> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://notes.kodekloud.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# EC2 Storage

> Amazon EC2 offers various storage solutions with unique performance, durability, and cost characteristics to meet application requirements.

Amazon EC2 provides flexible, cost-effective, and easy-to-use storage solutions for your compute instances. Each option offers a unique combination of performance, durability, and cost. You can mix and match these storage types to meet your application’s requirements.

Common EC2 storage options:

* Instance Store
* Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
* Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

***

## 1. Instance Store

Instance Store volumes are temporary, high-performance disks physically attached to the host server. They deliver very low-latency I/O but are **ephemeral**.

<Callout icon="triangle-alert" color="#FF6B6B">
  Data on an Instance Store is lost if the instance stops, hibernates, or terminates. Use it only for non-persistent workloads.
</Callout>

Key characteristics:

* Ephemeral storage tied to instance lifecycle
* Ideal for scratch data, buffers, and caches
* Automatic deletion on stop/terminate (reboot retains data)

Use cases:

* Temporary caches (e.g., in-memory databases, processing buffers)
* Scratch disks for big data workloads
* High-speed swap or buffer space

***

## 2. Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

Amazon EFS is a fully managed, elastic NFS file system that can be mounted concurrently by multiple EC2 instances across Availability Zones.

<Callout icon="lightbulb" color="#1CB2FE">
  EFS scales automatically—you pay only for the storage you consume.
</Callout>

Features:

* Elastic capacity: grows and shrinks as you add or remove files
* Shared access: mount the same file system on multiple instances
* Fully managed: AWS handles provisioning, patching, and maintenance
* Supports NFSv4.1 and NFSv4.2 protocols

Common commands:

```bash theme={null}
# Create an EFS file system
aws efs create-file-system --performance-mode generalPurpose

# Mount on Linux instance
sudo yum install -y amazon-efs-utils
sudo mkdir /mnt/efs
sudo mount -t efs fs-0123456789abcdef0:/ /mnt/efs
```

Use cases:

* Web serving and content management
* Shared development or build environments
* Data science, analytics, and media workflows

***

## 3. Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Amazon EBS offers persistent, block-level storage that you can attach to a single EC2 instance at a time. Volumes behave like raw block devices you can format, mount, and use as you would an on-premises disk.

| Volume Type              | Use Case                                       | Throughput/IOPS         |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- |
| General Purpose SSD      | Balanced price/performance (web servers, apps) | Up to 16,000 IOPS (gp3) |
| Provisioned IOPS SSD     | I/O-intensive databases (Oracle, SQL Server)   | Up to 256,000 IOPS      |
| Throughput Optimized HDD | Large, sequential workloads (big data, logs)   | Up to 500 MB/s          |
| Cold HDD                 | Infrequently accessed data (archival, backups) | Up to 250 MB/s          |

Core features:

* Data Persistence: volumes persist independently of the EC2 instance
* High Availability: data is replicated within the same AZ to prevent hardware failures
* Encryption: AES-256 at rest and in transit (managed with [AWS KMS](https://aws.amazon.com/kms/))
* Snapshots: create point-in-time backups stored in Amazon S3
* Dynamically adjustable: modify size, volume type, and IOPS without detaching

Sample commands:

```bash theme={null}
# Create a 100 GiB gp3 volume in us-east-1a
aws ec2 create-volume \
  --availability-zone us-east-1a \
  --size 100 \
  --volume-type gp3

# Attach the volume to an instance
aws ec2 attach-volume \
  --volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0 \
  --instance-id i-0abcdef1234567890 \
  --device /dev/xvdf
```

<Frame>
  ![The image is a diagram comparing Amazon EC2 storage options, including Amazon EFS, EC2 Instance Storage, and Amazon EBS, highlighting their features and connections.](https://kodekloud.com/kk-media/image/upload/v1752868980/notes-assets/images/Amazon-Elastic-Compute-Cloud-EC2-EC2-Storage/amazon-ec2-storage-options-comparison-diagram.jpg)
</Frame>

***

## Storage Comparison at a Glance

| Feature       | Instance Store       | EBS                           | EFS                                   |
| ------------- | -------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Persistence   | Ephemeral            | Persistent (AZ-level replica) | Persistent (region-wide)              |
| Performance   | Very high IOPS       | High IOPS / throughput        | Scalable throughput                   |
| Protocol      | Direct-attached disk | iSCSI block device            | NFSv4                                 |
| Shared Access | No                   | Single instance per volume    | Multiple instances concurrently       |
| Best for      | Scratch, caches      | Databases, boot volumes       | Shared file storage, home directories |

***

## Links and References

* [AWS EC2 Instance Store Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/InstanceStorage.html)
* [Amazon EBS Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/)
* [Amazon EFS Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/)
* [AWS Key Management Service](https://aws.amazon.com/kms/)
* [Amazon S3](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/)

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