EBS Volumes Safe Deletion with Rollback

Unattached EBS Volumes Cleanup - us-east-1

Pre-Deletion Safety Checklist

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Complete these verification steps before deleting any volumes.

Step 1: Verify Volumes are Truly Unused

# List all 12 unattached volumes with full details
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].{ID:VolumeId,Size:Size,Type:VolumeType,Created:CreateTime,AZ:AvailabilityZone,Tags:Tags}' \
  --output table

Step 2: Check CloudWatch Metrics (Last 30 Days)

# For each volume, check if there was any recent I/O activity
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --namespace AWS/EBS \
  --metric-name VolumeReadOps \
  --dimensions Name=VolumeId,Value=vol-xxxxx \
  --start-time $(date -u -d '30 days ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
  --end-time $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
  --period 86400 \
  --statistics Sum

Step 3: Search CloudTrail for Recent Attach Events

# Check if any volumes were recently detached
aws cloudtrail lookup-events \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=ResourceType,AttributeValue=AWS::EC2::Volume \
  --start-time $(date -u -d '7 days ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
  --query 'Events[*].{Time:EventTime,Event:EventName,Volume:Resources[0].ResourceName}' \
  --output table

Step 4: Create Snapshots for Rollback

# Create snapshots with descriptive tags
for volume_id in $(aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].VolumeId' \
  --output text); do
  
  echo "Creating snapshot of $volume_id..."
  aws ec2 create-snapshot \
    --region us-east-1 \
    --volume-id $volume_id \
    --description "Pre-deletion backup - $(date +%Y-%m-%d)" \
    --tag-specifications "ResourceType=snapshot,Tags=[{Key=Purpose,Value=PreDeletionBackup},{Key=OriginalVolumeId,Value=$volume_id}]"
  
  sleep 2
done

Step 5: Document Volume Details

# Save complete volume configuration for rollback
mkdir -p ebs-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d)
cd ebs-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d)

for volume_id in $(aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].VolumeId' \
  --output text); do
  
  aws ec2 describe-volumes \
    --region us-east-1 \
    --volume-ids $volume_id \
    > volume-$volume_id.json
done

Safe Deletion Commands

Option 1: Delete Single Volume (Recommended First)

# Delete specific volume by ID
aws ec2 delete-volume \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --volume-id vol-xxxxx

Verify deletion:

aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --volume-ids vol-xxxxx
# Expected: "The volume 'vol-xxxxx' does not exist"

Option 2: Bulk Delete All 12 Volumes

⚠️ WARNING: Only proceed after completing safety checklist.

# DRY RUN: List what would be deleted
echo "The following volumes will be deleted:"
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].{ID:VolumeId,Size:Size,Type:VolumeType}' \
  --output table

echo "Press Ctrl+C to cancel, or Enter to continue..."
read

# Proceed with deletion
for volume_id in $(aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].VolumeId' \
  --output text); do
  
  echo "Deleting $volume_id..."
  aws ec2 delete-volume \
    --region us-east-1 \
    --volume-id $volume_id
  
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "✓ Successfully deleted $volume_id"
  else
    echo "✗ Failed to delete $volume_id"
  fi
  
  sleep 2
done

Rollback Procedures

Restore from Snapshot

# 1. Find the snapshot for the deleted volume
aws ec2 describe-snapshots \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --owner-ids self \
  --filters Name=tag:OriginalVolumeId,Values=vol-xxxxx \
  --query 'Snapshots[*].{ID:SnapshotId,Created:StartTime}' \
  --output table

# 2. Create new volume from snapshot
aws ec2 create-volume \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --availability-zone us-east-1a \
  --snapshot-id snap-xxxxx \
  --volume-type gp3 \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=volume,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=Restored}]'

# 3. Attach to instance if needed
aws ec2 attach-volume \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --volume-id vol-new-xxxxx \
  --instance-id i-xxxxx \
  --device /dev/sdf

Recovery Time: 5-15 minutes
Data Loss Risk: None if snapshot was created before deletion

Cost Savings Estimation

# Calculate your savings
total_gb=$(aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'sum(Volumes[*].Size)' \
  --output text)

echo "Total unattached storage: ${total_gb} GB"
echo "Monthly cost (gp3): \$$(echo "$total_gb * 0.08" | bc)"
echo "Annual savings: \$$(echo "$total_gb * 0.08 * 12" | bc)"