IPF Standard - AWS Instance Type Management.docx

UNCLASSIFIED

IPF Standard AWS Instance Type Management 2025-04-02 Purpose This document defines IPF standards for maintaining vendor currency and cost efficiency for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Elastic Based Storage (EBS) Volumes and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) instances. This standard is used to ensure cost efficiency and that AWS newest generation standards are deployed throughout the IPF AWS cloud environments.

Explanation An instance in cloud computing is a server resource provided by third-party cloud services. Cloud providers maintain hardware in their data centers and give you virtual access to compute resources in the form of an instance. You can use the cloud instance for running compute-intensive workloads like containers, databases, microservices, and virtual machines. When an IPF AWS consumer launches an instance, the instance type that the consumer specifies determines the hardware of the host computer used for your instance. Each instance type offers different compute, memory, and storage capabilities, and is grouped in an instance family based on these capabilities. When launching an instance, an Amazon EBS volume is also created. An EBS volume is a durable, block-level storage device that you can attach to your instances.

CPU Architecture Intel and AMD have x86-based architecture, while Graviton has 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores. The CPU architecture will potentially have effects on software compatibility and performance. When deploying anything into IPF AWS cloud environment, a technical compatibility evaluation and a cost evaluation need to take place. The evaluations should be utilized to ensure the most cost-efficient CPU architecture is deployed.

Generation Management Standards for EC2 Instance type Management

1. All EC2 instances utilized within any IPF AWS account should operate at the AWS newest generation of the instance type family.

a. AWS provides the generation list at the link below.

i. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ec2/latest/instancetypes/instance-types.html

2. The newest generation instance type, within a family, is more cost efficient than an older generation instance type and should always be utilized.

a. Example: If an AWS IPF consumer is deploying or has deployed a “T” instance type family EC2 instance, cost and resource comparison should be used to determine the instance type.

i. A t3.large On-Demand hourly rate is $0.0832 and a t2.large On-Demand hourly $0.0928 with the same vCPU and Memory for both instance types.

1. In this or any similar scenario the cost should dictate utilizing the “T3” instance type.

b. Generation instance type on demand costs can be found here.

i. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/

3. If there is a known technical limitation that does not allow a consumer to utilize the cost-efficient standard, that is documented with the program PM, the below needs added to affected EC2 instances.

a. The manual tag and description below are required:

i. A tag that matches the following: instance_type_exception

ii. A description that includes the reason for not following standard

1. Example description: “Software baseline 37 will not function on T4 instance type due to CPU version.”

Standards for RDS Instance type Management

1. All RDS instances utilized within any IPF AWS account should operate at the AWS newest generation of the instance type family.

a. AWS provides the generation list at the link below.

i. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/instance-types/

2. The newest generation instance type, within a family, is more cost efficient than an older generation instance type and should always be utilized.

a. Example: If an AWS IPF consumer is deploying or has deployed a “M” instance type family RDS instance cost and resource comparison should be used to determine Instance type.

i. A db.m5.2xlarge running MySQL estimated monthly rate is $1,757.70 and a db.m6.2xlarge running MySQL estimated monthly rate $1,616.08 with the same vCPU and Memory for both instance types.

1. In this or any similar scenario the cost should dictate utilizing the “M6” instance type.

b. Generation instance type on demand costs can be found here.

i. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing/

3. If there is a known technical limitation that does not allow a consumer to utilize the cost-efficient standard, that is documented with the program PM, the below needs added to affected RDS instances.

a. The manual tag and description below are required:

i. A tag that matches the following: instance_type_exception

ii. A description that includes the reason for not following standard

1. Example description: “Database version 3 will not function on M6 instance type due to CPU version.”

Standards for EBS Volume Management

1. All EBS instances utilized within any IPF AWS account should operate at the AWS newest generation of the instance type family.

a. AWS provides the generation list at the link below.

i. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/ebs-volume-types.html

b. The latest generation of general-purpose solid-state drive (SSD)-based EBS volumes enable customers to provision performance independent of storage capacity.

c. When deploying in AWS the most current version of EBS General Purpose SSD should be selected.

i. For example, Amazon gp3 volumes provide up to 20% lower pricing per GB than existing gp2 volumes.

d. Existing EBS volumes not running the newest EBS General Purpose SSD shall immediately migrate or rebuild to the newest version of EBS General Purpose SSD.

Intel vs AMD vs Graviton Management Standards for RDS Instance type Management Graviton

1. IPF mandates the deployment of new RDS instances on the AWS Graviton Instance types.

a. AWS Graviton instances are powered by ARM processors designed and built by AWS to deliver the best price performance for cloud workloads running in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

2. All current RDS deployments must utilize AWS Graviton instance types.

a. Current RDS deployments shall migrate to AWS Graviton.

i. If there is a known technical limitation that does not allow a consumer to utilize Graviton, that is documented with the program PM, the below needs added to affected RDS instances.

ii. The manual tag and description below are required:

1. A tag that matches the following: instance_type_exception

2. A description that includes the reason for not following standard

a. Example description: ‘Database engine type will not function on Graviton due to CPU type.’

Standards for EC2 Instance type Management Graviton

1. Do not utilize Graviton instance types as they can result in capability limitations and other potential software compatibility issues.

a. Instead select the newest generation of the CPU instance type family that utilize Intel or AMD processors.