Amazon Elastic File System
Amazon Elastic File System
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) API creates and manages NFS file systems — concurrent read/write across EC2/containers sharing files.
Fully managed, auto-scaling
Higher latency than EBS (NFS over network)
CreateFileSystem creates the EFS, CreateMountTarget creates per-AZ mount targets, EC2 / pods mount via NFS protocol.
Uptime · 30-day window
GitHub activity
About this API
EFS is AWS's NFS file system. Designed for: multiple EC2 instances sharing the same files (unlike EBS which mounts to one machine at a time). Typical uses: web server clusters sharing user uploads (one server receives upload, others can access), CI/CD build cache sharing, ML training with multiple workers sharing datasets. Differs from S3: S3 is object storage (PUT/GET, no real directory tree); EFS is a POSIX file system (cd, mv, stat all work, application code unchanged). Downsides: expensive (~$0.3/GB/month, 13x S3) and slow for small files (NFS over network). EFS is for "truly need POSIX semantics where S3 won't work", not for cheap bulk storage (use S3).
What you can build
- 1Multi-container/EC2 sharing of app files
- 2Web server shared user uploads
- 3CI/CD build artifact sharing
- 4ML training data sharing
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Fully managed, auto-scaling
- Same EFS mountable to multiple EC2 / EKS pods / Lambda
- Multi-AZ replication (11 nines durability)
- NFS v4 with POSIX file system semantics
Limitations
- Higher latency than EBS (NFS over network)
- Slow for small file operations
- 5-10x more expensive than S3
Getting started
CreateFileSystem creates the EFS, CreateMountTarget creates per-AZ mount targets, EC2 / pods mount via NFS protocol.
FAQ
EFS vs. EBS?+
Multi-machine sharing needed: EFS (irreplaceable). Single-machine + performance-sensitive: EBS (faster, cheaper).
EFS vs. S3?+
POSIX file system interface required: EFS. Can be refactored to PUT/GET object ops: S3 (10x+ cheaper).
Technical details
- Auth type
- unknown
- Pricing
- unknown
- Protocols
- REST, NFS
- SDKs
- python, javascript, go, java, csharp
- Response time
- 42 ms
- Last health check
- 6/26/2026, 6:22:15 AM
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