Volume Gateway
- What it is
- The AWS Storage Gateway mode that presents cloud-backed iSCSI block volumes to on-premises servers — they mount it like a local disk.
- Two modes (the distinction that gets tested)
- Cached volumes — primary data lives in AWS, only the hot subset is cached locally. Volumes up to 32 TB. Choose when local disk capacity is the constraint.
- Stored volumes — primary data stays entirely on premises, asynchronously backed up to AWS as Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshots. Volumes up to 16 TB. Choose when low-latency access to the whole dataset matters.
- Why
- Backup and disaster recovery for block workloads: the snapshots can be restored as EBS volumes and attached to EC2.
- Not to be confused with
- S3 File Gateway and FSx File Gateway — file protocols, not block.
- Exam signal
- “iSCSI”, “block volumes on premises backed by AWS”, “restore as EBS snapshots” → Volume Gateway.