Instance Scheduler on AWS

What does this AWS Solution do?

The Instance Scheduler on AWS solution helps you control your AWS resource cost by configuring start and stop schedules for your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) instances.

It also helps reduce operational costs by stopping resources that are not in use and starting resources when capacity is needed. For example, a company can use Instance Scheduler on AWS in a production environment to automatically stop instances outside of business hours every day. If you leave all of your instances running at full utilization, this solution can result in reducing the instance utilization, which will reduce overall cost based on the schedules configured.

Benefits

Cross-account instance scheduling

This solution includes a template that creates the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles necessary to start and stop instances in secondary accounts.

Automated tagging

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Instance Scheduler on AWS can automatically add tags to all instances it starts or stops. The solution also includes macros that allow you to add variable information to the tags.

Configure schedules or periods using Scheduler CLI

This solution includes a command line interface (CLI) that provides commands for configuring schedules and periods. The CLI allows customers to estimate cost savings for a given schedule.

Configure schedules or periods using SSM maintenance window

For EC2 instances, Instance Scheduler on AWS can use SSM maintenance windows defined in the same Region as the instances, and start and stop the instances for the maintenance window.

AWS Solution overview

The diagram below presents the architecture you can automatically deploy using the solution's implementation guide and accompanying AWS CloudFormation template.

AWS Instance Scheduler | Architecture Diagram

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Instance Scheduler on AWS architecture

1. The AWS CloudFormation template sets up an Amazon CloudWatch event at a customer-defined interval. This event invokes the Instance Scheduler AWS Lambda function. During configuration, the user defines the AWS Regions and accounts, as well as a custom tag that Instance Scheduler on AWS will use to associate schedules with applicable Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS instances.

2. These values are stored in Amazon DynamoDB, and the Lambda function retrieves them each time it runs. You can then apply the custom tag to applicable instances.

3. During initial configuration of the Instance Scheduler, you define a tag key you will use to identify applicable Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS instances. When you create a schedule, the name you specify is used as the tag value that identifies the schedule you want to apply to the tagged resource. For example, a user might use the solution’s default tag name (tag key) Schedule and create a schedule called uk-office-hours. To identify an instance that will use the uk-office-hours schedule, the user adds the Schedule tag key with a value of uk-office-hours.

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