Consider the following recommendations for the Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS:
- Deploying APEX Block Storage in multiple Availability Zones (AZs) can mitigate workload downtime if an AZ becomes unavailable. When availability is not critical, APEX Block Storage deployment can take place in a single AZ.
- Microsoft recommends using the XFS filesystem for hosting SQL Server data and transaction log files on Linux.
- For more information, see Performance best practices for SQL Server on Linux - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn.
- For APEX Block Storage clusters with applications that are planned to be used 24x7, it is recommended to use the i3en EC2 instance family with NVMe SSDs optimized for low latency and high I/O performance. Instance store disks are ephemeral, and their data is deleted when the instances are stopped (this does not include reboots).
- For APEX Block Storage clusters with applications that are frequently brought down (such as for holidays and weekends), consider using c5n EC2 instances with EBS volumes. While they lack the performance of NVMe SSDs, their data remains persistent even when the PowerFlex cluster nodes are stopped.
- Use a public subnet for external-facing resources that communicate with the internet.
- Use a private subnet for internal resources that do not communicate with the Internet.