Performance · 24% · Compressed recall. Read the
Learn guide first.
Storage shape first
| Shape |
Service |
Attach |
| Object |
S3 |
Anywhere via API |
| Block |
EBS / instance store |
One instance, one AZ |
| File |
EFS / FSx |
Many instances mount concurrently |
S3 classes (all 11 nines durability)
| Class |
Use |
Min duration |
| Standard |
Frequent |
— |
| Intelligent-Tiering |
Unknown/changing (no retrieval fee) |
— |
| Standard-IA |
Infrequent, fast |
30 d |
| One Zone-IA |
Infrequent + reproducible (1 AZ) |
30 d |
| Glacier Instant |
Archive, ms access |
90 d |
| Glacier Flexible |
Archive, min–hrs |
90 d |
| Glacier Deep Archive |
Coldest, hrs |
180 d |
S3 perf: ~3,500 write / ~5,500 read requests per prefix/s (scale via more prefixes); multipart >100 MB (single PUT max 5 GB); object max 5 TB; Transfer Acceleration for far uploads.
EBS volume types
| Type |
Cat |
Max IOPS |
Max MB/s |
Pick for |
| gp3 |
SSD |
16k→80k |
2,000 |
Default (base 3,000/125, independent scaling) |
| gp2 |
SSD |
16k |
250 |
Legacy (3 IOPS/GiB) |
| io2 BX / io1 |
SSD (PIOPS) |
256k / 64k |
4,000 / 1,000 |
Critical high-IOPS DB; io2 = 99.999% + Multi-Attach |
| st1 |
HDD |
500 |
500 |
Big sequential (logs, big data); not boot |
| sc1 |
HDD |
250 |
250 |
Cold, cheapest; not boot |
Instance store = ephemeral, fastest, lost on stop/terminate.
EFS vs FSx
| Service |
Protocol/OS |
Use |
| EFS |
NFS / Linux |
Shared Linux across AZs, elastic |
| FSx Windows |
SMB / Windows |
Windows shares + AD |
| FSx Lustre |
Lustre |
HPC/ML, S3-integrated |
Flashcards
Many instances, same files at once — EBS?
No — EBS is single-instance/single-AZ. Use EFS (Linux) or FSx for Windows (SMB).
Default EBS volume type, and why?
gp3 — baseline 3,000 IOPS/125 MiB/s, IOPS & throughput scalable independently, cheaper than gp2.
Mission-critical DB needs sustained high IOPS?
Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2); io2 adds 99.999% durability + Multi-Attach.
Big sequential log/big-data throughput cheaply?
st1 (Throughput Optimized HDD). Note: HDDs can't be boot volumes.
Unknown/changing S3 access pattern, no retrieval fees?
S3 Intelligent-Tiering.
Reproducible, infrequently accessed data, cheapest resilient-enough?
S3 One Zone-IA (single AZ — fine if data can be regenerated).
Coldest, cheapest archive, hours to retrieve OK?
S3 Glacier Deep Archive (min 180 days).
Shared Windows drive with Active Directory?
FSx for Windows File Server (SMB).
Common traps
- Shared files across instances → EFS/FSx, not EBS.
- HDD (st1/sc1) can't boot; gp3 default (cheaper than gp2).
- io2 for high IOPS DBs; st1 for sequential throughput.
- Instance store = ephemeral (lost on stop/terminate).
- Intelligent-Tiering for unknown patterns; IA min 30d, Glacier 90d, Deep Archive 180d.
- One Zone-IA = single AZ (reproducible data only).