Architecting the Future: My Exploration of AWS Elastic Block Storage and Elastic File System

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Diving Deep into AWS: Elastic Block Storage & Elastic File System

If you’ve been keeping up with my recent posts, you’re aware that I’m navigating through the AWS Cloud Solutions Associate (CSA) certification. This week, let’s delve into the very heart of Amazon Web Services (AWS): Elastic Block Storage (EBS) and Elastic File System (EFS).

EBS: An Insider’s Review

Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) provides storage volumes that can be attached to EC2 instances. You can employ them just like you’d use a standard system disk to:

• Create a file system
• Run a database
• Run an operating System
• Store data
• Install applications

The Advantages of EBS

EBS is crafted for mission-critical tasks. It boasts automatic replication within a single availability zone for protection against hardware hiccups. Plus, scaling is seamless, ensuring no disruption or lag to active systems..

EBS Varieties:

1. **General Purpose SSD(gp2)-**Best for boot volumes or for testing and development applications that aren’t latency-sensitive.
2. **General Purpose SSD(gp2):**Tailored for high-performance needs at an economical price. Examples: MySQL, Cassandra, virtual desktops, and Hadoop analytics. They’re 4x speedier than the top speed of regular gp2 volumes.
3. Provisioned IOPS SSD(io1):Meant for I/O-focused apps, large databases, and tasks that can’t tolerate latency
4. Provisioned IOPS SSD(io2):Created for I/O-heavy apps, substantial databases, latency-sensitive tasks, and apps requiring utmost durability
5. Througput HDD: A budget-friendly HDD option, ideal for storing vast amounts of data. Note: It’s not suitable as a boot volume
6. Cold HDD (SC1): Optimal for infrequently accessed data when you’re prioritizing cost over performance. It can’t be used as a boot volume.

EFS Uncovered: What’s the Amazon Elastic File System?

• It’s a managed NFS mountable on various EC2 instances across multiple availability zones.
• Operates on a pay-per-use model.
• Although highly scalable and available, it leans toward the pricier end.
• Perfect for content management systems and web servers.
• Utilizes the NFSv4 protocol.
• Compatible with Linux-based AMI( Windows not supported at this time)
• Encryption at rest using KMS
• Pairs well with Linux-based AMIs. (Sorry, Windows isn’t compatible at the moment).
• Features encryption at rest using KMS.
• The file system auto-scales, so there’s zero need for capacity planning

The Takeaway

Elastic Block Storage and Elastic File System offer users storage solutions akin to saving on a traditional hard drive.

To equip myself for the CSA certification, I found immense value in resources like:

1. Cloud Guru
2. AWS Skill Builder
3. AWS Educate
4. Coursera
5. Adrian Cantrill’s CSA Course
6. Cloud Up for Solutions Architect

I’d love to hear about your experiences with EC2 or AWS in general. Please leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter @NicoleTalksTech. Stay tuned for more tech discussions!