šŸ“‚ What is Amazon EFS?

šŸ“‚ What is Amazon EFS?

Amazon EFS is a fully managed, scalable, elastic network file system that allows you to share files across multiple EC2 instances concurrently.

āœ… It behaves like a Linux file system and supports NFS (Network File System) protocol.

šŸ“¦ Key Features:

Feature Description
Managed NFS Fully managed file system over the network
Scalable Automatically scales as files are added or removed
Shared access Multiple EC2 instances can access the same files simultaneously
Elastic No need to provision storage in advance
High availability Stored across multiple AZs in a region for fault tolerance
POSIX-compliant Works like a standard Linux file system

šŸ§© Use Cases:

  • Shared web content (e.g., WordPress media folders)
  • Home directories for users/applications
  • Big data and analytics workflows
  • Backup and disaster recovery
  • Machine learning data storage

šŸ“Š EFS vs EBS vs S3

šŸ”§ How to Use EFS:

  • Create EFS in AWS Console
  • Attach it to VPC subnets
  • Mount it on EC2 instances using:
bash
sudo mount -t nfs4 -o nfsvers=4.1 fs-xxxx.efs.region.amazonaws.com:/ /mnt/efs

šŸ’° Pricing Model:

  • Pay-per-use based on:

    • Storage (GB/month)
    • Throughput if provisioned
    • Optional lifecycle management for cost saving (Infrequent Access tier)

šŸ” Security:

  • IAM policies + Security Groups
  • Encryption at rest (using KMS) and in transit
  • Access control with POSIX permissions

āœ… Summary

Feature Value
Type Network File System (NFS)
Access Multi-instance shared access
Scalable Automatically grows/shrinks
Durable Across multiple AZs
Use cases Shared storage, backups, content repos
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