Reduce EBS Costs by Disabling Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR)

Opportunity Name: EBS FSR Disable

AWS Resource Type: Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Opportunity Description:
Amazon EBS Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR) enhances performance by eliminating initialization delay when creating volumes from snapshots. However, it incurs hourly charges per snapshot per availability zone (AZ). This Finder identifies snapshots with FSR enabled that have not been used for recovery in the past 30 days, or have FSR enabled in more AZs than needed. By surfacing these opportunities, CloudFix helps you reduce unnecessary FSR-related costs while maintaining recovery performance where it’s actively needed.

Criteria for Identifying the Opportunity:

• Snapshot has FSR enabled in one or more AZs.

• No EBS volumes created from the snapshot in the past 30 days (based on EC2 describe-volumes API and CloudTrail CreateVolume events).

• OR recovery usage is limited to fewer AZs than FSR is currently enabled for.

• Annualized cost exceeds $10 per snapshot (based on CUR data).

• Optional exclusion via cloudfix_dont_fix_it tag

Potential Savings:

• Up to 100% of FSR-related charges for completely unused snapshots.

• Proportional savings for over-provisioned configurations:

  savings = cost * (unused AZs / total enabled AZs)
  

What Happens When the Fixer is Executed?
Note: There is no automatic Fixer for this Finder. CloudFix provides a detailed recommendation report showing:

• Which snapshots have FSR enabled unnecessarily.

• The AZs where recovery occurred.

• Potential savings per snapshot and AZ.

It is up to the user to manually disable FSR in the AWS Console or via CLI/API.

Is it Possible to Roll Back Once CloudFix Implements the Fixer?
Not applicable. CloudFix does not make changes; action is manual and under your control.

Can CloudFix Implement the Fix Automatically Once I Accept the Recommendation?
No. CloudFix identifies the opportunity and provides detailed insight, but FSR disablement must be handled manually.

Does This Fix Require Downtime?
No. Disabling FSR affects the provisioning performance of future volumes only. Existing volumes are unaffected.

Additional Resources:

• Amazon EBS Fast Snapshot Restore

• AWS CLI Disable Fast Snapshot Restore