We are developing AWS Labs Platform so we require something which can continously terminate the resources once the lab gets over

Here is what I use, Gruntwork's cloud-nuke to continuously clean up AWS lab environments. -> https://github.com/gruntwork-io/cloud-nuke/

Instead of running an active management infrastructure inside the region you want to completely wipe, a approach is to host the cleanup worker in an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) of EC2 instances located in a dedicated, skipped region (or an entirely separate management account using IAM AssumeRole).

Architectural Overview

1. Isolation: The cloud-nuke engine runs on an ARM64 (or x64) EC2 instance within an Auto Scaling Group (set to Min=1, Max=1 for self-healing resiliency).
2. Targeting via Exclusions: To prevent cloud-nuke from destroying its own host infrastructure and the base IAM permissions, you explicitly exclude its operating region and core IAM resources.
3. Automation: A cron job triggers the execution loop continuously or at scheduled intervals.

Implementation Guide

1. Installation & Binary Setup (ARM64 Example)

Download the appropriate binary for your architecture and place it in the system path:

wget https://github.com/gruntwork-io/cloud-nuke/releases/download/v0.52.0/cloud-nuke_linux_arm64
sudo mv cloud-nuke_linux_arm64 /usr/local/bin/cloud-nuke
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/cloud-nuke
cloud-nuke --version

2. The Automation Script (~/nuke.sh)

Create a wrapper script that enforces telemetry preferences, defines safe paths, and explicitly lists what must not be destroyed (e.g., identity management, core audit trails, and the control-plane region).

#!/bin/bash
export DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"

# Force execution while preserving base infrastructure
cloud-nuke aws \
  --exclude-resource-type ami \
  --exclude-resource-type iam-group \
  --exclude-resource-type iam-instance-profile \
  --exclude-resource-type iam-policy \
  --exclude-resource-type iam-role \
  --exclude-resource-type iam-user \
  --exclude-resource-type ec2-keypairs \
  --exclude-resource-type cloudtrail \
  --exclude-resource-type oidc-provider \
  --exclude-region us-west-2 \
  --force

3. Continuous Scheduling via Cron

To keep the environment clean throughout the day, map the script to execute at your required intervals (e.g., every hour):

0 1 * * * /home/ec2-user/nuke.sh > /dev/null 2>&1
0 2 * * * /home/ec2-user/nuke.sh > /dev/null 2>&1
0 3 * * * /home/ec2-user/nuke.sh > /dev/null 2>&1
0 4 * * * /home/ec2-user/nuke.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

Production Considerations & Best Practices

• Cross-Account Architecture (Recommended): For a completely zero-trust and pristine lab environment, host the EC2 instance in a separate Management/Tooling Account. Provide it with an IAM role that leverages sts:AssumeRole into a dedicated target role within the Lab Account. This ensures absolutely zero infrastructure footprints remain in the target sandbox.
• The "New Service" Gap: Keep in mind that open-source tools like cloud-nuke rely on known resource types. If lab users spin up brand-new AWS features or services that the current version of cloud-nuke doesn't yet support, those resources will be missed. Regularly updating the binary is crucial.
• Alternative approaches: For tighter, event-driven cleanup right when a lab finishes, consider hooking your lab platform platform's "End Session" webhook into an AWS Lambda function that triggers cloud-nuke (packaged in a container image) on demand.

To automatically terminate AWS resources when labs are completed, you have several implementation options:

Auto Scaling Services Configure Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling or Application Auto Scaling for supported resources. These services optimize utilization and cost efficiency by automatically removing excess resource capacity when demand drops, ensuring you don't overspend on unused resources.

CloudWatch Alarms Set up CloudWatch alarms to terminate instances based on specific metrics from your decommissioning process. Implement alarms with Amazon EC2 actions to automatically terminate resources. It's important to verify this operation in a non-production environment before deploying to production.

Programmatic Decommissioning Implement code within your application using the AWS SDK or AWS CLI to decommission workload resources. This allows your application to integrate with AWS and automatically terminate or remove resources that are no longer needed when labs conclude.

Serverless Architecture Consider prioritizing serverless architectures and event-driven designs for your labs platform. AWS serverless services inherently provide automatically optimized resource utilization with built-in automated decommissioning (scaling in and out). With serverless applications, resource utilization is automatically optimized and you never pay for over-provisioning.

These approaches allow you to design your workload to gracefully handle resource termination and use automation to reduce costs by removing non-critical, unused, or underutilized resources once labs are completed.

Note: The sources provided do not contain specific information about AWS Nuke or architectures specifically designed for that tool.
Sources
COST04-BP04 Decommission resources automatically - AWS Well-Architected Framework (2023-04-10)
COST04-BP04 Decommission resources automatically - AWS Well-Architected Framework
COST04-BP04 Decommission resources automatically - AWS Well-Architected Framework
COST04-BP04 Decommission resources automatically - AWS Well-Architected Framework