To find underutilized instances list based on CPU and network utilization

Question

I would like to get all the AWS EC2 instances list which are idle and underutilized. I need to filter them based on CPU utilization used less than 2% and network I/O less than 5Mb for last 30 days.

Can you please provide me with the commands or any scripts to get the list or guide me to get that achieved.

I need this to get that list and terminate those instances for cost management.

Answer 1

You can create a CloudWatch alarm that is triggered when the average CPU utilization percentage has been lower than 2 percent for 24 hours, signaling that it is idle and no longer in use. You can adjust the threshold, duration, and period to suit your needs, plus you can add an SNS notification so that you will receive an email when the alarm is triggered.

Kindly refer to this documentation to create an alarm to terminate an idle instance using the Amazon CloudWatch console.