Instances›AWS EC2›i2›i2.4xlarge
Compute
vCPUs16
Memory122 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2670 v2
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type4 × 800 GB SSD
Bandwidth2,000 Mbps
Throughput250 MB/s
IOPS16,000
Networking
PerformanceHigh
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
i2.large2 vCPU · 15 GiB
i2.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
i2.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
i2.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
i2.8xlarge32 vCPU · 244 GiB
i2.4xlarge

The i2.4xlarge is a storage-optimized AWS EC2 instance: 16 vCPU and 122 GiB of memory, 7.63 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "i" is I/O, meaning local storage, "2" is the generation and "4xlarge" is the size within the i2 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2 (Ivy Bridge) at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in December 2013. AWS has since shipped i3, i4i, i7i and i8g; i3.4xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. Rackspace Spot's mh.vs1.2xlarge is a like-for-like substitute at 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, $3.41/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.021/hr on Rackspace Spot.

Match qualityNo local disk

i2.4xlarge comes with 4 × 800 GB SSD 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$3.410$0.826$1.696$0.021
$3.389 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.021
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.131
Hong Kong$0.021
Sydney, Australia$4.070$0.599$2.440$0.021
$4.049 savings
London, UK$0.131
US West, San Jose$3.751$0.405$2.060$0.002
$3.749 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.242
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Streaming ingest that spools to local disk
  • ●Elasticsearch and OpenSearch data nodes
  • ●NoSQL stores such as Cassandra, ScyllaDB and MongoDB
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 122 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 4 × 800 GB of local SSD scratch space
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. i3.4xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 122 GiB of RAM
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 16 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●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
i2.4xlarge runs $2,489/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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