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EBS: Elastic Block Store

AWS Cloud Practitioner to Architect: 0 to Hero

Amazon EBS

Amazon EBS provides persistent block storage volumes for use with EC2 instances. Think of it as a virtual hard drive.

Key Features:

  • Persistence: Data remains after instance termination (if configured).
  • Snapshots: Point-in-time backups stored in S3.
  • AZ Bound: An EBS volume is locked to a single Availability Zone. To move it, use a snapshot.

EBS Volume Types:

  1. gp3 / gp2 (SSD): General purpose, balance of price and performance.
  2. io2 / io1 (SSD): High-performance for databases.
  3. st1 (HDD): Low-cost for frequent access (Big Data).
  4. sc1 (HDD): Lowest cost for infrequent access.