Amazon EBS Volume Types are storage options Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides to store data. Amazon EBS includes storage products like Magnetic, General Purpose SSD, Provisioned IOPS SSD.
Each storage type has different features and use cases, making them suitable for different applications. This article will look at the various Amazon EBS Volume Types available on AWS.
What is Amazon EBS?
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a block storage system that stores persistent data. EBS allows users to create storage volumes, snapshot backups, and even host applications in an isolated environment. EBS is particularly useful for companies that need large amounts of reliable cloud storage and access to features such as cloud snapshots and encryption.
When using Amazon EBS for storage, there are four types of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes available: General Purpose (SSD), Provisioned IOPS (SSD), Throughput Optimized HDD, and Cold HDD. All of these provide different performance levels depending on your application’s specific requirements or workloads. You can choose from any of the four volume types based on your desired performance level, availability requirement, size requirements or other factors.
General Purpose SSD: The General Purpose SSD delivers single-digit millisecond latency and is recommended for most workloads where data access times are more important than throughput or IOPS rate capacity.
Provisioned IOPS SSD: Provisioned IOPS SSD has provisions defined for both latency and throughput performance which meet the requirements for handling more intensive workloads like database deployments.
Throughput Optimized HDD: The Throughput Optimized HDD offers high throughput at a much lower cost per gigabyte than the other three volume types but has a higher latency than General Purpose SSD and Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes due to its design considerations that optimize statistical multiplexing efficiencies over low latency IO operations.
Cold HDD: The Cold HDD provides better price per gigabyte compared to the other three volume types as well as lower latency compared to Throughput optimized due to its increased burst capability but with decreased throughput performance compared to TSOTA compared with Steady State Models with Prioritized Burst capabilities off during this burst period.
Amazon EBS volume types
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides persistent block-level storage volumes for use with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances. Amazon EBS volume types come in various performance and cost characteristics to give you the flexibility to choose the right storage for your application needs. The type of Amazon EBS volume you choose will determine the level of performance, data durability and cost efficiency you will experience.
Below, we discuss the different types of Amazon EBS volumes and when they should be used:
General Purpose SSD (gp2) is the most commonly used Amazon EBS volume type. This type has a moderate price/performance ratio, providing sustained performance up to 10,000 IOPS on large gp2 volumes or 16,000 on smaller gp2 volumes. These are suitable for both Production and Development workloads ranging from small/medium databases to boot partitions.
Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) These are intended for demanding applications requiring high performance, low latency, and high reliability IO operations. With io1 volumes, you can select an IOPS rate depending on your application needs, ranging from 100 to 40,000 IOPS per volume at sub-millisecond latencies. This type is well suited for applications such as large databases working with intensive load cycles or virtualized environments such as VMware ESX Server that require higher input/output access server operations per second (IOPS).
Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) These are optimized for very large applications such as Big Data & Log Processing Cluster running log processing jobs like Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark jobs & massive sequential workloads executing on any scale processing jobs that would span multiple terabytes in size resulting in over 1MB/sec throughput. With them you get much more predictable steady throughput than General Purpose SSD; however it comes at a much lower cost than Provisioned IOP SSD where cost sensitivity is typically more important than latency or peak performance as far as using them with larger big data-type workloads are concerned.
Cost Optimized HDD(sc1) These have been published recently by Amazon and our primary aim is long-term storage costs savings over other types where data infrequently accessed requires consistency but do not need provisioned IOP levels offered by other types such as io1 where these will often not be needed or supported well by various OS’s which sc1 volumes allow but without extra overhead commonly associated with them whether it’s associated computational costs within certain applications requiring access from multiple hosts simultaneously etc .
It has good data integrity feature via its resilience model however most modern compute engines handling this kind of workload can enable resilience features at dynamic layers above this similar fashion so reliance here may not always be necessary unless older legacy systems require this feature among others rare cases common nowadays hence why it’s now being offered newest addition this suite products by AWS so customers decide better their requirements accordingly accordingly select best product their needs particular situation.
General Purpose SSD (GP2)
General Purpose SSD (GP2) is a popular Amazon EBS volume type that balances cost and performance. GP2 is designed for low latency and moderate I/O performance. It offers a baseline throughput of 100 IOPS/GB and burstable performance up to 3000 IOPS.
In this section, we will look at the features and benefits of the GP2 volume type.
Overview
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides block level storage volumes used with Amazon EC2 instances. This makes it easy to store data on the cloud to be used by Amazon EC2 applications. It is designed for complex tasks such as big data, relational or NoSQL databases, and other enterprise applications that require consistent I/O performance and high scalability.
