I have an ebs-backed instance running on EC2. I'm using it to do some computationally intensive text processing on around 16Gb of data which is stored on sdb (i.e. the larger ebs volume associated with the instance).
I'd like to parallelized the processing by creating replicas of this instance, each with its own copy of the data. I can create an AMI from the instance but I need the image to include BOTH sda (the root ebs volume) AND ALSO sdb, which is the volume where all the data is. How can I make a replica of the whole package?
Creating an image in the AWS Management Console just copies sda (i.e. the root volume, which is too small to hold my data).
Is this even possible?
(PS: I don't even see the sdb volume in the AWS Management Console Elastic Block Store->Volumes panel)
Thanks!
I once needed this sort of setting where I had to setup a MySQL on a EBS backed machine with data store in a separate EBS Volume. The AMI had to be such that every time you instanciate it, it should have the data volume (with static data in it) attached. This is how I did:
Created an EBS backed instance from any existing image
Attached a EBS volume, performed mkfs, mounted on /database
Copied data to the volume, e.g. under /database/mysql
Created image of this setup from AMI web console.
Now, every time I launch this image, I see the volume with all the data is there. I just mount it on /database and things get going.
I am not sure, if this is helpful to you but your problem seemed to close to this.
Update after #NAD's comment
Yeah, AMI creation process excludes stuffs that are under
/sys
/proc
/dev
/media
/mnt
So, the trick is to not have stuffs that you want to bundle up with your AMI under these directories.
Also, if you have volume that you want to auto-mount at boot, register it in fstab
Related
I have an m3 large. Although I can find the other EBS volumes associated with that instance in the Volumes Section.
But I am not able to find my 32GB SSD disk.
How can we take backup of this SSD?
It appears that you are referring to the Instance Store SSD volume that is provided as part of an m3.large Amazon EC2 instance.
Instance Store volumes are temporary (aka "ephemeral") and the content is lost when the instance is Stopped, Terminated or fails. Therefore, it is recommended only for temporary files and swap files. Be sure to copy off any data you wish to keep before the instance is Stopped.
Instance Store volumes are not the same as Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes. While EBS provides a snapshot capability, this is not available for Instance Store volumes.
Instead, you must copy off any data you wish to keep via normal filesystem commands, or run traditional backup software. There is no snapshot-like capability available for Instance Store volumes.
I ran into some issues with my EC2 micro instance and had to terminate it and create a new one in its place. But it seems even though the old instance is no longer visible in the list, it is still using up some space on my disk. My df -h is listed below:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use%
/dev/xvda1 7.8G 7.0G 719M 91% /
When I go to the EC22 console I see there are 3 volumes each 8gb in the list. One of them is attached (/dev/xvda) and this one is showing as "in-use". The other 2 are simply showing as "Available"
Is the terminated instance really using up my disk space? If yes, how to free it up?
I have just solved my problem by running this command:
sudo apt autoremove
and a lot of old packages are going to be removed, for instance many files like this linux-aws-headers-4.4.0-1028
Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) is a service that provides virtual disks for use with Amazon EC2. It is network-attached storage that persists even when an EC2 instance is stopped or terminated.
When launching an Amazon EC2 instance, a boot volume is automatically attached to the instance. The contents of the boot volume is copied from an Amazon Machine Image (AMI), which can be chosen from a pre-populated list (including the ability to create your own AMI).
When an Amazon EC2 instance is Stopped, all EBS volumes remain attached to the instance. This allows the instance to be Started with the same configuration as when it was stopped.
When an Amazon EC2 instance is Terminated, EBS volumes might or might not be deleted, based upon the Delete on Termination setting of each volume:
By default, boot volumes are deleted when an instance is terminated. This is because the volume was originally just a copy of an AMI, so there is unlikely to be any important data on the volume. (Hint: Don't store data on a boot volume.)
Additional volumes default to "do not delete on termination", on the assumption that they contain data that should be retained. When the instance is terminated, these volumes will remain in an Available state, ready to be attached to another instance.
So, if you do not require any content on your remaining EBS volumes, simply delete them. In future, when launching instances, keep an eye on the Delete on Termination setting to make the clean-up process simpler.
Please note that the df -h command is only showing currently-attached volumes. It is not showing the volumes in Available state, since they are not visible to that instance. The concept of "Disk Space" typical refers to the space within an EBS volume, while "EBS Storage" refers to the volumes themselves. So, the 7GB of the volume that is used is related to that specific (boot) volume.
If you are running out of space on an EBS volume, see: Expanding the Storage Space of an EBS Volume on Linux. Expanding the volume involves:
Creating a snapshot
Creating a new (bigger) volume from the snapshot
Swapping the disks (requiring a Stop/Start if you are swapping a boot volume)
These 2 steps add an extra hard drive to your EC2 and format it for use:
Attach an extra hard drive (EBS: Elastic Block Storage) to an EC2
Format an EBS drive attached to an EC2
Here's pricing info. Free Tier includes 30GB. Afterward it's $1.25/month for 10GB on a General Purpose SSD (gp2).
