Save 20% on your EBS Spend by Migrating from GP2 to GP3

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, efficient and high-performance storage solutions are crucial for businesses to maintain their competitive edge. Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) plays a pivotal role in providing scalable and reliable storage for Amazon Web Services (AWS) users. Among the various EBS offerings, General Purpose SSD (GP2) has been a standard choice for many. However, with the advent of the third generation, GP3, users now have an even more compelling option. See Amazon EBS volume types

GP3 offers significant improvements over GP2, including customisable performance independent of storage capacity, higher baseline IOPS, and up to 20% cost savings. These enhancements make GP3 an attractive choice for businesses looking to optimise their storage solutions without compromising on performance.

In this blog post, we will delve into the benefits of GP3 over GP2, provide a step-by-step guide on how to manually migrate your EBS volumes (the process will be different if the instances are generated using an Iac tool such as Terraform), and explore why making this transition is beneficial for your workloads. Whether you are running high-performance applications or managing large databases, understanding the advantages of GP3 can help you make informed decisions about your storage needs.

Understanding Amazon EBS

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a scalable, high-performance block storage service designed to be used with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). EBS provides persistent storage volumes that can be attached to EC2 instances, enabling them to store data even after the instances are terminated. This makes EBS a critical component in the AWS infrastructure, offering reliable storage solutions for databases, applications, and other workloads that require consistent and low-latency performance.

Types of EBS Volumes

EBS offers several types of volumes to meet different performance and cost requirements. The two primary types of EBS volumes are General Purpose SSD (GP2 and GP3) and Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 and io2). Each type is designed for specific use cases and performance needs.

General Purpose SSD (GP2 and GP3)

General Purpose SSD volumes are designed for a broad range of workloads, including small to medium-sized databases, development and test environments, and boot volumes. GP2 and GP3 volumes offer a balance of price and performance.

GP2: GP2 volumes provide a baseline performance of 3 IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) per GiB (Gibibyte) with the ability to burst up to 3,000 IOPS for extended periods. This makes GP2 suitable for most general-purpose applications.
GP3: GP3 volumes are the latest generation of General Purpose SSDs and offer several improvements over GP2. GP3 provides a baseline performance of 3,000 IOPS and allows for independent scaling of IOPS and throughput, making it more flexible and cost-effective compared to GP2.

Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 and io2)

Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes are designed for mission-critical applications that require high performance and low latency. They offer the highest performance among EBS volumes and are ideal for large databases and other I/O-intensive applications.

io1: io1 volumes allow users to provision up to 64,000 IOPS per volume, making them suitable for applications that demand high performance.
io2: io2 volumes offer higher durability and more IOPS per GiB compared to io1, providing even better performance and reliability for critical workloads.

Key Features of Amazon EBS

Scalability: EBS volumes can be easily scaled up or down to meet changing performance and capacity requirements.
Durability: EBS volumes are designed to be highly durable, with multiple copies of data stored across different Availability Zones.
Snapshot Support: EBS supports creating point-in-time snapshots of volumes, which can be used for backups, disaster recovery, and cloning new volumes.
Encryption: EBS volumes can be encrypted to protect data at rest and in transit, ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements.

Understanding Amazon EBS and its various volume types is crucial for optimizing storage performance and cost in AWS infrastructure. In the next section, we will explore the Benefits of GP3 over GP2 and how to leverage these advantages for your workloads.

Benefits of GP3 over GP2

When considering Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes, the transition from GP2 to GP3 offers numerous advantages. These benefits span performance improvements, cost efficiency, and additional features that enhance overall user experience. Below, we delve into the specifics of these benefits:

Performance Improvements

One of the most significant advantages of GP3 volumes over GP2 is the enhanced performance. GP3 volumes provide baseline performance of 3,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second) and 125 MB/s throughput, regardless of volume size. This is a substantial improvement over GP2, which scales performance linearly with volume size.

