Zend_Service_Amazon_Ec2: Elastic Block Storage (EBS)

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) is a new type of storage designed specifically for Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon EBS allows you to create volumes that can be mounted as devices by Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon EBS volumes behave like raw unformatted external block devices. They have user supplied device names and provide a block device interface. You can load a file system on top of Amazon EBS volumes, or use them just as you would use a block device.

You can create up to twenty Amazon EBS volumes of any size (from one GiB up to one TiB). Each Amazon EBS volume can be attached to any Amazon EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone or can be left unattached.

Amazon EBS provides the ability to create snapshots of your Amazon EBS volumes to Amazon S3. You can use these snapshots as the starting point for new Amazon EBS volumes and can protect your data for long term durability.

Create EBS Volumes and Snapshots

Example #1 Create a new EBS Volume

Creating a brand new EBS Volume requires the size and which zone you want the EBS Volume to be in.

createNewVolume will return an array containing information about the new Volume which includes the volumeId, size, zone, status and createTime.

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Example #2 Create an EBS Volume from a Snapshot

Creating an EBS Volume from a snapshot requires the snapshot_id and which zone you want the EBS Volume to be in.

createVolumeFromSnapshot will return an array containing information about the new Volume which includes the volumeId, size, zone, status, createTime and snapshotId.

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Example #3 Create a Snapshot of an EBS Volume

Creating a Snapshot of an EBS Volume requires the volumeId of the EBS Volume.

createSnapshot will return an array containing information about the new Volume Snapshot which includes the snapshotId, volumeId, status, startTime and progress.

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Describing EBS Volumes and Snapshots

Example #4 Describing an EBS Volume

describeVolume allows you to get information on an EBS Volume or a set of EBS Volumes. If nothing is passed in then it will return all EBS Volumes. If only one EBS Volume needs to be described a string can be passed in while an array of EBS Volume Id's can be passed in to describe them.

describeVolume will return an array with information about each Volume which includes the volumeId, size, status and createTime. If the volume is attached to an instance, an addition value of attachmentSet will be returned. The attachment set contains information about the instance that the EBS Volume is attached to, which includes volumeId, instanceId, device, status and attachTime.

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Example #5 Describe Attached Volumes

To return a list of EBS Volumes currently attached to a running instance you can call this method. It will only return EBS Volumes attached to the instance with the passed in instanceId.

describeAttachedVolumes returns the same information as the describeVolume but only for the EBS Volumes that are currently attached to the specified instanceId.

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Example #6 Describe an EBS Volume Snapshot

describeSnapshot allows you to get information on an EBS Volume Snapshot or a set of EBS Volume Snapshots. If nothing is passed in then it will return information about all EBS Volume Snapshots. If only one EBS Volume Snapshot needs to be described its snapshotId can be passed in while an array of EBS Volume Snapshot Id's can be passed in to describe them.

describeSnapshot will return an array containing information about each EBS Volume Snapshot which includes the snapshotId, volumeId, status, startTime and progress.

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Attach and Detaching Volumes from Instances

Example #7 Attaching an EBS Volume

attachVolume will attach an EBS Volume to a running Instance. To attach a volume you need to specify the volumeId, the instanceId and the device (ex: /dev/sdh).

attachVolume will return an array with information about the attach status which contains volumeId, instanceId, device, status and attachTime

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Example #8 Detaching an EBS Volume

detachVolume will detach an EBS Volume from a running Instance. detachVolume requires that you specify the volumeId with the optional instanceId and device name that was passed when attaching the volume. If you need to force the detachment you can set the fourth parameter to be TRUE and it will force the volume to detach.

detachVolume returns an array containing status information about the EBS Volume which includes volumeId, instanceId, device, status and attachTime.

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Note: Forced Detach
You should only force a detach if the previous detachment attempt did not occur cleanly (logging into an instance, unmounting the volume, and detaching normally). This option can lead to data loss or a corrupted file system. Use this option only as a last resort to detach a volume from a failed instance. The instance will not have an opportunity to flush file system caches or file system meta data. If you use this option, you must perform file system check and repair procedures.

Deleting EBS Volumes and Snapshots

Example #9 Deleting an EBS Volume

deleteVolume will delete an unattached EBS Volume.

deleteVolume will return boolean TRUE or FALSE.

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Example #10 Deleting an EBS Volume Snapshot

deleteSnapshot will delete an EBS Volume Snapshot.

deleteSnapshot returns boolean TRUE or FALSE.

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