To see how much space you are using/need:
Check your current disk use/available in Linux with df -h.
Check the size of a directory in Linux with du -sh [path].
Production went down today with no disk space remaining error. After deleting files and restarting the machine, it still came up with this error, even if I just try to touch a new empty file.
It is probably caused by running out of inodes, but I went ahead and created an "Image" which seems to create an AMI, but after launching an instance of the AMI the same problem persisted... probably because it is using the same EBS volume.
Question is: how do I snapshot the EBS volume and then connect a new volume to the AMI as the root fs?
You care correct that the "Create Image" command creates an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). If you start a new EC2 instance with this AMI, it will contain the same data as the machine that was imaged. That's why you are copying your exiting problem to the new instance.
Check your disk space with df -h to confirm that you have space available.
If you require more disk space, you can copy your disk to a larger volume as follows:
Option 1: If you already have an AMI of the volume:
Launch a new instance using the AMI, but expand the size of the volume in the Add Storage options
Option 2: If you want to retain the same instance:
Stop your instance
Create Snapshot of the EBS Volume
Create Volume from the Snapshot, specifying a larger storage size
Detach the original root volume
Attach the new volume in its place (keep the same Device identifier)
In both cases, after startup confirm that the partition has automatically expanded. If not, use the resize2fs command to extend the partition.
When you create an image of an ec2 instance, it takes snapshots of the volumes also. You can see this in "Images > AMIs" and snapshots information is visible in "Block Devices" column (By default, this column is not visible) of the table.
Now, if you are getting the "no disk space error", you need to increase the size of root volume. You can do that by following the link below:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ebs-expand-volume.html
So I create an instance using one of the Public AMI EBS Ubuntu flavors. I create an EBS volume and attach it to the instance. I format the volume and add an entry to /etc/fstab to mount it on /vol. I add mysql to the AMI and move the data files to the EBS volume I formatted and mounted at /vol. I then create an AMI from the running instance. Then I terminate the running instance.
I start a new instance using the freshly created AMI (with mysql on it). The /vol is mounted has the mysql data files - good, I expect that. Here's where I am confused. When I create any directory or files on the EBS volume /vol they aren't there any more after I terminate the instance and create a new one. The mysql stuff is there but no new stuff I created. Aren't those files and directory supposed to be there? Or am I misunderstanding how this works?
When you create an AMI, "Amazon EC2 powers down the instance, takes images of any volumes that were attached, creates and registers the AMI, and then reboots the instance." -Amazon. When the AMI is used to launch an instance, the images (snapshots) of the attached drives are used to create new volumes. It is these new volumes that are attached to the new instance, not your original EBS. (This generates lots of orphan volumes and snapshots with ongoing use.)
There is no automatic attaching of the EBS volume you created. What is automatically attached is the volume it creates at the time of launching the instance from your AMI! It creates this volume from the snapshot it made of your EBS at the time of the AMI creation!
The way to avoid clone volumes from being created and attached to new instances is simple: detach your volumes before making AMIs. You need to attach your EBS volumes manually with the EC2 Web Control Panel, or programmatically with .net or Java programming, scripting or command line tools.
EBS volumes are not tied to an AMI, only to the literal instance you attach them to. When you created your AMI and a new instance from that, the EBS is not cloned, nor does it follow you to the new instance.
You could move the EBS drive to the new instance manually. Alternately you could snapshot the EBS volume & clone a new drive from that.
EBS root instances seem to not have any instance storage - is this correct or some odd bug?
I'm expecting to have /dev/sda to be the EBS backed volume, and then have the other instance storage devices there as /dev/sdb etc...
Is this an incorrect assumption?
It's not a bug. Unlike Ephemeral, EBS based instances don't give you any free storage.
You can however create a new EBS volume and attach it to your instance.
Cheers
Ray
EDIT: I believe I led you astray as this seems to have changed. You still cannot attach local disk to an existing running instance but this does seem to be possible at launch time.
See:
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/index.html?Using_AddingDefaultLocalInstanceStorageToAMI.html
Taken from the above url, device mapping with an 80gb EBS root volume plus ephemeral storage.
https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
?Action=RegisterImage
&Name=MyImage
&KernelId=aki-f70657b2
&RamdiskId=ari-ff0d5cba
&RootDeviceName=/dev/sda1
&BlockDeviceMapping.1.DeviceName=/dev/sda1
&BlockDeviceMapping.1.Ebs.SnapshotId=snap-12345678
&BlockDeviceMapping.1.Ebs.VolumeSize=80
&BlockDeviceMapping.1.Ebs.DeleteOnTermination=false
&BlockDeviceMapping.2.DeviceName=/dev/sdc
&BlockDeviceMapping.2.VirtualName=ephemeral0
&...auth parameters...