Delete EBS Snapshots for which corresponding volumes are not in use

What It Does

Deletes Amazon EBS snapshots whose corresponding volumes are no longer in use. These orphaned snapshots can consume unnecessary storage costs.

Recommendation

If you require snapshots but are accessed infrequently, consider archiving them for up to 75% savings.

However, archived snapshots incur a minimum 90-day charge, and restoring them may take up to 72 hours.

Risk and Scope

Detail	Value
Risk Level	Low
AWS Service Targeted	Amazon EBS

Permissions Required

Delete Permission

• ec2:DeleteSnapshot

Read Permission

• ec2:DescribeSnapshots

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

Optimization Policies Addressed

This runbook to remediate violation tickets triggered by of the following policy:

Policy ID	Policy Name
ebs_100	EBS Snapshots of the deleted volumes should be deleted
ebs_101	EBS Snapshots of unattached EBS volumes should be deleted
ebs_102	EBS Snapshots created while copying AMI should be deleted

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 runbook to identify and remove orphaned EBS snapshots.

Step 2: DescribeSnapshots

Action: Calls DescribeSnapshots to retrieve all EBS snapshots.

Step 3: If/Else

Condition: Checks if any snapshots exist for which the associated EBS volumes no longer exist.

1. BranchOnValidSnapshot

   Verifies if each snapshot state is completed.

   1. DeleteSnapshot Executes DeleteSnapshot for snapshots that qualify for deletion.

   2. RunScript

      Raises a runtime error to capture errors, failing the workflow explicitly.

2. Else:

   The workflow ends if no qualifying snapshots are found.

See How it Works

Triggering the Runbook

To run this runbook:

1. Locate the Ticket

Find the ticket generated by the above policy violation.

2. Execute the Runbook

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