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Google Cloud Compute Engine Orphaned Persistent Disk Sentinel

Scans Google Cloud Compute Engine persistent disks to detect unattached orphaned storage volumes wasting cloud budget.

Categories
BusinessCloud

How it works

This workflow executes gcloud compute disks list --filter="-users:*" to identify persistent disks that have no attached VM instances. In Google Cloud, deleting a Compute Engine VM instance leaves attached persistent disks intact unless autoDelete: true was explicitly enabled. Over time, orphaned SSD/HDD disks accumulate silently, consuming significant monthly cloud spend without serving any compute workloads. Slack is alerted with the unattached volume count and total gigabytes.

What you get

  • Continuous FinOps audit of detached Google Compute Engine persistent disks.
  • Prevents cloud waste from forgotten storage volumes after VM decommissionings.
  • Instant visibility into total orphaned gigabytes across zones.

Who it's for

  • FinOps Practitioners and Cloud Cost Management Engineers.
  • Infrastructure Architects managing Google Cloud compute environments.

Why orchestrate this with Kestra

  • Native GCloud Filtering: Scans multi-zone persistent disks across the entire project.
  • Continuous Cost Reclamation: Schedule regular weekly or daily audits.
  • Actionable Inventory: Provides precise counts and gigabyte volumes for cleanup.

Prerequisites

  • Google Cloud project with Compute Engine API enabled.
  • Secrets GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT and SLACK_WEBHOOK configured in Kestra.

Quick start

  1. Import the blueprint.
  2. Configure project ID.
  3. Run the workflow to discover orphaned persistent disks.

How to extend

  • Automatically snapshot and delete detached disks idle for over 30 days.
  • Filter by disk labels to exclude backup cold-storage disks.

Links

See How

New to Kestra?

Use blueprints to kickstart your first workflows.