Database pricing is usage-based, meaning you pay by the hour only when the RDS instance is allocated and running.
Stopping RDS instances during nights and weekends can save 66% compared to running them full-time.
This practice should be implemented in Non-Prod and Sandbox environments.
Many RDS databases don’t need to run 24/7. You can stop these instances during off-hours, putting them in a state where they can be operational within minutes when needed. You only pay for storage and backups when the instances are stopped.
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Exceptions for Reserved Instances (RI)
If your RDS database is covered by a Reserved Instance, you might not want to shut them down under two conditions:
If the RI cannot flow into another database (due to differences in region, engine, or instance type).
If you can only shut them down on weekends (30% savings) and not nights (66% combined savings).
How to identify?
You can identify RDS instances suitable for scheduling using the following methods:
From our Cost Optimizations Report, check at RDS_Weekend_Shutdown_NonProd section.
In AWS Console, go to the RDS service, then select the Databases section.
How to fix?
AWS does not provide a direct solution per instance. But they provide an architectural solution.
After implementing this solution, you only need to add the appropriate tags to your RDS instances.
Note: A stopped RDS instance will automatically start after 7 days.
If the resource is provisioned automatically via IaC (such as CloudFormation or Terraform), update the corresponding code to reflect the changes.