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Quick Start

Get NightOps managing your staging and development infrastructure in under 15 minutes.

Overview​

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│  1. Connect  │────▶│  2. Scan     │────▶│  3. Group    │────▶│  4. Schedule │
│   Provider   │     │   Assets     │     │ Collections  │     │   On/Off     │
└──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └──────────────┘

Step 1: Connect Your Cloud Provider​

Deploy the NightOps IAM role to grant secure, read/write access to your cloud resources.

# One-click CloudFormation deployment
aws cloudformation create-stack \
  --stack-name nightops-integration \
  --template-url https://nightops-templates.s3.amazonaws.com/cloudformation/nightops-role.yaml \
  --parameters ParameterKey=ExternalId,ParameterValue=<your-external-id> \
  --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

The External ID is generated in your NightOps dashboard when you add a new AWS provider.

Detailed AWS Setup Guide →

GCP​

# Enable required APIs and create service account
gcloud iam workload-identity-pools create nightops-pool \
  --location="global" \
  --display-name="NightOps Pool"

Detailed GCP Setup Guide →

Azure​

# Create app registration with federated credentials
az ad app create --display-name "NightOps"

Detailed Azure Setup Guide →

Step 2: Scan Your Assets​

Once connected, NightOps automatically discovers all manageable compute resources:

  1. Go to Providers in the dashboard
  2. Click Sync on your connected provider
  3. Wait for the scan to complete (typically 1-2 minutes)

NightOps discovers:

  • EC2 instances, RDS databases, ECS services, EKS node groups
  • Compute Engine VMs, Cloud SQL instances, GKE node pools
  • Azure VMs, Azure SQL databases, AKS node pools

Learn more about asset scanning →

Step 3: Create Collections​

Group your assets into logical collections for easier management:

CollectionDescriptionExample Assets
Staging Web TierFrontend and API servers4 EC2 instances, 2 ECS services
Staging DataDatabases and caches2 RDS instances, 1 ElastiCache
QA EnvironmentTesting infrastructure3 VMs, 1 Cloud SQL

To create a collection:

  1. Go to Infrastructure in the dashboard
  2. Click New Collection
  3. Give it a name, color, and optional description
  4. Add assets by selecting them from the list

Learn more about collections →

Step 4: Create a Schedule​

Define when your non-production resources should be running:

Example: Weekday Business Hours​

Name: Weekday Business Hours
Timezone: America/New_York

Start: 8:00 AM
Stop: 8:00 PM
Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

This schedule:

  • Starts resources at 8:00 AM Eastern
  • Stops resources at 8:00 PM Eastern
  • Keeps resources off on weekends

Attach Schedule to Collection​

  1. Edit your collection
  2. Select your schedule from the dropdown
  3. Save changes

All assets in that collection will now follow the schedule automatically.

Step 5: Install Slack Integration (Optional)​

Let your team turn resources on/off from Slack:

  1. Go to Settings → Integrations
  2. Click Add to Slack
  3. Authorize NightOps for your workspace
  4. Invite @NightOps to your preferred channel

Your team can now:

  • /nightops start staging — Start a collection
  • /nightops stop staging — Stop a collection
  • /nightops status — Check what's running

Learn more about Slack integration →

Step 6: Subscribe to Uptime Calendar (Optional)​

Get a calendar feed showing when your resources are scheduled to be on/off:

  1. Go to Settings → Calendar
  2. Copy your personal iCal URL
  3. Add to Google Calendar or any calendar app

Learn more about calendar integration →

Estimated Savings​

EnvironmentMonthly CostWith NightOpsSavings
Staging (24/7)$2,500$62575%
Development (24/7)$1,200$30075%
QA Testing (24/7)$800$20075%

Based on 8am-8pm weekday schedule (60 hours/week vs 168 hours/week)

Next Steps​