Concepts

AWS Trusted Advisor is an application that draws upon best practices learned from AWS’s aggregated operational history. It acts as a personalized cloud consultant, analyzing your AWS environment and providing recommendations to save money, improve system performance and reliability, or help close security gaps.

For resource optimization, Trusted Advisor has specific checks in the “Cost Optimization” category:

  • Low Utilization Amazon EC2 Instances: Trusted Advisor inspects your Amazon EC2 instances and finds those that have had a low CPU utilization over the past 14 days, suggesting that they might be oversized for their workload.
  • Idle Load Balancers: This check finds Elastic Load Balancers that have low traffic and might not be necessary.
  • Underutilized Amazon EBS Volumes: It identifies EBS volumes with low I/O activity, which could indicate they are too large or not necessary.

AWS Compute Optimizer for Compute Resources

AWS Compute Optimizer recommends optimal AWS compute resources for your workloads by analyzing the configuration and utilization metrics. It applies to EC2 instances, Auto Scaling groups, EBS volumes, and Lambda functions. Compute Optimizer provides findings and rationale for its recommendations along with projected cost savings.

Here are the typical types of recommendations Compute Optimizer can make:

  • Instance Size: Suggesting a more suitable instance type that matches the actual usage patterns.
  • Auto Scaling Groups: Recommending configurations for Auto Scaling groups that could help maintain performance while reducing costs.
  • EBS Volumes: Offering insights into the performance characteristics of storage volumes and providing guidance on optimal volume types.

AWS Cost Explorer for Cost Management and Optimization

AWS Cost Explorer is a tool that allows you to visualize and manage your AWS costs and usage over time. With detailed cost and usage reports, you can identify trends, pinpoint cost drivers, and detect anomalies. Cost Explorer can help identify unused or underutilized resources by displaying patterns in spend across different services.

You can use AWS Cost Explorer to:

  • Analyze Your Spending and Usage: Drill down into your costs to understand what services are costing you the most and whether the spend is necessary.
  • Forecasting: AWS Cost Explorer provides cost forecasts based on historical usage, helping to predict future costs under current resource utilization patterns.
  • Reservations Management: Manage your Reserved Instances and Savings Plans, and align your reservations with your usage patterns.

Remediation of Underutilized Resources

Once you have identified underutilized resources using the tools mentioned above, remediation involves a series of steps that might include:

  • Right-Sizing: Adjusting instance sizes or storage volumes to better match the workload requirements based on the insights from Trusted Advisor or Compute Optimizer.
  • Terminating Unnecessary Resources: Deleting unused EC2 instances, disassociating EIPs, or removing idle load balancers identified by Trusted Advisor.
  • Improving Utilization: For resources that are seldom used but necessary, consider scheduling on/off times or auto-scaling policies when appropriate.
  • Reservations and Savings Plans: If consistent workload patterns are detected, purchasing Reserved Instances or Savings Plans can reduce costs significantly compared to on-demand rates.

Conclusion

Optimizing cloud costs and efficiency is critical to a well-managed AWS environment. The combination of AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Compute Optimizer, and AWS Cost Explorer provides a rich toolset for identifying and rectifying underutilized cloud resources. By regularly analyzing, right-sizing, and ensuring that all resources align with actual workload needs, organizations can reduce costs and operate more effectively in the cloud. Implementing a continuous optimization process is not just a one-time task; it’s an ongoing effort that is essential for cloud operational excellence.

Answer the Questions in Comment Section

True or False: AWS Trusted Advisor does not provide recommendations for cost optimization.

  • ( ) True
  • (x) False

Answer: False

Explanation: AWS Trusted Advisor provides insights regarding cost optimization, including recommendations for underutilized resources.

Which AWS service provides recommendations for optimal EC2 instances based on historical utilization data?

  • ( ) AWS Cost Explorer
  • ( ) AWS Trusted Advisor
  • (x) AWS Compute Optimizer
  • ( ) AWS CloudWatch

Answer: AWS Compute Optimizer

Explanation: AWS Compute Optimizer analyzes historical utilization data and provides recommendations for optimal EC2 instances.

Which AWS tool can you use to visualize your AWS spend over time?

