☁️ Day 7: Amazon EBS & EFS – Learn AWS Storage Basics
Category: Core AWS Services
Goal: Understand storage options in AWS that work with EC2 – like hard drives and shared folders.
🧠 What You’ll Learn Today:
- What is EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
- What is EFS (Elastic File System)?
- How are they different from S3?
- When to use EBS vs. EFS?
📦 1. What is Amazon EBS?
EBS = Elastic Block Store
Think of EBS like the hard drive of a virtual computer (your EC2 instance).
🔹 Key Points:
- Attached to EC2 like a C: drive in Windows
- Stores operating system, software, and data
- Can be backed up using Snapshots
- You can increase the size anytime
- If you stop the EC2, the EBS volume is still there
💡 Example:
If your EC2 instance is a laptop, then EBS is the internal hard drive where Windows and files are saved.
🗂 2. What is Amazon EFS?
EFS = Elastic File System
Think of EFS like a shared folder that many EC2 instances can access together.
🔹 Key Points:
- Works like a network drive
- Multiple EC2 instances can connect to the same EFS
- Data stored grows automatically (no size limit)
- Useful for shared access (websites, apps needing file access)
💡 Example:
You have 3 EC2 servers running a website. They all need to read and write files to the same folder — EFS helps you do that.
🔁 3. EBS vs EFS vs S3 – What’s the Difference?
| Feature | EBS (Block) | EFS (File) | S3 (Object – from Day 4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use with | EC2 (one instance) | EC2 (many instances) | Any app or service |
| Speed | High | Medium–High | Depends on use |
| Grows auto? | No (manual resize) | Yes | Yes |
| Shared use? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | OS, app data | Shared folders | Images, videos, backups |
✅ What You Should Do Today:
- ✅ Watch:
👉 YouTube search: “AWS EBS vs EFS for beginners” - ✅ Try in AWS Console (Free Tier):
- Go to EC2 → Launch instance
- Check the Storage section → It uses EBS!
- Learn how to take a snapshot
- ✅ Visualize:
- EBS = Pen drive for your EC2
- EFS = Shared Google Drive folder
🧩 End of Day Notes:
EBS is like your personal hard drive, EFS is like a team-shared folder.
Knowing which one to use helps keep your app fast and your data organized.🔁 Navigate the Series:
⬅️Day 6: IAM Basics — Control Who Can Do What in AWS
➡️Day 8: AWS Global Infrastructure – How AWS Works Around the World