Elastic Block Storage (EBS) is block storage typically attached as a virtual hard drive attached to an AWS EC2 virtual machine. It's usually flash storage with high I/O capacity, but less expensive magnetic storage is available.
Guidance
Use this option when…
- You have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 virtual server
- Are comfortable configuring a file system (eg NTFS, ext4) on the drive
- Have a traditionally-architected application or workload and can't use object storage from a separate bucket
- This is a relatively expensive option for cloud storage
- Your data needs are relatively small, similar to a physical hard drive
Example Use Cases
- You have a virtual machine that's running a database server like PostgreSQL or MariaDB
- You want to attach and detach a virtual hard drive as you modify the virtual machine
- Have multiple EC2s that need read-only access to one shared virtual hard drive
Cost Considerations
- In general, users pay per GB per volume that's being provisioned, irrespective of what's actually holding data
- Snapshots for EBS volumes are extra
- There are different performance tiers and different costs associated with specific regions.
- Be sure to check the AWS EBS pricing page for the latest information
- Check the Cardinal Cloud website for up-to-date discounts for the Stanford community.
- Users have the option to be reserving a volume of IOPs for performance-demanding applications
Support
- This service is accessible as part of an AWS account
- Your AWS account will be provisioned by UIT Hosting Services
- If your service is self-managed, you will be responsible for all aspects of security compliance associated with your AWS account
- UIT professional services teams may include this service as part of fully-managed, fully-supported solution
