4.4.1 - What is Amazon EBS?
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Introduction to EBS
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Today, weβre exploring Amazon EBS, which is essential for storing data used by EC2 instances. Can anyone explain what they think block storage is?
Is it like having a hard drive in the cloud?
Exactly! It functions much like a hard drive, but it provides persistent storage that remains intact after instances are stopped or terminated. This is critical for applications that need fast, reliable storage. Memory aid: think of EBS as your cloud hard drive, 'Easy Backup Storage'!
Why is that important?
Persistence allows applications to maintain state through changes in compute resources. For example, a web server may need to read and write to its storage without losing data if we scale up or down its server instances.
Types of EBS Volumes
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Letβs dive into the types of EBS volumes. Who can recall the different types and their purposes?
There are SSD types for performance and HDD types for cost savings.
Exactly! We have General Purpose SSDs for balanced performance, Provisioned IOPS for heavy workloads, and Throughput Optimized HDD for big data. A mnemonic: 'Great Performance, Important Operations, and Big Data'.
What about using HDDs for backups?
Great question! HDDs are typically used for cold storage or infrequently accessed data due to their lower costs. Theyβre perfect for archives and backup solutions due to their affordability.
Snapshots in EBS
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Now, letβs talk about snapshots. Can anyone describe what an EBS snapshot is?
Itβs a backup of your EBS volume, right?
Exactly! Snapshots are point-in-time backups stored in S3. They are incremental, meaning only changes since the last snapshot are saved, saving you space. Remember: a snapshot is like a time capsule for your data.
How do we create one?
You go to the EC2 console, select your volume, and then create a snapshot from there. Itβs important for disaster recovery and maintaining data integrity.
Best Practices in Using EBS
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Letβs discuss best practices for using EBS effectively. What are some strategies you think we should follow?
Maybe using proper volume types for the workloads?
Correct! Choosing the right volume type is vital. Additionally, regularly create snapshots, monitor performance metrics, and ensure you're using encryption for sensitive data. Mnemonic: 'Safe Volume Practices Keep Data Secure', or SVP-KDS.
What about optimizing costs?
Using lifecycle policies to manage snapshots and volumes efficiently can help reduce costs. This ensures youβre not paying for storage you donβt use!
Introduction & Overview
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Quick Overview
Standard
Amazon EBS provides scalable and persistent block storage for AWS EC2 instances. It features multiple volume types for different use cases, allows for snapshots as backups, and ensures that data persists independently of the lifecycle of the individual instances.
Detailed
What is Amazon EBS?
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a cloud block storage solution designed for use with Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances. EBS provides persistent storage volumes that function similarly to virtual hard drives that can be attached to EC2 instances, enabling data storage independent of the instance lifecycle. This is critical for applications that require consistent performance and state across changes in compute instances.
Key Features of EBS:
- Persistence: Data stored in EBS volumes remains available beyond the lifecycle of an EC2 instance.
- Multiple Volume Types: There are several EBS volume types optimized for different workloads, including General Purpose SSDs for balance of price and performance, Provisioned IOPS SSDs for high performance, and more cost-effective HDD options for infrequent access.
- Snapshots: EBS snapshots allow you to back up your data to S3, enabling point-in-time recovery and space optimization by saving only changed data.
These features make EBS crucial for a variety of applications, from databases to backup solutions.
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Introduction to Amazon EBS
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Chapter Content
Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent block storage volumes for EC2 instances.
Similar to virtual hard drives that you attach to your EC2 instances.
Data persists independently of the instance lifecycle.
Detailed Explanation
Amazon EBS is a service that offers block storage to EC2 instances, meaning it provides storage that can be used much like a hard drive on your computer. This storage is persistent, which means that even when you stop or terminate your EC2 instances, the data stored on EBS volumes remains safe and untouched. This is crucial for many applications that require constant access to data, like databases.
Examples & Analogies
Think of Amazon EBS like an external hard drive that you connect to your laptop. When you unplug your hard drive (like stopping an EC2 instance), the data still stays on that hard drive. You can connect it again later and find all your files just as you left them.
