Use Amazon EFS with Amazon EC2

Amazon EFS provides scalable file storage for use with Amazon EC2. You can use an EFS file system as a common data source for workloads and applications running on multiple instances. For more information, see the Amazon Elastic File System product page.

For a tutorial on how to create a file system using the Amazon EFS console, see Getting started with Amazon Elastic File System in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

Important

Amazon EFS is not supported on Windows instances.

Create an EFS file system using Amazon EFS Quick Create

You can create an EFS file system and mount it to your instance when you launch your instance using the Amazon EFS Quick Create feature of the Amazon EC2 launch instance wizard.

When you create an EFS file system using EFS Quick Create, the file system is created with the following service recommended settings:

• Automatic backups turned on. For more information, see Using AWS Backup to back up and restore Amazon EFS file systems in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

• Mount targets in each default subnet in the selected VPC, using the VPC's default security group. For more information, see Managing file system network accessibility in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

• General Purpose performance mode. For more information, see Performance modes in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

• Bursting throughput mode. For more information, see Throughput modes in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

• Encryption of data at rest enabled using your default key for Amazon EFS (aws/elasticfilesystem). For more information, see Encrypting data at rest in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

• Amazon EFS lifecycle management enabled with a 30-day policy. For more information, see Amazon EFS lifecycle management in the Amazon Elastic File System User Guide.

New console

To create an EFS file system using Amazon EFS Quick Create

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. Choose Launch instance.

3. (Optional) Under Name and tags, for Name, enter a name to identify your instance.

4. Under Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image), choose a Linux operating system, and then for Amazon Machine Image (AMI), select a Linux AMI.

5. Under Instance type, for Instance type, select an instance type or keep the default.

6. Under Key pair (login), for Key pair name, choose an existing key pair or create a new one.

7. Under Network settings, choose Edit (at right), and then for Subnet, select a subnet.

   Note

   You must select a subnet before you can add an EFS file system.

8. Under Configure storage, choose Edit (at bottom right), and then do the following:

   1. Make sure that EFS is selected.

   2. Choose Add shared file system.

      Troubleshooting tip

      If Add shared file system is not visible, you must first select a subnet.

   3. For File system, select an existing file system, or choose Create new shared file system and create a file system using Amazon EFS Quick Create.

   4. For Mount point, specify a mount point or keep the default.

   5. To enable access to the file system, select Automatically create and attach security groups. By selecting this check box, the necessary security groups will automatically be created and attached to the instance and the mount targets of the file system, as follows:

      • Instance security group – Includes an outbound rule that allows traffic over the NFS 2049 port, but includes no inbound rules.

      • File system mount targets security group – Includes an inbound rule that allows traffic over the NFS 2049 port from the instance security group (described above), and an outbound rule that allows traffic over the NFS 2049 port.

      You can choose to manually create and attach the security groups. If you want to manually create and attach the security groups, clear Automatically create and attach the required security groups.

   6. To automatically mount the shared file system when the instance launches, select Automatically mount shared file system by attaching required user data script. To view the user data that is automatically generated, expand Advanced details, and scroll down to User data.

      Note

      If you added user data before selecting this check box, the original user data is overwritten by the user data that is automatically generated.

9. Configure any other instance configuration settings as needed.

10. In the Summary panel, review your instance configuration, and then choose Launch instance. For more information, see Launch an instance using the new launch instance wizard

Old console

To create an EFS file system using Amazon EFS Quick Create

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. Choose Launch Instance.

3. On the Choose an AMI page, choose a Linux AMI.

4. On the Choose an Instance Type page, select an instance type and then choose Next: Configure Instance Details.

5. On the Configure Instance Details page, for File systems, choose Create new file system, enter a name for the new file system, and then choose Create.

   To enable access to the file system, the following security groups are automatically created and attached to the instance and the mount targets of the file system.

   • Instance security group—Includes no inbound rules and an outbound rule that allows traffic over the NFS 2049 port.

   • File system mount targets security group—Includes an inbound rule that allows traffic over the NFS 2049 port from the instance security group (described above), and an outbound rule that allows traffic over the NFS 2049 port.

   You can also choose to manually create and attach the security groups. To do this, clear Automatically create and attach the required security groups.

   Configure the remaining settings as needed and choose Next: Add Storage.

6. On the Add Storage page, make any necessary changes, and then choose Next: Add Tags.

7. On the Add Tags page, specify any tags if necessary, and then choose Next: Configure Security Group.

8. On the Configure Security Group page, review the security groups and then choose Review and Launch.

9. On the Review Instance Launch page, review the settings, and then choose Launch to choose a key pair and to launch your instance.

Test the EFS file system

You can connect to your instance and verify that the file system is mounted to the directory that you specified (for example, /mnt/efs).

To verify that the file system is mounted

1. Connect to your instance. For more information, see Connect to your Linux instance.

2. From the terminal window for the instance, run the df -T command to verify that the EFS file system is mounted.

   $ df -T
   Filesystem     Type              1K-blocks    Used          Available Use% Mounted on
   /dev/xvda1     ext4                8123812 1949800            6073764  25% /
   devtmpfs       devtmpfs            4078468      56            4078412   1% /dev
   tmpfs          tmpfs               4089312       0            4089312   0% /dev/shm
   efs-dns        nfs4       9007199254740992       0   9007199254740992   0% /mnt/efs

   Note that the name of the file system, shown in the example output as efs-dns, has the following form.

   file-system-id.efs.aws-region.amazonaws.com:/

3. (Optional) Create a file in the file system from the instance, and then verify that you can view the file from another instance.

   1. From the instance, run the following command to create the file.

      $ sudo touch /mnt/efs/test-file.txt

   2. From the other instance, run the following command to view the file.

      $ ls /mnt/efs
      test-file.txt

Delete the EFS file system

If you no longer need your file system, you can delete it.

To delete the file system

1. Open the Amazon Elastic File System console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/efs/.

2. Select the file system to delete.

3. Choose Actions, Delete file system.

4. When prompted for confirmation, enter the file system ID and choose Delete file system.