Your first scan is the moment Parsivex goes from "connected" to useful. This walkthrough covers what you need before you start, what happens during the scan, and how to act on the results.
Prerequisites
Before you can run a scan, make sure:
- Your AWS account is connected — You completed onboarding and pasted a valid IAM role ARN. If you have not done this yet, see Set up a read-only IAM role or follow the onboarding wizard at app.parsivex.com/onboarding.
- The connection is verified — Parsivex successfully assumed your role. If verification failed, you will be sent back to the verify step with troubleshooting guidance.
- You have scans remaining this month — Free plans include one scan per month. Paid plans include more. Check Scans this month on your dashboard to confirm you have scans remaining.
If you have not set a default region yet, Parsivex will ask you to choose one before starting your first scan. Pick the region where most of your resources live.
Step-by-step: from dashboard to report
Open the dashboard
After onboarding, you land at
/. If you have never run a scan, you will see a Ready to find savings card with a Start Scan button.Start the scan
Click Start Scan. Parsivex queues the job and redirects you to the scan progress view. The button is disabled while a scan is already running.
Watch progress
The progress screen shows three phases: Collecting data, Analysing, and Building report. Most scans finish in a few minutes. You can keep the tab open or come back later.
View your report
When the scan completes, Parsivex opens your savings report. You will see total estimated monthly waste, a list of findings sorted by impact, and details for each issue.
If something goes wrong, the scan page shows an error message and a Try Again button. Failed scans do not consume your monthly allowance incorrectly — you can retry without signing out.
What the report shows you
Your report is organized around savings impact:
| Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Summary | Total estimated monthly waste across all findings |
| Findings list | Each issue with severity, resource details, and savings estimate |
| Finding detail | Plain-English explanation of why the resource looks wasteful |
On free plans, some finding details are redacted. You still see that waste exists and how much you could save in total — upgrading unlocks the full list.
What to do with findings
Not every finding needs immediate action. Here is a practical order of operations:
- Sort by savings — Fix the highest-impact items first. A single idle EC2 instance can cost more than a dozen small optimizations combined.
- Validate before you delete — Check whether a flagged resource is truly unused. Parsivex uses automated rules; you know your architecture best.
- Use remediation scripts on paid plans — Paid plans include ready-to-run AWS CLI scripts with safety warnings and dry-run options where supported. See Remediation script safety before running any command.
- Dismiss or snooze non-issues — If a finding is intentional (a staging server you keep idle on purpose), dismiss it so it does not clutter future scans.
- Track resolution over time — On paid plans with recurring scans, Parsivex detects when findings disappear and credits realized savings. See Finding lifecycle for how dismiss, snooze, and resolve work.
Remediation scripts are copy-paste CLI commands you run in your own terminal. Parsivex generates them; you stay in control of every change to your AWS account.
After your first scan
Once you have a completed scan:
- Your dashboard fills in with savings totals, findings count, and scan history. See Your dashboard.
- You can share or export reports on paid plans.
- Schedule your next scan based on your plan limits — recurring scans on paid plans help track realized savings over time.
Next steps
- Your dashboard — KPI strip, sidebar navigation, and dedicated pages
- Finding lifecycle — Dismiss, snooze, and track resolved findings
- Remediation script safety — How to run fix scripts safely