EBS

Question 1

Can you have an EBS volume mounted in a different AZ than its instance?

Answer 1

No, they must be in same availability zone

Question 2

Which volume types can you modify on the fly?

Answer 2

all except magnetic (standard)

Question 3

Have an EC2 instance in one zone, want to create volume in different zone, how to do it

Answer 3

1. snapshot the EC2 volume
2. create volume from the snapshot
3. Now can change the type of the volume and the AZ
4. Can attach this volume to another EC2 instance

Question 4

How to move an EBS volume to different AZ or region

Answer 4

to move an EBS volume from one AZ to another
create snapshot first
copy snapshot to new location
then create new volume in new AZ

Question 5

How to move EC2 instance from one region to other

Answer 5

create snapshot
copy / move snapshot to new region
create image from snapshot (then can boot to new EC2 instance)

Question 6

Use case for snapshots

Answer 6

snapshots for backups

Question 7

Use case for images

Answer 7

images for creating new EC2 volumes

Question 8

Volumes exist on?

Answer 8

EBS

Question 9

EBS is what

Answer 9

a virtual hard disk

Question 10

snapshots exist where?

Answer 10

on S3

Question 11

What are snapshots?

Answer 11

point in time copy of volumes. Incremental snapshots mean only changed blocks are copied to S3

Question 12

First step to creating snapshot of EBS volumes serving as root devices?

Answer 12

Stop the instance. Optional but ensures files are not changing

Question 13

Can you create an AMI from Volumes and Snapshots?

Answer 13

Yes, from both

Question 14

What 2 things can you change for EBS volumes on the fly?

Answer 14

Yes including size and storage type

Question 15

Will volumes always been the same AZ as the EC2 instance?

Answer 15

yes

Question 16

To move EC2 volume from one AZ or region what do you do?

Answer 16

Take a snapshot or image

then copy to new location

Question 17

Are snapshots of encrypted volumes, encrypted automatically?

Answer 17

Yes

Question 18

Are volumes restored from encrypted snapshots automatically encrypted?

Answer 18

Yes

Question 19

When can you share snapshots?

Answer 19

any time if they are unencrypted.

Question 20

EBS vs Instance Store

Answer 20

Instances with EBS volume as boot device can be stopped

Instances with Instance Store for boot device can’t be stopped, only rebooted or terminated

Might want to stop an instance to move it around the datacenter, ie off of a failed hypervisor

Question 21

Can you detach an EBS volume from an instance and re-assign it to another instance?

Answer 21

Yes, even with root volumes

Question 22

Ephemeral Storage

Answer 22

Instance Store backed volumes

Question 23

AMI’s are categorized as backed by what?

Answer 23

EBS or instance store volumes

Question 24

EBS-backed AMI

Answer 24

root device is an EBS volume created from EBS snapshot

Question 25

Instance-store backed AMI

Answer 25

root device is an instance store volume created from a template stored in S3

Question 26

Can instance store volumes be stopped?

Answer 26

No

Question 27

Can EBS-backed instances be stopped?

Answer 27

Yes

Question 28

Can ephemeral / instance store backed instances be stopped?

Answer 28

No, only rebooted or terminated

Question 29

Can you reboot instance store, or EBS backed volumes without losing data?

Answer 29

yes

Question 30

Default behavior for both types of Root Volumes on termination

Answer 30

is to delete the the root volumes

With EBS you can change this

Question 31

AWS CLI command to create EBS snapshot

Answer 31

aws ec2 create-snapshot

Question 32

can you delete a snapshot of EBS volume used as root device of a registered AMI?

Answer 32

No

Question 33

Will an EBS root volume persist independently after its EC2 instance is terminated?

Answer 33

Only if you specify that it does

Question 34

How are EBS snapshots backed up to S3

Answer 34

incrementally. Only changes are copied each time