Deep Dive Into Storage

Optimize Storage with EBS

Learning Outcome

Summarize how to optimize storage using AWS services

Learn how EBS works like a network drive

Understand what EBS snapshots are and why they are used

Learn different EBS volume types

Understand what Amazon EBS is

Earlier, we learned that

EC2 needs storage to run applications
Storage can be temporary or permanent
AWS provides different storage services for different use cases
Choosing the right storage improves performance and cost

Laptop and External Drive Example

Think of a laptop

It has an internal hard drive for everyday work

Sometimes, you plug in a pendrive or external hard disk to store extra data

You can unplug it and attach it to another laptop

So In AWS

EC2 is like the laptop

EBS is like the external hard disk

EFS is like shared office storage that many computers use at the same time

What is Amazon EBS?

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a persistent block storage service used with EC2

Data stays even if EC2 stops

Designed for high performance

Used for operating systems, databases, and applications

Example

EBS works like a hard drive attached to an EC2 instance.

EBS is a Network Drive

EBS is a network-attached storage

It can be:

Attached to one EC2 instance

Detached and attached to another EC2 instance

Works like a pendrive or external hard disk

This makes EBS flexible and reusable.

Types of EBS Volumes

General Purpose SSD (gp3 / gp2)

Balanced price and performance

Used for most workloads

Best for web servers, applications

Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 / io2)

High performance and low latency

Used for databases

More expensive but very fast

Throughput Optimized HDD (st1)

For large data and streaming

Not for frequent random access

Cold HDD (sc1)

Lowest cost

Used for rarely accessed data

What is an EBS Snapshot?

An EBS Snapshot is a backup of an EBS volume

Stored in Amazon S3

Captures the data at a point in time

Can be used to:

Restore data

Create new volumes

Recover from failure

Example:

Taking a photo of your hard drive so you can restore it later.

Steps to Take an EBS Snapshot

Open AWS Management Console

Go to EC2 → Volumes

Select the EBS volume

Click Actions → Create snapshot

Add description and create

How to Attach an EBS Volume to EC2

How to Detach an EBS Volume

Go to EC2 → Volumes

Select the volume

Click Actions → Detach volume

Confirm detachment

What is Amazon EFS?

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is a shared file storage service

Multiple EC2 instances can access it at the same time

Automatically scales storage

Used for shared files and applications

Example

Like a shared office folder used by many employees

Key Features of EFS

Fully managed

Scales automatically

Highly available across multiple AZs

Supports Linux workloads

No need to manually resize storage

What is a Mount Target?

A Mount Target connects EFS to EC2 instances

Created inside a VPC

Allows EC2 to access EFS

One mount target per Availability Zone

Without a mount target, EC2 cannot use EFS

Difference Between EBS and EFS

Feature

EBS

EFS

Storage Type

EC2 Access

Scaling

Use Case

Block

File

One EC2 at a time

Multiple EC2s

Manual

Automatic

Databases, OS

Shared storage

Summary

Choosing the right storage optimizes cost and performance

EFS provides shared storage for multiple EC2 instances

Different EBS volume types support different workloads

EBS provides persistent block storage for EC2

Quiz

Which EBS volume is best for databases?

A. Cold HDD

B. Provisioned IOPS

C. General Purpose

D. Throughput Optimized

Quiz-Answer