EBS snapshots are point-in-time backups of your EBS volumes, stored in S3 and incremental — only changed blocks are saved after the first snapshot. They’re the basis for EBS backup and DR.
What to know
Snapshots are incremental (cost-efficient), can be copied across Regions for DR, and can create new volumes (even in another AZ). Automate them with Data Lifecycle Manager or AWS Backup. The tell is “back up an EBS volume,” “move a volume to another AZ/Region,” or “point-in-time volume recovery.”
Test yourself
You need to move an EBS volume’s data to a different Availability Zone. What’s the standard approach?
- Detach and physically move the volume
- Create an EBS snapshot, then create a new volume from it in the target AZ
- Enable Multi-AZ on the volume
- Use S3 Transfer Acceleration
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. EBS volumes are AZ-bound, so you snapshot the volume and create a new volume from the snapshot in the target AZ. Volumes can’t be physically moved (A); EBS has no Multi-AZ toggle (C); Transfer Acceleration (D) is for S3 uploads.
Related topics
Amazon EC2 · EBS Volume Types · AWS Backup
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