

New AWS EC2 instances - yourabi
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/
Spotted new instance types on the pricing page: t2.micro, t2.small, t2.medium
======
bowlofpetunias
Since the email Amazon sent out doesn't seem to be reflected anywhere on the
web:

\--------

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Amazon EC2 T2
instances. T2 instances are a new low-cost, General Purpose instance type that
are designed to provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability
to burst above the baseline. With On-Demand Instance prices starting at $0.013
per hour ($9.50 per month), T2 instances are the lowest-cost Amazon EC2
instance option and are ideal for web servers, developer environments, and
small databases. T2 instances are for workloads that don't use the full CPU
often or consistently, but occasionally need to burst to higher CPU
performance. Many applications such as web servers, developer environments,
and small databases don't need consistently high levels of CPU, but benefit
significantly from having full access to very fast CPUs when they need them.
T2 instances are engineered specifically for these use cases.

T2 instances are available in three sizes: t2.micro, t2.small, and t2.medium
and work well in combination with Amazon EBS General Purpose (SSD) volumes for
instance block storage.

T2 instances are backed by the latest Intel Xeon processors with clock speeds
up to 3.3GHz during burst periods. If you are currently using T1 or M1
instances, we encourage you to try T2 instances for better performance for
many applications at a lower cost.

T2 instances are available in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), EU
(Ireland), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Australia (Sydney),
and Brazil (Sao Paulo) regions and are coming soon to all other AWS Regions.
T2 instances can be purchased as On-Demand and Reserved Instances. To learn
more about Amazon EC2 T2 instances, see the Amazon EC2 details page.

\--------

Also, at this moment these new instances don't seem to be available yet, at
least not in EU.

~~~
j-kidd
So, with T2 instances and General Purpose volumes, Amazon is now officially in
the overselling business. Kudos to them for finding a way to do it fairly.
Looks like extra tough time ahead for lowendbox sellers.

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aidos
These are actually quite interesting instance types. I can see the use for
these.

How do Amazon handle the capacity planning internally? With a fixed resource
allotment it seems pretty easy to figure out. Just divide the total capacity
by the number of guests on an instance. With this setup presumably either,
there are less guests on a host (to allow for more headroom), or if everyone
bursts at the same time you don't actually get any additional capacity.

I suppose Amazon have a huge amount of data regarding how machines are
actually used. They must have a fairly good idea of how much of the available
power is used on average / other usage patterns that emerge. Would be very
interesting data to look at.

It also begs another question. If you have seamless access to this additional
capacity once you've earned the credits, could they introduce a system where
you could have pay as you go access? I guess it's not that easy because at
least the credit system puts a limit on how much each guest can burst.

------
slyall
Official announcement:

New Low Cost EC2 Instances with Burstable Performance

[http://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/low-cost-burstable-
ec2-insta...](http://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/low-cost-burstable-
ec2-instances/)

------
slyall
Some more information here on the new t2 instance types:

[http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-
types/](http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/)

"T2 instances are Burstable Performance Instances that provide a baseline
level of CPU performance with the ability to burst above the baseline. The
baseline performance and ability to burst are governed by CPU Credits. Each T2
instance receives CPU Credits continuously at a set rate depending on the
instance size. T2 instances accrue CPU Credits when they are idle, and use CPU
credits when they are active. T2 instances are a good choice for workloads
that don’t use the full CPU often or consistently, but occasionally need to
burst (e.g. web servers, developer environments and small databases). "

------
ajainy
Managing EC2 instances is becoming like filing taxes. Soon you will need
EC2_Instance_Advisors for your company needs.

~~~
nnx
Seems like they already thought about that:

[https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/trustedadvisor/](https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/trustedadvisor/)

~~~
ajainy
Trusted adviser on amazon payroll, to help reduce cost of paying to amazon.
#Conflict_Of_Interest

------
zorked
Two interesting facts: these instances are HVM only and... VPC only, weirdly
enough.

~~~
aidos
I thought everything was VPC now? With a default on your account that
everything is assigned to unless you create / choose another one.

~~~
iancarroll
Indeed. I had to delete all RDS and EC2 instances before I could remove the
default VPC.

------
voltagex_
It's not immediately apparent what the changes are

~~~
meritt
I think it's disappearance of t2.micro and addition of t1.micro, t2.small and
t2.medium?

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jordanthoms
Not much information published about this yet, I wonder if Amazon sent the
email out a little early and the blog post etc aren't ready yet?

------
gimliclc
At first glance I was pretty disappointed that I just reserved all my t1's
last week. After seeing that the new instances are EBS only, I don't regret
that decision.

It will be interesting to see how these new boxes handle after the CPU burst
is over. T1 micro's were notoriously unreliable because of the CPU
limitations.

~~~
athrun
AFAIK, last generation t1.micro instances were also EBS-only.

~~~
helper
True, but the m1.small had instance storage as an option. Since there is no
m3.small and EBS is out of the question, it looks like I'll be moving my
m1.smalls to m3.mediums.

~~~
athrun
Why is EBS out of the question? Do you have an horror story to share? :)

I agree there are some specific uses cases ideally suited for ephemeral
storage. But in most cases EBS gives you quicker provisioning times,
snapshotting and of course persistance. In the past, performance and
reliability sucked but AFAIK this is not an issue anymore, especially with the
new General Purpose (SSD backed) EBS volumes.

------
awjr
"If you are planning to do this (I certainly am), don't forget that the T2
instances do not include any local (instance) storage and that you'll need to
use one or more EBS volumes instead."

I find that bit a bit of a shame as we deploy using local instance storage
only and avoid EBS.

~~~
odonnellryan
Why do you avoid EBS? Cost?

~~~
awjr
The approach I am taking to EC2 instances is that I can kill it any time. So
fire up instance, fetch latest code zip from S3 (not from Github), and deploy
that code. Runs smoothly.

Keeps it very simple and effective, I can even ramp up the number of instances
then reduce them to retire old instances.

EBS adds another point of failure (and probably the weakest link in the Amazon
stack) and overcomplicates deployment.

------
nandhp
Interesting, it looks like the t2 instances aren't available as spot
instances.

------
fizx
There's no new instance types on that list and AWS hasn't blogged it (despite
blogging redshift changes already today). Flagging.

~~~
yourabi
There are very clearly new instance types on that list: t2.micro, t2.small,
t2.medium.

~~~
thejosh
Yeah but not everyone gets what these changes are, though they are listed in
the comments section above.

