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Scheduling · Medium severity

Idle GCP VM Instance

A running VM bills for its machine type by the second regardless of what it is doing.

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Google Cloudprovider
Mediumseverity
Savingswhere it shows up
Manualfix, steps written out

Google Cloud

Found, explained, handed over.

Findings with a dollar figure attached, idle, oversized, orphaned, unscheduled and undiscounted spend.

01

Detect

ZopNight checks this automatically across Google Cloud, with read-only access to the account.

02

Explain

Every finding says exactly what to change: Schedule the underused VM off-hours. Where the saving can be proven it is priced; where it cannot, the finding says so.

03

Fix

The finding opens with the fix already written out, step by step, so it is one ticket, not an investigation.

Applies to
Compute Engine on Google Cloud
The fix, by hand
  1. Open Cloud Console → Monitoring → Metrics Explorer → compute.googleapis.com/instance/cpu/utilisation for the resource over the last 14 to 30 days. Confirm the P95 (not just average) sits under 5%.
  2. Cross-check the instance's usage heatmap for a repeating off-hours idle window. This recommendation prices the saving on the MEASURED idle fraction of the week, not a full stop.
  3. Open ZopNight → Schedules → Create and match the recommended off-hours stop/start hours, then attach the schedule to the resource. This is a recurring off-hours park, NOT a one-shot stop or a delete.
  4. The VM auto-starts each active window so no manual restart is needed; compute billing pauses while it is parked, while attached disks continue to bill.
  5. Track the reclaimed idle spend on the Recommendations dashboard over the first 30 days.

These are the steps the finding carries in the product.

Category
Scheduling. Resources running 24x7 with a clear off-hours usage pattern, ready for start and stop scheduling.
Where it appears
The Savings tab of Recommendations, with every affected resource listed.
Rule ID
RC-102
Full reference

Idle GCP VM Instance

Related checks

GCP VM Serial Port Access EnabledGoogle CloudGCP VM Deletion Protection DisabledGoogle CloudGCP VM Missing Snapshot ScheduleGoogle CloudGCP VM OS Login Not EnabledGoogle CloudGCP VM Shielded VM Not EnabledGoogle CloudVM Monitoring Not EnabledAzure, Google Cloud

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  • $30M+annualised cloud spend under management
  • 550K+resources tracked since launch
  • 20-60%off the bill in the first month
  • SOC 2Type II report, plus ISO 27001

Figures published on zop.dev.

Multi-cloud automation· Production-ready in 30 min· SOC 2 · ISO 27001· 20–60% off the bill, first month· 4 platforms · 1 console· Multi-cloud automation· Production-ready in 30 min· SOC 2 · ISO 27001· 20–60% off the bill, first month· 4 platforms · 1 console·