📖 What is Amazon EBS?
Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) provides persistent block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. These volumes act as virtual hard drives, offering various types optimized for different workloads, including general purpose, throughput, and IOPS intensive applications. Data is preserved when the EC2 instance is stopped.
"EBS volume types (gp3, io2, etc.) are key exam topics. Understand the differences in performance characteristics and cost. Remember EBS volumes are tied to a specific Availability Zone, unlike S3 which is region-wide."
📚 Certification: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)
🔑 What are the Key Concepts of Amazon EBS?
- ▸ EBS volumes are persistent, meaning data remains even after the EC2 instance is stopped or terminated (unless explicitly deleted).
- ▸ Different EBS volume types (gp3, io2, st1, sc1) offer varying performance characteristics and price points to match workload needs.
- ▸ EBS volumes are tied to a specific Availability Zone (AZ), requiring replication to other AZs for high availability and disaster recovery.
- ▸ Snapshots are incremental backups of EBS volumes, stored in S3, and used for data protection, disaster recovery, and creating new volumes.
- ▸ EBS volumes can be encrypted at rest using AWS KMS, providing data security and compliance.
🎯 How does Amazon EBS appear on the CLF-C02 Exam?
You may be asked to identify the most cost-effective EBS volume type for a workload with infrequent I/O operations, such as a development/test environment.
A scenario might describe a database application requiring high IOPS; expect questions about selecting the appropriate EBS volume type (io2 Block Express).
Expect questions about how to ensure data durability and availability by utilizing EBS snapshots and replicating volumes across multiple Availability Zones.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between EBS and Instance Store?
Instance Store provides temporary block-level storage tied directly to the host machine, while EBS provides persistent, networked block storage. Instance Store data is lost when the instance stops.
How do EBS snapshots impact performance?
Taking an EBS snapshot is generally non-disruptive, but very large snapshots or frequent snapshotting can briefly impact I/O performance. Consider using incremental snapshots.
Can I attach an EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances simultaneously?
No, an EBS volume can only be attached to a single EC2 instance at a time. To share storage, consider using Amazon EFS or Amazon S3.