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Definition


AMAZON EC2 INSTANCE


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By
 * TechTarget Contributor
 * Ivy Wigmore, Content Editor


WHAT IS AN AMAZON EC2 INSTANCE?

An Amazon EC2 instance is a virtual server in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud
(EC2) for running applications on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure.
AWS is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform; EC2 is a service that
enables business subscribers to run application programs in the computing
environment. It can serve as a practically unlimited set of virtual machines
(VMs).

Amazon provides various types of instances with different configurations of CPU,
memory, storage and networking resources to suit user needs. Each type is
available in various sizes to address specific workload requirements.

Instances are created from Amazon Machine Images (AMI). The machine images are
like templates. They are configured with an operating system (OS) and other
software, which determine the user's operating environment. Users can select an
AMI provided by AWS, the user community or through the AWS Marketplace. Users
also can create their own AMIs and share them.




EC2 INSTANCE TYPES

Instance types are grouped into families based on target application profiles.
These groups include the following:

 * General purpose. A general purpose instance is a VM that is designed to
   handle a variety of workloads. General purpose instances are optimized to
   have a high number of CPU cores, on-demand storage and memory. Some common
   use cases for general purpose instances include web server hosting and
   software development and testing.
 * Compute optimized. Compute optimized instances are used to run big data
   applications that require large amounts of processing power and memory on the
   AWS cloud. These instances are designed and optimized for running
   computational and data-intensive applications that require fast network
   performance, extensive availability and high input/output (I/O) operations
   per second (IOPS). Examples of types of applications includes scientific and
   financial modeling and simulation, machine learning, enterprise data
   warehousing and business intelligence.
 * Graphics processing unit (GPU). These instances provide a way to run
   graphics-intensive applications faster than with the standard EC2 instances.
   Systems that rely on GPUs include gaming and design work. For example, Linux
   distributions often take advantage of GPUs for rendering graphical user
   interfaces, improving compression speeds and speeding up database queries.
 * Memory optimized. Memory optimized instances use a high-speed, solid-state
   drive to provide ultra-fast access to data and deliver high performance.
   These instances are ideal for applications that require more memory and less
   CPU power, including open source databases, real-time big data analytics and
   in-memory caches.
 * Storage optimized. Storage optimized instances are ideal for applications
   that require high I/O performance, such as NoSQL databases that store and
   retrieve data in real time. They're also well suited for memory-intensive
   applications such as data processing, data warehousing, analytics workloads
   and log processing.
 * Micro. A micro instance is meant for applications with low throughput. The
   micro instance type can serve as a small database server, as a platform for
   software testing or as a web server that does not require high transaction
   rates.

AWS offers various pricing options for Amazon EC2 instances.



AMAZON EC2 INSTANCE FEATURES

Many EC2 instance features are customizable, including the storage, number of
virtual processors and memory available to the instance, OS and the AMI on which
the instance is based. The following are Amazon EC2 instance features:

 * Operating system. EC2 supports many OSes, including Linux, Microsoft Windows
   Server, CentOS and Debian.
 * Persistent storage. Amazon's Elastic Block Storage (EBS) service enables
   block-level storage volumes to be attached to EC2 instances and be used as
   hard drives. With EBS, it is possible to increase or decrease the amount of
   storage available to an EC2 instance and attach EBS volumes to more than one
   instance at the same time.
 * Elastic IP addresses. Amazon's Elastic IP service lets IP addresses be
   associated with an instance. Elastic IP addresses can be moved from instance
   to instance without requiring a network administrator's help. This makes them
   ideal for use in failover clusters, for load balancing, or for other purposes
   where there are multiple servers running the same service.
 * Amazon CloudWatch. This web service allows for the monitoring of AWS cloud
   services and the applications deployed on AWS. CloudWatch can be used to
   collect, store and analyze historical and real-time performance data. It can
   also proactively monitor applications, improve resource use, optimize costs
   and scale up or down based on changing workloads.
 * Automated scaling. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling automatically adds or removes
   capacity from Amazon EC2 virtual servers in response to application demand.
   Auto Scaling provides more capacity to handle temporary increases in traffic
   during a product launch or to increase or decrease capacity based on whether
   use is above or below certain thresholds.
 * Bare-metal instances. These virtual server instances consist of the hardware
   resources, such as a processor, storage and network. They are not virtualized
   and do not run an OS, reducing their memory footprint, providing extra
   security and increasing their processing power.
 * Amazon EC2 Fleet. This service enables the deployment and management of
   instances as a single virtual server. The Fleet service makes it possible to
   launch, stop and terminate EC2 instances across EC2 instance types with one
   action. Amazon EC2 Fleet also provides programmatic access to fleet
   operations using an API. Fleet management can be integrated into existing
   management tools. With EC2 Fleet, policies can be scaled to automatically
   adjust the size of a fleet to match the workload.
 * Pause and resume instances. EC2 instances can be paused and resumed from the
   same state later on. For example, if an application uses too many resources,
   it can be paused without incurring charges for instance usage.

The cloud cost model can be challenging. Find out the steps to take to
effectively manage AWS costs, including EC2 instances; identify ways to save;
and keep your cloud costs in check.

This was last updated in July 2021

CONTINUE READING ABOUT AMAZON EC2 INSTANCE

 * Are EC2 Reserved Instances the most economical choice?

 * How to create Amazon EC2 security groups

 * Amazon EC2 to S3: A guide to AWS products

 * What's the best use for EC2 Dedicated instances?

 * Do EC2 Dedicated Hosts give us more control over workloads?



RELATED TERMS

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message queuing service technical professionals and developers use to send,
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DIG DEEPER ON AMAZON EC2 (ELASTIC COMPUTE CLOUD) MANAGEMENT

 * AWS MONTH IN REVIEW: AMAZON ROLLS OUT RDS ON VMWARE, LOSES JEDI DEAL
   
   
   By: Ryan Dowd

 * AWS UPDATES: AMAZON QLDB HITS, S3 EXPANDS, NEW INSTANCES ARRIVE
   
   
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 * AMAZON EC2 (ELASTIC COMPUTE CLOUD)
   
   
   By: David Carty

 * EC2 FLEET AUTO SCALING TARGETS DIVERSE WORKLOADS
   
   
   By: Chris Kanaracus

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