AWS Instance State Scheduler (ISS)

AWS Instance State Scheduler. Start & Stop your AWS instances (RDS & EC2) on a schedule. Manage your AWS costs and help the environment.

This is a small app that will allow you to configure schedules according to which your AWS EC2 and AWS RDS instances will be started and stopped. For instance if you have testing and/or staging servers, you can stop them over the weekend when nobody is using them.

It also provides a simple dashboard from where you can start or stop your instances in case you need that.

Available tags

• 1.0.0, latest

How to use this image

You can start this image using your CLI or by using a docker-compose.yml file similar with the one bellow:

version: '3.4'
services:
  aws-iss:
    image: "bogdanmic/aws-iss:latest"
    container_name: aws-iss
    expose: 
      - 3000
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"
      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "YOUR_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"
    volumes:
      - /PATH/TO/YOUR-CONFIG.yml:/app/config/production.yml
    healthcheck:
      test:  wget -qO- http://localhost:3000/ || exit 1
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 2
      start_period: 30s
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "100m"
        max-file: "5"

Don't forget to adjust the environment variables and the configuration file according to your setup.

NOTE If you run this in production under AWS then you can simply secure it using the AWS Cognito service or put it behind a secure proxy.

Environment variables

Because this image uses the aws-sdk we need to configure the credentials for it accoording with the official documentation:

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - Your AWS access key id.
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - Your AWS secret access key.

Configuration file

For configuring the image we use a simple yml file. In that file we can configure the following:

• aws.region - The aws region for which we want to manage the instances state. e.g.eu-west-1
• aws.interactiveInstances.ec2 - The aws ec2 instance id list that can be managed. e.g. ["i-1a23b45xyz678cd91","x-1a23b45xyz678cd92"]
• aws.interactiveInstances.rds - The aws rds instance id list that can be managed. e.g. ["db-1"]
• schedulers.ec2Schedulers.enabled - Enable/Disable the schedulers that will start/stop the aws.interactiveInstances.ec2 instances, false by default.
• schedulers.ec2Schedulers.startCron - The cron expression that decides when to start the aws.interactiveInstances.ec2 instances. By default every week day at 7 am: 0 0 7 * * 1-5.
• schedulers.ec2Schedulers.stopCron - The cron expression that decides when to stop the aws.interactiveInstances.ec2 instances. By default every week day at 8 pm: 0 0 20 * * 1-5.
• schedulers.rdsSchedulers.enabled - Enable/Disable the schedulers that will start/stop the aws.interactiveInstances.rds instances, false by default.
• schedulers.rdsSchedulers.startCron - The cron expression that decides when to start the aws.interactiveInstances.rds instances. By default every week day at 8 pm: 0 0 7 * * 1-5.
• schedulers.rdsSchedulers.stopCron - The cron expression that decides when to stop the aws.interactiveInstances.rds instances. By default every week day at 8 pm: 0 0 20 * * 1-5.

Here is the default configuration file to help you write your own:

schedulers:
  ec2Schedulers:
    enabled: false
    startCron: "0 0 7 * * 1-5"
    stopCron: "0 0 20 * * 1-5"
  rdsSchedulers:
    enabled: false
    startCron: "0 0 7 * * 1-5"
    stopCron: "0 0 20 * * 1-5"

aws:
  region: "eu-west-1"
  interactiveInstances:
    ec2: []
    rds:  []

For scheduling we use node-schedule. You can check their documentation on the cron format used but here is a small peek from their README file:

The cron format consists of:

*    *    *    *    *    *
┬    ┬    ┬    ┬    ┬    ┬
│    │    │    │    │    │
│    │    │    │    │    └ day of week (0 - 7) (0 or 7 is Sun)
│    │    │    │    └───── month (1 - 12)
│    │    │    └────────── day of month (1 - 31)
│    │    └─────────────── hour (0 - 23)
│    └──────────────────── minute (0 - 59)
└───────────────────────── second (0 - 59, OPTIONAL)

To access the Dashboard go to http://localhost:3000/# if you started the container locally.

The Dashboard provides an overview of your AWS EC2 and RDS instances and based on your configuration of aws.interactiveInstances.ec2 and aws.interactiveInstances.rds you will be able to Start/Stop those instances from the dashboard.

Resources for future work/fixes

• Node-Config and Configuration Files
• The Node Schedule package
• The Fastify framework
• Online Crontab Generator
• AWS SDK js examples
• AWS SDK docs
• AWS SDK Javascript developer guide