How to Mount EFS on Multiple Instances

Thank you for taking time to go through my block. I hope this write-up will be helpful.

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is a cloud-based file storage service that allows users to share files without managing storage capacity. It can be used with AWS services and on-premises resources. EFS is the AWS implementation of NFS (Network File System) v4. It is a managed file storage, which can be mounted on only Linux-based operating systems. With its elastic storage capacity, it can grow and shrink automatically as you add and remove files from it providing read-after-write consistency. You can access your Amazon EFS file system by connecting multiple compute instances (EC2, ECS, Lambda) running in multiple AZs within a VPC in an AWS Region. Within the region, It can be connected to multiple VPCs as well via VPC Peering connections. If there is a need to access the EFS from an on-premise location, that also could be done via VPN or Direct Connect connections.

This diagram explain more better as you can see the multiple instances connected to the EFS and on-premise servers.

For the purpose of this class I will be working with two or three instances.

1. log into your Aws console and search for EFS

2. click on create file

3. enter file name.

   

4. click on customize

5. check on regional, check on Enable automatic backups,

6. 

   check on Enable encryption of data at rest this option can only be done at this stage, it is a way of protecting your data when moving from one point to other.

7. accept all other default and click on Next

8. click on Next to accept all region availability

   

9. check on enforce in-transit encryption

10. click on Next

    

11. click on create

    

12. search on EC2 instance search bar, and open the EC2

    

13. click on launch instance, at this point you can launch at least two or three

14. note every steps on instance-1 apply to instance-2 to 3-4

15. click on launch instance

16. Give it a name [e.g my-EFS saver-1] the second server should be my-EFS server -2 this for easy identification of security ID

    

17. select operating system, example amazon Linux as it’s on above

18. go to the operating system dropdown and search for T3.micro, then select. if you are on free tier chose t2.micro

    

19. click on keypair and select default value [note this is for the purpose of this training, you can create your keypair]

    

20. go to network settings and click on edit

21. on security group name, remove the default name & input your own [e.g EFS SG] remember to differentiate the name on each of your instances for easy identification . Example EFS SG-1, EFS SG-2, EFS SG-3

    

22. launch your instances

23. click on successful launch ID

    

24. go to network and security, click on security groups to see your ID

25. click on default security ID

    

26. click on edit inbound rules

27. click on add rule

    

    

28. go to TCP search bar & search for NFS

    

29. go to custom search bar & search for the security group name you created [e.g EFS SG-1] or [EFS SG-2] and click

30. click on create

31. go to your instance and check the box for any the instance you want to launch [note all the instance you create will appear here]

    

32. click on connect at the top

    

    

33. click on connect again to open your terminal

    

34. type: sudo dnf install -y amazon-efs-utils then press enter

    

35. to create directory: sudo mkdir, enter your directory name press enter. Remember you are creating a directory to enable you mount the file system on that directory.

36. navigate to your instance tab and search for EFS

37. open it and click on attach

    

38. copy the first command under sudo mount helper

    

39. paste it on your terminal then enter. now from the screen below you will notice that the EFS has successfully mounted.

    

40. type: df -T then enter [this to know if successfully mounted your EFS]

41. to change ownership: sudo chown ec2-user & directory name[e.g sudo chown ec2-user efs/ ]

    

42. to create a file: sudo touch file name enter [e.g sudo touch efs.txt]

43. to enter into your directory: cd name of your directory then enter.

44. On your second instances, you are to only run this command once the terminal open: [a] sudo dnf install -y amazon-efs-utils, [b] mkdir name of the directory, and it must be the first directory name you created on the first instance [E.g mkdir Efsfolder] [c] go to EFS tab click on attach

45. and copy the same sudo mount command and paste it on the terminal, [d] run this command to know if successfully mounted: dt -T, [e] Run this command: cd and name of the directory E.g cd Efsfolder, [f] Run this command to see every file that has been created on the first instance: LS -L use lower case E.g ls -l

    

    

    saver-1, saver-2, saver-3 these are connected to the EFS created.

46. to know how much space you have used: du -h

47. to see all the file you have created: Ls -al

48. I believe this will solve someone’s challenges, Thank you for take time to read through my block and look forward to dropping another piece of my project.

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