EC2 Instance Storage - Elastic Block Store (EBS) Volume

Question 1

What are the pros of using an EBS volume? List two

Answer 1

1. Data is persisted even if an instance is terminated.
2. They can be attached to another instance quickly and easily.

Question 1

What is an EBS Volume?

Answer 1

An Elastic Block Store volume is a network drive you can attach to your instance while they run. Think of them as network USB stick.

Question 2

True or False? EBS volumes can be transferred across different AZs.

Answer 2

False. They are bound to a specific AZ.

Question 3

What are cons of using EBS volumes? List two

Answer 3

1. Latency issues as they use the network to communicate to the instance.
2. They are locked to a specific AZ. They can only be moved if you create a snapshot of it.

Question 4

True or False? Both the root EBS volume as well as any attached volumes are not deleted on termination by default.

Answer 4

False. Although it’s true that any attached EBS volume is set to not be deleted on termination by default, the root volume is set to delete upon termination by default.

Question 5

What is an EBS Snapshot?

Answer 5

It is a backup (snapshot) of your EBS volume at a point in time which allows you to copy the data over to another AZ or Region.

Question 6

True or False? It isn’t necessary to detach the EBS volume before making the snapshot.

Answer 6

True. Although it is recommended to detach it first.

Question 7

What is the EBS Snapshot Archive?

Answer 7

It allows you to move a snapshot to an “archive tier”

Question 8

List one pro and con for EBS Snapshot Archive?

Answer 8

Pro: It makes storing the snapshot far cheaper (around 75%).

Con: It takes within 24 to 72 hours to restore the archived data.

Question 9

List two things that can be configured fro the EBS Snapshot Recycle Bin?

Answer 9

1. You can setup rules to retain deleted snapshots so they can be recovered after an accidental deletion.
2. You can configure a retention policy (from 1 day to 1 year).

Question 10

What is Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR)?

Answer 10

It allows you to force the full initialisation of a snapshot so it doesn’t have latency issues on the first use. However this is expensive.

Question 11

List the 6 types of EBS Volumes?

Answer 11

gp2/gp3 (SSD): General purpose SSD volume that balances price and performance for a wide variety of workloads

io1/io2 Block Express (SSD): Highest performance SSD volume for mission critical low-latency or high-through-put workloads

st1 (HDD): Low cost Hard Disk Drive (HDD) volume designed for frequently accessed, throughput intensive workloads.

sc1 (HDD): Lowest cost HDD volume designed for less frequently accesse workloads.

Question 12

What EBS Volume types can be used as a boot volume?

Answer 12

Only gp2/gp3 and io1/io2 Block Express can be used as boot volumes

Question 13

What feature allows EBS volumes to be attached to multiple instances within an AZ? And what EBS Volume types allow this feature?

Answer 13

EBS Multi-Attach. Must be an io1/io2 EBS volume.

Question 14

True or False? Each instance has full read and write permissions to the high performance multi-attach EBS volume?

Answer 14

True

Question 15

How many instances can a multi-attach EBS volume be attached to?

Answer 15

Up to 16 instances at a time.

Question 16

What four things are encrypted when an EBS Volume is created?

Answer 16

1. Data at rest within the volume
2. Data that’s moving between the instance and the volume
3. All Snapshots
4. All Volumes created from the snapshot

Question 17

How would you encrypt an unencrypted EBS Volume?

Answer 17

Create a snapshot

Encrypt the snapshot by using the copy function (this can be skipped by doing the next step)

Create a new EBS Volume from the snapshot and enable encryption