DEV Community: Shivendu Amale

On-Demand Instances – These instances are billed by the second when launched. You can pay for the instances per hour or per second, with a 60-second minimum. No commitment is required for such instances.
Savings Plan – These instances offer a discount when a commitment of 1 or 3 years is made to use a consistent amount per hour. Use this option when you can commit to consistent usage but do not require a consistent configuration.
Reserved Instances – These instances offer a discount when a commitment of 1 or 3 years is made to keep the same configuration. Use this when you need a consistent configuration and capacity reservation. Reserved Instances are offered at up to a 75% discount. While not deprecated, AWS encourages using the Savings Plan instead of Reserved Instances as the preferred way to save on EC2 instances.
Spot Instances – These are heavily discounted instances that utilize unused EC2 capacity with no commitment. They are useful if your applications can tolerate interruptions. Spot Instances are offered at up to a 90% discount off the On-Demand price with no prior commitment.
Dedicated Hosts – These are entire physical hosts fully dedicated to running EC2 instances. Discounts are available for existing per-socket, per-core, or per-VM software licenses.
Dedicated Instances – These are instances running on single-tenant hardware. Dedicated Hosts and Dedicated Instances are useful when software compliance requirements necessitate isolation.
Capacity Reservations – This option reserves capacity for EC2 instances in a specific Availability Zone. Capacity reservations are billed at the equivalent rate of On-Demand instances, whether they are used or not.

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In my next article, I will be writing about how to choose the appropriate billing option.

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AWS EC2 Instance Store

Shivendu Amale — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 08:11:33 +0000

AWS EC2 Instance Store: High-Performance Temporary Storage

Amazon EC2 Instance Store provides temporary, high-performance block storage for EC2 instances, ideal for caches and buffers. Data persists through reboots.

awshound.com

Beware! ⚠️ Data in EC2 Instance Store is temporary. Lost on stop, terminate, & many recovery scenarios. Only persists on reboot. Instance store-backed AMIs are the exception.

Shivendu Amale — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 06:27:51 +0000

Data persistence for Amazon EC2 instance store volumes

Shivendu Amale ・ Feb 28

#aws #cloud #ec2 #s3

Data persistence for Amazon EC2 instance store volumes

Shivendu Amale — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 05:37:31 +0000

Instance store volumes are attached only at instance launch. They cannot be detached from one instance to another nor attach the instance after the launch.
The data on the instance store persists on reboot of the instance but the data is erased when the instance is stopped, hibernated, terminated.
Here are key events that affect data persistence in the instance store to considered to how data behaves in the instance store:

Event	Data condition
Instance Type changed	Does not persist
EBS backed AMI is created from the instance	Does not persist
Instance store backed AMI is created from the instance	Persist. Stored in S3. More information below
OS shutdown event	Does not persist
OS restart	Persist
Scheduled Instance Stop	Does not persist
Scheduled Instance Reboot	Persist
System Reboot	Persist
Instance Retirement	Does not persist
Simplified automatic recovery	Does not persist
CloudWatch action based recovery	Does not persist
Disk Failure	Data on the failed disk does not persist
Power failure	Persist. On reboot
Host failure	Does not persist

When creating an instance store-backed AMI, the instance store data is saved in S3. When a new instance is launched from this AMI, the stored data is restored to the instance store.
In an Auto Scaling Group, if an instance fails a health check and is replaced, the new instance does not retain any data from the previous instance.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by me. I have used ChatGPT for markdown formatting. The contents of the articles were not changed. I would really appreciate your feedback.

About EC2 config

Shivendu Amale — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:47:24 +0000

EC2 Configuration options

Shivendu Amale ・ Feb 13

#aws #ec2 #cloud #beginners

EC2 Instance Store: High-Performance Temporary Storage for Your Workloads

Shivendu Amale — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 04:46:12 +0000

EC2 Instance Store: High-Performance Temporary Storage for Your Workloads

Shivendu Amale ・ Feb 20

#aws #cloudcomputing #ec2

[Boost]

Shivendu Amale — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 04:30:34 +0000

EC2 Instance Store: High-Performance Temporary Storage for Your Workloads

Shivendu Amale ・ Feb 20

#aws #cloudcomputing #ec2

EC2 Instance Store: High-Performance Temporary Storage for Your Workloads

Shivendu Amale — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 04:30:08 +0000

EC2 Instance Store provides temporary block-level storage for an EC2 instance. EC2 Instance Storage is physically attached to the host server. So, if the hardware fails, there is a risk of data loss.
EC2 Instance Store provides better I/O performance, which makes it ideal for applications like buffer storage, scratch storage, cache, and other temporary storage. It is also used to store temporary data that you replicate across a fleet of instances, e.g., a load-balanced pool of web servers.
EC2 Instance Store does not carry separate charges; it is part of EC2 instance usage.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by me. I have used ChatGPT for markdown formatting. The contents of the articles were not changed. I would really appreciate your feedback.

