Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is a powerful and scalable file storage service, but its Standard storage class can be costly at $0.30 per GB per month. CloudFix can help you optimize these costs by automatically enabling EFS Intelligent-Tiering, which can save up to 92% on storage costs for infrequently accessed files.

Contents

Overview

EFS Intelligent-Tiering is a feature that automatically moves infrequently accessed files to a lower-cost storage tier while maintaining immediate access when needed. This CloudFix fixer identifies eligible EFS file systems and enables Intelligent-Tiering to optimize your storage costs without impacting performance.

How It Works

The fixer implements a two-part lifecycle management policy:

  • Transition to Infrequent Access (IA): Files not accessed for 30 days are automatically moved to the IA storage class
  • Transition from IA: Files are automatically moved back to the Standard storage class upon first access

AWS Services Affected

Amazon EFS
Amazon EFS

Benefits

  • Up to 92% cost savings on infrequently accessed files
  • Automatic optimization with no manual intervention required
  • No impact on file accessibility or performance for frequently accessed data
  • Zero downtime during implementation

Prerequisites

Your EFS file system must meet these criteria:

  • No existing lifecycle policy for Transition to IA
  • For Bursting throughput mode:
    • Average IO for past 30 days < 90% of baseline throughput (Standard storage class)
    • Average IO for past 30 days < 40% of baseline throughput (One Zone storage class)

Implementation Details

When executed, the fixer performs these actions:

  1. For file systems with bursting throughput mode:
    • Changes mode to Provisioned
    • Sets Provisioned Throughput to match minimum required throughput
  2. Configures Lifecycle Management rules:
    • Enables transition to IA after 30 days of inactivity
    • Enables transition from IA on first access
  3. Monitors throughput via CloudWatch and increases provisioned throughput by 10% when needed

Important Considerations

  • Files in IA storage class do not accrue burst credits
  • IA access incurs a per-GB retrieval fee
  • Throughput requirements should be monitored after implementation
  • Storage class transitions only occur between corresponding tiers (Standard ↔ Standard-IA, One Zone ↔ One Zone-IA)

Rollback Process

While automatic rollback is not available, you can manually reverse the changes by:

  • Disabling IA to prevent new files from moving to IA storage class
  • Accessing files to trigger their transition out of IA storage class
  • Reverting to Bursting throughput mode if that was the original configuration

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does enabling Intelligent-Tiering require downtime?

No, the implementation can be done without any system downtime.

Q: Can CloudFix implement this automatically?

Yes, once you accept the recommendation, CloudFix can automatically implement the changes.

Q: What happens to my existing files?

Existing files will be evaluated based on their access patterns and moved to IA storage if they haven’t been accessed for 30 days.

Related Resources