Liquid Azure - Version 3.1

Overview

The Liquid Azure - Version 3.1 collector retrieves Azure consumption data from the Liquid Intelligent Technologies platform using the Liquid API.

This collector provides visibility into Azure resource usage across customer accounts, including service consumption quantities, unit pricing, and calculated totals, enabling service providers to validate Azure usage and bill customers within Varibill.

The collector retrieves rated consumption data, meaning monetary values (cost and total) are included in the data supplied by the source system. Varibill can apply markups to these values without referencing price lists.

This is a historically capable collector, meaning each execution retrieves consumption data for a configurable date range in the past, rather than a snapshot of the current state.

For general instructions on creating and running Source Collectors, see: Configuring a New Cloud Source Collector

Collector Summary

About Liquid Intelligent Technologies

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is a pan-African technology group that provides cloud, connectivity, and digital services across the continent and beyond. Liquid operates as a cloud aggregator, enabling service providers and enterprises to procure and manage cloud services — including Microsoft Azure — through a unified platform.

The Liquid platform provides programmatic access to Azure consumption data, allowing service providers to retrieve detailed usage records for their customers. Each record includes the Azure service consumed, the resource involved, the usage quantity, and the unit price, enabling accurate billing and cost reconciliation.

Data Collected

The Liquid Azure - Version 3.1 collector retrieves rated Azure consumption data from the Liquid platform API. Each record represents a usage line item for a specific customer, Azure service, and resource within a given date.

The collector captures the following data for each consumption record:

• Customer details — customer account name and, optionally, subscription identifier
• Service details — Azure meter sub-category and meter name
• Usage details — consumption quantity and unit price
• Cost details — calculated total (unit price multiplied by quantity) and cost (total with optional percentage markup applied)
• Resource details — resource name, resource group, and usage date

The following processing is applied during collection:

• Records are aggregated by customer, date, product, and resource description. Where multiple records share the same combination, their quantity, total, and cost values are summed.
• Records with a Cost Percentage greater than zero have a markup applied: the cost is calculated as the total plus the configured percentage of the total.

The collector supports two date modes:

• Daily mode (default) — collects data for a window defined by the Days Offset and Days Range parameters
• Monthly mode — collects data for the full calendar month offset by the Months Offset parameter

The identifiers submitted to Varibill for each record are constructed as follows:

• Client Identifier — the customer account name. When Group CI by Subscription is enabled, the client identifier is constructed as {CustomerName}#{SubscriptionId}.
• Product Identifier — constructed as {MeterSubCategory}#{MeterName}. For example: Standard SSD Managed Disks#E10 LRS Disk.
• Record Identifier — constructed as Consumption for {resource name} in resource group {resource group} on {date}. For example: Consumption for my-vm-disk in resource group rg-production on 2026-07-01.
• Unique Identifier — a CRC32 hash computed from the Client Identifier, date, Product Identifier, and Record Identifier.
• Tag — empty (not used by this collector).

Prerequisites

Before configuring this collector, ensure that:

• You have an active account with Liquid Intelligent Technologies that includes Azure consumption services
• You have obtained an API key for the Liquid platform
• You have noted the Liquid API host URL (for example, https://api.example.com)
• You have access to the Varibill Source Collector configuration screen

Configuration Parameters

The parameters below are entered when configuring the collector in Varibill. They are grouped by function.

Connection Parameters

These parameters identify and authenticate against the Liquid platform. The collector authenticates using an API key sent in the request header.

Collection Parameters

Billing Parameters

Date Range Parameters

These parameters define the time window of consumption data collected on each run. The collector supports two date modes: daily mode (default) and monthly mode.

Operational Parameters

These parameters control file management behavior.

Liquid References

The following resources may assist with locating values or configuring your Liquid platform access.

Liquid Documentation (External)

• Liquid Intelligent Technologies Website

Configuration Steps

Step 1: Prepare Your Liquid Platform Access

1. Contact your Liquid Intelligent Technologies account representative to obtain API access.
2. Obtain your API key for the Liquid platform.
3. Note the API host URL provided by Liquid.

Step 2: Configure the Collector in Varibill

1. In the Varibill User Interface, open the Source Collector configuration screen.

2. Enter the required field values under the Details tab:

   • Hosting Provider: Select Varibill Cloud
   • Source Collector Name: Select Liquid Azure - Version 3.1

3. Enter the connection parameters:

   • Liquid Host: The base URL of the Liquid API (for example, https://api.example.com)
   • Liquid API Key: The API key from your Liquid account

4. Configure the collection parameters:

   • Group CI by Subscription: Set to true if the same customer has multiple Azure subscriptions that should be billed separately

5. Configure the billing parameters:

   • Cost Percentage: The percentage markup to apply to calculated totals (set to 0 for no markup)

6. Set the date range parameters:

   • Extract Data by Month: Set to true to collect a full calendar month, or leave as false for daily offset mode
   • If using monthly mode: set Months Offset to the number of months back to collect
   • If using daily mode: set Days Offset and Days Range to define the collection window

7. Save the collector configuration.

Step 3: Run the Collector

Run or schedule the collector according to your standard Source Collector execution process.

For detailed instructions, see: Configuring a New Cloud Source Collector

Troubleshooting

If the collector fails to connect to the Liquid platform, verify that:

• The Liquid Host URL is correct and includes https:// with no trailing slash.
• The Liquid API Key is valid and has not been revoked or replaced.
• No firewall or IP restriction rules are blocking the Varibill collector’s IP address from reaching the Liquid API host.

If the collector connects successfully but returns no data, verify that:

• The date range parameters cover a period in which Azure consumption data exists.
• Your Liquid platform account has active customer tenants with Azure consumption activity.
• The Liquid platform API is accessible and returning data correctly.
• If using monthly mode, confirm that Extract Data by Month is set to true and that Months Offset targets the correct month.