AWS EBS

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Questions and Answers

What happens to EBS volume data when the instance it's attached to is terminated?

The data is deleted
The data persists independently of the instance (correct)
The data is replicated across multiple AZs
The data is moved to an S3 bucket

What is the primary use case for Amazon EFS?

For storing large amounts of unstructured data
For dedicated storage for a single instance
For shared storage across multiple EC2 instances (correct)
For storing sensitive data

What is the annual failure rate of EBS?

0.1%-0.5%
0.5%-1%
0.1%-0.2% (correct)
1%-2%

What is the default behavior for the root EBS volume when an instance is terminated?

The volume is deleted (C) Signup and view all the answers

How can you migrate an EBS volume between availability zones?

By creating a snapshot and creating a volume in another AZ from the snapshot (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of Elastic Volumes?

To adjust the performance or change the type of EBS volumes while they are in use (D) Signup and view all the answers

What type of EBS volume is suitable for workloads that need throughput rather than IOPS?

Magnetic (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the default behavior for the root device?

It's created under /dev/sda1 or /dev/xvda (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of an instance store?

To provide temporary storage for temporary data (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum number of EBS volumes you can have by default?

5,000 (C) Signup and view all the answers

What happens to an instance store volume when an instance terminates?

It is deleted (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of an EBS-backed instance?

Storage is persistent (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an EBS snapshot?

To provide a point-in-time backup of an instance (C) Signup and view all the answers

What type of storage is ideal for high I/O performance and low latency?

Instance Store SSD (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between an EBS-backed instance and an instance store-backed instance?

The type of storage used (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using EBS optimized instances?

Improved storage performance (D) Signup and view all the answers

What happens to the data on an EBS volume when an instance is stopped?

It persists and can be used by another instance (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using Amazon EBS Snapshots?

Cost-effective and easy backup strategy (A) Signup and view all the answers

What happens when you delete a snapshot?

Only the data not needed by any other snapshot is deleted (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is required to take a consistent snapshot?

Writes must be stopped or the volume must be detached (C) Signup and view all the answers

Where are EBS volumes specific to?

Availability zone (C) Signup and view all the answers

Can you change the encryption state of a volume directly?

No, you need to create an encrypted volume and copy data to it (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the algorithm used by EBS to encrypt volumes?

AES-256 (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is required to encrypt a volume or snapshot?

An encryption key (C) Signup and view all the answers

What happens to the data key when you create an encrypted EBS volume?

It is encrypted with your CMK and stored on-disk (A) Signup and view all the answers

Can you share encrypted snapshots created using a default CMK key?

No (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the scope of the IOPS performance for encrypted volumes?

Same as unencrypted volumes (D) Signup and view all the answers

Can you make encrypted snapshots public?

No (D) Signup and view all the answers

What must the receiving account do after a snapshot is shared with it?

Copy the snapshot before creating volumes from it. (A) Signup and view all the answers

Which type of Amazon Machine Image (AMI) can be backed up using application-consistent snapshots?

Both instance store-backed and EBS-backed AMIs. (D) Signup and view all the answers

Which RAID level provides both increased performance and redundancy?

RAID 10. (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the default behavior for root EBS volumes upon termination of an EC2 instance?

Root EBS volumes are deleted. (D) Signup and view all the answers

Which method is NOT used to increase IOPS in Amazon EBS?

Monitoring volume status checks. (D) Signup and view all the answers

What must be modified to change the deletion behavior of extra non-boot volumes on termination?

DeleteOnTermination attribute. (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which Amazon EBS volume type automatically sends one-minute metrics to CloudWatch?

Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1). (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which service provides a record of actions taken by users in Amazon EC2 and EBS?

AWS CloudTrail. (D) Signup and view all the answers

Which RAID configuration is recommended to avoid redundancy?

RAID 0. (D) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following must a user consider when migrating volumes between Availability Zones (AZs)?

Snapshots must be created first. (A) Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

EBS Overview

EBS stands for Elastic Block Store, a network-attached storage service that can be attached to EC2 instances.
EBS volume data persists independently of the life of the instance.
Multiple EBS volumes can be attached to an instance, and a single EBS volume can be attached to multiple instances (with specific constraints).
EBS volumes must be in the same Availability Zone (AZ) as the instances they are attached to.

EBS Volume Characteristics

EBS volume data is replicated across multiple servers in an AZ.
EBS is designed for an annual failure rate of 0.1%-0.2% and an SLA of 99.95%.
Termination protection is turned off by default and must be manually enabled to keep the volume/data when the instance is terminated.
Root EBS volumes are deleted on termination by default, but this behavior can be changed by altering the "DeleteOnTermination" attribute.

Upgrading and Migrating EBS Volumes

Volume sizes and types can be upgraded without downtime (except for Magnetic standard).
Elastic Volumes allow increasing volume size, adjusting performance, or changing the volume type while the volume is in use.
To migrate volumes between AZs, create a snapshot and then create a volume in another AZ from the snapshot (possible to change size and type).

EBS vs Instance Store

EBS-backed instances have persistent storage, while instance store-backed instances have non-persistent storage.
Instance store-backed instances cannot be stopped, and data will be lost if the underlying host fails.
EBS-backed instances can be stopped, and data will not be lost.

EBS Volume Types

SSD, General Purpose (gp2/gp3)
SSD, Provisioned IOPS (io1/io2)
HDD, Throughput Optimized (st1)
HDD, Cold (sc1)

Amazon EBS Snapshots

Snapshots capture a point-in-time state of an instance and can be used for cost-effective backups and data sharing.
Snapshots are stored on Amazon S3 and can be used to migrate a system to a new AZ or region.
Snapshots can be taken of non-root EBS volumes while running, but writes must be stopped (paused) until the snapshot is complete.

Encryption

EBS encryption is supported by all EBS volume types and is available on supported instance types.
Encryption is done using the AES-256 algorithm, and data keys are stored on-disk with the encrypted data.
Snapshots of encrypted volumes are encrypted automatically, and encrypted volumes restored from snapshots are also encrypted automatically.

AMIs

An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a special type of virtual appliance used to create a virtual machine within EC2.
AMIs are either instance store-backed or EBS-backed.
EBS-backed AMIs include the following: root device, block device mappings, and RAM disk.

Deployment and Provisioning

Termination protection is turned off by default and must be manually enabled to keep the volume/data when the instance is terminated.
Root EBS volumes are deleted on termination by default, but this behavior can be changed by altering the "DeleteOnTermination" attribute.

RAID

RAID can be used to increase IOPS by striping data across multiple disks.
RAID 0 = 0 striping, RAID 1 = 1 mirroring, and RAID 10 = combination of RAID 1 and 2.
RAID is configured through the guest OS.

Monitoring and Reporting

Amazon EBS sends data points to CloudWatch for several metrics, including read/write throughput, IOPS, and queue length.
There are two types of Amazon CloudWatch monitoring available for Amazon EBS volumes: basic and detailed monitoring.

Logging and Auditing

Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS are integrated with AWS CloudTrail, which provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service.
CloudTrail captures all API calls for Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS as events.

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM)

Automates the creation, retention, and deletion of EBS snapshots and EBS-backed AMIs.

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Description

Learn about the basics of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), including its data persistence, attachment to EC2 instances, and volume characteristics. Test your knowledge on EBS volumes and their features.