AWS Cloud Practitioner Study Session Six

December 31, 2025

I am taking the AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam in approximately four days and want to ensure I am prepared. This series will serve as non-exhaustive note taking for the information that I am internalizing as I go.

Study materials:

Notes:

Block Storage:

Low latency
Attach to EC2 instances
Can be encrypted, backed up on snapshots, modified while in use without disrupting the instance
Two primary block storage services:
(1) Amazon EC2 Instance Store: Unmanaged non-persistent, low lantency, high I/O performance block storage directly attached to EC2 instances)… Use Case: Apps that need temp storage with fast access.

(2) Amazon Elastic Block Store: Managed, persistent block storage volumes)

Object Storage:

Manages data as objects in a flat address space.
Offers unlimited scalability.
Provides enhanced metadata capabilities.
More efficient data management, search, analytics across massive datasets.
Look for use cases involving URLs
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3): A fully managed scalable object storage service for storing / retrieving data from anywhere.

File Storage:

Shared file systems over accessible networks, so multiple users / applications can access same data simultaneously.
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS): Fully managed, scalable NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services / on prem resources.
Amazon FSx: Fully managed file storage services for popular systems like Windows, Lustre, NetApp, ONTAP.

Additional Storage Services:

AWS Storage Gateway: Fully managed, hybrid-cloud storage service, provides on-prem access to virtually unlimited cloud storage
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery: Fully managed, streamlines recovery of physical, virtual, cloud-based servers into AWS

Shared Responsibility

Fully Managed Services:

AWS responsible for everything from the hardware and infra through the entire storage stack
Customer responsible for data management, access controls, proper service config

Managed Services

AWS manages underlying storage infra, hardware redundancy, volume replication
Customers responsible for data backup strategies, encryption config, volume performance optimization, capacity planning

Unmanaged Services

Customer takes responsbility for data management, backup / recovery, encryption, performance optimization, durability
AWS only maintains underlying physical hardware, network infrastructure

EC2 Instance Store: Block-level storage that is physically attached to the EC2 instance host computer. Best for temporary memory-based storage needs like buffers, caches, and scratch data. Not recommended for applications that require data retention.

Key Takeaway: If you stop or terminate an EC2 instance, all the data written to the attached instance store is deleted.

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) Data Lifecycle

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS): Act like external hard drives, offering consistent, low-latency performance for workloads like databases and file systems.

Key Takeaway: Data persistence - block-level storage volumes. If you stop or terminate an EC2 instance, all data on the attached EBS volume remains available.

How Amazon EBS manages data when EC2 instance stopped: (1) EC2 instance running with data being stored in attached EBS volume -> (2) EC2 instance stopped -> (3) All data stored within EBS volume is retained.

Key Takeaway: Amazon EBS volumes exist independently from the instance and persist even after the instance is terminated.

Use Cases of Amazon EBS: Database hosting, backup storage for applications, rapid deployment of dev evironments using volume snapshots, high availability and durability needed for financial applications and critical data.

Benefits of EBS Snapshots: Support data portability through ability to detach, reattach to instances as needed.

(1) Data Migration: Can easily be migrated between AZs.
(2) Instance Type Changes: Not complicated to attach them to a different instance. Flexibility lets you upgrade or downgrade instances without losing data.
(3) Disaster Recovery: Provide reliable backup solutions and creation can be automated.
(4) Cost Optimization: Can be modified to different types and sizes to match actual usage patterns.
(5) Performance Tuning: Offers various volume types to match different workload requirements and IOPs needs.
(6) Data Protecion and Recovery: Enable fast data recovery from corruption, accidental deletion, or system failures using point-in-time backps.
(7) Operational Flexibility: Snapshots enable operations like cross-Region data migration, volume resizing, volume cloning, sharing data across AWS accounts.
(8) Cost Effective: Snapshots use incremental backup technology, storing only changed blocks after the initial backup, reducing storage costs and backup time.
(9) Testing: They capture the exact state of a volume at a point in time, making them good for creating consistent copies for testing purposes.

Working with EBS Snapshots

(1) Initial Snapshot: Initial snapshot serves as the baseline and contains all the data blocks that were in use on the volume -> (2) Subsequent Incremental Snapshots: Only the blocks that have been changed since the last snapshots are captured and stored. -> (3) Snapshot Consolidation and Management: Despite being incremental, each snapshot appears as a full point-in-time copy of volume. When you delete a snapshot, only the data unique to that snapshot is removed.

Workflow for EBS Snapshots

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager: Defines lifecycle policies that automate snapshot management based on schedules.

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager Workflow Create an EBS Snapshot Policy -> Select Target Resource Type -> Exclude Volumes -> Set Custom Schedules -> Apply Additional Actions (Configuring elements of the snapshots like tags, snapshot archiving, Amazon EBS fast snapshot restore, cross-Region copying, cross-account sharing.)

