EBS Volumes

Elastic Block Store (EBS) is highly available and scalable storage volumes you can attach to EC2 instances.

EBS volumes provide durable, block-level storage that can be attached to Amazon EC2 instances. Key points include:

1. Usage:

   • Primarily designed for use with EC2 instances.

   • Can be used as storage for some AWS services like Amazon RDS and Amazon WorkSpaces.

2. Compatibility:

   • Not directly usable with Amazon Redshift or VMware Cloud on AWS.

   • Redshift uses its own cluster storage.

   • VMware Cloud on AWS uses vSAN for storage.

3. Flexibility:

   • Volumes can be resized on the fly without detaching from instances.

   • Volume types can be changed dynamically (e.g., from GP2 to GP3).

4. Data Persistence:

   • EBS volumes persist independently from the life of an EC2 instance.

5. Snapshots:

   • Point-in-time snapshots can be created for backup or volume recreation.

6. Encryption:

   • Supports encryption at rest using AWS Key Management Service (KMS).

7. Multi-Attach:

   • Some volume types support attaching to multiple EC2 instances simultaneously.

EBS Volume tyeps

Feature	sc1	st1	GP2	GP3	io1	io2
Type	HDD	HDD	SSD	SSD	SSD	SSD
Use Case	Infrequently accessed data	Big data, warehouses, ETL	Boot volumes, general-purpose	Broad range of workloads	I/O-intensive, databases	I/O-intensive, ultra-low latency
Throughput	Up to 250 MB/s	Up to 500 MB/s	Up to 250 MiB/s	Up to 1,000 MiB/s	Up to 1,000 MiB/s	Up to 1,000 MiB/s (4,000 MiB/s for Block Express)
Max IOPS	250	500	16,000	16,000	64,000	64,000 (256,000 for Block Express)
Baseline IOPS	12 per TB	40 per TB	3 IOPS/GiB (min 100)	3,000 (Additional IOPS can be added in increments of 500 IOPS)	Provisioned (up to 50 IOPS/GiB)	Provisioned (up to 500 IOPS/GiB)
Burst Capability	Yes (up to 80 MB/s per TB)	Yes (up to 250 MB/s per TB)	Yes (up to 3,000 IOPS)	No (consistent performance)	No	No
Volume Size	125 GiB - 16 TiB	125 GiB - 16 TiB	1 GiB - 16 TiB	1 GiB - 16 TiB	4 GiB - 16 TiB	4 GiB - 16 TiB
Durability	99.8-99.9%	99.8-99.9%	99.8-99.9%	99.8-99.9%	99.8-99.9%	Up to 99.999%
Boot Volume	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cost	Lowest	Low	Moderate	Lower than GP2	High	Same as io1

AWS SSD Volume Types

GP2 (General Purpose SSD)

GP2 volumes provide millisecond latency and are well-suited for small, random I/O operations.

GP2 volumes provide 3 IOPS per GB, capped at 16,000 IOPS.

• Suitable for boot volumes and general-purpose workloads.

• Baseline performance of 3 IOPS/GiB, with a minimum of 100 IOPS.

• Can burst up to 3,000 IOPS for volumes 334 GiB and smaller.

• Maximum of 16,000 IOPS per volume (for volumes larger than 5,334 GiB).

• Throughput up to 250 MiB/s.

• 99.8-99.9% durability.

GP2 IOPS calculation

General Purpose SSD (gp2) IOPS are dependent on volume size at a rate of 3 IOPS/GB.

For GP2 (General Purpose SSD) volumes, the IOPS calculation follows these rules:

1. Baseline: 3 IOPS per GB

2. Minimum: 100 IOPS

3. Maximum: 16,000 IOPS

For a 300 GB volume: 300 GB × 3 IOPS/GB = 900 IOPS

To get 1000 IOPS with GP2, you would need approximately 334 GB of storage (1000 ÷ 3 = 333.33).

GP3 (Latest Generation General Purpose SSD)

General Purpose SSD (gp3) includes 3,000 IOPS at no additional cost independent of volume size.

• Suitable for a broad range of workloads.

• Predictable 3,000 IOPS baseline performance and 125 MiB/s regardless of volume size.

• Can provision up to 16,000 IOPS and 1,000 MiB/s per volume.

• More cost-effective than GP2 for most workloads.

• 99.8-99.9% durability.

io1 (Provisioned IOPS SSD):

Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) suitable Sub-millisecond latency and vest for I/O-intensive workloads.

PIOPS would let you provision exactly the IOPS needed without overprovisioning storage.

• Suitable for I/O-intensive workloads, particularly database workloads.

• Provision up to 50 IOPS per GiB.

• Up to 64,000 IOPS per volume.

• Up to 1,000 MiB/s of throughput per volume.

• High performance and higher cost.

• 99.8-99.9% durability.

io2 (Provisioned IOPS SSD):

• Latest generation of Provisioned IOPS volumes.

• Designed for I/O-intensive workloads requiring consistent ultra-low latency.

• Provision up to 500 IOPS per GiB.

• Up to 64,000 IOPS per volume (256,000 IOPS for io2 Block Express).

• Up to 1,000 MiB/s of throughput per volume (4,000 MiB/s for io2 Block Express).

• Higher durability: up to 99.999%.

• Same price as io1 with better performance and durability.

AWS HDD Volume Types

st1 (Throughput Optimized HDD):

• Designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads.

• Ideal for big data, data warehouses, log processing, and ETL workloads.

• Baseline throughput of 40 MB/s per TB.

• Ability to burst up to 250 MB/s per TB.

• Maximum throughput of 500 MB/s per volume.

• Baseline IOPS of 40 per TB, with ability to burst up to 500 IOPS per TB.

• Maximum IOPS of 500 per volume.

• Cannot be used as a boot volume.

• Minimum volume size of 125 GiB.

• 99.8-99.9% durability.

sc1 (Cold HDD):

• Designed for less frequently accessed workloads.

• Suitable for scenarios where the lowest storage cost is important.

• Baseline throughput of 12 MB/s per TB.

• Ability to burst up to 80 MB/s per TB.

• Maximum throughput of 250 MB/s per volume.

• Baseline IOPS of 12 per TB, with ability to burst up to 80 IOPS per TB.

• Maximum IOPS of 250 per volume.

• Cannot be used as a boot volume.

• Minimum volume size of 125 GiB.

• 99.8-99.9% durability.

• Lower cost compared to st1, making it ideal for infrequently accessed data.