Instances›AWS EC2›h1›h1.8xlarge
Compute
vCPUs32
Memory128 GiB
Mem / vCPU4.00 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2686 v4
Clock speed2.3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type4 × 2,000 GB HDD
Bandwidth7,000 Mbps
Throughput875 MB/s
IOPS40,000
Networking
Performance10 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
h1.2xlarge8 vCPU · 32 GiB
h1.4xlarge16 vCPU · 64 GiB
h1.8xlarge32 vCPU · 128 GiB
h1.16xlarge64 vCPU · 256 GiB
h1.8xlarge

The h1.8xlarge pairs 32 vCPU with 128 GiB of RAM, the 4.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a storage-optimized instance. In the name, "h" is dense HDD storage, "1" is the generation and "8xlarge" is the size within the h1 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell) at 2.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2017. h1 is the current generation of the h family, so there is no newer AWS size to migrate to. Spot's node ladder tops out below this size, so h1.8xlarge becomes 2 × gp.vs1.2xlarge (32 vCPU, 128 GiB combined), $1.87/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.082/hr on Rackspace Spot. Spot delivers compute as managed Kubernetes, so a node pool of that size is the native shape of the answer rather than a workaround — provided the workload scales horizontally.

Match qualityScale-out match

h1.8xlarge gives you 32 vCPU and 128 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, gp.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 64 GiB, so the equivalent here is 2 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 2-node pool is the normal way to run things rather than a workaround. If your workload already sits behind a load balancer, a queue or a scheduler, it spreads across them without changes. If it needs all 32 cores and 128 GiB in one process, it does not.

No local diskh1.8xlarge comes with 4 × 2,000 GB HDD attached to the machine. Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk doesn't come with it. If you were using it as fast scratch space, you'd move to a persistent volume or object storage, which are slower to read.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$1.872$0.677$1.272$0.904$0.082
$1.790 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.082
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.102
Hong Kong$0.022
Sydney, Australia$0.322
London, UK$0.442
US West, San Jose$0.302
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.002
US East, N. Virginia 2$1.872$0.677$1.272$0.904$0.302
$1.570 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Elasticsearch and OpenSearch data nodes
  • ●NoSQL stores such as Cassandra, ScyllaDB and MongoDB
  • ●Data warehousing and log processing
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 128 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 4 × 2,000 GB of local SSD scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 10 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 2 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 128 GiB of RAM
  • ●More than 4.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 32 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
$1,367/mo on AWS on-demand against $60/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 2-node equivalent — market-priced, not list-priced.
  • 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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