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How to Clean Up AWS EBS Volumes

When EC2 instances are removed, their storage volumes are sometimes left behind. Fix Inventory can find and delete these unused storage volumes.

Prerequisites​

This guide assumes that you have already installed and configured Fix Inventory to collect your AWS resources.

Directions​

  1. Execute the following command in Fix Inventory Shell to open the Fix Inventory Worker configuration for editing:

    > config edit fix.worker

  2. Enable cleanup by modifying the fixworker section of the configuration as follows:

    fixworker:
      # Enable cleanup of resources
      cleanup: true
      # Do not actually cleanup resources, just create log messages
      cleanup_dry_run: false
      # How many cleanup threads to run in parallel
      cleanup_pool_size: 16

    When cleanup is enabled, marked resources will be deleted as a part of the collect_and_cleanup workflow, which runs each hour by default.

    tip

    Set cleanup_dry_run to true to simulate cleanup without actually deleting resources.

  3. Execute the following search in Fix Inventory Shell to list all unused EBS volumes:

    > search is(ebs_volume) and not /ancestors.instance

  4. Refine the search criteria to only include unmounted volumes older than 30 days that have not been accessed in the last 7 days, in specific accounts:

    > search is(aws_ec2_volume) and /ancestors.account.reported.name in [eng-jenkins,eng-development] and volume_status = available and age > 30d and last_access > 7d

  5. Now that we've defined the search for unused EBS volumes, simply pipe the result of the search query to the clean command:

    > search is(aws_ec2_volume) and /ancestors.account.reported.name in [eng-jenkins,eng-development] and volume_status = available and age > 30d and last_access > 7d | clean
    note

    The clean command flags a resource for cleanup.

    Cleanup is performed whenever the collect_and_cleanup workflow runs.

    The workflow runs every hour by default, but can also be manually triggered using the workflow run cleanup command.

  6. Automate flagging unused EBS volumes for cleanup by creating a job:

    > jobs add --id cleanup-unused-volumes --wait-for-event cleanup_plan 'search is(aws_ec2_volume) and /ancestors.account.reported.name in [eng-jenkins,eng-development] and volume_status = available and age > 30d and last_access > 7d | clean'

The job will now run each time Fix Inventory emits the cleanup_plan event. The post_cleanup_plan event is emitted in the cleanup phase of the collect_and_cleanup workflow.

Each time the job runs, unused storage volumes will be flagged for removal during the next cleanup run.

Further Reading​