3.2.1.2. EBS Cost Optimization

💡 First Principle: EBS cost optimization fundamentally involves selecting the most appropriate volume types and configurations to precisely meet application performance needs, avoiding unnecessary expenditure on excess capacity or IOPS.

EBS cost optimization fundamentally involves selecting the most appropriate volume types and configurations to precisely meet application performance needs, avoiding unnecessary expenditure on excess capacity or IOPS.

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent block storage for EC2 instances. Optimizing EBS costs involves selecting the right volume type and size to match your workload's IOPS and throughput requirements, and managing snapshots efficiently.

Strategies for EBS Cost Optimization:

• Right-sizing: Match volume size and IOPS/throughput to actual workload requirements using CloudWatch metrics and Compute Optimizer.
• Appropriate "Volume Types": Select the most cost-effective type based on workload:
  • "gp3" (General Purpose SSD): (General Purpose SSD): Balanced performance/price for most workloads.
  • "io2" (Provisioned IOPS SSD): (Provisioned IOPS SSD): High-performance, mission-critical databases.
  • "st1" (Throughput Optimized HDD): (Throughput Optimized HDD): Throughput-intensive, large sequential reads/writes (e.g., log processing).
  • "sc1" (Cold HDD): (Cold HDD): Lowest cost, infrequent access, large sequential workloads (e.g., cold data storage).
• Delete Unattached Volumes: Regularly identify and remove EBS volumes no longer connected to instances.
• Optimize Snapshots: Implement lifecycle policies for snapshots to manage retention and reduce storage costs.

Scenario: For a data warehousing application requiring high sequential throughput for large log files, choosing an st1 (Throughput Optimized HDD) volume type offers a cost-effective solution, balancing performance with budget.

Visual: EBS Cost Optimization Strategies

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⚠️ Common Pitfall: Paying for Provisioned IOPS (io1/io2) when the workload's actual IOPS rarely reaches the provisioned level. Always right-size based on monitoring.

Key Trade-Offs:

• Performance vs. Cost: Higher performance EBS volumes (e.g., io2) are significantly more expensive per GB than lower performance ones (e.g., sc1). Balancing these is key.

Reflection Question: How would you analyze an application's I/O patterns (e.g., random vs. sequential reads/writes, IOPS vs. throughput needs) to determine the most cost-effective EBS volume type that meets performance requirements without overspending?