Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Overview

Summary

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent block storage for Amazon EC2 instances, offering high performance, low latency, and high availability. EBS features SSD-backed volumes for demanding workloads like databases and enterprise apps, and HDD-backed volumes for streaming data and big data applications. EBS supports live modifications, ensuring performance and availability. Snapshots stored in Amazon S3 provide data protection, with encryption at rest and in transit. With Amazon CloudWatch monitoring, users can manage and optimize storage for their high-performance applications on the AWS cloud.

Takeaways

• 😀 Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) provides persistent block storage for Amazon EC2 instances, offering high performance and low latency.
• 😀 EBS is integrated with EC2 instances and offers five nines of availability for demanding applications.
• 😀 Four different types of Amazon EBS volumes are available, each designed to meet specific performance needs.
• 😀 SSD-backed volumes are ideal for low latency, high IOPS applications like boot volumes and transactional workloads.
• 😀 Applications such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and NoSQL databases like MongoDB benefit from SSD-backed volumes.
• 😀 HDD-backed volumes are best for applications that require high throughput, such as big data processing, data warehousing, and log processing.
• 😀 EBS volumes can be modified live with no impact on performance or availability, allowing flexibility in adjusting to future needs.
• 😀 EBS offers a low annual failure rate (0.1% to 0.2%), ensuring reliable storage for mission-critical applications.
• 😀 Snapshots of EBS volumes can be taken for backup, recovery, archiving, and creating new EC2 instances, with snapshots stored in Amazon S3.
• 😀 EBS supports encryption in transit and at rest, ensuring high levels of security for stored data.
• 😀 Amazon CloudWatch can be used to monitor EBS volumes, with alerts to help manage capacity and performance adjustments.

Q & A

What is Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)?

Amazon EBS provides persistent block storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances, offering high performance, low latency, and high availability for demanding applications.

What types of EBS volumes are available?

Amazon EBS offers four types of volumes: SSD-backed volumes for low latency and high IOPS, and HDD-backed volumes for sequential access with the highest throughput.

Which workloads benefit most from SSD-backed EBS volumes?

SSD-backed volumes are ideal for boot volumes, transactional workloads, random I/O, and applications like SAP, Microsoft Exchange, and relational databases such as Oracle and MySQL.

What kind of applications would use HDD-backed EBS volumes?

HDD-backed volumes are best for streaming I/O applications, such as big data applications like Hadoop, data warehousing applications like Vertica, and log processing applications like Splunk.

Can different types of EBS volumes be used together on a single EC2 instance?

Yes, different volume types can be connected to a single EC2 instance, allowing applications to use different performance profiles for various components.

What are the benefits of modifying EBS volumes without downtime?

You can modify EBS volumes without impacting performance or availability, allowing flexibility in adapting to changing requirements without downtime.

What is the annual failure rate for EBS volumes?

EBS volumes have an annual failure rate between 0.1% and 0.2%, ensuring a reliable level of performance and durability.

How can you maximize data protection with EBS?

Data protection can be maximized by taking point-in-time snapshots of EBS volumes, which can be used for backup, recovery, and archiving, or to create new EC2 instances.

Where are EBS snapshots stored?

EBS snapshots are stored in Amazon S3, benefiting from its 11 9s durability, ensuring high reliability for backups and data retention.

What security features does EBS provide?

EBS provides encryption both in transit and at rest, ensuring data security, and adheres to strict compliance standards and regulations.