The I/O Necessity
As highlighted earlier this month, contemporary web and mobile applications are heavily reliant on I/O, constantly storing and retrieving substantial amounts of data to provide a dynamic and personalized user experience.
To support your I/O performance requirements and the flexibility needed for building these applications, we have rolled out several new offerings recently:
For efficient, managed scaling of NoSQL workloads, we introduced DynamoDB—a NoSQL database supported by SSD that boasts read and write times in the single-digit millisecond range, exhibiting minimal variance from request to request. DynamoDB simplifies the scaling process, allowing for adjustments from 20 to over 200,000 reads and writes per second, depending on your application’s demands. The reception of DynamoDB has been phenomenal; it has rapidly become our fastest-growing service.
Recently, we also launched the first member of the EC2 High I/O family, the h1.4xlarge instance type. This instance is tailored for time series analysis, NoSQL databases, and mobile or streaming applications that require low-latency access to storage systems, delivering tens of thousands of IOPS. Each h1.4xlarge instance is equipped with 2 TB of SSD-backed storage.
We understand the need for more options in I/O-intensive applications, and we’re pleased to meet that demand.
Here’s What You Need to Know
Understanding IOPS
As you may already be aware, the performance of a block storage device is typically quantified using IOPS, which stands for Input/Output Operations Per Second. To illustrate, a hard disk drive spinning at 7,200 RPM can deliver around 75 to 100 IOPS, while a 15,000 RPM drive can achieve 175 to 210 IOPS. The exact figures depend on various factors, including the access pattern (be it random or sequential) and the data volume handled in each read or write operation. Our focus is on enhancing the performance and reliability of database-driven applications running on AWS by introducing new EBS and EC2 options.
Today, we are announcing:
- A new EBS volume type known as Provisioned IOPS, allowing you to specify the performance level you require (currently up to 1,000 IOPS per volume, with plans for higher limits soon). You can also stripe (RAID 0) multiple volumes to achieve thousands of IOPS.
- The ability to launch EBS-Optimized instances, which provide dedicated throughput between these instances and EBS volumes.
EBS Provisioned IOPS
Since we released EBS in the summer of 2008, our customers have efficiently utilized it for storing persistent data linked to their EC2 instances. We have identified certain workloads that demand highly stable IOPS, as well as others that necessitate a higher overall IOPS count. Relational databases fall into both categories.
For context, a standard EBS volume typically offers around 100 IOPS on average, with the capability to burst to hundreds of IOPS on a best-effort basis. Standard EBS volumes are suitable for applications with moderate or fluctuating I/O needs, as well as for boot volumes.
The newly introduced Provisioned IOPS EBS volume allows you to determine the required throughput, currently supporting up to 1,000 IOPS (for 16K), with plans for even greater performance. By combining multiple Provisioned IOPS volumes, you can achieve thousands of IOPS per logical volume for your EC2 applications. These volumes provide consistent performance and are ideal for database storage, transaction processing, and demanding random I/O operations. When paired with EBS-Optimized instances, these volumes are designed to deliver within 10% of their provisioned I/O performance 99.9% of the time.
Provisioned IOPS EBS volumes can be created via the AWS Management Console, command line tools, or EC2 APIs. If using the console, simply select the Provisioned IOPS volume type and input your desired IOPS.
Provisioned IOPS volumes are priced at $0.125 per GB of allocated storage each month, plus $0.10 per provisioned IOPS per month in the US East (Northern Virginia) region. For more information, refer to the EBS page. By default, each AWS account can create up to 20 TB of Provisioned IOPS volumes with a cumulative total of 10,000 IOPS. Should you require more of either, just fill out this form.
To create a Provisioned IOPS equivalent of your existing EBS volume, suspend all I/O to your volume, create a snapshot, and then establish a Provisioned IOPS volume using that snapshot as a foundation.
EBS-Optimized EC2 Instances
For optimal performance and to fully leverage the IOPS provisioned on an EBS volume, you can now request EBS-Optimized EC2 instances. An EBS-Optimized instance is allocated dedicated throughput to EBS. The m1.large, m1.xlarge, and m2.4xlarge instance types are currently available as EBS-Optimized instances. The m1.large instances can transfer data to and from EBS at a rate of 500 Mbit/second, while the m1.xlarge and m2.4xlarge instances can achieve a transfer rate of 1000 Mbit/second. This additional throughput does not impact other general-purpose network throughput available on the instance.
There is an extra hourly fee for EBS-Optimized instances: $0.025 for the m1.large and $0.05 for the m1.xlarge and m2.4xlarge instance types.
To upgrade your EC2 instances to EBS-Optimized instances, follow these steps:
- Shut down any applications running on the instance.
- Stop the instance.
- Modify the instance using the
ec2-modify-instance-attributecommand and set the EBS-Optimized flag. Change the instance type to one of the supported ones if necessary. - Restart the instance.
Insights from a Product Manager
I spoke with Linda Carter, a Product Manager on the AWS Storage team, to gain deeper insights into these new features. Her feedback was invaluable, emphasizing the enhancements these options bring to users.
Final Thoughts
These new offerings are ready for you to utilize today. Give them a try, and share your feedback! If you’re looking for insights on related topics, check out this another blog post for further reading. Additionally, this resource offers expert guidance in this area, and for those interested in career opportunities, this resource is excellent for interview preparation.
— Alex
P.S. The EBS team is expanding! If you’re interested, please send your resume to ebs-jobs@amazon.com. Open positions include Software Development Manager, Senior Software Development Engineer, and Director of Product Management.
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