EC2 Instance Storage Flashcards
EBS Volume (Elastic Block Store)
a network drive you can attach to your instances while they run that allows your instances to persist data, even after their termination
can only be mounted to one instance at a time (at the CCP level) and are bound to a specific AZ
*like a network USB stick, may have latency
EBS Delete on Termination Attribute
controls EBS behavior when EC2 instance terminates
by default, the root EBS Volume is deleted (attribute = enabled) and any other EBS Volume is not deleted (attribute = disabled)
EBS Use Case
to preserve root volume when instance is terminated; can be controlled by AWS Management Console / CLI
EBS Snapshots
make a backup of your EBS Volume at a point in time
not necessary to detach Volume to do Snapshot, but recommended
can copy Snapshots across AZ / regions
EBS Snapshot Archive
a feature of EBS Volumes, moves a Snapshot to an “archive tier” that is 75% cheapr
takes within 24-72 hours to restore archive
EBS Snapshot Recycle Bins
setup rules to retain deleted Snapshots so you can recover them after an accidental deletion
must specify retention (1 day - 1 year)
AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
a customization of an EC2 instance where you can add your software, config, or monitoring
faster boot/config time because all your software is pre-packaged
are built for specific regions (and can be copied across regions)
public AMI, your own AMI, AWS Marketplace AMI
AMI Process
- start EC2 instance and customize it
- stop the instance (for data integrity)
- build AMI - this will also create EBS Snapshots
- launch instances from other AMIs
EC2 Image Builder
used to automate creation of virtual machines or container images
can run on a schedule (weekly, whenever policy is changed, etc.)
free service (only pay for underlying resources)
EC2 Instance Store
high performance hardware disk, better I/O performance, good for buffer, cache, scratch data, temp content
lose storage if stopped (ephemeral) => risk data loss if hardware fails
responsibilities: backups
EFS (Elastic File System)
a managed NFS (Network File System) that can be mounted on hundreds of EC2 (shared NFS)
works only with Linux EC2 instances in multi-AZ
highly available, scalable, expensive (3x gp2), pay per use, no capacity planning
EFS - IA (Infrequent Access)
storage class that is cost optimized for files not accessed everyday, enabled with LifeCycle Policy. EFS will automatically move your files to EFS - IA based on the last time they were accessed; transparent to apps accessing EFS
ex: move files unaccessed for 60 days to EFS - IA
up to 92% lower cost compare to EFS Standard
FSx Windows File Server
fully managed + reliable + scalable Windows native shared file system, built on Windows File Server
can be accessed from AWS or on-premised infastructure
FSx for Lustre
high performance + scalable file storage for High Performance Computing (HPC) for Linux + Cluster servers
Shared Responsibility Model
AWS: infra, replication for data for EBS volume + EFS drives, replace faulty hardware, ensuring their employees cannot access your data
Customer: set up backups / Snapshots, set up data encryption, data on the drives, know risk of using EC2 Instance Stores
