Domain 3 of 4 · Chapter 1 of 5

High-Performing and Scalable Storage

Unlock the complete study guide + 1,040 practice questions across 16 full exams.

Bundled into the existing AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate premium course — no separate purchase.

Included in this chapter:

  • EBS volume types deep dive: IOPS math, throughput scaling, gp3 sizing
  • EFS performance modes vs throughput modes — when each matters
  • FSx variants: Windows, Lustre, NetApp ONTAP, OpenZFS — when each applies
  • Instance store layouts: NVMe vs SSD vs HDD, RAID-0 striping patterns

EBS volume types compared

TypeUse caseMax IOPS / volumeMax throughput / volumeDurabilityCost
gp3 (default)Most general-purpose workloads16 000 (provisioned)1 000 MB/s (provisioned)99.8–99.9%$ (cheapest SSD; baseline + provisioned)
gp2 (legacy)Migrate to gp316 000 (size-tied)250 MB/s99.8–99.9%$ (slightly more than gp3)
io2 Block ExpressMission-critical DB > 80,000 IOPS, sub-ms p99256 0004 000 MB/s99.999%$$$$
io2 / io1High IOPS DB64 000 (io2) / 64 000 (io1)1 000 MB/s99.999% (io2) / 99.8% (io1)$$$
st1Big-data sequential, log processing500500 MB/s99.8%$ (HDD)
sc1Rarely-accessed cold block storage250250 MB/s99.8%$ (HDD, lowest)
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • Three storage shapes: object, file, block — pick by access pattern
  • EBS volume type by IOPS + throughput
  • EFS performance + throughput modes are independent
  • gp3 is the new default — migrate gp2 to save ~20%
  • io2 Block Express: up to 256 000 IOPS, sub-millisecond p99
  • Instance store is FREE — but dies on stop/terminate/hibernate
  • FSx for Lustre: HPC scratch at TB/s-class aggregate throughput
  • EFS Bursting Throughput credits accumulate while idle
  • EBS Multi-Attach: only io1/io2; clustered-only filesystems
  • FSx for Windows / NetApp: Active Directory integrated SMB
  • S3 Intelligent-Tiering auto-moves objects across tiers — no retrieval fee
  • S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: archive cost, millisecond access
  • S3 Transfer Acceleration requires period-free bucket names

Unlock with Premium — includes all practice exams and the complete study guide.

Also tested in

References

  1. What is Amazon S3
  2. What is Amazon EFS
  3. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
  4. What is Amazon EBS
  5. Amazon EC2 instance store
  6. Amazon S3 data durability and protection
  7. Amazon FSx for Lustre
  8. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP
  9. Amazon EBS Multi-Attach
  10. General Purpose SSD volumes (gp2 / gp3)
  11. Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes (io1, io2, io2 Block Express)
  12. Throughput Optimized HDD and Cold HDD volumes (st1 / sc1)
  13. Amazon EFS performance