Elastic Block Store (EBS)

5 minutes 5 Questions

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a storage service designed specifically for Amazon EC2 instances, providing highly available, consistent, and low-latency block storage volumes. EBS volumes are automatically replicated within the same Availability Zone to protect against component failure, providing fault tolerance and high durability. They can also be created from snapshots, allowing users to easily backup their data and migrate volumes across instances or regions.

Guide on Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Elastic Block Store (EBS) is an important aspect of Amazon EC2 in AWS Solution Architect. It provides raw block-level storage that can be attached to Amazon EC2 instances and is used by applications for both throughput and transaction-intensive workloads at any scale.

What is it?
EBS is a virtual storage area network (SAN - Storage Area Network) and it is mainly designed for application workloads that require fine tuning for performance, cost, and capacity.

How it works?
EBS provides persistent block-level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. Each EBS volume is automatically replicated within its Availability Zone to prevent failure, offering high availability and durability. It can be scaled up or down in minutes.

ExamTips:
When answering questions regarding EBS, remember that it's designed for EC2 instances and is replicated within its Availability Zone. Also, note that it's a scalable solution.

How to answer Questions on EBS in an exam?
When tackling exam questions on EBS, ensure you understand the performance characteristics and capabilities of each EBS volume type. Bear in mind that it's tied to a particular Availability Zone and provides a specific level of performance.

Test mode:

Exam (Timed)

Practice (With explanations)

Start practice test

Question 1

What is the best approach to achieving long-term, cost-effective backups for EBS volumes?

Create a new EBS volume, copy the data, and detach the original volume. Copy the data to an Amazon EFS file system. Create EBS snapshots and store them in Amazon S3. Create an instance store backup.

Correct Answer: Create EBS snapshots and store them in Amazon S3.

EBS snapshots offer long-term, cost-effective backups for EBS volumes. Snapshots are incremental and stored in Amazon S3, resulting in cost savings. The other solutions do not provide long-term, cost-effective, or easy-to-manage backups.

Question 2

A solution architect needs to choose an EBS volume type for infrequently accessed and low-cost workloads that do not require high IOPS. Which EBS volume type is best suited for this requirement?

EBS Provisioned IOPS (io1) EBS General Purpose SSD (gp2) EBS Cold HDD (sc1) EBS Throughput Optimized HDD (st1)

Correct Answer: EBS Cold HDD (sc1)

EBS Cold HDD (sc1) volumes are designed for infrequently accessed, throughput-oriented workloads, and offer a lower cost per gigabyte compared to the other EBS volume types. The other volume types either focus on higher performance and IOPS or may incur higher costs.

Question 3

A customer wants to ensure EBS volumes are encrypted at rest for their application. What is the easiest and most cost-effective option?

Encrypt the data before writing to unencrypted EBS volumes. Create a custom EBS snapshot encryption mechanism. Use an instance store instead of EBS. Use an EBS volume created with encryption enabled.

Correct Answer: Use an EBS volume created with encryption enabled.

AWS provides built-in encryption for EBS volumes at rest. This is the easiest and most cost-effective way to encrypt data on EBS volumes. The other solutions would require custom implementations, additional costs, or not provide the required encryption.

Go Premium

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Preparation Package (2024)

More Elastic Block Store (EBS) questions

7 questions (total)