Saving money is a top priority for any AWS user. You can save money by manually shutting down your servers when they’re not in use. However, manually managing and administering multiple servers is quite difficult and time-consuming. This script offers a solution to automate the server stop and start procedure by scheduling with either a fixed time, a flexible time, or both.

You can stop your instances during non-working hours and start them during working hours by scheduling them automatically with minimal configuration. The solution also requires a one-time configuration of Amazon RDS tags.

You’re only charged for the hours when the services are running. This solution can help cut your operational costs by stopping resources that are not in use and starting resources when capacity is required. You can follow either implementing CloudFormation (CFN) template or Serverless (SAM) template as explained below.

The CloudFormation template cfn_auto_start_stop_rds/cfn_auto_start_stop_rds.yaml automatically creates all the AWS resources required for the Amazon RDS solution to function. Complete the following steps to create your AWS resources via the CloudFormation template:

1. On the AWS CloudFormation console, choose Create stack.
2. Choose With new resources (standard).
3. Choose Template is ready and choose Upload a template file.
4. Upload the provided .yaml file and choose Next.
5. For Stack name, enter cfn-auto-start-stop-rds.
6. Modify the parameter values that set the default cron schedule as needed.
7. For RegionTZ, choose which Region time zone to use. This is the TimeZone of the Region in which your RDS instances are deployed and you want to set timings convenient to that particular Timezone.
8. Choose Next and provide tags, if needed.
9. Choose Next and review the stack details.
10. Select the acknowledgement check box because this template creates an IAM role and policy.
11. Choose Create stack.
12. Open the stack and navigate to the Resources tab to track the resource creation status.

To delete all the resources created via this template, choose the stack on the AWS CloudFormation console and choose Delete. Choose Delete stack to confirm the stack deletion.

The AWS SAM template sam_auto_start_stop_rds/sam_auto_start_stop_rds.yaml automatically creates all the AWS resources required for the Amazon RDS solution to function. Complete the following steps to deploy this template:

1. Open a command prompt.

2. Install the AWS SAM CLI, if not installed.

3. Create a private Amazon S3 bucket in the Region where you want to create resources; e.g., an S3 bucket named aws-sam-save-costs-auto-start-stop-rds in us-west-1.

4. Use the AWS SAM CLI command sam deploy to deploy the template and create all the resources:

   sam deploy --template-file <sam_auto_start_stop_rds.yaml file> --s3-bucket <bucket name> --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM --region <region where bucket is created> --stack-name <cloudformation stack name>
   

   e.g. :

   sam deploy --template-file sam_auto_start_stop_rds.yaml --s3-bucket aws-sam-save-costs-auto-start-stop-rds --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM --region us-west-1 --stack-name sam-auto-start-stop-rds
   

5. The command prompt displays the deployment status of CloudFormation stack changeset and CloudFormation events from stack operations. You can also open the stack on the AWS CloudFormation console and navigate to the Resources tab to track the resource creation status.

To delete all the resources created via this template, use the AWS SAM CLI command sam delete:

sam delete --stack-name <cloudformation stack name> --region <region where bucket is created>

e.g. :

sam delete --stack-name sam-auto-start-stop-rds --region us-west-1

When implementing this solution with Amazon RDS tags, you can pick between two configurations. Depending on the your business needs, you can use either or both:

• Fixed time – A fixed time setup has the following components:
  • A single schedule applies to all RDS instances; for example you need to start several non-prod instances at a fixed time, such as daily at 9:00 AM, and stop them at 6:00 PM
  • The start and stop times are configured in an EventBridge rule cron in the UTC time zone
  • You can enable the solution by setting a true Boolean flag (case insensitive) value in the Amazon RDS tag key’s value
  • You disable the setup by not creating tags or by setting the false Boolean value (case insensitive) in the Amazon RDS tag
  • The tag keys are AutoStart and AutoStop
• Flexible time – A flexible time setup has the following components:
  • A different time schedule applies to each RDS instance; for example, if you want to start some servers at 7:00 AM, some at 8:30 AM, and so on, and stop some at 4:00 PM, some at 6:00 PM, and so on
  • The start and stop times are configured in Amazon RDS tags in HH:MM format in the time zone of the Region in which Amazon RDS is hosted
  • You enable this setup by setting the time value in the Amazon RDS tag key’s value
  • You disable this setup by not creating a tag or by setting a blank value (empty or null) in the Amazon RDS tag
  • The tag keys are StartWeekDay, StopWeekDay, StartWeekEnd, and StopWeekEnd

