With Elastic Block Storage, you pay for the provisioned capacity even if a disk is unattached or has low write activity. To optimize the performance and cost of Elastic Block Storage, regularly monitor your disks. Identify disks that are unattached, underused, or overused. Then, adjust their configurations to match your actual usage.
Delete cloud disks that are not attached or used
The simplest way to reduce storage cost is to find and delete cloud disks that are not attached to ECS instances. If a cloud disk is not released when the ECS instance to which the disk is attached is stopped or terminated, the cloud disk is not automatically deleted and continues to incur fees. In this case, you must manually delete the cloud disk. You can also check whether read and write operations are performed on a cloud disk in the past few weeks. If a cloud disk in non-production environments is not used for several weeks or not attached to a ECS instance for one month, we recommend that you delete the disk in a timely manner.
Adjust cloud disk capacity
For a overused cloud disk, you can scale up the disk online or offline to increase the capacity of the disk. For enhanced SSDs (ESSDs), you can upgrade the performance level (PL) of the disk online to meet your requirements on performance and capacity.
You can downgrade the PL of a pay-as-you-go ESSD online to reduce storage capacity and cost.
If your business requirements change and the current disk type no longer meets your performance or price needs, you can quickly change the disk type. For example, you can change an SSD to an ESSD. You can also re-initialize a disk to restore it to its original state.
Delete old snapshots
If you create an automatic snapshot policy that runs daily or weekly, many snapshots can accumulate over time. You should regularly delete unneeded snapshots to reduce storage costs. You can manually delete expired snapshots. You can also set a retention period in the automatic snapshot policy to automatically delete snapshots after a specified time. Deleting snapshots does not affect your Elastic Block Storage disks.
Use Storage Capacity Units (SCUs)
If you have a stable workload, use subscription disks. The longer the subscription period, the greater the discount. However, if your workload fluctuates, use pay-as-you-go disks with Storage Capacity Units (SCUs). This lets you use resources on demand while enjoying lower prices. SCUs provide flexibility when you create disks and help you save on storage costs.