README.md

ec2_snaphot_cleaner

Cleaning script to remove unused EC2/EBS snaphots from AWS.

Dependencies

This is a bash script that needs the aws CLI and the jq package installed. You should also configure your aws CLI to have the necessary credentials first before executing this tool.

So on ubuntu for example run following commands to set things up:

• apt-get install awscli jq
• aws configure

Also make sure you have read and write IAM permissions for EC2 (or at least for all snapshot, AMI and volume related actions).

Usage

Make sure script is executable (chmod +x ec2_snaphot_cleaner.sh). Then do a ./ec2_snaphot_cleaner.sh.

If you want to use a non default AWS profile (you can have multiple in your .aws/config) set the AWS_PROFILE environment variable when running the script. Example AWS_PROFILE=production ./ec2_snaphot_cleaner.sh. See AWS documentation on profiles

Purpose of this Tool

This tool checks for snapshots being used in EC2 EBS volumes using the aws describe-volumes command, it also checks snaphots being used by AMIs by using the aws describe-images command. Snaphots that don't appear in either of those lists will be deleted!

The script will give you an output of what snaphot IDs have been found in use and which ones will be kept/deleted.

Caution / Disclaimer / Warning!

Deleted snaphots can not be recovered! So make sure first that this tool actually does what you want! The aws delete-snaphot command (being used here) however makes sure snaphots building on top of each other (sharing blocks) stay intact. See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/delete-snapshot.html

In my usecase checking only for Volumes and AMIs in use is enough. But if you have for some reason other things depending on snaphots don't run this!

This script is provided as-is. No guarantees attached!

Contribute

If you think this script can be improved or made safer for more usacases feel free to fork it and issue pull requests!