S3 Bucket Benefits

Virtually Unlimited Storage No fixed limit. Only pay for the storage you use.
Object Lifecycle Management Automatically move objects between storage classes based on defined rules, optimizing costs over time.
Broad Range of Use Cases Commonly used for content distribution, hosting static websites, delivering media files, application data storage, archiving, data lakes, and compliance data retention.

Security and Privacy Management

Bucket Policies: Resource-based policies that can only be attached to buckets and define which actions are allowed / denied on the bucket and its objects.
Identity Based Policies: Permissions that control what actions, users, groups, roles can perform on S3 resources. Attach directly to identities rather than to the S3 resources themselves.
Encryption Protect data at rest and in transit, help maintain data confidentiality, comply with various security standards and regulations.

S3 Lifecycle Automates the process of managing object storage tier configuration. Can choose the following two automation types:

Transition Action: Defines when objects should transition to another storage class.
Expiration Action: Defines when objects should expire and be permanently deleted.

Use Cases Periodic Logs: Logs needed for x amount of time then deleted. Data that Changes in Access Frequency: Documents frequently accessed for limited time, then infrequently accessed.

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)

Multiple instances reading and writing simultaneously (multi AZ redundancy)
Linux file system (shared access supporting thousands of concurrent NFS connections… look for use cases with “global teams”)
Regional Resource
Automatically scales (elastic storage)

Standard Storage Classes - EFS Standard and EFS Standard-Infrequent Access offer Multi-AZ resilience and the highest levels of durability and availability. One Zone Storage Classes - EFS One Zone and EFS One Zone-Infrequent Access (EFS One Zone-IA) provide additional savings by saving data in single Availability Zone Archive Storage Class - Cost-optimized for data that is accessed only a few times a year or less that does not need the sub-millisecond latencies of EFS Standard. EFS Archive offers storage price up to 50% lower than IA.

Transition to IA - Instructs lifecycle management when to move files into IA storage. By default files that are not accessed in Standard for 30 days are transitioned to IA.

Transition to Archive - Instructs lifecycle management when to move files into Archive Storage class, which is cost-optimized for data that is accessed only a few times each year or less. By default, files that are not accessed in Standard storage for 90 days are transitioned into Archive.

Transition to Standard - Instructs lifecycle management whether to transition files out of IA or Archive and back into Standard storage when the files are accessed in the IA or Archive storage. (By default not moved back to Standard.)

Amazon EFS Benefits:

File System Integration - Integration with existing apps, workflows, dev tools
Managed Infra - Reduces complexity of managing infra
Scalable Storage - Adjusts dynamically, eliminating need for complex capacity planning / manual infra management
Cost Effective - Pricing model / automated tiering options that optimize costs by charging only for used storage and moving infrequent access to lower tiers.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server - Fully managed Windows file system. Supports SMB protocol, integrates with Active Directory, provides Windows compatibility.

Use Cases: Migrate Windows file servers to AWS, accelerate hybrid workloads, reduce SQL Server deployment cost, streamline virtual desktops and streaming
Amazon FSx for ONTAP: - Provides fully managed shared storage in the AWS Cloud with popular data access / management capabilities of ONTAP
Amazon FSx for OpenZFS - Fully managed shared file storage built on the OpenZFS file system, accessible through NFS protocol -Use Cases: Migrate workloads to AWS seamlessly, Deliver insights faster for data analytics workloads, Accelerate content management, Increase dev/test velocity
Amazon FSx for Lustre - Fully managed shared storage with scalability and performance for the Lustre FS
Use Cases: Accelerate ML, Enable HPC, Unlock big data analytics, Increase media workload agility

Storage Gateway - Hybrid cloud storage service, makes it possible to integrate on-prem with AWS Cloud Storage (Maintains local access patterns).
Seamless Integration, Improved data management, Local Caching, Cost Optimization
Maintains low-latency local access to frequently accessed data through local caching and seamlessly integrates with existing file-based workflows.
S3 File Gateway - Provides a file interface into Amazon S3, frequently accessed data is cached locally for low-latency access while data is stored in Amazon S3 for durability and cost-effectiveness.

Caching Volume Mode - Stores primary data in the cloud while frequently accessed data is cached locally for low-latency access. Provides local performance and benefits of secure cloud backup.
Stored Volume Mode - Locally keeps complete dataset while backing up to cloud as EBS snapshots

Tape Gateway - Interface that works with existing tape backup software.

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery

Business Resilience - Maintain business ops with continous block-level data replication, recover workloads in minutes
Streamlined DR - Automate DR processes through intuitive console, reduce complex manual configs, minimize risk of human error
Cost Optimization - Eliminate expensive secondary data centers and pay only for what you use, upfront investment, no standby infra costs

Use Cases

Healthcare data protection - Can use Elastic DR help maintain compliance while protecting patient records by replicating on-rem servers to AWS.
Financial services continuity - Can use Elastic DR to protect core banking apps by continuously replicating transaction processing systems.
Manufacturing ops recovery - Can use Elastic DR to protect production planning systems