Third-party block storage on Outposts racks
With Outposts servers, you can leverage existing data you're stored on third-party storage arrays. You can specify external block data volumes and external block boot volumes for your EC2 instances on Outposts. Using this integration, you can use external block data and boot volumes backed by third-party vendors, such as NetApp ONTAP and Pure FlashArray storage systems.
Considerations
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Available on Outposts racks and Outposts 2U servers. Not available on Outposts 1U servers.
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Available in all AWS Regions where AWS Outposts is available, except the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.
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Available at no extra charge.
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You are responsible for the configuration and day-to-day management of the storage array. You also create and manage the external block volumes on the storage array. If you have issues with the hardware, software, or connectivity for the storage array, contact the third-party storage vendor.
External block data volumes
After you provision and configure block data volumes backed by a compatible third-party storage system, you can attach the volumes to your EC2 instances when you launch them. If you configure the volumes for multi-attach on the storage array, you can attach a volume to multiple EC2 instances.
Key steps
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AWS technicians configure the local gateway to ensure connectivity between the Outpost subnets and the local network.
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You use the management interface for the external storage array to create the volume. Then, you'll configure the initiator mapping by created a new Initiator Group and adding the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) of the target EC2 instance to this group. This associates the external block data volume with the EC2 instance.
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You add the external data volume when you launch the instance. You'll need the Initiator IQN, the target IP address, the port, and the IQN of the external storage array. For more information, see Launch an instance on the Outpost.
For more information, see Simplifying the use of third-party block storage with AWS Outposts
External block boot volumes
Booting an EC2 instance on Outposts from external storage arrays provides a centralized, cost-effective, and efficient solution for on-premises workloads that depend on third-party storage. You can choose between the following options:
- iSCSI SAN boot
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Provides direct booting from the external storage array. Utilizes an AWS-provided iPXE helper AMI so that the instances can boot from a network location. When iPXE is combined with iSCSI, the EC2 instance treats the remote iSCSI target (the storage array) as a local disk. All read and write operations from the operating system are performed on the external storage array.
- iSCSI or NVMe-over-TCP LocalBoot
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Launches EC2 instances using a copy of the boot volume retrieved from the storage array, leaving the original source image unmodified. We launch a helper instance using a LocalBoot AMI. This helper instance copies the boot volume from the storage array to the instance store of the EC2 instance, and acts as an iSCSI initiator or NVMe-over-TCP host. Finally, the EC2 instance reboots using the local instance store volume.
Because instance store is temporary storage, the boot volume is deleted when the EC2 instance is terminated. Therefore, this option is suitable for read-only boot volumes, such as those used in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
You can't boot EC2 Windows instances using NVMe-over-TCP LocalBoot. This is only supported using EC2 Linux instances.
For more information, see Deploying external boot volumes for use with AWS Outposts
