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AutoStopping Rules for AWS EC2

Prerequisites​

Required Permissions​

  • Access to AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR)
  • Permissions to create cross-account IAM roles
  • For proxy-based setup: permissions to create VMs and read secrets in your AWS account

How AutoStopping Works with EC2​

Architecture​

AutoStopping Architecture for AWS

AutoStopping for EC2 works by:

  1. Monitoring usage of your EC2 instances
  2. Automatically stopping instances after a period of inactivity
  3. Instantly restarting instances when traffic is detected
  4. Redirecting users to a waiting page during instance startup

Spot Instance Support​

AutoStopping includes intelligent spot instance orchestration that:

  • Takes snapshots every 2 minutes and before shutdown
  • Maintains the last 3 successful snapshots
  • Uses snapshots to recreate instances after interruptions
  • Falls back to on-demand instances when spot capacity isn't available
  • Preserves data by reattaching EBS volumes and network interfaces

Creating an AutoStopping Rule for EC2​

  1. In Harness, navigate to Cloud Costs module -> AutoStopping Rules
  2. Click New AutoStopping Rule
  3. Select AWS as your cloud provider. Choose an existing AWS connector or click New Connector to create one.

After this, there are 3 simple steps to set up your AutoStopping rule:

  1. Enter a Name for your rule
  2. Set the Idle Time - how long an instance should be inactive before stopping
  3. In the Resources to be managed by the AutoStopping rules section, select "EC2 VMs". Post this, specify how you would like the resources to be handled once idle for the specified Idle Time: Shut Down or Hibernate.
  4. Add instances to be managed by the AutoStopping rule. AutoStopping Rules can manage multiple VMs as long as they are all within the same cloud provider region.
  5. Choose to convert the selected instance(s) to spot or remain on-demand.
  6. Set up Advanced Configuration:
    • Hide Progress Page: This is especially useful when the service is invoked by an automation system, as it prevents misinterpretation of the progress page as the intended response from a service that is onboarded to AutoStopping.
    • Dry-Run: Toggle the button if you wish to evaluate this feature without terminating your cloud resources. For more information, go to Evaluate AutoStopping rules in dry-run mode.
    • Dependencies: Link your rule to other AutoStopping rules when resources depend on each other.
    • Fixed Schedules: Create fixed schedules to automatically start or stop your instances at specific times.
Click to expand advanced configuration details

(Optional) Set up advanced configuration​

In this step, you can configure the following settings:

Hide progress page​

Toggle the button to disable the display of progress page during instances' warming up process. This option is especially useful when the service is invoked by an automation system, as it prevents misinterpretation of the progress page as the intended response from a service that is onboarded to AutoStopping. By hiding the progress page, the first response of warming up a rule after a downtime will be delayed until the intended service is up and running.

Dry Run​

Toggle the button if you wish to evaluate this feature without terminating your cloud resources.

Add Dependency​

Set dependencies between two or more AutoStopping Rules when you want one Rule to make one or more Rules to be active based on the traffic that it receives. For example for an application server dependent on a database server, create two AutoStopping Rules managing both the servers. Add a dependency on the Rule managing the application server to be dependent on the Rule managing the database server.

  1. Click add dependency to add a dependency on any existing rule.
  2. Select the rule from the RULES drop-down list.
  3. In DELAY IN SECS, enter the number of seconds that rule should wait after warming up the dependent rule. For example, you have Rule 1 dependent on Rule 2 and you have set 5 seconds delay. In that case, when the request is received to warm up Rule 1, then first Rule 2 (dependent rule) is warmed up, and then there is a delay of 5 seconds before warming up Rule 1.
  4. Once you're done with all the configurations, click Next.

Fixed Schedule​

Create fixed uptime or downtime schedules for the resources managed by this AutoStopping Rule. When a resource is configured to go up or down on a fixed schedule, it is unaffected by activity or idleness during that time period.

In certain scenarios, you would not want your resources to go down or up. For example, every Friday at 5 p.m. you want your ABC resource to go down. You can schedule downtime for your ABC resource. During this window, the resource is forced to go down regardless of the defined rule. You can choose to specify uptime for your resources in the same way.

note

The fixed schedule takes precedence over the defined AutoStopping Rule.

note

Harness executes scheduled rules using Dkron, an open-source workload automation service.

To create a fixed schedule for your rule, do the following:

  1. In Fixed Schedules, click Add Fixed Schedule.
  2. In New Fixed Schedule, enter a Name for your schedule.
  3. In Type, select the type for your schedule. You can schedule an Uptime or Downtime for your rule. As per your schedule, the resources go up or down.
  4. Select the Time Zone from the drop-down list.
  5. In Set schedule period, use the date picker to set the start and end time for your schedule.
    1. In Begins on, select the start date and time for your schedule. You can select a date and specify the time.
    2. In Ends on, select the end date and time for your schedule. You can select a date and specify the time. Ensure that Never ends checkbox is unselected to set the end time.
    If you don't specify an end time, the schedule continues to run until you manually update the settings or remove the schedule.
  6. Select the checbox Never ends if you do not want to set end time for your schedule.
  7. You can also set a recurring schedule for the rule. If you want to set a recurring schedule, in Uptime/Downtime in the selected period, in Repeats, select the repeat frequency.
    1. Select which days of the week you'd like your schedule to repeat. You can choose any day between Sunday and Saturday.
    2. Select Everyday, to set the schedule for all seven days of the week.
    3. Set your repeat schedule's beginning and ending time. In the Time field, specify the start and end time for the fixed schedule.
    4. Select All Day, if you wish to set your schedule for the entire day. If you choose All Day for your schedule, you won't be able to choose a start and end time.
note

The fixed schedule takes precedence over the defined AutoStopping Rule.

Use the Harness CLI to access resources through SSH/RDP​

SSH/RDP allows you to access the resources managed by the AutoStopping rule via SSH or RDP HTTPS URL. Select this option if the underlying applications running on the resources managed by AutoStopping Rule are accessed via SSH or RDP.

  1. In Setup Access, select SSH/RDP.

  2. Select your operating system to download the Harness CLI for your system.

  3. Click Download CLI.

  4. You can connect using SSH or RDP.

SSH Commands​

To connect to remote servers via SSH/RDP, such as PuTTY, use the Harness CLI connect command. The connect command opens a proxy connection in your machine which can be used from other applications.

harness connect --host hostname --port <ssh/rdp port>

You can simply copy the hostname from the AutoStopping Rule dashboard view. Click on the AutoStopping Rule that you want to connect and copy the hostname.

For example:

harness connect --host default-test-ssh-1.abc1000test.lightwingtest.com --port 22 -- -i ~/.ssh/ry-jupyter.pem

Here is the output:

Proxy listening details:
    Rule name:           Test SSH 1
    Listen address:      127.0.0.1
    Port forwarding:     14527 => 22
    Protocol:            tcp
    Started at:          2021-05-19 21:53:38.320943 +0530 IST m=+48.950643931

Harness connect created a secure tunnel from your computer to the given port after bringing up the VM. Now open the RDP/SSH client and use the hostname and port information provided above to connect.

harness ssh --host default-test-ssh-1.abc1000test.lightwingtest.com --user ubuntu --config lwc.toml -- -i ~/.ssh/ry-jupyter.pem

RDP Commands​

For RDP run the following command:

harness rdp --host default-test-rdp-1.abc1000test.lightwingtest.com

Run the following command to connect via private IP:

harness rdp --host default-test-rdp-1.abc1000test.lightwingtest.com --internal-ip