Automatically Stop Amazon RDS Instances Daily Using AWS Lambda and EventBridge

Managing AWS costs efficiently is crucial, especially when dealing with development, testing, or QA environments. A common and effective approach is to stop RDS instances during off-hours automatically. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up an automated daily RDS shutdown using AWS Lambda, EventBridge Scheduler, and IAM roles.

Solution Overview

🧱 Components Used:

• AWS Lambda (Python): A serverless function that stops RDS instances.

• Amazon EventBridge Scheduler: Triggers the Lambda function once per day.

• IAM Role: Grants permissions for the Lambda to stop RDS instances.

  

⚙️ How It Works:

1. EventBridge Scheduler triggers the Lambda function every day.

2. Lambda function iterates over a list of RDS instances and attempts to stop each one.

3. All execution logs are stored in Amazon CloudWatch Logs for auditing and debugging.

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

1️⃣ . Create the Lambda Function

• Go to the AWS Lambda Console.

• Click “Create function” → Select Author from scratch.

• Function Name: stop-rds-lambda-function

• Runtime: Choose Python 3.13 or above.

• Permissions: Attach an IAM role with the following permissions:

  • rds:StopDBInstance

  • rds:DescribeDBInstances

  • logs:CreateLogGroup

  • logs:CreateLogStream

  • logs:PutLogEvents

  • 

Add Lambda Code

Paste the following code in the function editor:

import boto3
import logging

rds = boto3.client('rds')
logger = logging.getLogger()
logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)

DB_INSTANCES = ['testing-db-us-east-1-demo']  # Add your DB instance identifiers here

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    stopped_instances = []
    failed_instances = []

    for db_id in DB_INSTANCES:
        try:
            logger.info(f"Attempting to stop DB instance: {db_id}")
            response = rds.stop_db_instance(DBInstanceIdentifier=db_id)
            logger.info(f"Stop initiated for: {db_id}")
            stopped_instances.append(db_id)
        except Exception as e:
            logger.error(f"Failed to stop {db_id}: {str(e)}")
            failed_instances.append({'db_id': db_id, 'error': str(e)})

    return {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'stopped_instances': stopped_instances,
        'failed_instances': failed_instances
    }

3️⃣ . Create EventBridge Schedule

• Navigate to Amazon EventBridge → Scheduler.

• Click Create schedule.

• Schedule type: Choose Rate-based schedule.

• Set Rate: Every 1 day.

• Target:

  • Choose a Lambda function.

  • Select the Lambda function you created (stop-rds-lambda-function).

• Leave input blank.

• Click Next → Create schedule.

✅ Testing the Lambda

• Go to your Lambda function.

• Click Test to run it manually.

• Check the Amazon RDS Console to verify if the specified instances are now stopped.

• Review CloudWatch Logs for detailed output and error handling.

📌 Summary

By using AWS Lambda with EventBridge Scheduler, you can automate daily shutdowns of RDS instances, reducing unnecessary costs without manual intervention. This is especially helpful for non-production environments.