EBS volumes fall into two primary categories:
- Solid State Drives (SSD) for performance-oriented workloads.
- Hard Disk Drives (HDD) for throughput-optimized, cost-effective storage.
Comparison of EBS Volume Types
| Volume Type | Use Case | Size Range | Max IOPS | Max Throughput | Baseline Performance | Durability (%) | Cost Efficiency | Multi-Attach Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Purpose SSD (gp3) | Balanced workloads like web servers, virtual desktops | 1 GiB – 16 TiB | 16,000 | 1,000 MB/s | 3,000 IOPS (baseline), configurable IOPS | 99.8 – 99.9 | High | No |
| General Purpose SSD (gp2) | General-purpose applications, dev/test environments | 1 GiB – 16 TiB | 16,000 | 250 MB/s | 3 IOPS per GiB (baseline), burstable | 99.8 – 99.9 | High | No |
| Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) | Critical applications, large databases, latency-sensitive apps | 4 GiB – 16 TiB | 64,000 | 1,000 MB/s | Provisioned up to 500 IOPS per GiB | 99.999 | Medium | Yes |
| Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) | Performance-sensitive workloads, enterprise apps | 4 GiB – 16 TiB | 64,000 | 1,000 MB/s | Provisioned up to 50 IOPS per GiB | 99.8 – 99.9 | Medium | Yes |
| Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) | Big data, log processing, large sequential data access | 125 GiB – 16 TiB | – | 500 MB/s | 40 MB/s per TiB (baseline), burstable | 99.8 – 99.9 | High | No |
| Cold HDD (sc1) | Archival storage, infrequent access workloads | 125 GiB – 16 TiB | – | 250 MB/s | 12 MB/s per TiB (baseline), burstable | 99.8 – 99.9 | Very High | No |
In Amazon EC2, EBS volume types come with different size limits depending on the type of volume. Here’s a breakdown:
1. General Purpose SSD
| Volume Type | Size Range | Max IOPS | Max Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|
| gp3 | 1 GiB – 16 TiB | 16,000 | 1,000 MB/s |
| gp2 | 1 GiB – 16 TiB | 16,000 | 250 MB/s |
2. Provisioned IOPS SSD
| Volume Type | Size Range | Max IOPS | Max Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|
| io2 Express | 4 GiB – 64 TiB | 1,000,000+ | 4,000 MB/s |
| io2 | 4 GiB – 64 TiB | 256,000 | 4,000 MB/s |
| io1 | 4 GiB – 16 TiB | 64,000 | 1,000 MB/s |
3. HDD-Based Volumes
| Volume Type | Size Range | Max IOPS | Max Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|
| st1 (Throughput-Optimized HDD) | 125 GiB – 16 TiB | 500 | 500 MB/s |
| sc1 (Cold HDD) | 125 GiB – 16 TiB | 250 | 250 MB/s |
Io2 Express
Amazon EBS io2 Express is a high-performance, cost-effective storage option designed for mission-critical workloads that require extreme I/O performance. It is part of the EBS io2 family, but with enhanced capabilities to support ultra-low latency and high throughput for demanding applications.
io2 Express provides up to 256,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second), delivering ultra-low latency with a sub-millisecond response time. This makes it ideal for applications requiring very high levels of performance, such as transactional databases, real-time data processing, and high-frequency trading.
Volume size limits: 4GiB -64 TiB
| Feature/Specification | io2 Express | io2 | gp3 | st1/sc1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max IOPS | 256,000 | 256,000 | 16,000 | Varies (st1: 500, sc1: 250) |
| Max Throughput | 4,000 MB/s | 4,000 MB/s | 1,000 MB/s | Varies (st1: 500 MB/s, sc1: 250 MB/s) |
| Latency | Ultra-low (<1 ms) | Low latency (<1 ms) | Low latency | Higher latency (depends on workload) |
| Best Use Case | High-performance databases, HPC, real-time processing | Mission-critical apps, transactional DBs | General-purpose workloads, cost-effective performance | Data warehouse, cold storage, big data processing |
| Durability | 99.999% | 99.999% | 99.8% | 99.8% |