My Journey to AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner: Day 4 – Introduction to EC2 Instance Storage

As I continue my journey toward becoming an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Day 4 was dedicated to exploring Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) and its pivotal role in EC2 instance storage. Understanding EBS is essential for effective data management in the cloud, and today I dove into its features, functionalities, and best practices.

What is EBS (Elastic Block Store)?

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides block-level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. EBS is designed to be highly available, durable, and performance-oriented. Unlike ephemeral storage that is tied to the lifecycle of an instance, EBS volumes allow your instances to persist data, ensuring that your applications remain operational even after instance termination.

Key Features of EBS:

1. Network Drive: EBS volumes act as network-attached storage that communicates with your EC2 instances over the network, ensuring seamless data access.

2. Persistent Storage: Data stored in EBS volumes persists independently of the instance lifecycle, making it a reliable option for applications requiring long-term data retention.

3. Single Instance Attachment: By default, EBS volumes can be attached to only one instance at a time, which helps in maintaining data integrity.

4. Availability Zone (AZ) Bound: EBS volumes are tied to a specific Availability Zone. To move a volume across AZs, you need to create a snapshot and restore it in the target AZ.

5. Provisioned Capacity: You can provision your EBS volumes with specific storage capacities and performance metrics (IOPS), allowing for customization based on application requirements.

Understanding EBS Volume Types

EBS offers several volume types, each designed for specific use cases:

• General Purpose SSD (gp2/gp3): These volumes provide a balance of price and performance, suitable for a wide range of workloads, including boot volumes and small to medium-sized databases.

• Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2): Designed for I/O-intensive applications, these volumes deliver high performance and are ideal for databases like Oracle or SQL Server.

• Throughput Optimized HDD (st1): These are low-cost magnetic storage options designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads.

• Cold HDD (sc1): The most economical option for infrequently accessed data, suitable for large-scale data storage.

EBS Delete on Termination Attribute

The Delete on Termination attribute dictates whether an EBS volume is deleted when the associated EC2 instance terminates:

• Root EBS Volume: By default, the root EBS volume (which contains your operating system) is deleted when the instance is terminated (attribute enabled).

• Additional EBS Volumes: Other attached EBS volumes are not deleted by default (attribute disabled).

This behavior can be configured using the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI, offering control over storage retention and ensuring critical data is preserved when instances are terminated.

Use Case Example:

For applications requiring logs or configuration data to be retained, it’s advisable to disable the Delete on Termination attribute for the root volume.

EBS Multi-Attach (io1 & io2 Volumes)

Although standard EBS volumes can only be attached to one EC2 instance at a time, EBS Multi-Attach allows io1 and io2 volume types to be connected to multiple instances simultaneously. This feature is beneficial for clustered databases or applications needing shared access to the same data.

Note: EBS Multi-Attach is generally outside the scope of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam but is covered in advanced certifications. For more information, refer to the AWS documentation.

EBS Snapshots – Backing Up Your Data

EBS snapshots are incremental backups of your EBS volumes that are stored in Amazon S3. You can create snapshots without detaching the volume, but it’s recommended for data consistency.

Key Snapshot Features:

• Cross-AZ and Cross-Region Copies: Snapshots can be copied to different Availability Zones or regions, facilitating disaster recovery and cross-region replication.

• Incremental Backups: Only the data that has changed since the last snapshot is saved, optimizing storage costs and reducing backup times.

EBS Snapshot Archive

AWS allows you to move snapshots to an archive tier, which is approximately 75% cheaper than standard snapshots. However, restoring from the archive can take 24 to 72 hours, making it less suitable for urgent recovery needs.

Recycle Bin for EBS Snapshots

To protect against accidental deletion, AWS provides a Recycle Bin for EBS Snapshots:

• Retention Rules: You can set rules to retain deleted snapshots, allowing recovery within a specified timeframe (from 1 day to 1 year).

• Accidental Deletion Recovery: This feature ensures that snapshots can be recovered even after being deleted, enhancing data protection strategies.

Conclusion

Understanding EC2 instance storage and EBS is crucial for anyone managing workloads on AWS. EBS volumes offer a flexible and durable storage solution with features like snapshots, archival storage, and deletion controls to ensure data safety and recoverability.

Today’s insights on EBS have strengthened my understanding of how to efficiently manage data within AWS, paving the way for more complex cloud architectures as I prepare for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.

Stay tuned for Day 5 as I continue my exploration of AWS services!

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