Elastic File System (EFS):
- EFS is a storage option for EC2 that allows for a scalable storage option.
- EFS storage capacity is elastic:
- The storage capacity will increase and decrease as you add and remove files.
- Applications running on an EC2 instance using EFS will always have the storage they need, without having to provision and attach larger larger storage devices.
- EFS is fully-managed (no maintenance required).
- Supports the Network File System version 4.0 and 4.1 (NFSv4) protocols when mounting.
- Best performance when using an EC2 AMI with Linux kernel 4.0 or newer.
Benefits of EFS:
The EFS file system can be accessed by one (or more) EC2 instances at the same time.
Shared file access across all your EC2 instances.
Applications that span multiple EC2 instances can access the same data.
EFS file system can be mounted to on-premise servers (when connected to your VPC via AWS Direct Connect).
- This allows you to migrate data from on-premise servers to EFS and/or use it as a backup solution.
EFS can scale to petabytes in size, while maintaining low-latency and high levels of throughout.
You pay only for the amount of storage you are using.
Security:
- Control file system access through POSIX permissions.
- VPC for network access control, and IAM for API access control.
- Encrypt data at rest using AWS Key Management Service (KMS).
When to use:
- Big Data and Analytics.
- Media Processing workflows.
- Web Serving and Content Management.