AWS: Why does my RDS instance keep starting after I turned it off?

Question

I have an RDS database instance on AWS and have turned it off for now. However, every few days it starts up on its own. I don't have any other services running right now.

There is this event in my RDS log: "DB instance is being started due to it exceeding the maximum allowed time being stopped."

Why is there a limit to how long my RDS instance can be stopped? I just want to put my project on hold for a few weeks, but AWS won't let me turn off my DB? It costs $12.50/mo to have it sit idle, so I don't want to pay for this, and I certainly don't want AWS starting an instance for me that does not get used.

Please help!

Answer 1

That's a limitation of this new feature.

You can stop an instance for up to 7 days at a time. After 7 days, it will be automatically started. For more details on stopping and starting a database instance, please refer to Stopping and Starting a DB Instance in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

You can setup a cron job to stop the instance again after 7 days. You can also change to a smaller instance size to save money.

Another option is the upcoming Aurora Serverless which stops and starts for you automatically. It might be more expensive than a dedicated instance when running 24/7.

Finally, there is always Heroku which gives you a free database instance that starts and stops itself with some limitations.

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You can also try saving the following following CloudFormation template as KeepDbStopped.yml and then deploy with this command:

aws cloudformation deploy --template-file KeepDbStopped.yml --stack-name stop-db --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM --parameter-overrides DB=arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:XXX:db:XXX 

Make sure to change arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:XXX:db:XXX to your RDS ARN.

Description: Automatically stop RDS instance every time it turns on due to exceeding the maximum allowed time being stopped Parameters:   DB:     Description: ARN of database that needs to be stopped     Type: String     AllowedPattern: arn:aws:rds:[a-z0-9\-]+:[0-9]+:db:[^:]* Resources:   DatabaseStopperFunction:     Type: AWS::Lambda::Function     Properties:       Role: !GetAtt DatabaseStopperRole.Arn       Runtime: python3.6       Handler: index.handler       Timeout: 20       Code:         ZipFile:           Fn::Sub: |             import boto3             import time              def handler(event, context):               print("got", event)               db = event["detail"]["SourceArn"]               id = event["detail"]["SourceIdentifier"]               message = event["detail"]["Message"]               region = event["region"]               rds = boto3.client("rds", region_name=region)                if message == "DB instance is being started due to it exceeding the maximum allowed time being stopped.":                 print("database turned on automatically, setting last seen tag...")                 last_seen = int(time.time())                 rds.add_tags_to_resource(ResourceName=db, Tags=[{"Key": "DbStopperLastSeen", "Value": str(last_seen)}])                elif message == "DB instance started":                 print("database started (and sort of available?)")                  last_seen = 0                 for t in rds.list_tags_for_resource(ResourceName=db)["TagList"]:                   if t["Key"] == "DbStopperLastSeen":                     last_seen = int(t["Value"])                  if time.time() < last_seen + (60 * 20):                   print("database was automatically started in the last 20 minutes, turning off...")                   time.sleep(10)  # even waiting for the "started" event is not enough, so add some wait                   rds.stop_db_instance(DBInstanceIdentifier=id)                    print("success! removing auto-start tag...")                   rds.add_tags_to_resource(ResourceName=db, Tags=[{"Key": "DbStopperLastSeen", "Value": "0"}])                  else:                   print("ignoring manual database start")                else:                 print("error: unknown database event!")   DatabaseStopperRole:     Type: AWS::IAM::Role     Properties:       AssumeRolePolicyDocument:         Version: '2012-10-17'         Statement:           - Action:               - sts:AssumeRole             Effect: Allow             Principal:               Service:                 - lambda.amazonaws.com       ManagedPolicyArns:         - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole       Policies:         - PolicyName: Notify           PolicyDocument:             Version: '2012-10-17'             Statement:               - Action:                   - rds:StopDBInstance                 Effect: Allow                 Resource: !Ref DB               - Action:                   - rds:AddTagsToResource                   - rds:ListTagsForResource                   - rds:RemoveTagsFromResource                 Effect: Allow                 Resource: !Ref DB                 Condition:                   ForAllValues:StringEquals:                     aws:TagKeys:                       - DbStopperLastSeen   DatabaseStopperPermission:     Type: AWS::Lambda::Permission     Properties:       Action: lambda:InvokeFunction       FunctionName: !GetAtt DatabaseStopperFunction.Arn       Principal: events.amazonaws.com       SourceArn: !GetAtt DatabaseStopperRule.Arn   DatabaseStopperRule:     Type: AWS::Events::Rule     Properties:       EventPattern:         source:           - aws.rds         detail-type:           - "RDS DB Instance Event"         resources:           - !Ref DB         detail:           Message:             - "DB instance is being started due to it exceeding the maximum allowed time being stopped."             - "DB instance started"       Targets:         - Arn: !GetAtt DatabaseStopperFunction.Arn           Id: DatabaseStopperLambda 

It has worked for at least one person. If you have issues please report here.