Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a high-performance, block-level storage service designed for Amazon EC2 instances. Think of it as a virtual hard drive for your cloud servers. EBS volumes provide persistent storage, meaning your data is retained even if the associated EC2 instance is stopped or terminated. 🚀 It’s perfect for applications that require consistent, low-latency storage, such as databases, big data analytics, or backup solutions.
Before diving into EBS, let’s quickly talk about Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs). Imagine you own a busy restaurant 🍴 with many waiters. If all customers are served by just one waiter, service will be slow and chaotic. An ELB acts like the restaurant manager, distributing customers (incoming traffic) evenly among waiters (EC2 instances). This ensures smooth and efficient operations! ELBs are essential for scalability and fault tolerance in cloud applications. 💡
Q1. What is an EBS volume? 📦
Answer: An EBS (Elastic Block Store) volume is a block-level storage device designed for use with Amazon EC2 instances. It provides persistent, high-performance storage for your workloads. EBS volumes can be attached to a single EC2 instance at a time and are ideal for storing data that needs to persist beyond the life of an instance.
Steps to Create an EBS Volume:
Go to the EC2 Dashboard:
Navigate to the Elastic Block Store section on the left-hand sidebar.
Click on Volumes.
Access the EBS Volumes Dashboard:
- The dashboard will display all the existing volumes.
Click on "Create Volume":
- Redirects you to the "Create Volume" page.
Configure the EBS Volume:
Volume Type: Choose from 7 types; here, we select General Purpose SSD (gp3).
Size: Specify the size of the volume. For this example, use 10 GB (within the free tier limit of 30 GB).
I/O and Throughput: Leave as default.
Availability Zone (AZ): Choose an AZ like ap-south-1a.
Tags: Add tags for better identification (e.g., Key:
demo, Value:practice volume).
Click "Create":
Your EBS volume is now successfully created.
Q2. How to connect one EBS volume to an EC2 instance? 🔗
Answer:
Create an EC2 Instance with a Default Root Volume:
Go to the Instances dashboard.
Click on Launch Instance and configure the instance.
Ensure the Availability Zone matches the EBS volume (e.g., ap-south-1b).
Launch the instance.
Connect to the Instance and Verify Volumes:
Use Amazon Instance Connect to connect.
Run the command
lsblkto list attached volumes.lsblkOutput: Shows the default root volume (e.g., 8 GB).
Create a New Volume in the Same AZ:
Go to the Volumes section and click on Create Volume.
Ensure the AZ is ap-south-1b or wherever your instance is
Attach the EBS Volume to the EC2 Instance:
In the Volumes dashboard, select the volume.
Click on Actions > Attach Volume.
Select the target instance and specify a device name (e.g.,
/dev/sdf).
Verify the Attached Volume:
Reconnect to the instance using Instance Connect.
Run
lsblkto confirm the new volume is attached.lsblk
Detach and Delete the Volume (Optional):
In the Volumes dashboard, select the volume.
Click Actions > Detach Volume.
Click Actions > Delete Volume.
Q3. How to connect one EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances? ⚡️
Answer: To connect one EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances, use io2 or io3 type EBS volumes. These volumes allow shared attachments across instances, enabling clustered applications. 🔄
Q4. What is an EBS snapshot and how to take one? 📸
Answer: An EBS snapshot is a point-in-time backup of an EBS volume. Snapshots are stored in Amazon S3 and can be used to create new volumes or replicate data across Availability Zones (AZs).
Steps to Create an EBS Snapshot:
Go to the Snapshots Dashboard:
Navigate to Elastic Block Store > Snapshots.
Click on "Create Snapshot":
Select the EBS volume for which you want to create a snapshot.
Add tags for better identification.
Complete the Process:
- The snapshot will be created and stored in an S3 bucket.
Q5. How to replicate an EBS volume to a different AZ using snapshots? 🌍
Answer:
Go to the Snapshots Dashboard:
Navigate to Snapshots in the Elastic Block Store section.
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Select the Snapshot to Replicate:
Choose the snapshot and click Actions > Create Volume from Snapshot.
Create the Volume:
Configure and click Create Volume.
Specify the target AZ (e.g., ap-south-1b).
The volume is now successfully replicated to the new AZ.
Wrap-Up 🎉
Elastic Block Store (EBS) is an integral part of AWS, offering scalable and reliable storage solutions for your EC2 instances. From creating volumes to attaching them, taking snapshots, and replicating across Availability Zones, EBS provides a wide range of functionalities tailored to your workload needs. Mastering EBS can significantly enhance your ability to design robust cloud architectures. Happy cloud computing! ☁️💻