Delete unused Elastic IP

What It Does

Releases unused Elastic IP (EIP) addresses that are not currently associated with any resource. Elastic IPs incur charges when idle. This runbook detects unassociated EIPs and automatically releases them to reduce unnecessary cost.

Risk and Scope

Detail	Value
Risk Level	Low
AWS Service Targeted	Amazon VPC

Permissions Required

Delete Permissions

• ec2:ReleaseAddress

Read Permissions

• ec2:DescribeAddresses

These permissions are granted only to the runbook, not to the OneLens platform itself.

Optimization Policies Addressed

This runbook remediates violation tickets of the following policy:

Policy ID	Policy Name
vpc_102	Detect Elastic IPs attached to stopped EC2 Instances for over certain days
vpc_101	There should be no unused Elastic IPs

Risk Mitigation

Risk Mitigation Strategy

• The change is assessed as low risk with limited scope and impact.

• No downtime is expected during or after implementation.

• No additional safety measures are required due to the non-disruptive nature of the change.

• A rollback plan is not defined, as standard procedures are sufficient to manage the change.

How to Install

Refer to the Runbook Setup Guide for steps to install and enable this runbook in your environment.

Runbook Workflow

Step 1: Start

Trigger: Begins the workflow. A description of the target EIP and its allocation ID is provided here.

Step 2: checkForUnusedIP

Action: Executes a script to check if the Elastic IP is not associated with any EC2 instance or network interface.

Step 3: If/Else

Condition: Evaluates whether the EIP is indeed unused.

1. If true:

   1. ReleaseElasticIp

      Uses ReleaseAddress on EC2 to release the Elastic IP and stop idle cost accumulation.

2. Else:

   Exits without making any changes.

See How it Works

Triggering the Runbook

To run this workflow:

1. Locate the Ticket

Identify the ticket associated with the above mentioned policy violation.

2. Execute the Runbook

Follow the steps described in the executing a runbook section to apply this runbook to the ticket.