AWS Resource Cleanup Runbook

Free v1.0.0 2 views

Audit your AWS account to find unused resources, get prioritized cleanup commands, and safely delete cloud clutter to reduce infrastructure costs.

What You Get

Get prioritized audit checklists, copy-paste AWS CLI commands with safety procedures, and estimated savings to reclaim cloud spending without breaking production.

The Problem

Bootstrapped SaaS founders accumulate cloud clutter - unused AWS resources that quietly drain budgets. Rapid experimentation leaves orphaned resources, fear of breaking production prevents cleanup, AWS doesn't clearly surface what's unused, and there's no time to investigate dependencies. Case studies show $6K annual savings from cleaning up orphaned resources, with founders finding 15+ unused load balancers running for months.

The Solution

This skill provides a comprehensive, safe approach to AWS resource cleanup through structured audits. It generates prioritized cleanup lists based on cost impact and deletion risk, provides AWS CLI commands for detection and removal, includes safety verification steps to check dependencies, offers rollback procedures for critical resources, and estimates potential savings. The approach starts with low-risk, high-impact resources like unattached EBS volumes and unused Elastic IPs, then progresses to more complex cleanups like idle load balancers and hidden costs in CloudWatch Logs retention and S3 versioning.

How It Works

  1. 1 Determine audit scope: full account audit, specific resource cleanup, or hidden cost investigation
  2. 2 Generate prioritized resource list ordered by cost impact, deletion safety, and audit difficulty
  3. 3 Provide AWS CLI commands to detect unused resources with formatted, human-readable output
  4. 4 Add safety verification steps including dependency checks, tag inspection, and backup recommendations
  5. 5 Provide deletion commands with test-first approach and batch processing capabilities
  6. 6 Include rollback procedures with snapshot creation and restoration steps for critical resources
  7. 7 Estimate monthly and annual savings based on AWS pricing for each cleanup action

What You'll Need

  • AWS CLI installed and configured with credentials for your account
  • IAM permissions to describe and delete resources in scope
  • Basic AWS knowledge to interpret resource IDs and states
  • Access to the AWS account being audited

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