Amazon EBS offers five different types of volume: General Purpose SSD (gp2), Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1), Throughput Optimized HDD (st1), Cold HDD (sc1) and Magnetic (standard). Each volume type offers specific features for workloads, storage needs and budgets.
General Purpose SSD rate-limits the I/O performance, depending on the requirement at any given time. GP2 volumes are suitable for most workloads with their moderate I/O performance, cost-effective price point and well balanced ability to burst up to 3000 IOPS if an increased demand requires it. It is especially suitable for most boot volumes as they offer higher throughput and adequate burstability. GP2 is also suitable for applications with non-critical, predictable workloads that vary in intensity over time.
Features
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides SSD-based storage volumes that deliver high I/O performance, low latency and consistent throughput. Amazon EBS offers three different volume types that provide a range of performance, cost and capacity to meet various workload needs.
The General Purpose SSD (GP2) is a cost-effective storage option providing good baseline performance for various workloads. GP2 volumes are ideal for system boot volumes, small and medium sized databases and dev/test environments.
GP2 provides consistent I/O performance up to 10,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second) and an ability to burst up to 3,000 IOPS for extended periods for clients with applications that may require higher levels of performance at certain times of the day or week. GP2 volumes are provisioned with a base performance level at the time of creation, giving customers a head start when their application demands more I/O operations than anticipated.
The more data stored on your GP2 volume, the faster it performs.
Additionally, GP2 instances can be used as part of an Auto Scaling group to add capacity to your compute environment and additional tiers like Amazon EFS (Elastic File System). With this partnership between EC2 and Auto Scaling instances behind them, customers will enjoy continuous scaling across both platforms; EBS can easily scale capacity on the fly when additional requirements demand more storage during peak usage times or application maintenance activities such as database backups.
Use Cases
General Purpose SSD (GP2) volumes are well-suited for many workloads, including most production workloads. The volume type can burst up to 3,000 IOPS and sufficient throughput to support EBS–optimized instances. It is designed as the first volume type most customers select when they move a workload to Amazon EC2 due to its performance capabilities, low cost, and broad application compatibility. GP2 offers a cost-effective solution when you need moderate performance and predictable baseline throughput at an economical price point.
Common use cases for General Purpose SSD (GP2) include:
- Sony development environment
- Websites
- Low-latency interactive apps
- Dev/test environments
- Small DBs
- Virtual desktops
- Low/moderate throughput transactional DBs
Provisioned IOPS SSD (IO1)
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Volume Types provide storage options for Amazon EC2 instances that are reliable and cost-effective. Among the different types of Amazon EBS is the Provisioned IOPS SSD (IO1) which stands for Provisioned IOPS SSD. This EBS volume type provides high performance and is designed for mission-critical applications and systems that require sustained IOPS performance.
This article will provide an overview of the Provisioned IOPS SSD (IO1) Amazon EBS volume type.
Overview
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) Provisioned IOPS volumes (IO1) provide storage with consistent and low-latency performance, and are designed to meet the needs of I/O-intensive workloads such as relational, NoSQL, and transactional databases. IO1 is optimized for applications that require sustained IOPS performance, or more than 10,000 random I/O operations per second (IOPS) with a maximum ratio of 50 IOPS per GiB.
With Provisioned IOPS SSD you can provision up to 20,000 IOPS per volume, independent of volume size. Additionally, you can provision up to 16 TiB for magnetic volumes and 32 TiB for general purpose SSDs or Provisioned IOPS volumes. You should select an instance type with a high amount of Amazon EBS throughput; otherwise your workload may not be able to take optimal advantage of the higher performance offered by high-provisioned EBS volumes.
Provisioned IOPS SSD is priced at USD 0.125 per provisioned IOPS-month and USD 0.10 per GB-month of associated storage. There are no minimum charges; you’ll always pay only for what you provision. In addition to fees for storage space used and checks performed on your request rate if it exceeds the baseline rate, Provisioned IO performances come with a 24 MB/seconds burstable read/write throughput limit which corresponds to 3x 3 GiB volumes in RAID 0 (or one 9GiB”) but that performs at the same level as 4X3 GiB or 12 GiB in RAID 0 configurations depending on the block size chosen.
Feel free to contact the Amazon Web Services Sales team for more details about pricing models available via AWS Marketplace International Data Warehousing Service Plans.
Features
Provisioned IOPS SSD (IO1) volumes are best for I/O-intensive workloads that require consistent performance, such as large database applications, transactional databases and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances running enterprise applications.
Features of Provisioned IOPS SSD include the following:
- Consistent Performance: When you specify a provisioned IOPS value for a volume during instance launch or when creating the volume itself, Amazon EBS delivers that level of performance with low latency.
