EC2: Elastic Compute Cloud Flashcards
What does EC2 stand for?
Elastic Compute Cloud
What are the 6 basic computer components?
- Operating System - Linux or Windows
- CPU - Processing Power “the brain”
- Hard Drive - Local Storage
- Network Card - Access to the internet (eithernet or wifi based)
- Firewall - Security
- RAM - Short-term memory. Before data is processed, goes into memory, then to CPU to process.
What is EC2?
Simplified Definition:
Think of EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) as a basic computer.
AWS Defintion:
EC2 provides scalable computing capacity in the AWS cloud. Using Amazon EC2 elimiates your need to invest in hardware up front, so you can develop and deploy applications faster. You can use Amazon EC2 to launch as many or as few virtual servers as you need, configure security and networking, and manage storage. EC2 enables you to scale up or down to handle changes in requirements or spike in popularity, reducing your need to forecast traffic.
What are the 6 basic EC2 components?
- AMI (Amazon Machine Image) - Operating System, such as Linux or Windows.
- Instance Type - CPU, or processing power
- EBS - Hard drive or local storage.
- IP Address - Network Adaptor or Internet Access
- Security Groups - Firewall
- RAM - Short-term memory
What are the three most common EC2 Instance purchasing options?
- On Demand
- Reserved
- Spot
What is On Demand purchasing?
On demand purchasing allows you to choose any instance type you like and provision/terminate it at any time on demand.
- This is the most expensive and most flexible purchasing option.
- You are only charged when the instance is running (and billed by the hour or the second depending on which instances you run).
- You can provision/terminate an on demand instance at any time.
Good for spikes or unpredictable workloads or apllications being developed or tested on EC2 for the first time.
What is Reserved purchasing?
Reserved purchasing allows you to purchase an instance for a set time period of 1-3 years. up to 75% off of on demand pricing.
- This allows for a significant price discount over using on demand.
- You can select to pay upfont, partial upfront, or no upfront.
- Once you buy a reserved instance, you own it for the selected time period and are responsible for the entire prices - regardless of how often you use it.
What is Spot purchasing?
Spot pricing is a way for you to request spare EC2 computing capacity for up to 90% off the On-Demand price.
Recommended for:
- Applications that have flexible start and end times
- Applications that are only feasible at a very low compute price
- Users with urgent computing needs for large amounts of additional capacity.
How are you charged for Compute Services (6 components)?
- Purchasing Options - On demand, Reserved, Spot
- Instance Type - Instance’s processing capacity (think CPU).
- General purpose
- Compute optimized
- Accelerated computing
- Meomory optimized
- Storage optimized - EBS Optimized: An option for higher IOPS performance. ( how fast storage will perform/process data)
- AMI Type - Operating Sytem (Linux vs Windows)
- Data Transfer - in/out of the instance (how much)
- Region - region in which the instance is provisioned.
8 benefits of using EC2?
- Elastic web-scale computing
- Full root control of the server
- Flexicble options (many instance types, AMIs to choose from)
- Flexible options (many instance types, AMIs to choose from)
- Integrates with almost all other AWS services
- Extremely reliable
- High level of built-in security
- Very easy to start (create an EC2 instance witing minutes).
5 primary use cases of EC2?
- Multi-tier web applications
- Web servers
- Batch processing
- Video processing
- GPU intensive workloads
What does AMI stand for?
Amazon Machine Image
What is the definition of AMI?
Amazon Machine Image
Simplified Definition:
A preconfigured package required to launch an EC2 instance that includes an operating sytem, software packages, and other required settings.
AWS Definition:
An AMI provides the information required to launch an instance, which is a virtual server in the cloud. You specify an AMI when you launch an instance, and you can launch as many instances from the AMI as you need. You can also launch instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
What are the three main categories of AMIs?
- Community AMIs
- AWS Marketplace AMIs
- My AMIs
What are Community AMIs?
- Free to use
- Generally with these AMIs, you just select the OS you want.