You’re preparing for a cost optimization meeting, and someone asks: “Do we actually need all these AWS resources?” You open the AWS console, switch to the EC2 service, check one region, make notes, then switch regions, and repeat. Next, you check S3 buckets, then RDS instances, switching between services and regions repeatedly.

Sound familiar? 

Why we created this AWS resource listing script

After hours of manual AWS resource checks, we created a simple Python script that:

• Lists all common AWS resources (EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, etc.) in clean, readable tables
• Scans across all AWS regions automatically
• Consolidates everything into a single view
• Helps identify unused or forgotten resources that might be costing you money

How to Use the AWS Resource Listing Script

Our AWS script is straightforward to use:

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:
   
   python -m venv .venv source .venv/bin/activate
2. Install the dependencies (boto3 and tabulate):pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Make sure you’re authenticated with the AWS CLIaws sso login
4. Run the script:python list_aws_resources.py -v

The script will automatically scan all regions and list resources in tabular format, making it easy to identify what you have and where.

When to use this AWS resource script

This tool is particularly helpful when:

• Conducting regular AWS cost optimization reviews
• Preparing for cloud security audits
• Looking for unused resources to clean up
• Migrating between AWS regions
• Creating documentation of your AWS infrastructure

Things to Keep in Mind

While this script gives you quick visibility into your AWS resources, remember:

1. Permissions: The AWS profile you use needs appropriate read permissions to list resources across services.
2. Large environments: For very large AWS environments, the script may take several minutes to run as it checks each service in each region.
3. Resource types: The current version lists common resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, RDS databases, IAM roles, and more. You can modify the script to include additional AWS resource types if needed.

Test Before Making Changes

This script is for informational purposes only. It doesn’t modify any resources, but always review the output carefully before taking action based on its results.
The script templates we provide are tools to get you started. They’re meant to be simple and practical solutions to common DevOps challenges.

Get the AWS Resource Listing Script

Ready to stop manually tracking your AWS resources? Grab our AWS resource listing script from our GitHub repository.