Amazon EC2 Instance Scaling and Optimization Tips

Optimizing Performance for I/O and Network-Intensive Applications

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Question

You have an I/O and network-intensive application running on multiple Amazon EC2 instances that cannot handle a large ongoing increase in traffic.

Each Amazon EC2 instance uses two Amazon EBS Provisioned IOPS volumes.

All the instances are identical.

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D. E.

Answer - E.

The AWS Documentation mentions the following on AMI's.

An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) provides the information required to launch an instance, which is a virtual server in the cloud.

You specify an AMI when you launch an instance, and you can launch as many instances from the AMI as you need.

You can also launch instances from as many different AMIs as you need.

For more information on AMI's, please visit the link:

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html

Enhanced Networking enables in higher bandwidth and performance, low latency and lower gitter.

It uses single route IO visualized to provide higher performance networking capabilities on supported Instances types.

SRIOV is a method of virtualization for operations and lower CPU utilization when compared to traditional virtualized network interfaces.

There is no additional charge for using this.

Depending upon the Instance type Enhanced networking can be enabled in many forms.

How to enable the Enhanced Networking on an EC2 instance:

https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/enable-configure-enhanced-networking/

This question requires identifying a solution for an I/O and network-intensive application running on multiple Amazon EC2 instances that cannot handle a large ongoing increase in traffic.

Option A: Create an AMI from each instance, and set up several Auto Scaling groups with a larger instance type that has enhanced networking enabled.

This option suggests creating an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) from each instance and using Auto Scaling groups to launch larger instances with enhanced networking enabled. This approach can help handle a large increase in traffic by automatically launching new instances to handle the load. However, this option does not address the I/O and network-intensive application's current performance issue.

Option B: Stop each instance and change each instance to a larger Amazon EC2 instance type that has enhanced networking enabled and is Amazon EBS-optimized. Ensure that RAID striping is also set up on each instance.

This option suggests stopping each instance and changing each instance to a larger Amazon EC2 instance type that has enhanced networking enabled and is Amazon EBS-optimized. Additionally, it suggests setting up RAID striping on each instance. This approach can help improve the I/O performance of the application by using larger instances and EBS-optimized volumes, which are designed to handle high I/O rates. However, stopping each instance may cause downtime, which may not be acceptable in some cases.

Option C: Add an instance-store volume for each running Amazon EC2 instance and implement RAID striping to improve I/O performance.

This option suggests adding an instance-store volume for each running Amazon EC2 instance and implementing RAID striping to improve I/O performance. Instance-store volumes are ephemeral storage, which can provide high I/O performance but may cause data loss if the instance fails. Additionally, adding instance-store volumes may not be ideal for the application, which requires persistent storage.

Option D: Add an Amazon EBS volume for each running Amazon EC2 instance and implement RAID striping to improve I/O performance.

This option suggests adding an Amazon EBS volume for each running Amazon EC2 instance and implementing RAID striping to improve I/O performance. This approach can help improve the I/O performance of the application by using multiple EBS volumes with RAID striping. However, this option may not address the current performance issue and may require additional configuration.

Option E: Create an AMI from an instance, and set up an Auto Scaling group with an instance type that has enhanced networking enabled and is Amazon EBS-optimized.

This option suggests creating an AMI from an instance and using an Auto Scaling group to launch instances with enhanced networking enabled and EBS-optimized volumes. This approach can help handle a large increase in traffic by automatically launching new instances to handle the load. Additionally, using EBS-optimized volumes can help improve I/O performance. However, this option may not address the current performance issue.

Based on the question requirements, option B seems to be the most suitable solution as it suggests using larger instances with EBS-optimized volumes and RAID striping to improve I/O performance, which addresses the application's current performance issue. However, the downtime required to stop each instance may be a concern, depending on the application's requirements.