AWS Supported Services
NightOps supports scheduling for a wide range of AWS compute services.
Supported Services
EC2 Instances
Stop and start EC2 instances on schedule. NightOps preserves instance storage (EBS volumes) and all configuration. Public IPs may change unless you use Elastic IPs.
- On-Demand and Reserved instances
- Instances in Auto Scaling Groups (managed separately)
- Spot instances are not supported (they can be terminated by AWS)
RDS Instances
Stop and start RDS database instances. Data is fully preserved. Note that AWS has a 7-day maximum stop period for RDS—NightOps automatically handles restarts to comply with this limit.
- Single-AZ and Multi-AZ deployments
- All supported database engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server)
- Aurora clusters require stopping/starting the entire cluster
ECS Services
Scale ECS services to zero tasks during off-hours and restore to your desired count when needed. This works with both Fargate and EC2 launch types.
EKS Node Groups
Scale EKS managed node groups to zero nodes during off-hours. Your control plane remains running (and is billed regardless), but compute costs are eliminated.
Redshift Clusters
Pause and resume Redshift clusters. All data is preserved and queries resume where they left off.
Auto Scaling Groups
Set Auto Scaling Group desired/min/max capacity to zero during off-hours and restore to your configured values when needed.
Quick Start
- Tag your resources: Add
nightops-managed=trueto any resources you want NightOps to manage. - Set up IAM: Create an IAM role with the required permissions.
- Connect your account: Add your AWS account in the NightOps dashboard using the IAM role ARN.
- Create a schedule: Define when your resources should be running.
Tagging Best Practices
We recommend using consistent tags across your resources:
| Tag | Value | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
nightops-managed | true | Required for NightOps to manage the resource |
nightops-environment | dev, staging, etc. | Group resources by environment |
nightops-production | true | Protect resource from any scheduled operations |
Pricing Impact
When NightOps stops your AWS resources, you stop paying for compute. You continue to pay for:
- EBS volumes attached to stopped EC2 instances
- RDS storage while instances are stopped
- EKS control plane (fixed cost regardless of nodes)
- Elastic IPs not attached to running instances
Even with these costs, most teams see 60-80% savings on their development and staging environments.
Next Step
Set up the required IAM permissions: AWS IAM Policy →