  • ( ) AWS Trusted Advisor
  • (x) AWS Cost Explorer
  • ( ) AWS Compute Optimizer
  • ( ) AWS Budgets

Answer: AWS Cost Explorer

Explanation: AWS Cost Explorer allows you to visualize your AWS spend over time and analyze cost and usage data.

True or False: AWS Trusted Advisor only checks for security vulnerabilities.

  • ( ) True
  • (x) False

Answer: False

Explanation: AWS Trusted Advisor provides checks across five categories, including cost optimization, performance, security, fault tolerance, and service limits.

What action can be taken to remediate an underutilized RDS instance based on the recommendations from AWS services?

  • ( ) Delete the RDS instance
  • ( ) Modify the RDS instance to a smaller instance type
  • ( ) Leave the RDS instance as is
  • ( ) Increase the RDS instance storage

Answer: Modify the RDS instance to a smaller instance type

Explanation: Based on underutilization, a smaller instance type may be recommended to optimize costs.

Can AWS Cost Explorer provide resource utilization recommendations?

  • ( ) Yes
  • (x) No

Answer: No

Explanation: AWS Cost Explorer provides cost analysis but does not offer direct recommendations for resource utilization; it’s used for analyzing spend.

True or False: AWS Trusted Advisor is an optional service that incurs additional cost if used.

  • ( ) True
  • (x) False

Answer: False

Explanation: AWS Trusted Advisor offers a core set of checks and recommendations for all AWS customers at no additional charge, with expanded checks for customers with Business or Enterprise support plans.

How frequently does AWS Compute Optimizer update its recommendations?

  • ( ) Once every 24 hours
  • ( ) Once every week
  • (x) Once every 24 hours
  • ( ) Once every month

Answer: Once every 24 hours

Explanation: AWS Compute Optimizer updates its recommendations approximately every 24 hours to reflect the latest data.

True or False: AWS Trusted Advisor can automatically apply its cost optimization recommendations.

  • ( ) True
  • (x) False

Answer: False

Explanation: AWS Trusted Advisor provides recommendations, but it is the responsibility of the user to review and apply those recommendations manually.

Which feature in AWS Cost Explorer helps to identify trends and patterns in AWS usage that could lead to cost-saving measures?

  • ( ) Cost Allocation Tags
  • (x) Cost and Usage Reports
  • ( ) Consolidated Billing
  • ( ) Detailed Billing Report

Answer: Cost and Usage Reports

Explanation: Cost and Usage Reports in AWS Cost Explorer allow users to dive deeper into their costs and usage to identify trends and opportunities for cost savings.

Can you set custom thresholds for resource utilization in AWS Compute Optimizer?

  • ( ) Yes, for CPU utilization only
  • (x) No, thresholds are determined by Compute Optimizer
  • ( ) Yes, for memory utilization only
  • ( ) Yes, for both CPU and memory utilization

Answer: No, thresholds are determined by Compute Optimizer

Explanation: AWS Compute Optimizer uses machine learning to determine the optimal utilization thresholds; users cannot set custom thresholds.

True or False: You can use AWS Budgets to set alerts for cost thresholds but not for usage metrics.

  • ( ) True
  • (x) False

Answer: False

Explanation: AWS Budgets allows you to set custom budgets and alerts for cost and usage metrics, enabling proactive cost management.

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Esat BaÅŸoÄŸlu
8 months ago

Great blog post! AWS Trusted Advisor has helped us a lot in identifying underutilized resources in our environment.

Caroline da Rosa
7 months ago

Thanks for this post! I’m planning to explore AWS Compute Optimizer for better insights.

Priyanka Chatterjee
8 months ago

Can someone explain how AWS Cost Explorer can help in cost management more effectively?

Flavio Rosado
7 months ago

I have been using Trusted Advisor, but I’m not sure how reliable it is for larger organizations. Thoughts?

Lincoln Singh
7 months ago

Compute Optimizer seems very complex. Any tips on getting started?

Kasper Madsen
6 months ago

In my experience, AWS Cost Explorer is indispensable for budgeting and forecasting. Highly recommend it!

Liam Moore
7 months ago

I appreciate the blog post. It’s very helpful!

Arnav Chavare
7 months ago

Compute Optimizer helped us resize our EC2 instances, massively saving costs. Couldn’t recommend it enough.

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