We use the following high-level features to configure and implement this solution:

• Tags – Configure 6 predefined tags in Amazon RDS:
  • AutoStart – Set value as True or False (case insensitive) with a schedule set in the auto start rule
  • AutoStop – Set value as True or False (case insensitive) with a schedule set in the auto stop rule
  • StartWeekDay – Set value in HH:MM to start on a weekday (Monday to Friday)
  • StopWeekDay – Set value in HH:MM to stop on a weekday (Monday to Friday)
  • StartWeekEnd – Set value in HH:MM to start on a weekend (Saturday to Sunday)
  • StopWeekEnd – Set value in HH:MM to stop on a weekend (Saturday to Sunday)
• Lambda – Configure 6 Lambda functions:
  • Auto start (AutoStartRDSInstance)
  • Auto stop (AutoStopRDSInstance)
  • Weekday start (RDSStartWeekDay)
  • Weekday stop (RDSStopWeekDay)
  • Weekend start (RDSStartWeekEnd)
  • Weekend stop (RDSStopWeekEnd)
• Rule – Create 4 EventBridge rules with cron schedule in UTC:
  • Auto start (AutoStartRDSRule)
    • Default schedule is cron (0 13 ? * MON-FRI *)
    • Auto start instance (Mon–Fri 9:00 AM EST / 1:00 PM UTC)
  • Auto stop (AutoStopRDSRule)
    • Default schedule is cron (0 1 ? * MON-FRI *)
    • Auto stop instance (Mon–Fri 9:00 PM EST / 1:00 AM UTC)
  • Weekday start and stop (RDSStartStopWeekDayRule)
    • Default schedule is cron (*/5 * ? * MON-FRI *)
    • Instance is triggered every weekday, every 5 minutes
  • Weekend start and stop (RDSStartStopWeekEndRule)
    • Default schedule is cron (*/5 * ? * SAT-SUN *)
    • Instance is triggered every weekend, every 5 minutes

Following AWS resources are created from this template :

• Lambda functions:
  • AutoStartRDSInstance
  • AutoStopRDSInstance
  • RDSStartWeekDay
  • RDSStopWeekDay
  • RDSStartWeekEnd
  • RDSStopWeekEnd
• EventBridge rules:
  • AutoStartRDSRule
  • AutoStopRDSRule
  • RDSStartStopWeekDayRule
  • RDSStartStopWeekEndRule
• IAM resources:
  • LambdaRDSStartStopRole (role)
  • LambdaRDSStartStopPolicy (inline policy)
• CloudWatch log groups:
  • /aws/lambda/AutoStartRDSInstance
  • /aws/lambda/AutoStopRDSInstance
  • /aws/lambda/RDSStartWeekDay
  • /aws/lambda/RDSStopWeekDay
  • /aws/lambda/RDSStartWeekEnd
  • /aws/lambda/RDSStopWeekEnd

If you want to Automate Start and Stop of Amazon RDS Instances to Save costs and implement this solution on Amazon RDS instance(s), refer GitHub URL https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-cfn-save-costs-auto-start-stop-rds

If you want to Automate Start and Stop of Amazon EC2 Instances to Save costs and implement same solution on Amazon EC2 instance(s), refer GitHub URL https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-cfn-save-costs-auto-start-stop-ec2

If you want to Automate Start and Stop of Amazon RDS Instances to Save costs and implement this solution on Amazon RDS instance(s), refer Blog URL https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/save-costs-by-automating-the-start-and-stop-of-amazon-rds-instances-with-aws-lambda-and-amazon-eventbridge/

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

This library is licensed under the MIT-0 License. See the LICENSE file.