Update an existing Recycle Bin retention rule

You can update an unlocked retention rule's description, resource tags, and retention period at any time after creation. You can't update a retention rule's resource type or unlock delay period, even if the retention rule is unlocked.

You can't update a locked retention rule in any way. If you need to modify a locked retention rule, you must first unlock it and wait for the unlock delay period to expire.

If you need to modify the unlock delay period for a locked retention rule, you must unlock the retention rule, and wait for the current unlock delay period to expire. When the unlock delay period is expired, you must relock the retention rule and specify the new unlock delay period.

Note

We recommend that you do not include personally identifying, confidential, or sensitive information in the retention rule description.

After you update a retention rule, the changes only apply to new resources that it retains. The changes do not affect resources that it previously sent to the Recycle Bin. For example, if you update a retention rule's retention period, only snapshots that are deleted after the update are retained for the new retention period. Snapshots that it sent to the Recycle Bin before the update are still retained for the previous (old) retention period.

You can update a retention rule using one of the following methods.

Recycle Bin console

To update a retention rule

1. Open the Recycle Bin console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rbin/home/

2. In the navigation pane, choose Retention rules.

3. In the grid, select the retention rule to update, and choose Actions, Edit retention rule.

4. In the Rule details section, update Retention rule name and Retention rule description as needed.

5. In the Rule settings section, update the Resource type, Resource tags to match, and Retention period as needed.

6. In the Tags section, add or remove retention rule tags as needed.

7. Choose Save retention rule.

AWS CLI

To update a retention rule

Use the update-rule AWS CLI command. For --identifier, specify the ID of the retention rule to update For --resource-types, specify EBS_SNAPSHOT for snapshots or EC2_IMAGE for AMIs.

aws rbin update-rule \
--identifier rule_ID \
--retention-period RetentionPeriodValue=number_of_days,RetentionPeriodUnit=DAYS \
--resource-type EBS_SNAPSHOT|EC2_IMAGE \
--description "rule_description"

Example

The following example command updates retention rule 6lsJ2Fa9nh9 to retain all snapshots for 7 days and updates its description.

aws rbin update-rule \
--identifier 6lsJ2Fa9nh9 \
--retention-period RetentionPeriodValue=7,RetentionPeriodUnit=DAYS \
--resource-type EBS_SNAPSHOT \
--description "Retain for three weeks"