- High Throughput: Combined with their high throughput capabilities, these volumes are ideal for particularly demanding and latency-sensitive workloads.
- Higher Reliability: With their enhanced fault tolerance and failure protection capabilities, these volumes can deliver 99.9% availability through hardware and software failure protection mechanisms.
- Lower Cost: Provisioned IOPS SSD are available at a lower cost per gigabyte than other types of storage, making them more affordable for larger database deployments or other high-performance applications.
Use Cases
Provisioned IOPS SSD (IO1) volumes are designed to deliver consistent and low-latency performance needed for workloads such as large relational or NoSQL databases. When you create an IO1 volume, you specify both the amount of provisioned IOPS that you would like the volume to deliver and the size of the volume (in GiB). The maximum ratio of provisioned IOPS to Gib is 50:1.
Common use cases for IO1 volumes include apps with high levels of database transactions, including workflow processing, OLTP databases with sustained transaction rates (data warehouses, e-commerce sites), boot volumes for instances running high performance databases in EC2, mission critical applications (data mining, big data analytics) and media workflows that require real-time processing.
IO1 provides up to 32000 provisioned IOPS per volume when attached to supported instance types. For more information on how much throughput your instance can handle at different latency levels, please refer to Amazon’s documentation on correct instance selection when using this type of EBS Volume.
Throughput Optimized HDD (ST1)
Throughput Optimized HDD (ST1) is a low-cost Amazon EBS volume type designed for workloads requiring high sequential read and write access to large datasets. It works best when data is accessed sequentially and requires consistent performance.
Let’s dive into the details of this Amazon EBS volume type and learn more about its uses and benefits.
Overview
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides durable, block-level storage volumes that you can use to store data securely and reliably in the AWS cloud. Amazon EBS offers a wide range of volume types, performance levels and prices to support a variety of workloads.
The Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) volume type is a low-cost magnetic storage option that offers cost-effective throughput required for applications with frequently accessed, large datasets. st1 volumes are designed for large-scale, cold data workloads where throughput performance is less important than managing costs associated with data storage.
st1 volumes have an average baseline throughput performance of 40–90 MB/sec in most cases and can burst up to 250 MB/sec when additional throughput is available on the volume–the rate depends on the volume size. st1 volumes deliver 500 IOPS on average and can burst up to 3,000 per volume when additional IOPS capacity is available. st1 supports tiering that helps move infrequently accessed workloads to lower cost storage tiers without needing an application change. It also keeps more frequently accessed hot workloads where they need to be for optimal performance.
If you are interested in using Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) for your application workloads, please consult our User Guide which contains detailed guidance on configuring this type of volume type within Amazon EBS.
Features
Throughput Optimized HDD (ST1): ST1 is designed to provide low-cost, large storage capacity at a rate of up to 500 MiB/s. As its contents don’t change often and performance isn’t the main objective, it can be a great contender for applications that require large amounts of storage looking for a cost-effective price point.
Features:
- Provides consistent performance up to 500 MiB/s per EBS volume
- Cost effective for frequently accessed data
- Ideal for large throughput workloads such as big data, sqoop exports, etc
- Throughput scales with volume size in consistent, predetermined increments
- Limited availability in selected AWS Regions: US East (Ohio) and EU (Ireland) only
Use Cases
ST1 volumes are ideal for frequently accessed large-scale streaming workloads like Big Data and Data Warehousing. Their low storage cost per gigabyte makes them ideal for storing large amounts of infrequently accessed data, such as backups and disaster recovery files. ST1 volumes deliver a consistent disk performance and are the best choice when low price and high throughput are desired.
Designed to operate with rotation speeds up to 7200 RPM, ST1 is often used by customers with predictable data access patterns, such as long sequential reads or writes of large files over 20MB. The larger the block size of I/O operations against an ST1 volume, the greater its respective performance gains compared to other EBS volume types. In addition, ST1 volumes provide an optimized cost/performance balance when used in tandem with other EBS volume types to balance performance and resource utilization.
Examples of workloads that may be suitable for Amazon EBS Throughput Optimized HDD (ST1) Volume Types include: Big Data analytics; file storage services; distributed storage systems; mission-critical applications that require high throughput for streaming workloads; log processing; data warehouses; imaging processing algorithms; scientific applications; genomics research projects; media content repositories backed by object stores such as S3 Glacier Deep Archive or S3 Glacier.; backup & restoration services requiring low latency file systems access.
