👋 Hello DevOps & Cloud Enthusiasts!

Today in my AWS learning journey, I explored one of the most fundamental yet confusing topics for beginners:

\> 🔄 Amazon EBS vs Instance Store – When to use which? What’s the difference?

Let’s break it down 👇

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💡 What is Amazon EBS?

Elastic Block Store (EBS) is like a persistent virtual hard drive for your EC2.

Your data remains intact even if you stop or restart the instance.

You can detach it from one EC2 and attach it to another.

🧰 Use case: Hosting a web app that stores user files, database data, or logs you don’t want to lose.

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⚡ What is Instance Store?

Instance Store is temporary storage that comes physically attached to certain EC2 instance types.

Data is lost when the EC2 is stopped, terminated, or fails.

Extremely fast (great for caching, temp files, etc.)

🧰 Use case: Temporary buffer for video processing or storing logs that don’t need to be saved permanently.

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🧪 Hands-on Use in EC2

✅ To Use EBS:

Launch an EC2 instance.

In the storage section, add a new EBS volume.

Mount it inside EC2 (e.g., /mnt/data).

Format and use it like a regular disk.

✅ To Use Instance Store:

Choose an EC2 instance that supports instance store (e.g., c5d, i3).

Instance store appears as a separate device (e.g., /dev/nvme1n1).

Format and mount it manually.

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🔍 Quick Comparison Table

Feature EBS Instance Store

Durability Persistent Temporary (lost on stop/terminate)

Backup Support Snapshots (to S3) No backup or snapshot

Use Case Databases, logs, user data Cache, temp files, buffer

Detachable Yes No

Performance Good Faster for short bursts

Cost Pay for what you allocate Included in instance cost

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🧠 Key Takeaway

\> Use EBS when you need reliable storage tha

t survives restarts.

Use Instance Store when you need high-speed temporary storage.

🟦 Day 9: Amazon EBS vs Instance Store – What’s the Difference?