Instance Store

• An instance store provides temporary block-level storage for your instance.

• This storage is located on disks that are physically attached to the host computer.

  • Very high IOPS because it is attached physically.

• Instance store is ideal for temporary storage of information that changes frequently, such as buffers, caches, scratch data, and other temporary content, or for data that is replicated across a fleet of instances, such as a load-balanced pool of web servers.

• The instance type determines the size of the instance store available and the type of hardware used for the instance store volumes.

• Instance store volumes are included as part of the instance's usage cost.

• You can specify instance store volumes for an instance only when you launch it.

• You can't detach an instance store volume from one instance and attach it to a different instance.

• The data in an instance store persists only during the lifetime of its associated instance.

• If an instance reboots, data in the instance store persists.

  • However, data in the instance store is lost under any of the following circumstances:1

    • The underlying disk drive fails

    • The instance stops or hibernates or terminates

• Do not rely on instance store for valuable, long-term data.

  • Instead, use more durable data storage, such as Amazon S3, Amazon EBS, or Amazon EFS.