Manage lifecycle policies for Image Builder images
When you create custom images, it's important that you have a plan to retire those images before they become obsolete. Image Builder pipelines can apply updates and security patches automatically. However, each build creates a new version of the image and all of the associated resources that it distributes. Earlier versions remain in your account until you manually delete them, or create a script to perform the task.
With Image Builder lifecycle management policies, you can automate the process of deprecating, disabling, and deleting outdated images and their associated resources. Associated resources can include output images that you've distributed to other AWS accounts, organizations, and organizational units (OUs) across AWS Regions. You define the rules for how and when to take each step in the lifecycle process, and which steps to include in your policy.
Benefits of automated lifecycle management
Overall benefits of automated lifecycle management include the following:
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Simplifies lifecycle management for your custom images with an automated way to retire images and associated resources.
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Helps to prevent compliance risks that come from using outdated images to launch new instances.
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Keeps image inventories fresh by removing outdated images.
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Can reduce storage and data transfer costs by optionally removing associated resources for images that are deleted.
Realize cost savings
There is no cost to use EC2 Image Builder to create custom AMI or container images. However, standard pricing applies for other services that are used in the process. When you remove unused or outdated images and their associated resources from your AWS account, you can realize time and cost savings in the following ways:
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Reduce the time it takes to patch existing images when you're not also patching unused or outdated images.
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For AMI image resources that you delete, you can choose to also remove distributed AMIs and their associated snapshots. This approach can save on the cost of storing snapshots.
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For container image resources that you delete, you can choose to delete underlying resources. This approach can save on Amazon ECR storage costs and data transfer rates for your Docker images that are stored in ECR repositories.
Note
Image Builder can't evaluate the potential impact for all possible downstream dependencies, such as Auto Scaling groups or launch templates. You must consider downstream dependencies for your images when you configure policy actions.
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