EC2 instance appears idle — average CPU below 5% for 7 days
- Severity
- Medium
- Service
- EC2
- Check ID
- EC2_IDLE_INSTANCE
What this check finds
An instance with less than 5% average CPU utilization over the past 7 days is incurring full compute charges while providing little value. Idle instances are often left running after a workload ends or a migration is completed.
Passing looks like: No idle EC2 instances.
How to fix it
Stop or terminate the instance if it is no longer needed, or rightsize to a smaller instance type.
AWS CLI
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids INSTANCE_ID
Names in capitals are placeholders for your own resource. Review a command before you run it.
AWS console
EC2 → Instances → select instance → Instance state → Stop.
Compliance controls it is evidence for
A failing result counts against these controls in KloudLytics; a passing one is evidence towards them. How compliance mapping works
| Framework | Controls |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A |
|
Checked on every scan
KloudLytics runs this check each time it scans a connected AWS account, through a read-only role, and lists every affected resource with its region. On Pro and Business a fix is written for the specific resource rather than the general case above. The exact access it needs
More EC2 checks
- HighAccount does not block public sharing of EBS snapshots
- HighAMI is publicly shared
- HighEBS snapshot is public
- HighEC2 instance CPU spiked abnormally — possible compromise or runaway process
- HighEC2 instance has an IAM role with admin privileges
- MediumAccount default for instance metadata does not require IMDSv2
- MediumEBS default encryption is not enabled for this region
- MediumEBS volume is not encrypted at rest