Instances›AWS EC2›d2›d2.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory30.5 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2676 v3
Clock speed2.4 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type3 × 2,048 GB HDD
Bandwidth750 Mbps
Throughput93.75 MB/s
IOPS6,000
Networking
PerformanceModerate
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
d2.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
d2.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
d2.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
d2.8xlarge36 vCPU · 244 GiB
d2.xlarge

The d2.xlarge is a storage-optimized AWS EC2 instance: 4 vCPU and 30.5 GiB of memory, 7.63 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "d" is dense local storage, "2" is the generation and "xlarge" is the size within the d2 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 (Haswell) at 2.4 GHz, and AWS introduced it in March 2015. AWS has since shipped d3; d3.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. Rackspace Spot's mh.vs1.large is a like-for-like substitute at 4 vCPU and 32 GiB, $0.690/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.021/hr on Rackspace Spot.

Match qualityNo local disk

d2.xlarge comes with 3 × 2,048 GB HDD attached to the machine. Rackspace Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk does not come with it.

If you were using the local disk as fast scratch space — temporary files, a local cache, an index — you will need a persistent volume or object storage instead, and both are slower to read. If it was just extra space you never depended on, nothing changes.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.690$0.097$0.402$0.021
$0.669 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.957$0.502$0.371$0.006
$0.951 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.870$0.130$0.513$0.006
$0.864 savings
London, UK$0.772$0.085$0.469$0.006
$0.766 savings
US West, San Jose$0.781$0.102$0.491$0.061
$0.720 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Transactional databases with heavy random I/O
  • ●Streaming ingest that spools to local disk
  • ●Elasticsearch and OpenSearch data nodes
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 30.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 3 × 2,048 GB of local SSD scratch space
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. d3.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 30.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
  • ●More than 7.63 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
d2.xlarge runs $504/mo on AWS on-demand. The equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $15/mo.
  • Spot sells spare capacity at market prices. It is the cheapest compute on the internet.
  • Prices are set by supply and demand. You pay what the market decides.
  • Compute is delivered as fully managed Kubernetes. All infrastructure is taken care of.
  • Egress costs $0.01/GB after the free allowance. AWS charges $0.09/GB.
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Frequently asked questions