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Medium

Ensure RDS instances are using General Purpose SSD storage and not Provisioned IOPS SSD storage

AWS Cost Optimization
AWS Well-Architected Framework
Description

To reduce AWS RDS costs while maintaining the same I/O performance, it is recommended to use General Purpose SSDs instead of Provisioned IOPS SSDs for your RDS instances. This is a cost-effective storage option that is suitable for a broad range of database workloads, as long as your database does not require more than 10,000 IOPS or 160 MiB/s of throughput. By migrating Provisioned IOPS RDS instances to General Purpose instances, you can lower your monthly AWS bill without sacrificing performance. For example, if your MySQL database requires 150GB storage size and 1500 IOPS, you can save approximately $110 per month by using instances with General Purpose SSD storage instead of Provisioned IOPS SSD storage.Using General Purpose SSD storage means you only pay for storage, whereas Provisioned IOPS SSD storage requires payment for both storage and IOPS. If you are already using PIOPS-based databases, it is often possible to migrate them to General Purpose by configuring larger storage, which will provide higher baseline performance of IOPS at a lower cost.However, it is important to note that before migrating your RDS instances to General Purpose SSDs, it is highly recommended to back up your RDS database instances. This is because all automated backups (snapshots) associated with the instances will be removed once they are modified.

Remediation

To ensure that your RDS instances are using General Purpose SSD storage and not Provisioned IOPS SSD storage, you can take the following remediation steps:

  1. Identify all of your RDS instances that are currently using Provisioned IOPS SSD storage.
  2. Determine if the IOPS and throughput requirements of each database are less than 10,000 IOPS or 160 MiB/s. If they are, you can safely convert the Provisioned IOPS SSD storage to General Purpose SSD storage.
  3. Back up your RDS database instances before converting them to General Purpose SSD storage. This is highly recommended because once these instances are modified, all their automated backups (snapshots) are removed.
  4. Modify the RDS instances to use General Purpose SSD storage instead of Provisioned IOPS SSD storage.
  5. Verify that the RDS instances are now using General Purpose SSD storage by checking the instance details in the AWS Management Console or using the AWS CLI.
  6. Monitor the performance of the RDS instances to ensure that the database workloads are still meeting the required IOPS and throughput levels.

By following these remediation steps, you can ensure that your RDS instances are using cost-effective General Purpose SSD storage instead of Provisioned IOPS SSD storage. This will help to reduce your AWS costs without sacrificing performance.

Enforced Resources
RDS
Note: Remediation steps provided by Lightlytics are meant to be suggestions and guidelines only. It is crucial to thoroughly verify and test any remediation steps before applying them to production environments. Each organization's infrastructure and security needs may differ, and blindly applying suggested remediation steps without proper testing could potentially cause unforeseen issues or vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you validate and customize any remediation steps to meet your organization's specific requirements and ensure that they align with your security policies and best practices.