Tips and tricks AWS Solutions Architect Associate #16

Snow Family (Offline Data Transfer)

• Snowcone: Small device (~8 TB) → data transfer to S3/EC2.

• Snowball Edge: Larger device (~20–80 TB), with compute/storage options.

• Snowmobile: Truck-sized (up to 100 PB) for massive data migration.

FSx (Managed File Systems)

• FSx for Windows Server:

  • Supports AD integration, SQL Server, SMB protocol.

  • ❌ No NFS.

  • ✅ Multi-AZ.

• FSx for NetApp ONTAP:

  • Supports SMB, NFS, and S3 APIs.

• FSx for Lustre:

  • Optimized for HPC.

  • ❌ No NFS, no AD, no Multi-AZ.

• Not intended for migration, more for running workloads.

Storage Basics

• RAID 0: Performance (striping).

• RAID 1: Redundancy (mirroring).

Hybrid Storage & Migration

• Storage Gateway: Connects on-prem storage to AWS.

  • Modes: File Gateway, Volume Gateway, Tape Gateway.

  • Cached mode (frequently used data cached locally).

  • Stored mode (entire dataset kept locally).

• DataSync: Automates data transfer from on-prem → AWS.

• Migration Service (DMS): Continuous replication for apps or databases (lift & shift).

• AWS Backup: Centralized backup for multiple services (Aurora, EFS, DynamoDB, RDS, etc.).

⚡ In short:

• Snow Family = physical appliances for bulk offline migration (from TB → PB scale).

• FSx = managed file systems tailored for Windows, NetApp, HPC.

• Storage Gateway / DataSync / DMS = hybrid + online migration tools.

• AWS Backup = unified backup/restore across multiple AWS services.