Clean Up Idle DynamoDB Tables

Opportunity Name: Idle DynamoDB Tables

AWS Resource Type: Amazon DynamoDB

Opportunity Description:
This Finder identifies idle or unused DynamoDB tables that continue to incur unnecessary costs. Many environments accumulate legacy tables that were used for development, testing, or retired applications but remain provisioned and billable. This Finder-Fixer pair helps you identify and clean up such tables to reclaim unused resources and reduce your DynamoDB costs.

CloudFix automates the identification and safe removal of these idle tables after archiving their metadata and configuration for audit or rollback purposes.

Criteria for identifying the opportunity:

• The table has not had read or write activity for 90 days.
• No active Streams, Global Secondary Indexes (GSIs), or Triggers.
• Table is not part of an active replication or global table configuration.
• Additional filters ensure the table is not part of active workloads or protected prefixes (e.g., production tables).

Potential Savings (range in % on annual basis):
Savings are up to 100% of ongoing idle table costs, including:

• Provisioned throughput (RCUs/WCUs)
• Storage costs
• Index maintenance

Savings vary by table size and provisioning configuration but can be significant in large environments with legacy or abandoned tables.

What happens when the Fixer is executed?
The Fixer performs a safe teardown and archival of idle tables:

1. Table schema and metadata are backed up to Amazon S3 in JSON format.
2. The table is deleted using the DeleteTable API.
3. All archived data is organized under the path:cloudfix-fixer-executions/<account-id>/DDBCleanupIdleTables/<table-name>.json

This ensures a non-destructive record is retained for rollback or audit purposes.

Is it possible to rollback once CloudFix implements the fixer?
Yes. Manual rollback is possible by:

• Recreating the table from the archived schema JSON
• Optionally restoring data from backups (if separately retained)

Can CloudFix implement the fix automatically once I accept the recommendation?
Yes. Once the opportunity is approved, CloudFix will automatically execute the Fixer and archive relevant information prior to deletion.

Does this fix require downtime?
No. These tables are idle and unused—deletion does not impact active workloads. However, as a best practice, teams should review flagged tables before deletion to prevent accidental removal of rare-access workloads.

Additional Resources:

• Amazon DynamoDB Table Management
• DynamoDB DeleteTable API
• CloudFix Knowledge Base