Key components of AWS EC2 service
Hello everyone
Welcome to CloudAffaire and this is Debjeet
In the last blog post, we have discussed some of the key features of AWS EC2 service.
https://cloudaffaire.com/key-features-of-aws-ec2-service/
In this post, we are going to discuss key components of AWS EC2 service that you can leverage to use those features. Since there are so many components we will keep it short. We will cover most of the components in depth in its separate blog post
1. INSTANCES
A. Instances
Instances are basically servers that are hosted in AWS cloud using EC2 service.
B. Launch Templates
Launch templates enable you to store launch parameters so that you do not have to specify them every time you launch an instance
C. On-demand instance
Provides you an instance with not predefined usage duration where you pay as you use.
This is the default instance type when you launch a new instance
D. Spot Instances
Spot Instances offer spare compute capacity available in the AWS cloud at steep discounts compared to On-Demand instances
E. Reserved Instances
Reserved instance provides discounts over the on-demand instance. Reserved instance is reserved for a pre-defined duration with different payment options
F. Dedicated Instance
Runs on a VPC and on hardware that is dedicated to you
G. Dedicated Host
The physical server that is fully dedicated to you
2. IMAGES
A. AMI
AMI provides you template with OS and application pre-configured to reduce the instance deployment.
B. Bundle Tasks
You can bundle a Windows instance to create a Windows instance store-backed AMI
3. ELASTIC BLOCK STORE
A. Volumes
EBS volume is a durable, block-level storage device that you can attach to a single EC2 instance.
B. Snapshots
You can back up the data on your Amazon EBS volumes to Amazon S3 by taking point-in-time snapshots. Snapshots are incremental backups, which mean that only the blocks on the device that have changed after your most recent snapshot are saved.
C. Lifecycle Manager
Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) for EBS Snapshots provides a simple, automated way to back up data stored on Amazon EBS volumes. You can define backup and retention schedules for EBS snapshots by creating lifecycle policies based on tags. With this feature, you no longer have to rely on custom scripts to create and manage your backups.
4. NETWORK & SECURITY
A. Security Groups
A security group acts as a virtual firewall that controls the traffic for one or more instances
B. Elastic IP
An Elastic IP address is a static IPv4 address designed for dynamic cloud computing. You can connect to the internet using elastic IP
C. Placement Groups
You can launch or start instances in a placement group, which determines how instances are placed on the underlying hardware.
D. Key Pairs
Amazon EC2 uses public–key cryptography to encrypt and decrypt login information. Public–key cryptography uses a public key to encrypt a piece of data, such as a password, then the recipient uses the private key to decrypt the data. The public and private keys are known as a key pair.
E. Network Interface
An elastic network interface (referred to as a network interface in this documentation) Is a logical networking component in a VPC that represents a virtual network card.
F. IAM Roles
Identity & Access Management or IAM role is used for access management of AWS
G. VPC
Virtual Private Cloud or VPC enables you to launch AWS resources into a virtual network that you’ve defined. This virtual network closely resembles a traditional network that you’d operate in your own data center, with the benefits of using the scalable infrastructure of AWS.
5. LOAD BALANCING
A. Load Balancers
Load Balancing distributes the incoming application or network traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses, in multiple Availability Zones. Load Balancing scales your load balancer as traffic to your application changes over time and can scale to the vast majority of workloads automatically.
B. Target Groups
Target groups are used to direct traffic from a load balancer to a specific destination
6. AUTO SCALING
A. Launch Configurations
A launch configuration is a template that an Auto Scaling group uses to launch EC2 instances. When you create a launch configuration, you specify information for the instances such as the ID of the Amazon Machine Image or AMI, the instance type, a key pair, one or more security groups, and a block device mapping.
B. Auto Scaling Groups
An Auto Scaling group contains a collection of EC2 instances that share similar characteristics and are treated as a logical grouping for the purposes of instance scaling and management.
7. MONITORING
A. Cloud Watch
Amazon CloudWatch monitors your AWS resources and the applications you run on AWS in real time. You can use CloudWatch to collect and track metrics, which are variables you can measure for your resources and applications. CloudWatch alarms send notifications or automatically make changes to the resources you are monitoring based on rules that you define
B. Status Check
Amazon EC2 performs automated checks on every running EC2 instance to identify hardware and software issues. You can view the results of these status checks to identify specific and detectable problems.
C. Events
AWS publishes events for each region for any news, update, maintenance or disaster
8. SYSTEM MANAGER
AWS Systems Manager is a collection of capabilities for configuring and managing your Amazon EC2 instances, on-premises servers and virtual machines, and other AWS resources at scale. Systems Manager includes a unified interface that allows you to easily centralize operational data and automate tasks across your AWS resources.
9. Region & Availability Zone
Amazon EC2 is hosted in multiple locations worldwide. These locations are composed of regions and Availability Zones. Each region is a separate geographic area. Each region has multiple, isolated locations known as Availability Zones. Amazon EC2 provides you with the ability to place resources, such as instances, and data in multiple locations. Resources aren’t replicated across regions unless you do so specifically.
Hope you have enjoyed this article. AWS EC2 provides tons of features and we will try to cover as much as possible. In the next blog post, we will discuss different types of the instance under the EC2 service.