Detecting AWS EBS performance issues with Datadog

Elastic Block Storage (EBS) is a storage service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that uses network block storage. It is essential for traditional database systems due to its large storage capacity and reasonable throughput and latency. However, EBS can cause performance issues in EC2-based systems because it relies on the network. Datadog collects and aggregates various AWS metrics and features to identify if performance problems originate from EBS. Storage performance is usually measured in input/output operations per second (IOPS). EBS performance is expressed in IOPS, with standard EBS volumes delivering 100 IOPS on average for blocks up to 16KB in size. Provisioned IOPS can deliver up to 4,000 IOPS per volume if purchased. AWS EBS performance issues occur mainly due to the slower network latency and shared storage and network hardware. To detect EBS performance issues with Datadog, track the CloudWatch metric "VolumeQueueLength." By comparing this metric for each EBS volume attached to a slow application, you can identify if an EBS issue is causing the slowness. To fix or prevent EBS performance issues, consider selecting appropriate storage and instance types, priming your EBS volumes, using Instance Store volumes instead of EBS, purchasing Provisioned IOPS, and replacing degraded EBS volumes when necessary.