Learn about the three key configuration choices that impact EC2 instance pricing on AWS. Prepare for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam with this expert explanation.
Table of Contents
Question
Which of the following configuration choices affect the pricing of an EC2 instance? (Select THREE.)
A. The storage configuration
B. The instance type
C. The AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role
D. The security group
E. The key pair
F. The Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Answer
A. The storage configuration
B. The instance type
F. The Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Explanation
Configuration choices that affect pricing are the AMI, the instance type, and the storage configuration. The key pair, the security group, and the IAM role do not affect pricing of an EC2 instance.
The three configuration choices that affect the pricing of an Amazon EC2 instance are:
A. The storage configuration
B. The instance type
F. The Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Storage Configuration (A): The type and amount of storage attached to your EC2 instance impacts the price. Larger storage volumes and faster storage types like Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) are more expensive than general purpose SSD (gp2) or magnetic (standard) volumes.
Instance Type (B): EC2 offers a wide range of instance types optimized for different use cases like general purpose, compute optimized, memory optimized, accelerated computing, and storage optimized. More powerful instance types with more vCPUs, memory, and enhanced networking cost more per hour than smaller instances.
Amazon Machine Image (F): The AMI you choose as the template for your EC2 instance can affect pricing. Some AMIs have additional licensed software that incurs extra hourly fees on top of the normal EC2 instance charges. Examples include commercial operating systems like Windows Server and RHEL, as well as third-party software packages. Using an AMI with only free open-source software (like Amazon Linux 2) helps minimize costs.
The other options – IAM role (C), security group (D), and key pair (E) – are important configuration settings for EC2 instances but do not directly impact hourly instance pricing. IAM is always free, while security groups and key pairs are mechanisms for securely controlling access to EC2 instances.
In summary, carefully consider your EC2 instance’s storage type/size, instance type, and AMI to optimize your costs. Consult the AWS pricing page for details on current EC2 instance pricing.
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