I recently got hands-on with Amazon EFS, and I wanted to share a quick overview for anyone new to this awesome file storage service from AWS.
📦 What is Amazon EFS?
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is a scalable, fully managed NFS file system that you can use with AWS services and on-premises resources. It’s ideal for use cases where multiple compute instances need access to a shared file system.
📸 Here’s a peek at my EFS setup:
(Note: You can upload your screenshot directly on DEV when editing the post.)
Let’s break down what this setup means:
🧾 Key Configuration:
Name: EFSdemo
ARN: arn:aws:elasticfilesystem:ap-southeast-1:...
Performance Mode: General Purpose
Great for latency-sensitive use.
Throughput Mode: Elastic
Automatically scales with workload.
Lifecycle Management:
Transitions to Infrequent Access after 30 days of inactivity
Archives after 90 days
Automatic Backups: ✅ Enabled
Encryption: ✅ Enabled with AWS-managed key
DNS Name:
fs-0b179db6bcb645661.efs.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com
Replication Protection: ✅ Enabled
Protects from accidental overwrites during replication.
🔗 Why Use EFS?
Highly Scalable: Automatically grows/shrinks as you add/remove files.
Multiple EC2 Instances: Can be mounted on several instances simultaneously.
Managed & Secure: Encryption at rest, backup support, and lifecycle management built-in.
Cost Optimization: With lifecycle policies, you save on storage for infrequently accessed data.
🛠️ When to Use EFS?
Web serving and content management
Dev/test environments
Container storage with Amazon ECS or EKS
Shared home directories for applications
