AWS ElastiCache - Delete Cluster

Once you have achieved the purpose of using a ElastiCache cluster, you will eventually reach a point when you no longer need the cluster either because you have a new design in place or you are moving into something else. Hence the need to delete a cluster. Once the status of the cluster changes to deleting, you stop incurring any cost associated with the cluster.

The steps to delete a cluster is very similar to the steps you use to modify a cluster. You first identify the cluster name you want to delete then carry out the delete operation. The below steps illustrate this.

Selecting the Cluster

We login to the AWS console and go to the ElastiCache dashboard. From the dashboard in the left we choose the cluster type as Redis. Then we see the name of the cluster as a hyperlink in the ElastiCache dashboard. We click on the check box to the left of the name of the cluster. This shows the option to delete the cluster along with other options.

Delete the Cluster

After selecting the check box in the left for the cluster, we choose the delete button. On clicking the delete button, we are presented with a warning prompting us to be sure about the impact of the delete operation. The important point is, once the delete operation starts it can not be stopped or undone. The data will be lost. Hence, we should have maintained the backup for the cluster, if we see any need for it in future. The below diagram shows the implications of delete option.

On confirming by pressing the Delete button we see the status of the cluster change to deleting as shown in the diagram below. After a while on refreshing the screen, the cluster will disappear from the dashboard.