RDS read replica has zero connections for 7 days
- Severity
- Medium
- Service
- RDS
- Check ID
- RDS_UNUSED_READ_REPLICA
What this check finds
A read replica with zero connections is incurring full instance charges ($X/hr) without serving any reads. Read replicas are created to offload read traffic; a replica with no connections may have been forgotten after its workload moved elsewhere.
Passing looks like: No unused RDS read replicas.
How to fix it
Delete the read replica if it is no longer needed: aws rds delete-db-instance --db-instance-identifier REPLICA_ID --skip-final-snapshot.
AWS console
RDS → Databases → select replica → Actions → Delete.
Compliance
This is a cost check. It flags spend that buys nothing, which no compliance framework asks about, so it is not mapped to a control.
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 RDS checks
- HighAurora/RDS cluster storage is not encrypted at rest
- HighRDS automated backups are disabled
- HighRDS instance does not have automatic minor version upgrades enabled
- HighRDS instance has zero database connections for 7 days
- HighRDS instance storage is not encrypted at rest
- HighRDS security group allows broad CIDR ingress (broader than /16)
- HighRDS snapshot is public
- MediumAurora/RDS cluster has automated backups disabled