Elastic Compute Cloud
In this tutorial, we are going to explore about the overview of the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and its core concepts. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a foundational AWS service that provides secure, scalable compute capacity in the cloud. It’s designed to make it easier to run applications on virtual servers, offering a high degree of flexibility in terms of server configuration, capacity, and control.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a resizable cloud computing capacity. It allows users to run virtual servers, known as instances, for various computing tasks. EC2 offers a secure, flexible, and scalable solution, enabling businesses to easily deploy, manage, and scale applications without investing in physical hardware.
EC2 offers different benefits besides being a flexible computing capacity. It allows us to deploy instances in multiple Availability Zones (AZs) within a region in combination with different services such as elastic load balancer and auto scaling group to offer high availability within a region. In this lesson, we’ll learn the core concepts of EC2.
Core concepts
Here are some core concepts of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
1. Instance
An Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance is a virtual server in the cloud. It can run different operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and CentOS. Instances are categories based on their computing power, memory, and networking capabilities. We can select any instance type based on our requirements.
Each instance contains a root volume to boot the instance. After launching, an instance works similarly to a server and keeps running until it is stopped, hibernated, terminated, or failed.
2. Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a pre-configured virtual machine template that contains software configurations like operating systems and other packages used to launch an instance. AMIs serve as a blueprint for creating EC2 instances, allowing for easy replication and scaling of virtual servers. Multiple instances can be launched from a single AMI. AWS offers different AMIs to cater to user requirements, including the popular Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, and Windows.
3. Instance types
Instance type specifies the type of hardware for the virtual server in the cloud. AWS offers different types of instances based on their hardware capabilities. Some instances offer more computing power, whereas others focus more on optimized memory management.
For example, compute-optimized instances provide more CPU power than the general or memory-optimized ones, making them ideal for compute-bound applications requiring higher processing power. Here’s an illustration highlighting different types of instances.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offers a wide range of instance types, allowing you to choose the right amount of compute, memory, and storage based on your application’s needs. These types are grouped into instance families, each optimized for different workloads:
- General Purpose (e.g., t3, m5): Balanced compute, memory, and networking resources, suitable for web servers and general applications.
- Compute Optimized (e.g., c5): High CPU resources, ideal for compute-bound tasks like high-performance computing and web servers.
- Memory Optimized (e.g., r5, x1e): High memory for data-intensive applications like databases and in-memory analytics.
- Storage Optimized (e.g., i3, d2): High, fast storage capacity for I/O-intensive applications.
- Accelerated Computing (e.g., p3, g4): GPU- and FPGA-based instances for machine learning, AI, and graphics-intensive applications.
4. Networking and security
Security is a shared responsibility between the user and AWS. While EC2 is a managed service within AWS, the infrastructure is protected by AWS. However, it’s important to note that this doesn’t absolve us of our responsibility.
AWS allows us to secure our EC2 instances through multiple networking and security options. We can secure the instance by a VPC to logically isolate the instance in the private subnet. This makes it inaccessible to the internet. Additionally, the security group controls the inbound and outbound traffic of the instance.
- Security Groups: Virtual firewalls that control inbound and outbound traffic to your EC2 instances based on IP addresses and port numbers.
- Key Pairs: SSH key pairs allow you to securely access your instances and manage access to the instance’s operating system.
- Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is deployed within a VPC, which allows you to isolate instances, define network configurations, and control access to your instances using features like private IP addresses and subnetting.
- Elastic IP Addresses: Static IP addresses for instances, ideal for applications needing a fixed IP for identification.
5. Storage
AWS offers different flexible and easy-to-use data storage options for EC2 instances. Each option has its performance perks and cost. For example, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) offers durable block-level storage that can be detached and attached to a different instance, whereas Amazon Elastic File Storage (EFS) offers scalable file storage that can be connected to multiple instances and act as shared file storage for multiple applications.
- Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS): Persistent block storage for EC2 instances, with different performance options for different workload requirements (e.g., SSD-backed storage for high-performance tasks).
- Instance Store Volumes: Ephemeral storage directly attached to an instance, providing fast I/O but removed upon instance termination.
- Amazon Elastic File System (EFS): Scalable, managed file storage that can be shared across multiple instances, ideal for distributed workloads.
EC2 can use different storage services based on user requirements and infrastructure. The storage options available for EC2 instances can be used independently or in combination with multiple instances.
6. Elasticity and Auto Scaling
- Auto Scaling: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) integrates with Auto Scaling, which automatically adjusts the number of instances in response to changing demand. This ensures that you have enough resources when traffic spikes and helps reduce costs during lower demand.
- Elastic Load Balancing: EC2 instances can be used in combination with Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) to distribute incoming traffic across multiple instances, increasing application fault tolerance and availability.
7. Pricing Models
- On-Demand Instances: Pay for compute capacity by the second, suitable for short-term, unpredictable workloads.
- Reserved Instances: Commit to a 1 or 3-year term for a discount, ideal for steady-state or predictable usage.
- Savings Plans: Flexible pricing model that offers lower prices on EC2 usage based on a committed amount of usage in $/hr.
- Spot Instances: Bid on unused EC2 capacity for significant savings, though instances can be terminated if AWS needs the capacity.
- Dedicated Hosts: Physical servers with EC2 instances dedicated to a single customer for regulatory and compliance purposes.
8. Monitoring and Management
- Amazon CloudWatch: Monitors instance metrics (e.g., CPU, memory, disk I/O) and sets alarms for specified conditions.
- EC2 Auto Recovery: Automatically recovers instances if they become impaired due to hardware failure.
- AWS Systems Manager: Provides operational insights and management tools for Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances, including automation of common tasks, patch management, and configuration management.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is highly customizable and can meet diverse computing needs, from simple web hosting to complex enterprise solutions. If you’d like more details on a particular feature, such as Auto Scaling configurations or specific instance families, feel free to ask!
That’s all about overview of the AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). If you have any queries or feedback, please write us at contact@waytoeasylearn.com. Enjoy learning, Enjoy AWS Tutorials.!!