EC2 Horizontal and Vertical Scaling Flashcards
What is Horizontal Scaling in EC2?
Horizontal scaling involves adding more instances to handle increased load. This is also known as scaling out. It increases the application’s ability to handle more requests by distributing the load across multiple instances.
What is Vertical Scaling in EC2?
Vertical scaling refers to changing the instance size or type to a more powerful one, without changing the number of instances. This is also known as scaling up. It increases the capacity of the existing instance to handle more significant workloads.
What are the benefits of Horizontal Scaling?
The benefits of horizontal scaling include improved fault tolerance, the ability to scale beyond the limitations of a single instance, and often, more straightforward implementation without the need for downtime.
What are the benefits of Vertical Scaling?
Vertical scaling benefits include potentially lower costs when dealing with moderate increases in workloads and simplicity in application architecture since there’s no need to manage multiple instances.
How does AWS Auto Scaling facilitate Horizontal Scaling?
AWS Auto Scaling monitors your applications and automatically adjusts capacity to maintain steady, predictable performance at the lowest possible cost. It can automatically increase the number of EC2 instances during demand spikes to maintain performance and decrease capacity during lulls to reduce costs.
How can you perform Vertical Scaling in EC2?
To perform vertical scaling in EC2, you stop the instance, change its instance type to a more powerful type, and then restart the instance. This process can involve some downtime for the application.
What considerations should be made when choosing between Horizontal and Vertical Scaling?
Considerations include the application architecture’s ability to handle scaling, cost, performance requirements, fault tolerance, and availability. Horizontal scaling is generally preferred for high availability and fault tolerance, whereas vertical scaling might be considered for applications with lesser scaling needs.
Can EC2 Instances automatically scale both Horizontally and Vertically?
While EC2 can automatically scale horizontally using Auto Scaling groups, vertical scaling typically requires manual intervention or custom automation scripts, as it involves changing the instance type and potentially incurring downtime.
What is the role of Elastic Load Balancing in Horizontal Scaling?
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) automatically distributes incoming application or network traffic across all the instances in the scaling group. It is central to horizontal scaling, allowing for efficient distribution of loads and health checks on the instances.
When should you consider Vertical over Horizontal Scaling?
Consider vertical scaling when your application is not designed to run distributed across multiple instances or when you need a quick and temporary way to improve performance. However, for long-term scalability, horizontal scaling is often preferred due to its flexibility and fault tolerance.