GP3 also allows users to provision up to 16,000 IOPS and 1,000 MB/s throughput for an additional fee, offering greater flexibility and performance customisation based on workload requirements. This is particularly beneficial for applications that demand high IOPS and throughput, such as large databases and big data analytics.

Cost Efficiency

Cost savings are another compelling benefit of GP3 volumes. GP3 is designed to provide the same performance as GP2 at a 20% lower cost per GB. This cost efficiency makes GP3 an attractive option for businesses looking to optimise their storage expenses without compromising on performance.

Additionally, the ability to provision performance independently of storage capacity in GP3 means that users can avoid over-provisioning storage just to meet performance needs, further reducing costs.

Additional Features

GP3 volumes come with several additional features that enhance their usability and performance management. For instance, the ability to dynamically adjust IOPS and throughput without downtime allows for seamless scaling based on changing workload demands. This flexibility ensures that applications remain performant without the need for disruptive changes or migrations.

Another notable feature is the improved burst performance. GP3 volumes can burst to 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s for extended periods, providing consistent performance for workloads with fluctuating demands.

Use Cases and Examples

The benefits of GP3 volumes make them suitable for a wide range of use cases. For example, large-scale databases that require high IOPS for transaction processing can significantly benefit from the enhanced performance and cost savings of GP3. Similarly, big data analytics workloads that demand high throughput will find GP3 volumes ideal for their needs.

In conclusion, the transition from GP2 to GP3 volumes offers substantial improvements in performance, cost efficiency, and flexibility. These benefits make GP3 an excellent choice for businesses looking to optimise their storage solutions in the cloud.

Step-by-Step Manual Migration Guide

Migrating your Amazon EBS volumes from GP2 to GP3 can significantly improve performance and reduce costs. Follow these steps to migrate your EBS volumes using the EC2 console without any downtime for your applications.

Step 1: Log into the EC2 Console

Open the AWS Management Console and log in with your credentials.
Navigate to the EC2 Dashboard.

Step 2: Locate Your EBS Volume

In the left-hand menu, click on Volumes under the Elastic Block Store section.
Find the GP2 volume you want to migrate. You can use the search bar to filter volumes by instance ID or volume ID.

Step 3: Create a Snapshot (Optional but Recommended)

Select the volume you wish to migrate.
Click on Actions and then Create Snapshot.
Provide a description for the snapshot and click Create Snapshot.

Step 4: Modify the Volume

Select the volume again after creating the snapshot.
Click on Actions and then Modify Volume.
In the Modify Volume dialog box, change the Volume Type from GP2 to GP3.
Optionally, adjust the Size, IOPS, and Throughput settings according to your requirements.

Step 5: Confirm and Apply Changes

Click Modify to apply the changes.
A confirmation dialog will appear, informing you that if you are increasing the size of the volume, you must extend the file system to utilise the new size. Click Yes to confirm.
The volume state will change to Modifying. This process can take up to 24 hours or longer, depending on the size and configuration of the volume.

Step 6: Verify the Changes

Once the modification is complete, the volume state will change to In Use.
Verify that the Volume Type is now GP3 and that the IOPS and Throughput settings match your specifications.

Additional Tips

If you increased the size of the volume, remember to extend the file system on your EC2 instance to utilise the additional space.
Regularly monitor the performance of your GP3 volumes to ensure they meet your workload requirements.
Consider setting up CloudWatch alarms to monitor the health and performance of your EBS volumes.

By following these steps, you can seamlessly migrate your EBS volumes from GP2 to GP3, taking advantage of improved performance and cost savings without interrupting your applications.

Why Migrate to GP3?

Performance: GP3 allows for higher IOPS and throughput at a lower cost, making it ideal for performance-intensive applications.
Cost-Efficiency: With GP3, you can achieve significant cost savings by optimising storage performance based on your specific needs.
Scalability: GP3 volumes provide the flexibility to scale your storage resources without the need for over-provisioning.

In conclusion, migrating to GP3 is a strategic move that can lead to better performance, cost savings, and scalability for your cloud infrastructure.