A company is using an Amazon EC2 instance to run a CPU-intensive data processing application. The application frequently writes small, random I/O operations to an attached Amazon EBS volume. The current gp2 volume is experiencing performance bottlenecks, causing the application to slow down. The SysOps Administrator needs to improve the throughput and IOPS of the EBS volume to reduce processing time. Which EBS volume type should the administrator migrate to?
- Asc1 (Cold HDD).
- Bgp3 (General Purpose SSD).
- Cst1 (Throughput Optimized HDD).
- Dio2 Block Express (Provisioned IOPS SSD).
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. io2 Block Express (Provisioned IOPS SSD).
The problem describes a CPU-intensive application with 'frequent small, random I/O operations' experiencing 'performance bottlenecks' on a gp2 volume, indicating a need for higher IOPS and throughput. While gp3 offers a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MiB/s, io2 Block Express is designed for the highest performance with extremely low latency, up to 256,000 IOPS, and 4,000 MiB/s throughput, making it ideal for the most demanding, random I/O workloads.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. sc1 is for cold, infrequently accessed data, offering the lowest cost per GB and is unsuitable for performance-critical applications.
- B. gp3 is a good general-purpose option and an improvement over gp2, offering configurable IOPS and throughput. However, io2 Block Express specifically targets the 'most demanding' random I/O, which is implied by 'CPU-intensive data processing' and 'performance bottlenecks' that a gp2 volume couldn't handle.
- C. st1 is for large, sequential throughput workloads (e.g., streaming, log processing), not small, random I/O.
EBS Volume Types for High IOPS
For applications requiring the highest IOPS and throughput, especially with small, random I/O, Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1/io2/io2 Block Express) volume types are designed to deliver consistent, high performance.
- io2 Block Express offers the highest IOPS and throughput.
- Suitable for I/O-intensive databases and enterprise applications.
- Designed for consistent, low-latency performance.
- Ideal for workloads with frequent small, random I/O.
Memory trick: SSD for speed, HDD for bulk, io2 for ultimate power.