AWS EBS - Elastic Block Store
What is AWS EBS?
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent block-level storage volumes for EC2 instances. Unlike instance stores, EBS data persists even when the instance is stopped or terminated.
Common use cases are: database hosting, application backups, rapid deployment of dev environments.
EBS Benefits
- Data persistence: Data remains available even if the EC2 instance stops
- Migration: Move volumes between Availability Zones using snapshots
- Flexibility: Attach volumes to different instance types, modify size and performance on the fly
- Disaster recovery: Snapshots provide reliable backups across regions
EBS Snapshots
What are Snapshots?
EBS snapshots are incremental backups. The first backup copies all data; subsequent backups only copy changed blocks, saving storage costs.
Amazon EBS snapshotsImage created by Amazon Web Services
Snapshots are stored redundantly across multiple Availability Zones using Amazon S3. When you delete a snapshot, only data unique to that snapshot is removed.
Data Lifecycle Manager
Automate snapshot creation, retention, and deletion. Schedule backups during off-peak hours and automatically delete outdated ones to control costs.