🛡️ AWS ELB Load Balancer is unused🟢

• Contextual name: 🛡️ Load Balancer is unused🟢
• ID: /ce/ca/aws/elb/load-balancer-unused
• Tags:
  • 🟢 Policy with categories
  • 🟢 Policy with type
  • 🟢 Production policy
• Policy Type: COMPLIANCE_POLICY
• Policy Categories: COST

Logic

• 🧠 prod.logic.yaml🟠🟢
  • 📗 AWS ELB Load Balancer
  • 🧪 test-data.json

Description

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Description

This policy identifies AWS ELB Load Balancers that are considered unused. An ELB is flagged as unused if it meets either of the following criteria:

1. It has no listeners configured.
2. It has no registered targets.

Rationale

Maintaining unused load balancers can lead to unnecessary costs. Regularly identifying and removing idle ELBs helps:

• Optimize costs by eliminating resources that incur charges without providing value.
• Simplify resource management and reduce operational complexity.
• Improve security posture by removing potentially misconfigured or forgotten endpoints.

Impact

Unused load balancers incur hourly charges even when not actively routing traffic. While individual costs may be small, they can accumulate significantly across an organization. Additionally, idle load balancers can complicate network diagrams and asset inventories.

Audit

This policy flags an AWS ELB Load Balancer as INCOMPLIANT if it has no related AWS ELB Load Balancer Listeners and AWS ELB Load Balancer Targets.

Remediation

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Remediation

Consider whether the load balancer is still needed.

• If the load balancer is needed for future use or is temporarily inactive, configure it properly by adding listeners and registering healthy targets.
• If the load balancer is no longer needed, delete it to stop incurring unnecessary charges.

Delete the Load Balancer

From Command Line

• For Application, Network, or Gateway Load Balancers (elbv2):

aws elbv2 delete-load-balancer --load-balancer-arn {{load-balancer-arn}}

• For Classic Load Balancers (elb):

aws elb delete-load-balancer --load-balancer-name {{load-balancer-name}}

Note: After deletion, confirm that no resources are still pointing to the removed load balancer to avoid service disruptions.

policy.yaml

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Linked Framework Sections

Section	Sub Sections	Internal Rules	Policies	Flags	Compliance
💼 Cloudaware Framework → 💼 Waste Reduction			25		no data