EC2 Instance Storage : EC2 Instance Store
We have learnt about EBS volume as EC2 Instance Storage in our previous article. If you have not read about it please read EBS volume article.
Why do we need another instance storage when we have EBS ?
So we’ve seen a way to attach a network drive onto our EC2 Instances (EBS Volume) but they have limited performance and sometimes we want something even higher performance , Here EC2 Instance store plays its role.
What is EC2 Instance Store ?
Basically, EC2 Instance is a virtual machine but it is obviously attached to a real hardware server and some of these servers do have disk space. Disk space is directly attached to the server with a physical connection . The disk space connected to physical server hardware is called EC2 Instance Store.
EC2 Instance Use case
We use them for better I/O performance. They’re a great choice when you want to have extremely high disk performance.
But the problem is that if you stop or you terminate your EC2 Instance, that has an Instance Store, then the storage will be lost and therefore it’s called an ephemeral storage.That means that the EC2 Instance Store can not be used as a durable long term place to store your data.
So what is a good use case for it then?
Well if you have a buffer, a cache, you want to have scratch data or temporary content, this would be a great place to do these things but not for long term storage.
For long term storage, EBS for example is a great use case.
Finally, in case EC2 Instance does fail, then you’ll risk to have a data loss because the hardware attached to the EC2 Instance will fail as well.
So if you do decide to use an EC2 Instance Store, then it is your entire responsibility to make sure that you back it up and that you replicate it correctly based on your needs.
See you in my next article. Happy Learning !!