EC2 Instances & AMIs Overview

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Questions and Answers

What essential components does an EC2 instance provide access to?

Local applications and development tools

User interface and gaming software

Backup solutions and software licenses

Storage, memory, and network interface (correct)

Which of the following describes the role of an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)?

A service for managing user accounts on EC2

A template that configures the instance operating system and application software (correct)

A method to allocate dynamic IP addresses to instances

A tool for monitoring the performance of EC2 resources

What type of AMI is maintained and provided by independent vendors for specific needs?

Community AMI (correct)

Private AMI

AWS Marketplace AMI

Amazon Quick Start AMI

Which AMI type is ideal for those wanting production-ready images supported by industry vendors?

AWS Marketplace AMI Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of creating Private AMIs from your own instance deployments?

To scale up the number of instances for demand Signup and view all the answers

Which AMI type includes images that are officially supported and up-to-date for common operations?

Amazon Quick Start AMIs Signup and view all the answers

What can you do with images stored as Private AMIs?

Easily incorporate autoscaling capabilities Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of a use case for using Community AMIs?

For building applications with a custom combination of software resources Signup and view all the answers

What must be considered when selecting an AMI for deployment?

The AMI will only work if invoked in the same region. Signup and view all the answers

How can you change the instance type of an existing EC2 instance?

By stopping the instance, changing the type, and starting it again. Signup and view all the answers

Which instance family is designed to provide a balance of compute, memory, and network resources?

General purpose Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following instance types is part of the Memory optimized family?

R6i Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of the T2 instance types?

They provide a range of virtual CPUs and memory options. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement is true regarding the T4g instance types?

They are powered by AWS-designed Arm-based Graviton2 processors. Signup and view all the answers

Which instance family would you choose for compute-intensive applications?

Compute optimized Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum number of instance types currently available as of this information?

More than 60 instance types Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

EC2 Instances Overview

EC2 instances act like physical servers, providing access to storage, memory, and networking.
Users can specify hardware resources, operating systems, and software stacks for each instance.
Instances are provisioned based on user-defined configurations before launching.

Amazon Machine Images (AMIs)

AMIs serve as templates that contain the OS and software information for EC2 instances.
Four types of AMIs exist:
- Amazon Quick Start AMIs: Popular OS versions like Linux, Windows Server, macOS, and specialized images for tasks such as deep learning.
- AWS Marketplace AMIs: Production-ready images from industry vendors like Splunk and Trend Micro.
- Community AMIs: Over 500 community-created images, often customized for specific needs.
- Private AMIs: Custom images created from personal instance deployments allowing for reliable scaling and autoscaling.

Region Specificity of AMIs

Each AMI is only available in one AWS region; invoking an AMI from a different region will result in failure.

Instance Types and Families

EC2 instances are allocated resources based on selected instance types that balance cost with necessary compute, memory, and storage.
More than 60 instance types organized into five families are available, with regular updates from AWS.

Instance Type Families

General Purpose:
- Balances compute, memory, and network resources.
- Examples include T2 and M5 types, with T2.micro being a popular choice for light tasks and Free Tier eligibility.
Compute Optimized: Designed for high compute demands, e.g., C5 and C6g.
Memory Optimized: Focuses on memory-intensive tasks, e.g., R5 and X1e.
Accelerated Computing: Utilizes hardware acceleration for tasks such as machine learning, e.g., P3 and G4dn.
Storage Optimized: Aims for high storage throughput, e.g., I3 and D2.

Instance Configuration and Flexibility

Users can easily change instance types to match changing workloads by stopping the instance, modifying its type, and restarting it.
Instance types incorporate varying specs to cater to diverse application needs while managing budgets effectively.

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Description

This quiz covers the essentials of EC2 instances and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). You'll learn about instance configurations, types of AMIs, and their regional specificity. Test your knowledge and understand how these concepts apply to cloud computing.