AWS RDS Snapshot Retention Period not working as expected (RDS SQL Server Custom)

Question

Hi,

Within one of our RDS SQL Server instances (custom), we noticed that even though the retention period for backups/snapshots is configured for 14 days, old snapshots are not being deleted. We've attempted to modify the retention period to both fewer and more days, but the old snapshots still remain. We've also tried manually deleting these snapshots (via console and CLI), but since they are system snapshots, we receive a message indicating that it's not possible to remove them. We'd like to know how we can solve this problem since these unwanted snapshots may be incurring unnecessary costs for us.

Answer

Hello.

I think this answer probably matches your situation.  
https://repost.aws/questions/QUJWIzjVnSRli-uxyxd7QNeg/why-are-automated-snapshots-in-rds-exceeding-configured-retention-period#ANkTqq0iWoQCeRpihXBRcF1Q

Can I delete it using the steps below?  
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_ManagingAutomatedBackups.html#USER_WorkingWithAutomatedBackups-Deleting

If you use the AWS CLI, I think you can delete it by running the following command.  
```
aws rds delete-db-instance-automated-backup \
    --dbi-resource-id db-123ABCEXAMPLE
```

If the RDS instance remains, it may not be possible to delete it, so in that case, why not set the automatic backup retention period short so that future snapshots will not be retained for a long period of time?

AWS RDS Snapshot Retention Period not working as expected (RDS SQL Server Custom)

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