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SSD instance store volumes

Like other instance store volumes, you must map the SSD instance store volumes for your instance when you launch it. The data on an SSD instance volume persists only for the life of its associated instance. For more information, see Add instance store volumes to your EC2 instance.

NVMe SSD volumes

Some instances offer non-volatile memory express (NVMe) solid state drives (SSD) instance store volumes. For more information about the type of instance store volume supported by each instance type, see Instance store volumes.

The latest Amazon Windows AMIs for the following operating systems contain the Amazon NVMe drivers used to interact with SSD instance store volumes that are exposed as NVMe block devices for better performance:

After you connect to your instance, you can verify that you see the NVMe volumes in Disk Manager. On the taskbar, open the context (right-click) menu for the Windows logo and choose Disk Management.

The Amazon Windows AMIs provided by Amazon include the Amazon NVMe driver. If you are not using the latest Amazon Windows AMIs, you can install the current Amazon NVMe driver.

The data on NVMe instance storage is encrypted using an XTS-AES-256 block cipher implemented in a hardware module on the instance. The encryption keys are generated using the hardware module and are unique to each NVMe instance storage device. All encryption keys are destroyed when the instance is stopped or terminated and cannot be recovered. You cannot disable this encryption and you cannot provide your own encryption key.

Non-NVMe SSD volumes

The following instances support instance store volumes that use non-NVMe SSDs to deliver high random I/O performance: C3, I2, M3, R3, and X1. For more information about the instance store volumes supported by each instance type, see Instance store volumes.

SSD-based instance store volume I/O performance

As you fill the SSD-based instance store volumes for your instance, the number of write IOPS that you can achieve decreases. This is due to the extra work the SSD controller must do to find available space, rewrite existing data, and erase unused space so that it can be rewritten. This process of garbage collection results in internal write amplification to the SSD, expressed as the ratio of SSD write operations to user write operations. This decrease in performance is even larger if the write operations are not in multiples of 4,096 bytes or not aligned to a 4,096-byte boundary. If you write a smaller amount of bytes or bytes that are not aligned, the SSD controller must read the surrounding data and store the result in a new location. This pattern results in significantly increased write amplification, increased latency, and dramatically reduced I/O performance.

SSD controllers can use several strategies to reduce the impact of write amplification. One such strategy is to reserve space in the SSD instance storage so that the controller can more efficiently manage the space available for write operations. This is called over-provisioning. The SSD-based instance store volumes provided to an instance do not have any space reserved for over-provisioning. To reduce write amplification, we recommend that you leave 10 percent of the volume unpartitioned so that the SSD controller can use it for over-provisioning. This decreases the storage that you can use, but increases performance even if the disk is close to full capacity.

For instance store volumes that support TRIM, you can use the TRIM command to notify the SSD controller whenever you no longer need data that you have written. This provides the controller with more free space, which can reduce write amplification and increase performance. For more information, see Instance store volume TRIM support.

Instance store volume TRIM support

Some instance types support SSD volumes with TRIM. For more information, see Instance store volumes.

Instances running Windows Server 2012 R2 support TRIM as of Amazon PV Driver version 7.3.0. Instances running earlier versions of Windows Server do not support TRIM.

Instance store volumes that support TRIM are fully trimmed before they are allocated to your instance. These volumes are not formatted with a file system when an instance launches, so you must format them before they can be mounted and used. For faster access to these volumes, you should skip the TRIM operation when you format them. On Windows, to temporarily disable TRIM support during initial formatting, use the fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1 command. After formatting is complete, re-enable TRIM support by using fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.

With instance store volumes that support TRIM, you can use the TRIM command to notify the SSD controller when you no longer need data that you've written. This provides the controller with more free space, which can reduce write amplification and increase performance. On Windows, use the fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0 command to ensure TRIM support is enabled during normal operation.