Cold HDD (SC1)
Amazon EBS Cold HDD (SC1) is the lowest-cost Amazon EBS volume type and is suitable for applications requiring less frequent data access. In addition, cold HDD has the lowest cost per GiB of all Amazon EBS volume types, allowing you to store and access data cost-effectively.
This section will discuss Cold HDD volumes’ characteristics, use cases and performance.
Overview
Amazon EBS provides two volume types to store your data, each with different performance and capability characteristics. They are Magnetic and SC1 (Cold HDD). The following sections provide a brief overview of Amazon EBS volume types.
Magnetic: Magnetic disks offer cost-effective storage for applications with moderate I/O requirements. The baseline performance of magnetic disks is lower than that of Solid State Drive (SSD) backed General Purpose (GP) volumes; however, within these general classifications the underlying performance of your volume might vary with the workloads you run on them. Density and cost per GB for 80GB to 1TB Magnetic is currently less than for GP2 SSD volumes.
SC1 (Cold HDD): SC1 volumes give you a low-cost/low-throughput option, designed specifically to store large amounts of infrequently accessed data and stored cost effectively, compared to cold HDDs available in the market at the time being.
These volumes support a maximum throughput rate of 250MB/s and up to 3,000 IOPS each with an initial minimum provisioned capacity ranging from 500GB-6TB. It’s critical to note that while the theoretical peak performance overlap between this type and general purpose SSD could make them functionally equivalent in certain conditions along operations like EBS snapshots or non-critical backups involving large amounts of sequential data processing throughput would be greatly benefited from higher performing General Purpose based options like gp2 or gp3 as opposed to Cold HDDs or even Magnetic storage class disks since sustained use workload patterns will eventually cause Cold HDD performance metrics tending towards max read/write value ratings even when theoretically their base rate may appear higher on paper than either magnetic or gp2 exposed speeds due what we call “stutter” during bursts for which you would need expensive Magnetics or scaling heavy IO budgets over sparse drive groups using GP3 instead.
Features
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides durable, block-level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon EBS volumes are designed to persistently store data on external hard drives, providing durability and high availability. When you create a volume, it is automatically attached to an Amazon EC2 instance and will remain attached until it is explicitly detached or the associated instance is terminated.
Cold HDD (SC1) includes some unique features:
- This volume offers the lowest cost per gigabyte of all EBS volume types and is ideal for infrequently accessed workloads.
- As this storage class offers low cost benefits, Cold HDD (SC1) has higher latency than other performance optimized Amazon EBS volume types.
- Cold HDD (SC1) provides 3 IOPS/GiB throughput with a maximum baseline performance of 250 MiB/s per volume.
- Each Cold HDD (SC1) volume comes equipped with 99.9 percent durability and availability, meaning that your data will remain reliably accessible in case of a system failure or computing slowdown.
Use Cases
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent storage volumes attached to EC2 instances and enables data persists independent of the instance’s life cycle. Amazon EBS volume types offer storage optimized for a specific use case, based on the desired performance and cost.
Cold HDD (SC1): Cold HDD is the lowest cost magnetic storage designed for less frequently accessed workloads with large datasets and sequential I/O patterns. Cold HDDs are ideal for data warehouses, Hadoop clusters and other data-related applications such as log processing, analytics, and media/ entertainment asset storage.
Throughput Optimized HDD (ST1): Throughput Optimized HDDs provide low cost magnetic storage optimized for throughput-intensive workloads such as big data applications and typical data warehouse workloads that scan large amounts of data sets sequentially.
General Purpose SSD (GP2): The General Purpose SSD offering provides cost-effective block level storage with consistent baseline performance. This volume type can be used to back a wide range of application workloads including boot volumes, virtual desktops, low-latency interactive applications, dev & test environments and other transactional or business critical applications requiring sustained IOPS performance.
Infrequent Access (IA1): Infrequent Access volumes provide cost effective cold storage designed to move infrequently accessed application workloads into lower cost archive class devices compared to active archive services available in AWS S3 Glacier.
Conclusion
This overview has provided an in-depth look at the various Amazon EBS volumes available. All the volumes provide different features and each have their advantages and disadvantages. Knowing which is most suitable for your needs is essential to ensure maximum performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.
When deciding what Amazon EBS volume type to use, consider carefully your data size and access requirements, including availability zones, durability requirements and performance needs. If you are unsure or require additional guidance, feel free to reach out for help from Amazon’s AWS experts or consult a third-party cloud technology provider for assistance.
tags = Amazon EBS, Solid state drive (SSD) volumes, Hard disk drive (HDD) volumes, deep aws s3 ebs amazonnovetcnbc, Previous generation volumes, EBS-optimized instances, Amazon EBS volume performance on Linux instances.
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