EFS Intelligent Tiering

Opportunity Name:

EFS Intelligent Tiering

 

AWS Resource Type:

EFS file system

 

Opportunity Description:

Enable EFS intelligent tiering for EFS file systems so that infrequently accessed files will be moved to the InfrequentAccess storage class, which can save 92% of their storage costs.

 

Criteria for identifying the opportunity:

This FF considers the following criteria for EFS file system:

•  Any EFS file system for which InfrequentAccess (IA) is already enabled is excluded.
•  EFS file systems with Throughput mode of Provisioned or Elastic are included.
•  EFS file systems with Throughput mode of Bursting are included only if the estimated annual savings from moving data to Infrequent Access exceed the estimated annual cost of the file system's read/write I/O at Elastic throughput pricing, based on CloudWatch metrics over the lookback period (30 days by default).

 

Potential savings (range in % on annual basis):

When IA is not already enabled, the saving for files infrequently accessed is 92% of their storage costs. AWS indicates that 80% of the file system data can be moved to IA storage class, so overall an average saving of up to 73% is possible (for file systems using Bursting throughput mode, CloudFix first weighs the IA storage savings against the added read/write I/O cost at Elastic throughput pricing, so the realized saving can be lower).

 

What happens when the Fixer is executed?

The fixer does the following:

• Change Life Cycle Management rules to allow transition into and out of IA using the AWS defaults (i.e. transition into IA after 30 days of no read/write access and transition out of IA on first access).

The fixer only updates the file system's lifecycle configuration. It does not change the file system's throughput mode, and it does not set up any ongoing monitoring or adjustment of throughput after it runs.

 

Is it possible to rollback once CloudFix implements the fixer?

No automatic rollback, because turning off IA leaves files in their most recent storage class.

 

Manual rollback is possible by:

•  Turning off IA so no new files will be moved to IA storage class.
•  Accessing files so that they will be moved out of IA storage class.

 

Can CloudFix implement the fix automatically once I accept the recommendation?

Yes

 

Does this fix require downtime?

No

 

Additional Resources:

• CloudFix Knowledge Base