2 - Mounting Elastic Block Storage onto a EC2 Instance

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to mount Elastic Block Storage onto an EC2 instance.

Hafeez Baig
21 steps
2 minutes

Amazon Web Services

Refer to the following guide to learn how to use IAM in the cloud\ <https://scribehow.com/shared/Creating_an_IAM_User_and_User_Group_in_AWS_Management_Console__hWNiiXlcRJKFqYZZEJD-cg> Refer to this guide to learn how to create an EC2 instance with Elastic Block Storage Volumes<https://scribehow.com/shared/Creating_EC2_Instances_with_Elastic_Block_Storage_Volumes__H_2IgXHhQk62AOL09PCbxw>

Sign in to **AWS Management Console** as an **IAM User** **Pre-requisite** - Ensure you have selected the AWS region closest to your location\ For this guide, we will be using us-east-2 (Ohio) as a preferred choice

Type **EC2** in the search bar and click on **EC2** to view the EC2 Dashboard

**What is EC2 in AWS?** Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to rent virtual servers, known as instances, on which they can run their own applications. EC2 provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud, making it easy to scale computing resources up or down based on demand.

On the EC2 dashboard click on **Volumes** from the left bar

**What are Volumes in AWS?** A "Volume" in AWS typically refers to an Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume, providing persistent block-level storage for Amazon EC2 instances.

**Volumes** wizard will open, select the volume with size **1 GiB**

To Detach a Volume, click on the **Actions** dropdown button and select the option **Detach volume**

**Detach** wizard will open, click on the **Detach** button

Congratulations on successfully detaching the volume!

To **Attach** a Volume, select the volume with size **1 GiB**

Click on the **Actions** dropdown button and select the option **Attach Volume**

Attach Volume wizard will open, Scroll to the Availability Zone section and verify it is in **us-east-2a**

Click on the Instance dropdown and select option **EBS Instance A** as we want to Attach to EBS Instance A

Keep the **Device name** section as it is, following the recommended settings and click on the **Attach volume** button

Congratulations on successfully attaching the volume to EBS Instance A! Well done!

To connect an Attached volume, click on **Instances** from the left bar to view the EC2 instances

**Instances** wizard will open, select the Instance **EBS Instance A**

On the top right corner click on the **Actions** dropdown button select the option **Connect**

Scroll the page and click on the **Connect** button

Once you have successfully connected to the EC2 instance, enter the command **[[sudo file -s /dev/sdf ]],** /dev/sdb is linked to xvdf in the file system

**What is**`sudo file -s /dev/sdf`**command?** The command `sudo file -s /dev/sdf` analyzes the type of data stored on the block device `/dev/sdf`, with elevated privileges granted by `sudo`.

Type the command **[[lsblk]]** to list all the storage devices

**What is lsblk command?** The `lsblk` command is a utility in Unix-like operating systems used to list information about block devices connected to the system. It provides a concise overview of storage devices such as disks and their partitions, including details like device names, sizes, types, mount points, and relationships. This command helps users understand the storage layout of their system.

To mount the volume in a directory, create a directory using the command [[sudo mkdir /data]]

**What is mkdir command?** The `mkdir` command in Unix-like systems is used to create directories (folders). It creates a new directory with the specified name in the current directory by default, or at a specified location if provided.

Mount a volume on a directory by using the command [[sudo mount /dev/xvdf /data]]

**What is**`sudo mount /dev/xvdf /data`**command?** The command `sudo mount /dev/xvdf /data` mounts the filesystem located on the block device `/dev/xvdf` onto the directory `/data`. The `sudo` grants elevated privileges for executing the `mount` command, while `/dev/xvdf` represents the block device containing the filesystem to be mounted, and `/data` is the directory where the filesystem will be accessible after mounting.

Change the directory to data by using command [[cd /data]]

**What is**`cd /data`**command?** The command `cd /data` is used to change the current working directory to `/data`. When executed, it navigates the user's shell session to the specified directory, allowing them to access or manipulate files and directories within that directory.

type the command [[ls ]]to list all the files in the directory, you will find **firstfileonebs.txt** in the /data directory

**What is ls command ?** The `ls` command lists directory contents in a concise format. It displays filenames within the current directory by default or those specified as arguments.

Congratulations on completing this lab and Mounting Elastic Block Storage onto a EC2 Instance!Well done!

2 - Mounting Elastic Block Storage onto a EC2 Instance

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to mount Elastic Block Storage onto an EC2 instance.

Hafeez Baig
21 steps
2 minutes