Day 16: Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) 📦Overview and Snapshots💾

Introduction

In this detailed blog post, we will explore Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), a core component of AWS, and dive into EBS Snapshots, a powerful feature for backup and recovery.

EBS Overview📦

✅What is EBS?

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances in the AWS Cloud. Each Amazon EBS volume is automatically replicated within its Availability Zone to protect you from component failure, offering high availability and durability.

✅Key Features of EBS

• Persistent Storage: EBS volumes are designed to persist independently of the life of an EC2 instance.

• Scalability: You can increase volume size, adjust performance, or change volume types without disrupting your applications.

• High Availability and Durability: EBS volumes are automatically replicated within their Availability Zone.

• Snapshots: EBS supports point-in-time snapshots to back up data.

✅EBS Volume Types

EBS offers different volume types to balance price and performance needs:

• General Purpose SSD (gp2/gp3): Balanced price and performance for a wide variety of workloads.

• Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2): High-performance SSDs for mission-critical applications.

• Throughput Optimized HDD (st1): Low-cost HDD designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads.

• Cold HDD (sc1): Lowest cost HDD designed for less frequently accessed workloads.

✅Creating and Attaching an EBS Volume

1. Create an EBS Volume:

   • Open the Amazon EC2 console.

   • In the navigation pane, choose "Volumes".

   • Click "Create Volume" and configure the volume (size, type, availability zone, etc.).

2. Attach an EBS Volume to an Instance:

   • Select the volume.

   • Choose "Actions" and then "Attach Volume".

   • Select the instance to attach the volume to and specify the device name.

✅EBS Use Cases

• Boot Volumes: Use EBS as the root volume for EC2 instances.

• Databases: Store database data on EBS for durability and high performance.

• Big Data Analytics: Utilize high-throughput volumes for data-intensive applications.

EBS Snapshots💾

☑What are EBS Snapshots?

EBS Snapshots are point-in-time copies of your EBS volumes. They are incremental backups, meaning that only the blocks that have changed since your last snapshot are saved. This reduces the time and storage costs for your backups.

☑Benefits of EBS Snapshots

• Backup and Restore: Easily create backups of your volumes and restore them when needed.

• Incremental: Save on storage costs as snapshots are incremental.

• Cross-Region Copying: Copy snapshots across regions for disaster recovery.

• Sharing: Share snapshots with other AWS accounts or make them public.

☑Creating EBS Snapshots

1. Create a Snapshot:

   • Open the Amazon EC2 console.

   • In the navigation pane, choose "Snapshots".

   • Click "Create Snapshot".

   • Select the volume to back up and provide a description.

   • Click "Create Snapshot".

2. Automating Snapshots with AWS Backup:

   • Open the AWS Backup console.

   • Create a backup plan and assign the EBS volumes.

   • Define the backup schedule and retention rules.

☑Restoring EBS Snapshots

1. Create a Volume from a Snapshot:

   • Open the Amazon EC2 console.

   • In the navigation pane, choose "Snapshots".

   • Select the snapshot.

   • Choose "Actions" and then "Create Volume".

   • Configure the new volume settings and click "Create Volume".

2. Attach the Restored Volume to an Instance:

   • Select the volume created from the snapshot.

   • Choose "Actions" and then "Attach Volume".

   • Select the instance and specify the device name.

☑Best Practices for EBS Snapshots

• Regular Backups: Schedule regular snapshots of your critical volumes.

• Tagging: Tag your snapshots for better organization and cost management.

• Cross-Region Snapshots: Copy snapshots to different regions for disaster recovery.

• Automation: Use AWS Backup or scripts to automate snapshot creation and management.

Conclusion💡

Amazon EBS📦 provides robust, scalable, and high-performance block storage for your EC2 instances. EBS Snapshots💾 offer a reliable way to back up and restore your data, ensuring business continuity and disaster recovery. By understanding and leveraging these features, you can optimize your storage solutions and enhance the resilience of your AWS infrastructure.✴

Stay tuned for more AWS insights!!⚜ If you found this blog helpful, share it with your network! 🌐😊

Happy cloud computing! ☁️🚀