Understanding EBS (Elastic Block Store) in AWS EC2

In this lesson, we explored EBS (Elastic Block Store), which provides persistent storage for EC2 instances. Below is a structured breakdown of EBS features, benefits, and use cases.

1. What is EBS (Elastic Block Store)?

• EBS is a network-attached storage service for EC2 instances.
• It allows you to persist data even if the instance is terminated.
• An EBS Volume can be detached from one EC2 instance and reattached to another.
• It is bound to a specific Availability Zone (AZ).

2. Key Features of EBS

✅ Network-Attached Storage

• Think of it like a network USB stick—it connects over a network, not physically.

✅ Persistent Storage

• Unlike EC2 Instance Store, EBS data remains intact even after stopping or terminating an EC2 instance.

✅ Bound to an Availability Zone

• An EBS volume created in us-east-1a can only be attached to an EC2 instance in us-east-1a.
• However, EBS Snapshots allow you to copy the volume to another AZ.

✅ Customizable Capacity & Performance

• You define size (GB) and IOPS (I/O Operations Per Second) based on workload needs.
• You pay for provisioned capacity, even if unused.