Explanation
Why the waste happens and who it affects.
A running Autonomous AI Database bills its base ECPU count every hour whether or not any session is connected, so nights and weekends can account for most of a non-production database's compute cost. Oracle provides a built-in Auto Start/Stop Schedule specifically so that shutdown periods can be scheduled for times when a system is not in use.
A stopped Autonomous AI Database has zero ECPU usage and keeps its data, so stopping idle databases removes compute cost without rebuilding anything. Stopping is manual unless a schedule is set, and because related resources are easy to miss: refreshable clones start and stop independently of their source database.
Billing model
The pricing dimensions that drive this cost.
ECPU usage is measured each second and averaged across the hour for as long as the database is running.
- Running database
- Billed for base ECPUs every hour, plus any auto-scaled ECPUs, regardless of activity
- Stopped database
- Zero ECPU usage and CPU billing halted; storage and backup storage, billed per GB-month, continue to accrue
- Local Data Guard peer
- Not billed for ECPU while the primary is stopped
- Refreshable clone
- Has its own ECPU count and is started and stopped independently of its source database
How to detect
4 checks to find it in your estate.
- Identify non-production Autonomous databases by compartment, tags or display name, and check whether the Auto start/stop schedule field under General Information on the database details page is set
- Chart Sessions, CurrentLogons and CpuUtilization in the oci_autonomous_database metric namespace by hour of day and day of week to find databases with no activity outside business hours
- Find databases with no logons and near-zero CPU for many days, which are candidates for termination rather than scheduling
- List refreshable clones whose source database is stopped on a schedule but that remain running themselves
How to fix
4 ways to remove the waste.
- Enable Auto Start/Stop Schedule from More actions on the database details page, selecting start and stop times per day of the week (hourly, in UTC); only a stop time or only a start time can also be set
- Apply the same schedule to refreshable clones that are only used together with their source, since stopping the source does not stop them
- For databases that are no longer used, take a final backup or export and terminate them; note that undeleting a terminated database bills base ECPUs and storage for the whole period it was deleted
- Preconditions: a scheduled stop ends running sessions and in-flight transactions like a manual stop, Always Free databases do not support schedules, and Oracle recommends starting a database at least once every 7 days because a longer stop can make the next start take significantly longer
Documentation
Vendor references for pricing and configuration.
