Effective Strategies for Monitoring Running Services on AWS and Controlling Costs

Ever found yourself in the predicament of unintentionally accumulating charges on AWS due to running instances? It's a common situation for new users in the cloud, and in this article, we'll explore different ways to keep tabs on running services in your AWS account.

By gaining visibility into your resources, you can proactively manage your bills and prevent unexpected expenses.

Billing Dashboard

The AWS Billing Dashboard is a crucial tool for understanding what's impacting your expenses. Simply log in as a root user or an IAM user with billing permissions, navigate to the Billing and Cost Management section, and select Bills.

From there, explore the Charges by Services section to see a breakdown of all running services and their associated costs. Clicking on the plus sign beside a service reveals the specific regions where it's active.

Cost Explorer

Cost Explorer offers a comprehensive view of your AWS expenses. This tool enables you to compare monthly costs, apply filters based on parameters like services, dates, and regions, providing valuable insights into your spending patterns.

Resource Group

Utilize the Resource Group and Tag Editor to examine running resources across all regions. Click on the Tag Editor by the left panel.

By selecting "all regions" and "all supported resource types," you can search for and display all resources currently active. This allows you to pinpoint specific resources for further analysis and management.

AWS CLI

For a more hands-on approach, the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) offers a method to view running services. Use the command aws resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources --output table to display tagged services. While this method is reliant on tagging, it provides a quick overview of your running resources directly from the command line in a tabular form.

By leveraging these different methods, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the services running in your AWS account. This knowledge empowers you to eliminate unnecessary expenses and ensure that your resources are both relevant and cost-effective. Whether you're a novice or an experienced AWS user, proactive monitoring is key to optimizing costs and maximizing the efficiency of your cloud infrastructure.