EC2 Instance Storage Flashcards

1
Q

Definition

What’s an EBS (Elastic Block Store) Volume?

A
  • An EBS Volume is a network drive (i.e. not a physical drive) you can attach to your instances while they run
  • It allows your instance to persist data, even after their termination
  • They can only be mounted to one instance at a time (at the CCP level)
  • They are bound to a specific availability zone

  • Analogy: Think of them as a “network USB stick”
  • Free tier: 30 GB of free EBS storage of type General Purpose (SSD) or Magnetic per month
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2
Q

Definition

EBS Volume

A
  • It’s a network drive (i.e. not a physical drive)
    -> It uses the network to communicate the instance, which means there might be a bit of latency
    -> It can be detached from an EC2 instance and attached to another one quickly
  • It’s locked to an Availability Zone (AZ)
    -> An EBS Volume in us-east-1a cannot be attched to us-east-1b
    -> To move a volume across, you first need to snapshot it
  • These Volumes have a provisioned capacity (size in GBs and IO per secs)
    -> You get billed for all the provisioned capacity
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3
Q

EBS - Delete on Termination attribute

A
  • Controls the EBS behaviour when an EC2 instance terminates
    -> By default, the root EBS volume is deleted (attribute enabled)
    -> By default, any other attached EBS volume is not deleted (attribute disabled)
  • This can be controlled by the AWS console / AWS CLI
  • Use case: preserve root volume when instance is terminated
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4
Q

EBS Snapshots

A
  • Make a backup (snapshot) of your EBS volume at a point in time
  • Not necessary to detach volume to do snapshot, but recommended
  • Can copy snapshots across AZ or Region
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5
Q

EBS Snapshot Features

A
  • EBS Snapshot Archive
    -> Move a Snapshot to an “archive tier” that is 75% cheaper
    -> Takes within 24 to 72 hours for restoring the archive
  • Recycle Bin for EBS Snapshots
    -> Setup rules to retain deleted snapshots so you can recover them after an accidental deletion
    -> Specify retention (from 1 day to 1 year)
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6
Q

What does AMI stand for?

  • Amazing Machine Interface
  • Amazon Metric Inteligence
  • Advanced Made Internet
  • Amazon Machine Image
A

Amazon Machine Image

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7
Q

What does EBS stand for?

  • Elastic Bean Stalk
  • Elastic Binary System
  • Elevated Binary Storage
  • Elastic Block Store
A

Elastic Block Store

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8
Q

AMI Overview

A
  • AMI = Amazon Machine Image
  • AMI are a customization of an EC2 instance
    -> You add your own software, configuration, operating system, monitoring.
    -> Faster boot / configuration time because all your software is pre-packaged
  • AMI are built for a specific region (and can be copied across regions)
  • You can launch EC2 instances from
    -> A Public AMI: AWS provider
    -> Your own AMI: you make and maintain them yourself
    -> An AWS marketplace AMI: an AMI someone else made (and potentially sells)
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9
Q

Service Overview

EC2 Image Builder

What is it used for?

A
  • Used to automate the creation of Virtual Machines or container images
  • Automates the creation, maintain, validate and test EC2 AMI’s
  • Can be run on a schedule (weekly, whenever packages are updated, etc…)
  • Free service (only pay for the underlying resources)
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10
Q

If you need a high-performance hardware disk, use EC2 Instance Store

A

Local EC2 Instance Store

Note:
-Better I/O performance
-EC2 Instance Store lose their storage if they’re stopped (ephemeral)
- Good for buffer / cache / scratch data / temporary content

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11
Q

What does EFS stand for?

Type of storage

A

Elastic File System

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12
Q

EFS (Elastic File System) Overview

A
  • Manage NFS (network file system) that can be mounted on 100s of EC2 instances
  • EFS works only with Linux EC2 instances in multi-AZ (availability zone)
  • Highly available, scalable, expensive (3x gp2), pay per use, no capacity planning
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13
Q

EFS Infrequent Access (EFS-IA)

A
  • Storage class that cost-optimized for files not accessed every day
  • Up to 92% lower cost compared to EFS Standard
  • EFS will automatically move your files to EFS-IA based on the last time they were accessed
  • Enable EFS-IA with a Lifecycle Policy
  • Example: move files that are not accessed for 60 days to EFS-IA
  • Transparent to the applications accessing EFS
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14
Q

Shared Responsibility Model for EC2 Storage

AWS vs User

A

AWS
- Infrastructure
- Replication for data for EBS volumes & EFS (Elastic File System)
- Replacing faulty hardware
- Ensuring their employees cannot access your data

YOU
- Setting up backup / snapshot procedures
- Setting up data encryption
- Responsibility of any data on the drives
- Understanding the risk of using EC2 Instance Store

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15
Q

Amazon FSx - Overview

A
  • Launch 3rd party high-performance file systems on AWS
  • Fully managed service
  • 3 main 3rd party systems: FSx for Lustre, FSx for Windows File Server, FSx for NetApp ONTAP
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16
Q

What are the 2 flavors of Amazon FSx?