Types of EBS Volumes
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Chapter Content
Volume Type Description Use Case
General Purpose SSD (gp3/gp2) - Balanced price and performance - Boot volumes, transactional workloads
Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2) - High performance and throughput - Databases, critical business apps
Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) - Low cost, high throughput - Big data, log processing
Cold HDD (sc1) - Lowest cost, infrequent access - Archives, backups
Detailed Explanation
Amazon EBS provides different types of storage volumes tailored for various use cases. General Purpose SSDs are a good all-rounder for most workloads. Provisioned IOPS SSDs are designed for tasks that need high performance, like running a database. Throughput Optimized HDDs are cost-effective for large data processes, while Cold HDDs are the cheapest option for data that doesn't need to be accessed often, like backups and archives.
Examples & Analogies
Imagine you are choosing a vehicle: a sports car (Provisioned IOPS SSD) for speed, a reliable sedan (General Purpose SSD) for everyday use, a truck (Throughput Optimized HDD) for moving heavy loads efficiently, and an old van (Cold HDD) for those occasions when you need extra storage but donβt drive it often. Each one serves a different purpose based on your needs.
Creating and Attaching EBS Volumes
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Chapter Content
Create EBS volumes via AWS Console β EC2 β Elastic Block Store β Volumes β Create Volume.
Select type, size, and availability zone (must match your EC2 instanceβs AZ).
Attach the volume to a running EC2 instance.
On the instance, format and mount the volume to use it.
Detailed Explanation
To utilize EBS, you first create a volume through the AWS management console. You choose its type based on your requirements, decide how much storage you need, and ensure it is in the same availability zone as your EC2 instance so that they can communicate. After creating the volume, you need to attach it to your running EC2 instance, and finally, format and mount it on the instance so you can start using it.
Examples & Analogies
Think of creating and attaching an EBS volume like buying a new shelf (the volume) and setting it up in a room (the EC2 instance). You need to decide how big the shelf will be and where in the house to put it. Once itβs in place, you can start organizing your books (data) on it.
Snapshots
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Chapter Content
Snapshots are point-in-time backups of EBS volumes stored in S3.
Useful for backup, recovery, or creating new volumes.
Incremental by natureβonly changes since last snapshot are saved, saving space.
Creating a snapshot: Go to EC2 β Volumes β Select volume β Create snapshot.
Snapshots can be copied across regions for disaster recovery.
Detailed Explanation
Snapshots provide a way to back up your EBS volumes at a specific moment in time, effectively saving the data and the state of the volume. These backups are stored in Amazon S3, which is highly durable. The interesting part about snapshots is that they are incremental, meaning that when you create a new snapshot, only the changes from the last snapshot are stored. This method conserves storage space. Moreover, snapshots can be copied to different AWS regions, which helps in disaster recovery.
Examples & Analogies
Consider snapshots like taking photos of your garden at different times (snapshots) to keep track of its growth. Each time you take a photo (create a snapshot), you arenβt starting from scratch but rather capturing the changes since the last photo, allowing you to see progress without having to hold onto every single detail from the beginning.
Key Concepts
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Elastic Block Store (EBS): Cloud-based storage solution for EC2
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Persistence: Data remains accessible beyond instance termination
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Snapshots: Backup feature of EBS that saves point-in-time data
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Volume Types: Different EBS categories tailored for usage patterns
Examples & Applications
An e-commerce application using General Purpose SSD volumes for fast transaction handling.
A video processing pipeline making use of Provisioned IOPS for performance.
Using snapshots of a database volume as a recovery point in a disaster recovery strategy.
Memory Aids
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Rhymes
EBS is key, keep it near, for storage thatβs always clear; data sticks around, no need to fear, with instances it can cheer!
Stories
Imagine a library (EBS) where every book (data) stays even if the librarian (EC2 instance) changes. Snapshots are like taking photos of the books on the shelves, so if a book gets damaged, you can remember how it looked before!
Memory Tools
Remember EBS for 'Enduring Block Storage'.
Acronyms
EBS
'Elastic Block Storage' β think of elastic for flexibility in size.
Flash Cards
Glossary
- EBS
Elastic Block Store, a service providing persistent block storage for Amazon EC2 instances.
- Persistence
Data storage that remains available beyond the lifecycle of the instance.
- Snapshots
Point-in-time backups of EBS volumes stored in Amazon S3.
- Volume Type
Different categories of EBS that are optimized for specific workloads.
- Incremental Backup
A backup method that only saves changes made since the last backup.
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