Exam AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C03 topic 1 question 127 discussion

Max instance store possible at this time is 30TB for NVMe which has the higher I/O compared to EBS. is4gen.8xlarge 4 x 7,500 GB (30 TB) NVMe SSD https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/InstanceStorage.html#instance-store-volumes

The correct Answer is A : Amazon EC2 instance store (Instance Store) is usually not the best choice because the storage it provides is temporary and tied to the life cycle of the instance. When an instance is stopped or terminated, data on the instance store is lost. In this scenario, the company's requirements were to have the maximum possible I/O performance and required durable data storage. Therefore, using Amazon EC2 Instance Store does not meet these requirements because it lacks durability. In contrast, Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) provides persistent regional block storage and can meet the needs of high-performance I/O. Therefore, the answer should include Amazon EBS, not Amazon EC2 instance storage.

Amazon EBS Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) for the 10 TB of storage needed for high I/O performance video processing.

At least 10 TB of storage with max I/O performance (for video processing): Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) provides high-performance block storage for EC2. Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) volumes offer the maximum performance and consistency required for intensive workloads like video processing. ❌ EC2 instance store is fast but ephemeral — data is lost if the instance stops or fails.

Can be a bit confusing due to the presence of option A: EBS Provisioned IOPS SSD, Durable = S3, Archive = Glacier, but maximum performance is always equal to instance store. Here they do not need a permanent storage with maximum performance. It will only be used for processing and then sent to a highly durable storage. D logically cannot be the answer

Instance storage is ephimeral data that gets destroyed when EC2 is stopped/restarted. Unless the question says that data is not important , I will assume that every data that app processed is imporant . So , I will go with A

Ans D. The requirements for every kind of data is specific. So, you need: 10 TB high I/O / performance = Instance Store ( the reqs. doesn't mention anything about durability, just performance ) 300 TB very durable = S3 900 TB archival = Glacier

EC2 Instance Store Volumes provide the highest storage performance in AWS and S3 provides durable storage while S3 Glacier is best for archival storage.

answer is A

The combination of Amazon EBS , Amazon S3 and Amazon S3 Glacier (option A) is the most suitable solution for this media company. It offers: Maximum I/O performance for video processing with Amazon EBS. Durability and reliability for media content with Amazon S3. Cost-effective storage for archived data with Amazon S3 Glacier.

I prefer A over D. instance storage is not recommended for video processing because it's designed for temporary storage and doesn't provide the durability and persistence needed for video processing. Instead, Amazon EBS is a better choice for video processing because it provides the required performance, durability, and persistence. Here's some more information about instance storage and Amazon EBS: Instance storage A temporary storage volume that acts as a physical hard drive. It's located on disks that are physically attached to the host computer. Instance storage is ideal for temporary storage of information that changes frequently, such as buffers, caches, and scratch data. Data in an instance store persists during the lifetime of its instance, but it's not persistent through instance stops, terminations, or hardware failures.

Why not EC2 instance store? Instance store is ephemeral (data is lost when the instance stops or terminates). It lacks durability, making it unsuitable for critical video processing.

Explanation: Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) for maximum performance: Amazon EBS provides high IOPS and low latency storage, which is ideal for video processing workloads that require fast performance. Amazon S3 for durable data storage: Amazon S3 is highly durable, scalable, and designed for storing large amounts of data, such as media content (300 TB). It also provides 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability, making it suitable for this requirement. Amazon S3 Glacier for archival storage: Amazon S3 Glacier is a cost-effective storage solution for archiving large amounts of data (900 TB) that is infrequently accessed but still needs to be stored securely and durably.

answer is A

instance store cannot be durable

The requirement ist "maximum performance". Instance storage is more performant than EBS, therefor D must be correct.

Ans A - ideally suits situation since its media, fast access and long-term storage... ": EBS for maximum performance, S3 for durable data storage, and S3 Glacier for archival storage."