A

FSx Lustre and FSx Windows file server

17
Q

EC2 Instance Storage - Summary

A
  • EBS volumes:
    -> network drives attach to one EC2 instance at a time
    -> Mapped to an Availability Zone
    -> Can use EBS Snapshots for backups / transferring EBS volumes across AZ
  • AMI (Amazon Machine Image):
    -> create ready-to-use EC2 instances with our customizations
  • EC2 Image Builder:
    -> automatically build, test and distribute AMIs
  • EC2 Instance Store:
    -> High performance hardware disk attached to our EC2 instance
    -> Lost if our instance is stopped / terminated
  • EFS: network file system, can be attached to 100s of instances in a region
  • EFS-IA: cost-optimized storage class for infrequent accessed files
  • FSx for Windows: Network File System for Windows servers
  • FSx for Lustre: High Performance Computing Linux file system
18
Q

Quiz question

Which EC2 Storage would you use to create a shared network file system for your EC2 instances?

- EBS Volume
- EC2 Instance Store
- EBS Snapshots
- EFS

A

EFS (Elastic File System)

Note: Amazon EFS is a fully managed service that makes it easy to set up, scale, and cost-optimize file storage in the Amazon Cloud

19
Q

Which service can be used to automate image management processes?

- AMI
- EC2 Image Builder
- EBS Snapshots
- IAM

A

EC2 Image Builder

Note: EC2 Image Builder is an automated pipeline for the creation, maintenance, validation, sharing, and deployment of Linux or Windows images (os’) for use on AWS and on-premises

20
Q

Which of the following is fully managed native Microsoft Windows file system?

- EFS
- FSx
- EBS

A

FSx

Note: Amazon FSx makes it easy and cost effective to launch and run popular file systems that are fully managed by AWS. It comes in two offerings: FSx for Windows File Server (used for business applications), and FSx for Lustre (used for high-performance computing)

21
Q

What are AMI NOT used for?

- Add your own software license
- Add your own configuration
- Add your own operating-system
- Add your own IP addresses

A

Add your own IP addresses

Note: You cannot use AMIs to add your IP addresses. IP addresses are added to an instance as you create it.

22
Q

EBS Volumes CANNOT be attached to multiple EC2 instance at a time.

True
False

A

True

Note: EBS (Elastic Block Store) Volumes can be attached to only one EC2 Instance at a time, but EC2 Instances can have multiple EBS Volumes attached to them

23
Q

An EBS Volume is a network drive you can attach to your instances while they run, so your instances’ data persist even after their termination

True
False

A

True

Note: EBS Volumes allows instances’ data to persist even after their termination

24
Q

Which statement is CORRECT regarding EC2 Instance Store?

- It is not good to use as a disk to cache content
- It has a better I/O performance, but the data is lost if the EC2 Instance is terminated
- Your data is always safe with EC2 Instance Store

A

It has a better I/O performance, but the data is lost if the EC2 Instance is terminated

Note: EC2 Instance Store has a better I/O performance, but data is lost if: the EC2 instance is stopped or terminated, or when the underlying disk drive fails.

25
Q

What is an EBS Snapshot?

- The operating-system
- A backup of your EBS Volume at a point in time
- The amount of CPU and RAM of an EC2 Instance

A

A backup of your EBS Volume at a point in time

Note: EBS Snapshots are used to backup data on your EBS Volumes at a point in time

26
Q

Where can you find a third party’s AMI so you can use it to launch your EC2 Instance?

- Public AMIs
- My own AMIs
- AWS Marketplace AMIs

A

AWS Marketplace AMIs

Note: You can use AWS Marketplace AMIs to use someone else’s AMI

27
Q

What is an EBS Volume tied to?
- A region
- A data center
- An edge location
- An availability zone

A

An availability zone

Note: EBS Volumes are tied to only one availability zone