All Cheat Sheets
Explore Deep Dive Guide
Explore Deep Dive Guide
Storage Cheat Sheet
Multi-cloud reference for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Storage services
Storage — Multi-Cloud Cheat Sheet
Cloud Arena | cloudarena.com
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
AWSKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| aws ec2 create-volume --availability-zone us-east-1a --size 100 --volume-type gp3 --iops 3000 --throughput 125 | Create baseline gp3 SSD volume | |
| aws ec2 attach-volume --volume-id vol-012345 --instance-id i-0abcdef --device /dev/xvdf | Attach block volume to EC2 instance | |
| aws ec2 create-snapshot --volume-id vol-012345 --description 'Pre-migration backup' | Create point-in-time snapshot to S3 | |
| aws ec2 modify-volume --volume-id vol-012345 --size 200 | Elastic Volumes: Expand disk size live with zero downtime |
Architectural Key Facts
- •High-performance block storage volumes designed for mission-critical EC2 instance persistence.
- •Volume types: General Purpose SSD (`gp3`), Provisioned IOPS SSD (`io2 Block Express`), and Throughput Optimized HDD (`st1`).
- •`gp3` delivers 3,000 baseline IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput included free with independent scaling up to 16,000 IOPS.
- •Snapshots are incremental and automatically backed up to Amazon S3 for durable disaster recovery.
- •EBS Multi-Attach allows attaching a single `io2` volume concurrently to up to 16 Nitro instances in the same AZ.
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max single volume size | 64 TB (`io2 Block Express`), 16 TB (`gp3`) |
| Max IOPS per volume | 256,000 IOPS (`io2 Block Express` on Nitro) |
| Max throughput per volume | 4,000 MB/s (`io2 Block Express`) |
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
AWSKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| aws efs create-file-system --performance-mode generalPurpose --throughput-mode bursting --encrypted | Create encrypted elastic NFS filesystem | |
| aws efs create-mount-target --file-system-id fs-12345 --subnet-id subnet-abc --security-groups sg-nfs | Create Mount Target in VPC subnet | |
| sudo mount -t efs -o tls fs-12345:/ /mnt/efs | Mount EFS via Amazon EFS mount helper |
Architectural Key Facts
- •Serverless, fully elastic network file system supporting the POSIX-compliant NFSv4.1 protocol.
- •Concurrently accessible by thousands of EC2 instances, ECS Fargate containers, and Lambda functions across multiple AZs.
- •Automatically grows and shrinks dynamically as files are added or deleted; you only pay for storage used.
- •Lifecycle Management automatically transitions files unaccessed for 30 days to EFS Infrequent Access (92% cheaper).
- •Performance modes: General Purpose (lowest latency) and Max I/O (higher throughput and scaling for big data).
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max total filesystem size | Petabyte scale (virtually unlimited) |
| Max throughput per filesystem | Up to 10+ GB/s in Provisioned or Elastic throughput mode |
| Connections per filesystem | Thousands of concurrent client connections |
Azure Blob Storage
AzureKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| az storage container create --account-name mystore -n media --public-access off | Create private blob container | |
| az storage blob upload --account-name mystore -c media -n video.mp4 -f ./video.mp4 | Upload block blob | |
| az storage blob set-tier --account-name mystore -c media -n video.mp4 --tier Cool | Transition blob access tier to Cool | |
| az storage blob generate-sas --account-name mystore -c media -n video.mp4 --permissions r --expiry 2026-12-31T23:59:59Z --https-only | Generate Shared Access Signature (SAS) token |
Architectural Key Facts
- •Massively scalable object storage for cloud-native workloads, analytics lakes, backups, and media streaming.
- •Blob types: Block Blobs (documents, media, log files), Append Blobs (optimized for append operations), and Page Blobs (VM VHD disks).
- •Tiering: Hot (active data), Cool (infrequent data, 30-day min), Cold (infrequent data, 90-day min), and Archive (offline, 180-day min).
- •Immutable Storage (WORM) enforces compliance policies with time-based retention and legal holds against deletion or modification.
- •Soft Delete and Point-in-time Restore protect against accidental deletions and ransomware modifications.
