitoring
Databricks Budget Monitoring
This guide is intended for Mode Fed Owners and Project Leads. It explains how Databricks budgets work, what triggers an alert, and how to request changes.
1. Overview
Every Mode and every Project in the DOT Databricks platform has a budget configured against it. Budgets track cumulative spending within a calendar month and send email notifications when spending crosses a configured threshold.
Budgets are alerts only — they do not stop or throttle any workloads. If a threshold is crossed, compute jobs and queries continue to run normally. The sole effect is that configured recipients receive an email notification. It is the responsibility of the Mode Fed Owner and Project Lead to review usage and take action if needed.
Budget tracking resets at the start of each calendar month.
2. How the Budget System Works
Budgets in DOT Databricks operate at two levels. Both tiers track spending within the same environment (workspace) — for example, spending in dev is tracked separately from spending in prod.
Mode Budget
Each Mode (e.g., FHWA, FTA, Volpe) has a budget that aggregates spending across all of its Projects within a given environment (workspace). When monthly spending crosses the configured threshold, the Mode Fed Owner receives an alert email. Alert emails are the only direct notification of budget threshold activity — however, near-realtime spending data is available via your Mode's Standard Cost Dashboard (see Section 5), which shows actual spend but not the configured threshold.
Project Budget
Each individual Project within a Mode also has its own budget, scoped to that Project alone within a given environment (workspace). When monthly spending crosses the configured threshold, configured Project recipients receive an alert email. Alert emails are the only direct notification of budget threshold activity — however, near-realtime spending data is available via your Mode's Standard Cost Dashboard (see Section 5), which shows actual spend but not the configured threshold.
Independent Alerts
The two tiers fire independently. It is normal to receive an alert from your Project budget and a separate alert from your Mode budget for the same spending activity — they are tracking different scopes.
3. Alert Thresholds and Multipliers
Each budget has a base threshold — a dollar amount in USD. When cumulative spending for the month reaches that amount, an alert email is sent to all configured recipients.
Optional Multiplier Alerts
A Mode or Project can optionally be configured with one or more multiplier alerts. A multiplier creates an additional alert at a multiple of the base threshold. For example:
Alert | Fires when monthly spend reaches | Email subject contains |
|---|---|---|
Base alert | $X (the base threshold) | (no suffix) |
2× multiplier | $2X (twice the base threshold) |
|
3× multiplier | $3X (three times the base threshold) |
|
Any multiplier value can be requested — not just 2×. Multipliers greater than 1 represent an over-budget warning. Multipliers less than or equal to 1 can be used for early-warning alerts (e.g., a 0.5× alert fires at half the base threshold).
If you receive an email with _2x_WARNING in the budget name, your Mode or Project has spent twice its base monthly threshold. Again, workloads are not affected — this is a notification only.
4. Who Gets Notified
Every budget alert — at every threshold — is sent to the Databricks Support Team in addition to any configured recipients.
Beyond the support team, alert recipients are configured per Mode and per Project. To add, remove, or change email recipients for a budget alert, submit a change request via the JSM form linked in Section 6.
5. Viewing Your Cost Data
Near-Realtime Spend: Standard Cost Dashboard
Each Mode has a dedicated cost dashboard in Databricks that shows near-realtime spending data. The dashboard is named:
{Mode} Standard Cost Dashboard
For example, the FHWA Mode dashboard is named FHWA Standard Cost Dashboard. These dashboards are accessible to Mode admins within the Databricks environment (workspace).
Budget Configuration and History
Budget configuration details (thresholds, recipients, multipliers) are managed by the support team and are not directly visible in the Databricks UI to Mode owners or Project leads. If you need to know your current budget settings, submit a request using the JSM form in Section 6.
6. Requesting Changes
Budget change requests must be submitted through the DOT Databricks support portal. Requests submitted by unauthorized parties will not be processed.
Who Can Submit
Change type | Authorized submitters |
|---|---|
Mode budget (threshold, alert emails, multipliers) | Mode Fed Owner(s) for that Mode |
Project budget (threshold, alert emails, multipliers) | Mode Fed Lead(s) or Project Lead(s) for that Project |
What to Include in Your Request
To process your request efficiently, include the following in your ticket:
Mode name and/or Project name
Environment (workspace) the change applies to (e.g., dev, stage, prod)
New base threshold amount (in USD), if changing
Email addresses to add or remove from alert recipients, if changing
Multiplier value(s) to add or remove, if changing (e.g., add a 2× warning alert)