AWS provides a variety of storage options that can be used with EC2 (see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/Storage.html). Vector expects a block-level storage volume, so only the Amazon EC2 Instance Store (hereafter called Instance Store) and the Amazon Elastic Block Store (hereafter called EBS) volumes are discussed here.

Instance Store provides temporary block-level storage to an EC2 instance. It consists of one or more instance store volumes exposed as block devices.

The data in an instance store persists only during the lifetime of the instance. For more information, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/InstanceStorage.html.

Instance stores are available only for certain EC2 instance types, such as storage-optimized instances (see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/storage-optimized-instances.html).

If your workloads have very high I/O demands and you expect to run your instance 24x7 or bring up new instances on demand and reload data, then this may be an option for you.

EBS provides durable storage volumes that can be attached to a running instance. EBS can be attached to an EC2 when launching from an AMI or even while the instance is running. EBS volumes can be resized, and come in various types that differ in performance characteristics and pricing (see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EBSVolumeTypes.html).

All EC2 instances can work with EBS volumes.

If you want the flexibility of being able to stop, start, or resize EC2 instances without losing your data, then EBS volumes may be the choice for you. They provide lower I/O performance than instance store volumes but have additional flexibility and higher durability.