Cloud Assets Inventory using AWS Resource Explorer & Q Developer
Clean as You Go
Nowadays, the cloud provides us with greater computing power; nevertheless, with great power comes great responsibility, since we may forget to tag/classify or delete the unused resources. However, when it comes to paying the bill, we only want to pay for what I actually need and use.
An untidy cloud account can be described using the metaphor of a messy bedroom. If we do not clean up AWS resources as soon as we are finished using them, two things can happen: our account will look like a messy bedroom with stuff lying around everywhere (or in many different AWS zones), and some of these provisioned resources (still active and waiting to be used) will cost us money every month, even if we are not actively using them.
| How to Identify Unused Resources | AWS Resource Explorer |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Messy bedrooms / messy cloud resources | Everything nice and tidy |
This blog will explain how unneeded resources can quickly add up and how to identify them using AWS Resource Explorer. Additionally, by integrating with Amazon Q Developer, the most capable generative AI-powered assistant for software development, we can ask Amazon Q Developer questions about your resources in natural language, using the resource's ARN as a starting point.
AWS Resource Explorer: Turning-On Multi-Account Cross-Region
Configure multi-account search in Resource Explorer
- 1. Enable exploring with AWS Organizations:
resource-explorer-step1.png&resource-explorer-step2.png - 2. Create and share multi-account views:
resource-explorer-step3.png--> setOrgViewas the default view for AWS Regionus-east-1&ap-southeast-2 - 3. Search for resources across accounts
Inspect centralized resource insight and properties
We can optimize our workloads to resolve issues across resources and applications for our entire organization using AWS Res
Using AWS Resource Explorer to search for resources
Search query templates
- Tagged resources: returns resources with user or system tags, including tagged resource types that are not supported by Resource Explorer.
- All untagged resources: returns resources with no user or system tags.
- All non-taggable resources: returns resources that do not support tagging.
- All untagged resources of
[type]: returns resources with no user tags of the specified type. - Resources not in
[application]: returns resources that do not belong in the specified application. - All resources in
[application]: returns resources that belong to the specified application. - Amazon EC2 resources that are not instances in
[application]: returns Amazon EC2 resources that are not the ec2:instance resource type and that belong in the specified application.
Viewing resource details
-
Overview: resource-level cost details -
Config compliance: AWS Security Hub findings, AWS Config compliance and configuration history -
Relationships: visualize a relationship graph showing connected resources -
Timeline: event timelines with AWS CloudTrail to view the resource history of events over the past 60 days. -
Tags:
Take action on resources directly from the Resource Explorer console
Navigate to the Actions menu
- Select Manage tags option to add the missing tags to your resources: EC2, EBS, Lambda, S3 buckets.
- Export Resources to *.csv
Using Amazon Q Developer in chat applications to search for resources
- You can select a specific AWS resource and use the Actions menu to ask
Amazon Qabout the resource. - Prompt:
Provide more information about a specific resource: EC2 instance i-XXXAmazon Qquickly comes back with an answer providing metadata about the EC2 instance. It also lists down related resources like EBS volumes, IAM roles along with links to them.
Streamlining Application Management
Developers and operations teams need a centralized way to organize, visualize, and operate resources to ensure optimal efficiency and minimize operational overhead.