Unused Resources

This topic describes how the Insights Unused Resources product helps you see and manage unused resources.

The Unused Resources product shows your unused EBS, ELP, EIP, and S3 bucket resources.

Zesty identifies and shows unused resources as they may be sources of waste. You may have a reason to keep those resources, or you may want to archive or delete them to reduce waste.

For unused EBS resources, you can create a policy to automatically archive or delete the resource.

See unused resources

You can see all unused resources in the table shown on the Unused resources tab of the Unused Resources page:

The table is sorted by monthly cost (descending order).

You can change the sort order and also customize the view to show the data that’s relevant:

• Filter the page by service, account, or any of the other columns.

• Use the column pickerto select the columns to be shown.

To see the resource in the AWS Console, click the ID in the Resource ID column.

To export a CSV of unused resources, click.

Manage unused resources

You can manage your unused resources by creating policies to automatically archive or delete those resources, thus cutting the wasted cost. Before Zesty archives a resource, we take a snapshot so it can be recovered.

You can configure a policy that will archive or delete resources in specific (or all) accounts that have been unused for a specified number of days, months, or years.

Best practice: You can configure a double-action policy that first archives resources, and then, if those archived resources remain unused for further time, the policy automatically deletes those archived resources.

You can delete (but not edit) an existing policy.

After creating a policy, it will go into effect from then, moving forward. For example, if the resource needs to be idle for 7 days, that 7 days starts from when the policy is created.

You may have specific resources that you want to shield from being affected by policies. You can lock those resources, and then policies will not apply to them, even if they match the policy criteria.

EBS resources that you archive with a policy are shown on the Archived resources tab.

You can see which policies are active by opening the Policy manager.

To create a policy to archive or delete a resource:

1. From the Unused resources tab of the Unused Resources page, click Policy Manager.

   The Policy manager displays current policies, if any.

2. Click Create policy.

   1. Select the EBS service type.

   2. Select all accounts or select specific accounts to search within.

      A policy can be for all accounts or for one specific account.

   3. Set the time period that the resource is unused for.

   4. Select whether to archive or delete the resources.

      If you select to archive the matching resources, the + sign is displayed.
      Click + to create a double-action policy (first archive the resources, and then delete them if they are still unused).
      This is an example of a double-action policy:

      

   5. Click Save policy.

   6. Review, then click Activate.

   The policy is shown in the Policy manager.

To delete an existing policy:

1. From the Unused resources tab of the Unused Resources page, click Policy Manager.

   The Policy manager displays current policies, if any.

2. At the right side of the policy to delete, click the delete icon.

   The policy is deleted.

Lock a resource

You can exempt a resource from being archived or deleted by a policy even if that resource matches the policy. Locking a resource is relevant only to EBS resources, as those are the ones for which policies can be created.

The following resource statuses can be shown in the Policy affect column:

To lock or unlock a resource from being affected by a policy:

1. From the Unused resources tab of the Unused Resources page, scroll to the right of the resource line.

2. Click the lock icon to lock or unlock the resource.

Manage archived resources

You can see all archived resources in the table shown on the Archived resources tab of the Unused Resources page:

The table is sorted by monthly cost (descending order).

You can change the sort order and also customize the view to show the data that’s relevant:

• Filter the page by service, account, or any of the other columns.

• Use the column pickerto select the columns to be shown.

To see the resource in the AWS Console, click the ID in the Resource ID column.

To export a CSV of unused resources, click.

Restore an archived resource

You can unarchive a resource by restoring it.

To restore a resource:

1. From the Archived resources tab of the Unused Resource page, scroll to the right of the resource line.

2. Click then confirm the request.

The resource is no longer archived.