AWS EC2 is a scalable, reliable and low-priced offering from Amazon for the user’s virtual computation or hosting needs. Current web and mobile applications require very high I/O for storing or retrieving plenty of data in order to deliver a rich and personalized experience. Considering this, AWS announced the IOPS Volumes and EBS Optimized Instance in August, 2021.

The present guide demonstrates how to launch an EBS-Optimized EC2 Linux Instance using the provisioned IOPS volume.

A standard EC2 EBS  (Elastic Block Store) volume will generally provide about 100 IOPS on an average. However, in comparison AWS has offered a new type of volume called Provisioned IOPS, which provides for a performance of up to 2000 IOPS.

An EBS-Optimized instance is provisioned with dedicated throughput to EBS. Use the EBS optimized instance for maximum performance and full utilization of the IOPS provisioned on an EBS volume.

Login to your AWS console.

1. Select the EC2 Service. It launches the EC2 dashboard. Go to the Instances section and click on “Launch Instance�? to launch an EC2 instance.

2. The Launch wizard has multiple options, such as “Classic Wizard�?, “Quick Launch�? and “AWS Marketplace�?. Quick Launch contains pre-configured steps, whereby it will skip some steps and launch with the default configurations. AWS Marketplace is used to launch the instance from the AWS online store. Select “Classic Wizard�? and click on “Continue�?.

3. Select the AMI (Amazon Machine Image). The AWS Launch screen provides multiple options to select AMI. The user can select the AMIs provided by AWS (Standard OS). Select “My AMIs�? to launch the instance from the user’s existing AMIs or select community AMIs to launch the instance from various providers (may or may not be authorized by AWS). AWS Marketplace is used to launch the instance from the AWS online store. Click on the “Quick Start�? tab and then select the Amazon Linux AMI.

4. Provide the instance details, such as the Instance Type, Availability Zone and Number of Instances. The availability zone depends on the current region. If the user is launching an EBS Optimized Instance, select the checkbox. The checkbox will be enabled only for the selected instance types.

5. Select the Large instance type and the checkbox will be enabled. Select the checkbox to launch an instance as an EBS Optimized Instance. Click on “Continue�?.

6. Provide the Kernel ID and RAM Disk ID.  Amazon EC2 provides user selectable kernels, which enables the user to select a kernel when bundling an AMI or launching an instance. User selectable kernels are useful for keeping the instances up to date with security fixes and updates, for using the functionality provided by new distributions as well as for using the specialty applications that have a unique timing requirement.  Select the default Kernel and RAM Disk ID. If the user is using the IAM Role, select the Role here. For more information on the Role refer here. If the user wants to enable detailed monitoring, as explained here, select the check box for the same. Click on “Continue�? after providing the necessary data.

7. Provide the storage related information. In order to launch an EBS optimized instance with a Provisioned IOPS EBS volume, click on “Edit�? to modify the volume type and size.

8. Select the volume type as “Provisioned IOPS�? and provide the IOPS from 100-2000. The IOPS optimized EBS volume size should be a minimum of 10 GB for a Linux Instance. Provide the Root Volume Size (more than 10 GB). If the user wants the root volume to be deleted on instance termination, select “Delete On termination�?. Save all the changes made and Click on “Continue�?.

9. Provide the tags for the AWS instance. Tagging is very useful when the user wants to track the cost of a particular instance / service. Click on “Continue�?.

10. For the security of the instance, select the existing key-pair or create a new key-pair. Continue once the key pair has been created / selected.

11. Select the security group. The security group provides the virtual firewall for the instance. Open only the ports for the specific IPs as per the user’s requirement. Click on “Continue�?.

12. Review all the details and click on “Launch�?.

13. AWS will launch the instance and provide the user with the ID of the instance.

14. Go to the AWS EC2 console and it will display the new instance. The instance will be first in a pending state until it boots completely. It is advisable to connect to the instance once the status checks are in “2/2 Checks�?.

15. Go to Volumes from the EBS Dashboard. It will list the newly created IOPS Volume.

How to Launch an EBS Optimized Instance with a Provisioned IOPS Volume, using  AWS CLI tools

16. Setup AWS EC2 CLI to launch a Windows instance with the command line option.

17. Run the command ec2-run-instances to launch an instance.

You can provide various parameters, such as instance size (large for optimized instance), security group, key pair, region, AMI ID, etc.

The syntax of the command is as follows:

ec2-run-instances --region <Region Name> -k <Key Pair Name> -g <Group Name> --ebs-optimized true ami-id.

To launch with the IOPS volume provide the parameter in the block mapping as follows:

ec2-run-instances --region <Region Name> -k <Key Pair Name> -g <Group Name> -b “<device name>=<snapshot ID>:<Size of Volume>:<Delete on Termination>:io1:<IOPS Number> --ebs-optimized true ami-id.

Keywords: Amazon web services, Amazon AWS console, Amazon AWS instances, EC2 Service, Amazon cloud computing, EC2 EBS, IOPS Volume, Optimized EBS backed instance ,AWS Console, I/O, Performance, Security Group, Key pair, AMI, Scalability,