Learning Forum

[Aric Meyer]

Some AWS instances are equipped with locally attached NMVe SSDs that can be used for high-performance needs such as scratch space. These disks are called instance store. For more information see What's the difference between instance store and EBS?

Instance store drives are not visible by default on Windows VDI, instructions for enabling them are below. You will need to follow these steps every time you start up the VM.

Be careful using instance store. Every time the VM is shut down all data on the instance store will be lost. Be sure to transfer all important data to persistent storage before shutting down.

Instance types with instance store

Not all instance types have instance store. The instances with instance store have a “d” in their name such as:

• g4dn
• hpc6id
• c6id
• m6id

Equivalent instances without a “d” such as c6i and m6i do not have instance store.

Enabling an instance store drive

Open This PC in File Explorer. In this example C: drive is visible. C: is the EBS disk where the OS and applications are installed. You may see additional disks mounted here which are either EBS or other network drives.

1. Open “Create and format hard disk partitions.” An easy way to do this is to search for ‘format’ in the taskbar.

2. Click OK to initialize the disk that we will be mounting. The attached disks are visible at the bottom. There is the C: drive and another disk that is not mounted. This is the instance store.

3. To mount it just right click and select New Simple Volume…  If there are multiple instance store disks, then you will have options for other volume types.

4. Click through the wizard choosing the default options until the step to choose a drive letter. Choose a drive letter that is not already used.

5. Change the Volume label if you want. Click Next and finish the wizard.

The drive should immediately be visible in File Browser and is ready to use. Be careful using instance store. Every time the VM is shut down all data on the instance store will be lost. Be sure to transfer all important data to persistent storage before shutting down.