Amazon EBS separates persistent data from EC2 instances
Summary
Amazon introduces Elastic Block Store, giving short-lived EC2 instances independently persisting block devices with S3 snapshots. Amazon announced EBS in August 2008. EBS provided persistent block storage for EC2.
Ideas
- EBS volumes exist independently of the lifetime of a virtual machine.
- Block access supports file systems and databases without adapting to object storage.
- Volumes can be created programmatically and attached to instances.
- Snapshots save consistent points in time permanently in S3.
- New volumes can be created from existing snapshots.
- Persistent storage extends cloud computers from batch work to stateful services.
Insights
- Separate lifecycles make infrastructure more interchangeable and data more durable.
- Block storage makes migration easier but does not automatically provide application consistency.
- Programmable volumes turn manual provisioning into repeatable infrastructure.
- Snapshots are building blocks of a backup, but not a complete recovery concept.
Facts
- Volumes could continue to exist independently of instances.
- Snapshots were stored in the Amazon Simple Storage Service.
Recommendations
- Create application-consistent snapshots rather than mere storage images.
- Test restores in separate instances and accounts.
- Monitor latency, throughput and queue depth of every volume.
References
Links to the original source and the Web Archive open in a new tab.