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Cloud Computing · Advanced

EC2 Placement Groups

EC2 feature controlling how instances are placed on underlying hardware: cluster, spread or partition.

Definition

Cluster placement groups pack instances close together in one AZ for low-latency, high-throughput networking (HPC). Spread placement groups place each instance on distinct racks to reduce correlated failures, limited to seven running instances per AZ per group. Partition placement groups divide instances into partitions on separate racks for large distributed systems like HDFS, Cassandra and Kafka.

Example

An HPC simulation uses a cluster placement group with enhanced networking for 100 Gbps interconnect.

Exam tip

Cluster equals performance but higher correlated risk; spread equals maximum isolation for a few critical instances; partition suits large distributed databases.

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