StarAgile
Oct 29, 2024
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15 mins
While there are many AWS services that are popular all around the globe, the EC2 instances are the major ones. There is a huge variety of instances that are being offered by Amazon as the EC2 instance types and they are a combination of various features like CPU, storage, memory, etc. As we know one of the best advantages that the users have with EC2 is having the option to customize their instances and have flexibility for them, there are various options for the users to choose from. So, while keeping this in mind, we are going to discuss some of the major instance types of EC2 and see what are the main features of those instances. Later, we will see how one should make the decision and choose the right combination to have the maximum performance for their work. In your AWS Devops Training, you will learn all about them and see what you should choose to have better performance. But first, we will discuss very briefly what is EC2 and what are the EC2 instances.
Amazon EC2 instance is a virtual server that is present as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). If the company is looking for an unlimited set of virtual machines, then EC2 can be the answer for the same. The use of EC2 will eliminate the need for the hardware upfront. Using this, you can manage the storage and have a better configuration for your security and networking. You can choose as many servers as you need for the same. It will drastically reduce the need to forecast the traffic which is going to help you to handle the various changes that come during the application development. The best part about the EC2 instances is that it is compatible with all the other AWS services and they can be used in sync with each other. This provides a whole solution to the user and this is also very secure and reliable.
Well, now you have clearly understood what is EC2 and why more and more users are leaning towards it. Now let us discuss all about the aws ec2 instance types and know more about them. Major instance types are:
When the users are looking for balance while keeping the compute, memory, networking resources, and storage in mind, the general-purpose instances are the best choice. They are designed for scalable services which include web servers, microservices and also distributed data stores. If we talk about the general-purpose instances, this family includes A1, T4g, T3, T3a, T2, M6g, M5, M5a, M5n, and M4 instance types.
Whenever you are going to start your journey with the instances and start using the EC2 instances, then going for general-purpose instances can be a good option. Generally, there are two types of instances in this family- t2 and m5, where the t stands for tiny and m stands for micro or medium. The t2 instances are known to be the burstable instance type which means that you can use them to run applications that are simpler in nature like the website or the development environment. This is one of the cheaper options in this family, but the only thing is that you cannot use it when you need the instance for a high computing job or need more memory. So, for this, m5 comes into the picture. With this, you can overcome the challenges that you were having with t2. Along with M5, there are other options like m4 and m6. With m5, you are going to get higher capacity which is not possible with the t2 family. Here more resources can be added, and it is one of the most commonly used instances. There is also another instance type- m5d, the main difference between m5 and m5d is that the m5 uses HDD and m5d uses the SSD.
Another type includes the A1 type which is ARM-based and they are very good for consistent workloads. They are selectively available for certain parts of the world.
There are various use case scenarios that you can see with this type of EC2 instance. They are mostly used for web application servers, for the development, or QA environment. Along with this, they are widely popular for gaming servers where low storage and CPU are required. They can be used for enterprise applications as well.
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These types of instances will offer you a higher CPU to memory ratio. When you have a high demand for computing then you should look for the compute-optimized instances. They are very good for application servers, gaming servers, and also web applications. The main difference between the general and the compute-optimized instances is that in compute instances, you can expect high performance and they can be used when the intensive need for computing is present.
If you are looking for the instance where you can have a higher computing power but lesser memory is required, then going for this is the best with c4, c5, and c6 families. Here c5 is most commonly used. They can be used when there is higher performance required for analytics workloads, there is multiplayer gaming or there is media transcoding.
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When the additional hardware accelerators are used in the systems like the Graphics Processing Units or Field Programmable Gate Arrays, accelerated computing instances are being used. They are helpful in providing a higher throughput in the intensive application and there is more parallelism. Using this, the application will be enabled to use the NVIDIA GPUs which generally consist of thousands of cores. Some common accelerated computing instance types and their features are mentioned below:
Now if you are looking for instances that could help you have ultra-fast access to the data and also help you to deliver better performance, then going for memory-optimized instances can be the right choice. They are high-speed, solid-state drives that could be used for applications when there is a need for more memory and less CPU power. They include open-source databases and real-time big data analysis as well as in-memory caches. They are used for operations where there is a need for a memory-intensive instance. They are particularly used for relational databases which include some examples like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and NoSQL databases like MongoDB and Cassandra. Some common instances for this family are:
When you need to support the high I/O workloads then this type of instance can be used. They are used for parallel processing or MPP data warehouses. There are two types of devices that are used in this instance for storage- HDD and SDD. The use of SDD is preferred when there is the need for high read and write rates as they are capable of handling the writing and reading at a faster rate as compared to the HDD. There are various instances that are available in this family:
Well, now that you have learned all about the instances that are being offered as the EC2 instance types, you can now head to the real work and see how you can choose the best one. When you are working with the application, there will be a pattern that will emerge among these instances and there are certain characteristics that will make you certain about your choice. The CPU capacity, the memory needed, and the storage needed for the particular instance are very well defined and they are one of the major considerations when you need to make the choice. You have to take care of the accelerated hardware options that are connected to the system so that you can choose the right instance for you.
So, in order to make the right decision, first, you need to understand the small nuances that are being offered by these different families, and with that knowledge, you will be able to make the optimal choices for your operations. As you know that for a small instance, this can be done manually, but as the environment grows, this becomes more complex and you will need the right instance by your side to have a great and high-performing system.
The use of EC2 has changed how the users are interacting with various AWS services and with the variety of instances offered, the task becomes easier. To cater to the workloads and ever-changing demands, the EC2 always goes for new releases and there will be new instances added which will be more suitable to the needs of the users. So, in this article, you learned all about the various instance families and their types. You can learn more about them with the best course out there. AWS is a growing domain and if you want to have a strong grip over the concepts then you should enroll in our AWS Devops Certification Training and ensure that you have gained the understanding and are all ready to have a wonderful career in this field.
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