EBS 101 Flashcards
What does EBS stand for?
Elastic Block Store
What does SSD stand for?
Solid-State Drive(s)
What does HDD stand for?
Hard Disk Drive(s)
What is the suggested core difference in use cases between SSD EBS volumes and HDD EBS volumes?
- SSD volumes are best where performance is measured in IOPS
- HDD volumes are best where performance is measured in throughput
What does IOPS stand for?
Input/Output Operations Per Second
What is Amazon EBS?
- think virtual hard disk drive in the cloud
- persistent block storage volumes for use with EC2 instances in AWS Cloud
How does Amazon EBS help ensure high availability and durability?
Each EBS volume is automatically replicated within its availability zone to protect you from component failure
What are the 5 types of EBS Storage Volumes?
- General Purpose (SSD)
- Provisioned IOPS (SSD)
- Throughput Optimized HDD
- Cold HDD
- Magnetic (HDD)
What is the use case for General Purpose SSD?
It is the EBS volume that handles most workloads, offering a balance of low cost and high performance
What is the API Name for General Purpose SSD?
gp2
What is the Maximum IOPS per volume offered for General Purpose SSD?
16,000
What is the general use case for Provisioned IOPS SSD?
- A high-performance volume designed for mission-critical apps
- think Databases
What is the API Name for Provisioned IOPS SSD?
io1
What is the Maximum IOPS per volume offered by Provisioned IOPS SSD?
64,000
What is the key factor in deciding whether to use General Purpose SSD vs. Provisioned IOPS SSD?
Cost vs. Performance
- General Purpose is lower cost but caps at 16000 IOPS/vol
- Provisioned IOPS is more expensive but goes up to 64000 IOPS/vol
What is the designed use case for Throughput Optimized HDD?
- Low-Cost (BUT NOT LOWEST-COST) HDD
- Meant for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads
- e.g. Big Data / Data Warehouse
What is the API name for Throughput Optimized HDD?
st1
What is the Maximum IOPS/vol for Throughput-Optimized HDD?
500
What is the use case for Cold HDD?
- Lowest Cost HDD volumes
- designed for less-frequently-accessed workloads
- e.g. File Servers
What is the api name for Cold HDD?
sc1
What is the maximum IOPS/vol for Cold HDD?
250
What is EBS Magnetic? What is it commonly used for?
- Previous-Generation HDD
- Commonly used for workloads for Infrequently Accessed Data
What is the API name for EBS Magnetic?
standard
What is the Maximum IOPS/vol for EBS Magnetic?
40-200
What is an EBS Snapshot?
A snapshot is a point in time copy of a volume
Where are Snapshots stored?
S3
Suppose you take a snapshot of a volume, then add a new file to a volume, then take a second snapshot. What is stored in the second snapshot?
- Snapshots are incremental – only blocks that have changed since your last snapshot are moved to S3
- So, only the new file (the delta) is stored in the second snapshot
Can you take a snapshot of an EBS volume while the underlying EC2 instance is running?
- Yes, but it is not the best practice.
- To create a snapshot for EBS volumes that serve as root devices, you should stop the instance before taking the snapshot.
Can you create an AMI from an EBS volume?
Yes
Can you create an AMI from an EBS Snapshot?
Yes
Can you change the size of an EBS volume on the fly?
Yes, including the size and storage type
In what Availability Zone is an EBS volume stored?
In the same Availability zone as the EC2 instance to which it is connected
How do you move an EC2 Volume from one Availability Zone to another?
- Take a snapshot of it
- Create an AMI from the snapshot
- Use the AMI to launch the EC2 instance in a new AZ
How do you move an EC2 instance from one region to another?
- Take a snapshot of the EC2 instance
- Create an AMI from the snaphsot
- Copy the AMI from one region to the other
- Use the copied AMI to launch the new EC2 instance in the new region
