Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
Use logs in Amazon CloudWatch Logs to monitor the storage utilization of Amazon EBS. Use Amazon EBS Elastic Volumes to reduce the size of the EBS volumes.
Use a custom script to monitor space usage. Use Amazon EBS Elastic Volumes to reduce the size of the EBS volumes.
Delete all expired and unused snapshots to reduce snapshot costs.
Delete all nonessential snapshots. Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to create and manage the snapshots according to the company’s snapshot policy requirements.
Explanations:
While monitoring storage utilization is important, using Amazon EBS Elastic Volumes alone to reduce volume size is not sufficient without knowing the specific usage patterns. CloudWatch Logs require additional setup and maintenance, adding operational overhead.
A custom script for monitoring space usage would require significant operational effort to maintain and update. Additionally, simply reducing the size of EBS volumes may not address the underlying issue of increasing costs from snapshots.
Deleting all expired and unused snapshots could reduce costs, but it does not provide a systematic approach to managing snapshots or address ongoing costs from current snapshots. It may lead to the accidental loss of important backups.
Deleting nonessential snapshots and using Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager automates the management of snapshots according to company policies. This solution minimizes operational overhead while optimizing costs, as it systematically handles the retention and deletion of snapshots based on predefined rules.
I rank that the answer is:
Delete all nonessential snapshots. Use Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to create and manage the snapshots according to the company’s snapshot policy requirements.