Inactive Gateway Load Balancer (GLB)

Service Category

Networking

Cloud Provider

AWS

Service Name

AWS ELB

Inefficiency Type

Unused Resource

Explanation

Gateway Load Balancers that no longer have active traffic flows can continue to exist indefinitely unless proactively decommissioned. This often happens after network topology changes, security architecture updates, or environment deprecations. Without active packet forwarding, the GLB provides no functional benefit but still incurs hourly and data transfer costs.

Relevant Billing Model

Gateway Load Balancers are billed per hour of operation and per GB of data processed. Charges continue to accrue even if the load balancer is not actively forwarding traffic. Maintaining idle GLBs results in unnecessary ongoing costs without delivering operational value.

Detection

Identify Gateway Load Balancers with no active traffic or minimal packet forwarding over a representative time window
Confirm there are no attached target appliances or ongoing inspection flows depending on the load balancer
Review networking configurations, route tables, and security group dependencies to validate safe removal
Check tagging and documentation to identify whether the GLB was associated with a retired or migrated environment
Validate findings with security or network operations teams before deletion

Remediation

If confirmed to be inactive, delete the load balancer through the AWS Console, CLI, or API to stop further billing. Where possible, document the reason for decommissioning and update tagging or inventory systems to prevent reaccumulation of unused resources.

Relevant Documentation