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max single block blob size | 4.75 TB (5,000,000 MB) |
| Max storage account capacity | 5 PB per account |
| Max throughput per storage account | Up to 60 Gbps egress |
Azure Managed Disks
AzureKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| az disk create -g myrg -n data-disk --size-gb 256 --sku Premium_LRS | Create Premium SSD managed disk | |
| az vm disk attach -g myrg --vm-name web-vm --name data-disk | Attach disk to running Virtual Machine | |
| az snapshot create -g myrg -n disk-snap --source data-disk | Create point-in-time disk snapshot |
Architectural Key Facts
- •Block-level storage volumes managed by Azure and mounted to Azure Virtual Machines.
- •Disk tiers: Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD (up to 20,000 IOPS), Premium SSD v2 (independently adjust IOPS & throughput), and Ultra Disk (sub-millisecond latency).
- •Ultra Disks deliver up to 160,000 IOPS and 4,000 MB/s throughput for extreme transactional database workloads.
- •Shared Disks allow attaching a managed disk simultaneously to multiple VMs for clustered applications (e.g. Windows Server Failover Cluster).
- •Azure Disk Encryption leverages Azure Key Vault to safeguard OS and data disks at rest.
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max managed disk size | 32 TiB (32,767 GiB) |
| Max IOPS on Ultra Disk | 160,000 IOPS |
| Max throughput on Ultra Disk | 4,000 MB/s |
Azure Files
AzureKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| az storage share create --account-name mystore -n team-share --quota 1024 | Create SMB/NFS file share with 1TB quota | |
| az storage file upload --account-name mystore --share-name team-share --source doc.pdf | Upload file to cloud file share |
Architectural Key Facts
- •Fully managed enterprise cloud file shares accessible via the industry-standard SMB 3.0 and NFS 4.1 protocols.
- •Can be mounted concurrently by cloud VMs (Windows, Linux, macOS) or on-premises systems.
- •Azure File Sync transforms on-premises Windows Servers into a quick local cache of your Azure File share.
- •Integrates directly with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and Entra ID for identity-based SMB authorization.
- •Large file shares support capacities up to 100 TiB and 10,000 IOPS on Premium SSD.
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max share size | 100 TiB (with large file share enabled) |
| Max single file size | 4 TiB |
| Max IOPS per premium share | 100,000 IOPS |
Cloud Storage
Google CloudKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| gsutil mb -l us-central1 gs://my-bucket | Create a bucket | |
| gsutil cp file.txt gs://my-bucket/ | Upload a file | |
| gsutil rsync -r ./local-dir gs://my-bucket/dir | Sync local dir to bucket | |
| gsutil iam ch allUsers:objectViewer gs://my-bucket | Make bucket public | |
| gsutil rm -r gs://my-bucket | Delete bucket and contents |
Architectural Key Facts
- •Global, secure, scalable object store for immutable data.
- •Storage classes: Standard, Nearline (30 days), Coldline (90 days), Archive (365 days).
- •Object Lifecycle Management automates transitions between storage classes or deletions.
- •Strong read-after-write consistency globally.
- •Data encrypted at rest by default; supports Customer-Managed (CMEK) and Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys (CSEK).
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max object size | 5 TB |
| Max bucket name length | 63 characters (222 for domains) |
| Max object updates/second | 1 per second per object |
| Max buckets per project | Unlimited |
Persistent Disk
Google CloudKey Commands & CLI Operations
| Command | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| gcloud compute disks create my-disk --size=100GB --zone=us-central1-a --type=pd-ssd | Create a disk | |
| gcloud compute instances attach-disk instance-1 --disk=my-disk --zone=us-central1-a | Attach disk to VM | |
| gcloud compute disks snapshot my-disk --snapshot-names=my-snap | Create a snapshot | |
| gcloud compute disks resize my-disk --size=200GB --zone=us-central1-a | Resize a disk |
Architectural Key Facts
- •Durable block storage attached to Compute Engine or GKE instances.
- •Performance (IOPS and throughput) scales linearly with disk size.
- •Types include Standard (HDD), Balanced (SSD), Performance (SSD), and Extreme (SSD).
- •Regional Persistent Disks provide synchronous replication across two zones for HA.
- •Can be resized dynamically without downtime, but file system must be expanded inside OS.
Production Limits & Quotas
| Item / Dimension | Limit / Quota |
|---|---|
| Max disk size | 64 TB |
| Max disks per VM | 128 |
| Multi-writer mode | Only supported on specific disk types and sizes |