AWS persistent storage

Setup the work environment

Before start ensure you have the latest EC2 API tools installed on system. Download the latest EC2 API from Amazon EC2 API Tools and follow the instructions in Building an AMI to install or replace the current API.

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Warning Older releases of EC2 API cannot handle persistent volume commands.

Working with volumes

How to create a volume

• Look for available zones

# ec2-describe-availability-zones
AVAILABILITYZONE	us-east-1a	available
AVAILABILITYZONE	us-east-1b	available
AVAILABILITYZONE	us-east-1c	available

• Create a volume, the -s specifies the size in Gigabytes.

# ec2-create-volume -z us-east-1a -s 549755813888
Client.InvalidParameterValue: Volume of 549755813888GiB is too large; maximum is 1024GiB.
# ec2-create-volume -z us-east-1a -s 128
VOLUME	vol-cd2dc8a4	128		us-east-1a	creating	2008-08-29T01:07:22+0000

• Check the volume status

# ec2-describe-volumes
VOLUME	vol-cd2dc8a4	128		us-east-1a	available	2008-08-29T01:07:22+0000

How to attach a volume to an instance

• Get the instance name

# ec2-describe-instances
RESERVATION	r-9f5c9ff6	367161194499	default
INSTANCE	i-577aae3e	ami-43ab4f2a	ec2-75-101-129-154.compute-1.amazonaws.com	domU-12-31-39-00-A2-02 .compute-1.internal	running	bashlinux-general-server-keypair	0		m1.small	2008-06-20T01:57:42+0000	us-east-1a

• Attach the volume using the instance name i-577aae3e obtained from the last command, note that /dev/sdb must not exist, in case it does, then just use another name not used yet

# ec2-attach-volume vol-cd2dc8a4 -i i-577aae3e -d /dev/sdb
ATTACHMENT	vol-cd2dc8a4	i-577aae3e	/dev/sdb	attaching	2008-08-29T01:18:06+0000

• Login into the instance

# ssh -i .ssh/bashlinux-general-server-keypair [email protected]

• Format the new attached drive /dev/sdb

[root@ec2 ~]# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb
mke2fs 1.39 (29-May-2006)
/dev/sdb is entire device, not just one partition!
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
16777216 inodes, 33554432 blocks
1677721 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
1024 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
16384 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
	4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872

Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 38 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

• Mount the new partitioned drive

[root@ec2 ~]# mkdir -p /mnt/storage
[root@ec2 ~]# mount /dev/sdb /mnt/storage

• Check new partition space

[root@ec2 ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             4.0G  4.0G     0 100% /
none                  851M     0  851M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2             147G  388M  139G   1% /mnt
/dev/sdb              126G  188M  120G   1% /mnt/storage

How to remove a volume

• Login into the instance

# ssh -i .ssh/bashlinux-general-server-keypair [email protected]

• Unmount the volume

[root@ec2 log]# umount /mnt/storage

• Check the volume was unmounted

[root@ec2 log]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             4.0G  4.0G     0 100% /
none                  851M     0  851M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2             147G  388M  139G   1% /mnt

• Logout from the instance

[root@ec2 log]# exit

• Detach the volume

# ec2-detach-volume vol-cd2dc8a4 -i i-577aae3e -d /dev/sdb
ATTACHMENT	vol-cd2dc8a4	i-577aae3e	/dev/sdb	detaching	2008-08-29T01:18:06+0000

• Delete volume

# ec2-delete-volume vol-cd2dc8a4
VOLUME	vol-cd2dc8a4

• Check deleted volume

# ec2-describe-volumes
VOLUME	vol-cd2dc8a4	128		us-east-1a	deleting	2008-08-29T01:07:22+0000