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Use Case for EBS Snapshot Archival Recommendation

  1. Configure EBS Snapshot Archival Recommendation
  2. Use Case for EBS Snapshot Archival Recommendation
  3. Triage Guides by Violation Type
    1. Triage EBS Snapshot Archival Recommendation SNAPSHOT_ELIGIBLE_FOR_ARCHIVAL

This policy is designed to help organizations manage costs by identifying Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Block Store (EBS) Snapshots that are candidates for archival. Archiving snapshots that are older than 30 days and are also the newest for a specific volume can lead to significant cost savings, as archived snapshots are stored at a lower cost compared to standard EBS Snapshot pricing.

Pros​

  • Cost Savings: Moves idle but necessary snapshots to a cheaper storage class.
  • Optimized Storage Management: Helps keep snapshot storage lean and cost-effective.

Cons​

  • Retrieval Time: Archived snapshots take longer to restore than those stored in the standard tier.

How It Works​

The policy checks that an EBS Snapshot is:

  1. Older than 30 days (minAgeInDays, default: 30).
  2. The most recent snapshot of a specific EBS volume (resourceUrn).

If both conditions are met, a recommendation to archive the snapshot is generated. A violation is not issued separately for each condition, but rather for the intersection of both.

Distinction Between ViolationTypeIds​

  • SNAPSHOT_ELIGIBLE_FOR_ARCHIVAL: Used when both conditions are met for a single snapshot. There are no separate violation types for the individual conditions.