Amazon Neptune · Finder + automated fixer

Neptune Remove Idle Clusters

RemoveIdle Clusters

Delete idle Amazon Neptune clusters incurring hourly charges with zero queries. CloudFix identifies unused graph database clusters and removes them.

Automated fixer
Effort: Medium
Action: Delete
Amazon Neptune

What happens, in order.

Finder · read-only
Finds the opportunity
Scans your connected accounts with a read-only role. It can see resource metadata and usage; it can’t change anything.
You
Approve in Recommendations
It appears in your Recommendations view with what it would save. Approve the resources you choose. Nothing has changed yet.
Fixer
Runs in your account
The fixer runs as an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook in your AWS account, and acts only on the resources you approved.
Record
Logs the execution
The Systems Manager execution is logged, so every change can be audited.

Finder role

Read-only. It can see resource metadata and usage. It can’t change anything.

Fixer role

A separate, minimal role that acts only on the resources you approved, through AWS Systems Manager.

Saves by

This fixer identifies Neptune clusters that have been idle for an extended period of time, creates a snapshot, and deletes the cluster.

Amazon Neptune clusters, like other database resources, can become idle over time if they are no longer actively serving queries or workloads. These idle clusters continue to incur costs for instance hours and storage. CloudFix identifies Neptune clusters that have been idle for an extended period, creates a final snapshot for potential restoration, and then deletes the cluster to eliminate unnecessary costs.

Overview

Problem Statement

Neptune clusters provisioned for development, testing, or past projects can often be forgotten, leading to persistent charges for resources that are no longer providing value. Identifying these idle clusters manually across an AWS environment can be time-consuming and prone to oversight. Leaving idle Neptune clusters running results in unnecessary expenditure on compute instances and storage.

Solution Impact

CloudFix’s “Clean up idle Neptune clusters” feature automates the detection and removal of these unused resources. Using your cost and usage data and Neptune’s own utilization metrics, CloudFix accurately identifies idle clusters. Upon approval, it securely backs up the cluster data by creating a final snapshot and then deletes the cluster. This process typically saves approximately 99% of the idle cluster’s costs, with the minimal remaining cost attributed to storing the snapshot.

AWS Services Affected

Amazon Neptune

How It Works

The CloudFix Finder works read-only, using your cost and usage data and Neptune’s own utilization metrics to find clusters that have served no requests for an extended period. Each cluster appears in your Recommendations, and nothing changes until you approve it.

Once approved, the Fixer runs as an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook in your own account. It has AWS take a final snapshot of the cluster, tagged with what is needed to recreate it later, and then deletes the cluster and its instances. Every execution is logged.

FAQ

What are the potential savings?

You can expect to save approximately 99% of the costs associated with the idle Neptune cluster. The remaining ~1% cost is for storing the final snapshot on S3 (priced at standard S3 rates, e.g., $0.10 per GB-month).

Is it possible to roll back this fix?

Yes, although rollback is not fully automated. A final snapshot is created before deletion. You can manually restore this snapshot to a new Neptune cluster using the AWS Management Console or CLI, or by running the rollback runbook CloudFix provides.

Can CloudFix implement the fix automatically?

Yes, upon your approval of the recommendation, CloudFix can automatically execute the fixer process.

Does this fix require downtime?

No downtime is required in the sense that the cluster being deleted has already been identified as idle for an extended period. The deletion process itself makes the cluster permanently unavailable, but this should not impact active workloads.

What happens to the data in the idle cluster?

Before the cluster is deleted, a final snapshot is created and stored in Amazon S3. This snapshot contains all the data from the cluster at the time of deletion and can be used to restore the data to a new cluster if needed.

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What happens, in order.

Finds the opportunity

Approve in Recommendations

Runs in your account

Logs the execution