Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Instance Store is a type of local disk storage that is physically attached to an EC2 instance. It provides temporary block-level storage for instances that require high-speed, low-latency access to data, such as database or cache workloads.
EC2 Instance Store is ideal for use cases that require high-performance data access and fast data transfer rates, such as transaction processing, web applications, and Hadoop clusters. EC2 Instance Store can provide higher I/O performance compared to Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes, but it has some limitations.
One of the main limitations of EC2 Instance Store is that the data is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated. This means that you must back up your data to persistent storage such as Amazon S3 or EBS volumes if you want to preserve it. Additionally, not all EC2 instance types have instance store available, so you need to choose the right instance type for your use case.
Use cases
EC2 Instance Store is ideal for use cases that require high-performance data access and fast data transfer rates, such as transaction processing, web applications, and Hadoop clusters. Here are some scenarios where you may want to use EC2 Instance Store:
- Caching: If your application requires high-speed, low-latency access to data, EC2 Instance Store can provide faster I/O performance compared to EBS volumes. This makes it ideal for use cases that involve caching data, such as in-memory databases, data warehousing, or content delivery.
- High-Performance Computing (HPC): EC2 Instance Store can be used in HPC workloads where you need high-speed storage for large datasets, such as scientific simulations, machine learning, or genomics.
- Data Analytics: EC2 Instance Store can be used in data analytics workloads where you need high-speed storage for processing large datasets, such as log processing, data mining, or real-time data streaming.
- Temporary Storage: EC2 Instance Store can be used for storing temporary data that can be easily recreated or regenerated, such as temporary files or swap space.
Pros and Cons
EC2 Instance Store has several benefits and drawbacks. Here are some pros and cons of using Instance Store:
Pros:
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- High Performance: EC2 Instance Store provides faster I/O performance compared to Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes since it is physically attached to the instance. This makes it ideal for use cases that require high-speed data access.
- Cost-effective: EC2 Instance Store is a cost-effective option for applications that require temporary storage since it is included in the price of the EC2 instance.
- Easy to use: EC2 Instance Store is easy to use since it is automatically attached to the instance and does not require any additional configuration.
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Cons:
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- Data Loss: The data stored on EC2 Instance Store is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated. This means that you need to back up your data to persistent storage, such as EBS volumes or Amazon S3, if you want to preserve it.
- Limited capacity: The amount of storage available on EC2 Instance Store depends on the instance type and is limited compared to EBS volumes.
- Instance type dependency: Not all EC2 instance types have instance store available, so you need to choose the right instance type for your use case.
- Not resilient: EC2 Instance Store is not resilient since it is physically attached to the instance, so if the instance fails, you lose access to the data stored on it.
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EC2 Instance Store provides temporary, high-performance storage for EC2 instances that require fast data access, but it has limitations, such as the risk of data loss when the instance is stopped or terminated.
It’s important to note that the data stored on EC2 Instance Store is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated, so you should always back up your data to persistent storage, such as EBS volumes or Amazon S3. Additionally, not all EC2 instance types have instance store available, so you need to choose the right instance type for your use case.