💾 What is AWS Instance Store?
💾 What is AWS Instance Store?
AWS Instance Store provides temporary block-level storage for EC2 instances.
The storage is physically attached to the host server and is ideal for ephemeral data (data that doesn’t need to persist).
⚠️ Data in an Instance Store is lost if the instance is stopped, terminated, or fails.
✅ Key Characteristics:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Ephemeral | ❌ Not persistent – data is deleted on stop or terminate |
| Attached to instance | Directly tied to the EC2 instance’s physical host |
| Performance | ⚡ Very high I/O performance (low latency) |
| Cost | 🚫 Included in instance price (no extra charge) |
| No backup support | ❌ No snapshot functionality |
🧩 Use Cases:
- Temporary cache or buffer
- High-speed scratch data
- Staging areas for real-time processing
- Data that can be lost or recomputed (e.g., Hadoop temp files)
🔍 Example Instances with Instance Store:
-
i3,d2,r5d,c5d,m5d→ Offer instance store volumes - Some general-purpose EC2 types (like
t2,t3) do not include instance stores
You can view available volumes in the EC2 Launch Wizard under "Instance Storage".
🔐 Important Notes:
- You are responsible for saving any important data to persistent storage (e.g., EBS, S3).
- Reboot retains data, but stop/start or terminate does not.
- Cannot detach or resize instance store volumes.
✅ Summary:
| Property | Instance Store |
|---|---|
| Type | Temporary block storage |
| Performance | Very high (low latency) |
| Persistence | ❌ Data lost on stop/terminate |
| Backup | ❌ No snapshot or backup support |
| Use case | Caching, buffering, temporary files |