EBS Snapshots: Storage Locations for Amazon EBS Snapshots

Where are EBS snapshots stored?

Question

Data on Amazon EBS volumes could be backed up by performing point-in-time snapshots.

Snapshots are incremental backups.

Only the changed blocks after the most recent snapshot are saved. Where are these EBS snapshots stored?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

Answer: B.

Option A is INCORRECT.

Snapshots are point-in-time backups of EBS volumes and are stored in Amazon S3.

Option B is CORRECT.

Refer to the link below for details.

Option C is INCORRECT.

Snapshots are stored in Amazon S3.

Option D is INCORRECT.

Snapshots are not stored in Aurora.

The snapshots are stored in Amazon S3.

Reference:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EBSSnapshots.html

EBS (Elastic Block Store) volumes are virtual hard drives that are attached to EC2 instances. EBS volumes are designed for durability and availability, but they are not immune to failure, data loss, or accidental deletion. Therefore, it is important to create backups of EBS volumes to prevent data loss and to recover from failures.

One way to back up EBS volumes is by taking snapshots, which are point-in-time copies of the volume's data. A snapshot captures the current state of the EBS volume, including all its blocks, whether they contain data or not. Snapshots are incremental backups, which means that only the changed blocks after the most recent snapshot are saved, reducing the time and cost of backup operations.

When you create an EBS snapshot, AWS stores it in Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), which is a highly scalable and durable object storage service that can store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the internet. Amazon S3 uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which means that you only pay for the storage and data transfer that you use, without any upfront costs or minimum fees.

Amazon S3 provides several features that make it suitable for storing EBS snapshots, including:

  • High durability: Amazon S3 stores data across multiple availability zones (AZs) within a region, which ensures that your data is protected against hardware failures, software errors, and natural disasters.

  • Versioning: Amazon S3 can keep multiple versions of the same object, which allows you to restore a previous version of an EBS snapshot if needed.

  • Encryption: Amazon S3 can encrypt your data at rest using server-side encryption (SSE) or client-side encryption (CSE), which helps to protect your data from unauthorized access.

In summary, EBS snapshots are stored in Amazon S3, which provides a highly durable, scalable, and cost-effective storage solution for backup and recovery operations.