EC2 Configuration options

Shivendu Amale — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 04:57:00 +0000

The EC2 instance configuration options start with naming the EC2 instance. Apart from naming the instance, here are the other configuration options:

Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

This contains the operating system, server, and other applications that are required to launch the instance:

At this moment, there are about 6,000 AMIs provided to launch the instances. This vast selection allows you to choose an AMI that's pre-configured with the software and tools you need, saving you time and effort.
You can even create your own custom AMIs to save your preferred configurations for future use.
Amazon offers operating systems based on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Each AMI is specifically designed and optimized for its respective operating system, ensuring compatibility and performance.
It's crucial to select an AMI that aligns with your software requirements and licensing considerations.

Instance Type

Instance types determine vCPU, memory, storage options, and network performance. Selecting the right instance type is crucial for balancing cost and performance.

Consider your application's resource demands, such as CPU, memory, and network bandwidth, when making your decision.
Example of instance type: t2.micro
- The first letter here tells us what AWS family the instance belongs to.
- The number that follows the letter tells us the generation of the instance.
- Micro is the instance size.
Naming convention helps you quickly identify the instance's capabilities and lineage.
AWS regularly introduces new generations of instances with improved performance and features.

Another Example: c5ad.16xlarge

The above instance type belongs to the C AWS instance family and is from the 5th generation.
The letter "a" after c5 indicates that the instance uses an AMD processor.
The "d" that follows shows that the instance has local NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express).
The size here is 16xlarge.
AMD processors can offer a cost-effective alternative for certain workloads.
NVMe storage provides extremely fast access to data, making it suitable for applications that require high throughput.

Key Pair

A key pair is needed to access the instance.

AWS provides two options:
- RSA encrypted key
- ED25519 encrypted key
The key can be .pem or .ppk.
The key generated can be downloaded and must be kept secure as AWS does not store it.
Losing your private key can result in the inability to access your instance, so it's essential to store it securely.

Network Settings

These contain the network information.

These settings control how your instance communicates with the outside world and other AWS resources.
Proper configuration of network settings is crucial for security and performance.

Security Groups

We can add security groups here or create a new security group.

An EC2 instance can have multiple security groups.
Security groups act as virtual firewalls, allowing you to define rules for inbound and outbound traffic.
By using multiple security groups, you can apply different sets of rules to different types of traffic, enhancing security.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Selection of the VPC.

The VPC is a logically isolated network within the AWS cloud, allowing you to create your own private network.
Choosing the correct VPC ensures that your instance is placed in the appropriate network environment.
You can create multiple VPCs to isolate different parts of your infrastructure.

Subnets

Subnets (within Availability Zones) further segment the network.

Subnets are subdivisions of a VPC, allowing you to isolate resources within specific Availability Zones.
Using subnets improves availability and fault tolerance.
Each subnet is associated with a specific Availability Zone, ensuring that resources are distributed across different physical locations.

Elastic IPs

You can set static elastic IPs here.

Elastic IPs are static public IP addresses that you can associate with your instance.
This ensures that your instance has a consistent public IP address, even if it is stopped and restarted.
Elastic IPs are useful for hosting applications that require a fixed IP address.

Storage

We can attach one or more storage volumes to the instance.

The storage has one root volume.
We have options to add more EBS storage in addition to it.
All storages must be in the same Availability Zone as the instance.
The root volume contains the operating system and other essential files.
EBS volumes provide persistent block storage that can be attached to your instance.
You can choose from a variety of EBS volume types, each with different performance characteristics and cost.

Advanced Details

There are advanced configuration options for the Elastic Compute Cloud.

These options allow you to fine-tune your instance for specific use cases and workloads.
Carefully consider each option to optimize your instance's performance and cost.

User Data

You have an option to write a script that runs once after the instance is created.
This is often used for bootstrapping applications or configurations.
User data scripts can automate:
- Installation of software
- Configuration of settings
- Other deployment tasks
Simplifies instance setup and ensures consistency.

Advanced CPU Configurations

Purchasing Options

You can select the purchase type. Some purchasing options:

Reserved Instances - Long workloads
Convertible Reserved Instances - Long workloads with flexible instances
Savings Plan (1 & 3 years) - Commitment to an amount of usage, long workload
Spot Instances - Short workloads, cheap, can lose instances (less reliable)
Dedicated Hosts - Book an entire physical server, control instance placement
Dedicated Instances - No other customers will share your hardware
Capacity Reservations - Reserve capacity in a specific AZ for a duration of time

Action Configurations

Options of shutdown, hibernate, stop, and other behavior options.

These options allow you to control the lifecycle of your instance.
Understanding the different shutdown behaviors is crucial for managing your instances effectively.
You can choose to:
- Stop
- Terminate
- Hibernate your instance depending on your needs.

These are the important configurations available while launching an instance.

By understanding these configurations, you can make informed decisions about how to set up your EC2 instances.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by me. I have used ChatGPT for markdown formatting. The contents of the articles were not changed. I would really appreciate your feedback.