Create an Amazon EBS volume - Amazon EBS

Create an Amazon EBS volume

You can create an Amazon EBS volume and then attach it to any EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone.

You can either create an empty volume, or you can create a volume from an Amazon EBS snapshot. If you create a volume from a snapshot, the volume begins as an exact replica of the volume that was used to create that snapshot.

Volume initialization

When you create a volume from a snapshot, the storage blocks from the snapshot must be downloaded from Amazon S3 and written to the volume before you can access them. This process is called volume initialization. During this time, the volume will experience increased I/O latency. Full volume performance is achieved once all storage blocks have been downloaded and written to the volume. You can minimize the performance impacts of volume initialization by doing one of the following:

  • Use a snapshot that is enabled for fast snapshot restore. In this case, the volume is fully initialized at creation and it immediately delivers maximum performance. For more information, see Amazon EBS fast snapshot restore.

  • Manually initialize the volume after creation. For more information, see Initialize Amazon EBS volumes

Empty volumes deliver their maximum performance immediately after creation and do not require initialization.

Volume encryption

The encryption state of the volume depends on whether your account is enabled for encryption by default, and on the encryption state of the snapshot, if you choose to use one. The following table summarizes the possible encryption outcomes.

Encryption by default Snapshot used? Volume encryption outcome Note
Disabled No Optional encryption If you enable encryption, you can specify the KMS key to use. If you enable encryption but do not specify a KMS key, the AWS managed key (aws/ebs) is used.
Disabled Yes, unencrypted Optional encryption If you enable encryption, you can specify the KMS key to use. If you enable encryption but do not specify a KMS key, the AWS managed key (aws/ebs) is used.
Disabled Yes, encrypted Automatic encryption You can specify the KMS key to use. If you do not specify a KMS key, the volume is encrypted using the same KMS key as the source snapshot.
Enabled No Automatic encryption You can specify the KMS key to use. If you do not specify a KMS key, the key specified for encryption by default is used.
Enabled Yes, unencrypted Automatic encryption You can specify the KMS key to use. If you do not specify a KMS key, the key specified for encryption by default is used.
Enabled Yes, encrypted Automatic encryption You can specify the KMS key to use. If you do not specify a KMS key, the volume is encrypted using the same key as the source snapshot (console), or the key specified for encryption by default (CLI/API).
Additional considerations

  • Volumes can be attached to instances in the same Availability Zone only.

  • Volumes are ready for use only once they reach the available state.

  • When you create a volume using the console, gp3 is the default volume type. For the command line tools, API, and SDK, gp2 is the default volume type.

  • To use a volume with an instance running on an outpost, you must create the volume on the same outpost as the instance.

  • If you create a volume for use with a Windows instance, and it's larger than 2048 GiB, ensure that you configure the volume to use GPT partition tables. For more information, see Amazon EBS volume constraints and Windows support for disks larger than 2 TB..

  • Volumes are also created indirectly by launching an Amazon EC2 instance. Either the AMI used to launch the instance, or the instance launch request itself could include block device mappings for Amazon EBS volumes. For more information, see Block device mappings.

Use one of the following methods to create a volume.

Console
To create a volume

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

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Volumes and then choose Create volume.

  3. (Outpost customers only) For Outpost ARN, enter the ARN of the AWS outpost on which to create the volume.

  4. For Volume type, choose the type of volume to create. For more information about the available volume types, see Amazon EBS volume types.

  5. For Size, enter the size of the volume, in GiB. For more information, see Amazon EBS volume constraints.

  6. (For io1, io2, and gp3 only) For IOPS, enter the maximum number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) that the volume should provide.

  7. (For gp3 only) For Throughput, enter the throughput that the volume should provide, in MiB/s.

  8. For Availability Zone, choose the Availability Zone in which to create the volume.

  9. For Snapshot ID, do one of the following:

    • To create an empty volume, keep the default value (Don't create volume from a snapshot).

    • To create the volume from a snapshot, select the snapshot to use.

  10. (io1 and io2 only) To enable the volume for Amazon EBS Multi-Attach, select Enable Multi-Attach. For more information, see Attach an EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances using Multi-Attach.

  11. Set the encryption status for the volume.

    • If your account is enabled for encryption by default, encryption is automatic and can't be disabled.

    • If you selected an encrypted snapshot, encryption is automatic and can't be disabled.

    • If your account is not enabled for encryption by default, and you select an unencrypted snapshot or do not select a snapshot, encryption is optional.

  12. (Optional) To assign custom tags to the volume, in the Tags section, choose Add tag, and then enter a tag key and value pair.

  13. Choose Create volume.

  14. To use the volume, wait for it to reach the available state and then attach it to an Amazon EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone. For more information, see Attach an Amazon EBS volume to an Amazon EC2 instance.

Command line
To create a volume using the AWS CLI

Use the create-volume command.

To create a volume using the Tools for Windows PowerShell

Use the New-EC2Volume command.