No Lifecycle Management for Temporarily Stopped RDS Instances

Shireen Maini

Service Category

Database

Cloud Provider

AWS

Service Name

AWS RDS

Inefficiency Type

Unused Resource

Explanation

While stopping an RDS instance reduces runtime cost, AWS enforces a 7-day limit on stopped state. After this period, the instance is automatically restarted and resumes incurring compute charges — even if the database is still not needed. This creates waste in cases where teams intended to pause the environment but failed to manage its lifecycle beyond the 7-day window. Without proper automation or teardown workflows, stopped RDS instances silently become active and billable again. The best practice for long-term inactivity is to snapshot the database and delete the instance entirely. If the instance must remain available for fast recovery, automation should be in place to re-stop it upon restart.

Relevant Billing Model

RDS instances are billed based on:

Instance runtime (per hour) — charged only while running
Provisioned storage and snapshots — billed independently of instance state

When an instance is restarted after 7 days without being actively used, runtime charges resume.

Detection

Identify RDS instances that were restarted automatically after reaching the 7-day stop limit
Check for repeated stop/restart patterns without sustained usage
Review tags or naming patterns indicating temporary or paused projects
Engage with workload owners to determine whether reactivation was intentional or overlooked

Remediation

For projects on hold or long-term inactive environments:

Take a snapshot and delete the RDS instance to avoid all runtime charges
Restore from snapshot only when the environment is needed again

If the instance must remain stopped for quick recovery:

Tag eligible instances and implement automation (e.g., AWS Step Functions or Lambda) to monitor for automatic restarts and re-stop them as needed
Ensure teams are aware of the 7-day stop limit and its cost implications
Consider integrating this logic into existing environment lifecycle tooling

Relevant Documentation

Stopping and Starting an Amazon RDS Instance