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Storage

Amazon EBS

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Amazon EBS

Amazon EBS provides persistent, block-level storage volumes that can be attached to Amazon EC2 instances. It operates as an AZ-scoped block storage service with APIs to create, attach, snapshot, and manage volumes. EBS is used where durable, low-latency block access is required for boot volumes, file systems, and databases attached to EC2.

🗂 Resource Category

Storage • Compute

🧠 Exam Memory Hook

Think: "Persistent block storage attached to EC2 in an Availability Zone = Amazon EBS"

📖 Ownership

Classification: AWS Managed Service

AWS responsibilities: AWS operates and maintains the underlying physical storage infrastructure, network connectivity for the service, the EBS control plane and APIs, and patches and replaces AWS-owned hardware and the EBS service platform software. AWS is responsible for the durability and availability characteristics of the managed service infrastructure and for securing the physical facilities and hardware. AWS also manages the snapshot storage service used by EBS snapshots.

Customer responsibilities: The customer configures volumes, selects volume types and performance settings, attaches and detaches volumes to EC2 instances, manages encryption keys (when using customer-managed AWS KMS keys), implements backup and snapshot schedules, manages lifecycle policies, monitors metrics and health, and secures access through IAM and OS-level controls. Customers are responsible for data integrity, file system management, partitioning, and recovering data from snapshots or backups.

Patching responsibilities: AWS patches and maintains the physical infrastructure and the EBS service platform; AWS is responsible for the hypervisor and host-level components that it controls. The customer patches the guest operating system, installed runtimes, application libraries, dependencies, and applications running on EC2 instances that use EBS. If the customer manages their own encryption keys (KMS CMKs), key rotation and management are the customer's responsibility.

🏗 Typical Architecture

💡 Top 5 Features

  • Persistent block-level storage that can be attached to EC2 instances within the same Availability Zone.
  • Point-in-time snapshots that capture volume data and can be used for backups and restores.
  • Server-side encryption options integrated with AWS Key Management Service for at-rest encryption.
  • Elastic volume modification to change size or volume type without detaching in many configurations.
  • Support for boot volumes as well as data volumes suitable for file systems and database storage.

✅ Top 5 Use Cases

  • Boot volumes for Amazon EC2 instances to host operating systems and application binaries.
  • Primary storage for databases and transactional workloads that require low-latency block I/O.
  • Persistent storage for stateful applications and container hosts that require durable block devices.
  • Scheduled snapshots and backups to protect data and support restore or cloning workflows.
  • Performance-tuned volumes for I/O-intensive workloads where selection of volume type controls behaviour.

🏗 Architecture Placement

Amazon EBS provides AZ-scoped block storage that is attached to Amazon EC2 instances; EC2 instances initiate I/O to EBS volumes and snapshot APIs are used to copy volume state to snapshot storage. Monitoring and metrics are typically emitted to Amazon CloudWatch and backups are implemented via snapshots or AWS Backup. Volume attachments and lifecycle are managed at the account and AZ level using the EBS and EC2 APIs.

🎯 Commonly Used With

- Amazon EC2
- Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
- AWS Backup
- AWS Key Management Service
- Amazon CloudWatch

🌍 5 Real-World Examples

  • A banking application attaches EBS volumes to EC2 database servers to provide durable, low-latency storage for transactional databases and uses snapshots for backups.
  • A healthcare imaging pipeline stores intermediate image data on EBS data volumes attached to EC2 instances to provide consistent block I/O during processing.
  • An e-commerce platform uses EBS boot volumes for web servers and creates regular snapshots to enable quick recovery and AMI creation.
  • A media processing workflow mounts EBS volumes on EC2 instances to store working files and then snapshots volumes before releasing instances.
  • A technology company uses EBS provisioned-performance volumes for CI build servers that require predictable I/O during large build jobs.

🎓 AWS Exam Clues

  • Use when you need persistent block storage attached to EC2 within the same Availability Zone.
  • Choose EBS for boot volumes and stateful data volumes that require low-latency block I/O.
  • Snapshots are the native method for backing up EBS volumes and can be used to create new volumes or AMIs.
  • Encryption at rest is integrated with AWS KMS; consider customer-managed keys when you require control over keys.
  • EBS volumes are AZ-scoped; cross-AZ resilience requires snapshot/replication and volume recreation in the target AZ.

📝 Quick Revision

Amazon EBS provides persistent, low-latency block storage attached to EC2 instances and is AZ-scoped. Use it for boot volumes, databases, and stateful applications; plan for snapshot-based backups, encryption key management, and volume sizing/performance choices.

🏷 Keywords

block storage • EBS volume • snapshot • elastic volumes • boot volume • AZ-scoped • encryption at rest • AWS KMS • attach detach • provisioned IOPS • volume modification • snapshot lifecycle