This week I learned about the different storage types for AWS EC2 Instances. I thought it would be great to do a short summary of each type, however, I do encourage you to dive deeper!
Up first we have EBS Volumes. An EBS (Elastic Block Store) volume is a network drive you can attach to instances while they run. This allows instances to persist data, even after an instance is terminated! EBS are bound to a specific availability zone.
The next type of storage Iād like to mention is an AMI. AMI stands for Amazon Machine Image and is simply a customization of an EC2 Instance. An AMI allows you to add your own software, configuration and operating system. AMI are built for a specific region but can be copied across regions.
For high-performance hardware disk storage it is best to use EC2 Instance Store. However, when using this form of storage be careful because there is a risk for data loss if the hardware fails. EC2 Instance Store is great for buffer/ cache/ scratch data scenarios.
Last but certainly not least, is the Elastic File System (EFS). The EFS is a managed network file system that can be mounted onto 100ās of EC2 instances! Pretty cool!! EFS works with Linux EC2 instances across multiple availability zones. EFS is highly scalable but can turn out to be very expensive as it does follow the pay per use system!
I hope you enjoyed a quick summary of EC2 Instance Storage, see you next week to go over Elastic Load Balancing & Auto Scaling Groups.
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