Disk Storage in AWS

• In AWS when we creata an ec2 instance, the virtual infra is created from some physical server in some rack in AWS Data centers in Availability Zones
• If the virtual disk is created
  • from same physical server the storage will be temporary/ephemeral and this is referred as instance store
  • from different physical server in same AZ this is referred as Elastic Block Storage (EBS). Here the disks exist even after ec2 is terminated.
    
• AWS doesnot support instance storage on all ec2 instance types only few types support instance storage
• AWS doesnot allow OS to be on instance storage it has to be EBS irrespective of instance type.
• AWS uses Volume to refer the disk.
• Provisioned disks give consistent speed, where as general purpose give burstable speeds (as discussed about special bike which can go double the speed in class for some seconds)

EBS Volume types

• The following are the volume types
  
• To understand volume types and performance we need to understand
  • IOPS
  • Throughput
• Based on Disk Hardware we have 3 categories
  • SSD:
    • General purpose 2 (gp2)
    • General Purpose 3 (gp3)
    • Provisioned IOPS (io1 and io2)
  • HDD:
    • Cold HDD
    • Throughput optimized HDD
  • Magnetic

Pricing

• Refer Here for calculator

A 1000 GB Disk in oregon pricing per month (730 hours)

• gp2: 100 $
• gp3: 80 $ IOPS: 3000
• io1: 320 $ IOPS: 3000
• io2: 320 $ IOPS: 3000
• Throughput optimized HDD: 45 $
• Cold HDD 15 $

A 1000 GB Disk with 15000 IOPS

• gp2: NA
• gp3: 140 $
• io1: 1,100 $
• io2: 1,100 $

Note

• Consider AWS to the disk seller who sells different disks and at a max fits them to your laptop and colllects monthly bills
• Formatting disks is your responsibility
• you can replace disks with larger size disks but not smaller.
• Backup of a disk (volume) is called as Snapshots