Storage
Amazon EBS and instance store
Block-storage choices for EC2: EBS volumes are durable network-attached block devices, while instance store is temporary storage physically attached to the host.
Key points
- EBS data can persist independently of an instance according to volume and deletion settings.
- Instance-store data is ephemeral and can be lost when the instance stops, terminates, or its host fails.
- Both appear as block devices rather than shared object or network file storage.
Best-known use cases
- Attach a persistent virtual disk to an EC2 instance.
- Use temporary high-speed scratch data that can be recreated.
What candidates often confuse it with
- EBS is persistent block storage; instance store is ephemeral block storage.
- EFS is a shared network file system; S3 is object storage.
Key Cloud Practitioner takeaway
Persistent EC2 disk points to EBS; disposable host-local scratch space points to instance store.
Related services
- Amazon EC2
- Amazon S3
- Amazon EFS and Amazon FSx
Relevant exam tasks
- D3.6