Exploring AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS): Ensuring Data Availability Across EC2 Instances
"In today’s rapidly evolving cloud landscape, maintaining data integrity and ensuring seamless access across multiple environments is essential. AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) offers a robust solution for persistent storage, enabling users to create, manage, and secure data efficiently across different EC2 instances. In this blog, we will explore the functionality of EBS volumes, focusing on their flexibility and reliability by walking through a practical demonstration of transferring an EBS volume between two EC2 instances."
Understanding EBS Volumes
AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a high-performance block storage service designed for use with Amazon EC2. It provides scalable, reliable, and persistent storage solutions that can be attached to any running EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone. EBS volumes are particularly suited for workloads that require frequent read/write access to large amounts of data, such as databases, file systems, and applications requiring high throughput.
STEPS
1) Log into your AWS account.
2) Launch an EC2 instance.
3) Create and Attach an EBS volume
4) Use the following commands now:
a) lsblk - To check how many volumes are there.
b) sudo file -s /dev/xvdf - To check if the volume has any data
c) sudo mke2fs -j /dev/xvdf - To format partition
5) Now we have to mount the disk partition:
i) Switch to root user and create a directory
a) sudo su
b) sudo mkdir /newdisk
ii) After creating a new directory we need to mount it
a) sudo mount /dev/xvdf /newdisk
6) Now, just go to new directory, create a file, and check the number of volumes:
a) cd ../../newdisk
b) touch f1.txt
7) Now, detach the volume from the first instance you created. This can be done by navigating to the 'Volumes' section in the AWS Management Console, selecting the volume, and choosing 'Detach Volume'. After detaching, proceed to create a new EC2 instance :
8) Now attach the EBS additional volume to new instance and check the volumes of the newly launched instance:
a) lsblk- To check the number of volumes
b) mkdir - To create a new directory
9) Mount the EBS volume to the drive and verify the data is present or not:
a) sudo su - Switch to sudo user
b) sudo mount /dev/xvdf newdrive - Mount the new drive
c) ls -l newdrive - To check file is their or not, a list command
Conclusion
AWS EBS volumes provide a versatile and dependable storage solution, crucial for maintaining data integrity across EC2 instances. Whether scaling applications, ensuring disaster recovery, or testing in different environments, EBS offers the flexibility and durability required in today’s cloud-first world. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can confidently manage your EBS volumes and ensure that your data remains accessible, no matter where it’s stored.
"Have you utilized EBS volumes in your projects? Share your experiences or questions in the comments below! Your insights could help others in the community."
Thankyou for reading.
Anurag Mishra