EBS Overview | Notion

Overview of Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Definition: EBS is a network-based block storage service that integrates with Amazon EC2 instances.
Purpose: Used to store data that persists even after an EC2 instance is terminated.
Analogy: Think of EBS Volumes as network-attached USB drives.
Key Limitations:
- Limited to one EC2 instance at a time (for basic AWS certification level knowledge)
- Bound to a specific Availability Zone

Benefits of Using EBS Volumes

Data Persistence: Ensures data isn't lost when an instance is shut down.
Flexibility: Can be easily detached from one instance and attached to another.
Availability Zone Restriction Workaround: Snapshots enable copying EBS volumes across Availability Zones.
Provisioning: Capacity and IOPS need to be defined in advance (you pay for provisioned capacity).

Diagram Explanation

A visual representation of how EBS volumes interact with EC2 instances within and across Availability Zones.

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Delete on Termination

Default Behavior:
- Root Volume: Deleted when the instance terminates.
- Other EBS Volumes: Not deleted.
Customization: You have control over enabling/disabling delete on termination for each volume.
Exam Relevance: This concept may appear on the AWS exam.

Table: EBS Volume Options

Volume Type	Characteristics	Use Cases
General Purpose SSD (gp2/gp3)	Default option, balanced performance and cost	Boot volumes, dev/test, interactive apps
Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2)	High IOPS, performance-critical workloads	Databases, NoSQL workloads
Throughput Optimized HDD (st1)	High throughput, lower cost	Big data, log processing
Cold HDD (sc1)	Infrequent access, lowest cost	File servers, archives

Remember: Your AWS account might include 30 GB of free EBS storage each month.