Instances›AWS EC2›is4gen›is4gen.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory24 GiB
Mem / vCPU6.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton2 Processor
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
Type1 × 3,750 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth10,000 Mbps
Throughput1250 MB/s
IOPS40,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 25 Gigabit
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
is4gen.medium1 vCPU · 6 GiB
is4gen.large2 vCPU · 12 GiB
is4gen.xlarge4 vCPU · 24 GiB
is4gen.2xlarge8 vCPU · 48 GiB
is4gen.4xlarge16 vCPU · 96 GiB
is4gen.8xlarge32 vCPU · 192 GiB
is4gen.xlarge

The is4gen.xlarge pairs 4 vCPU with 24 GiB of RAM, the 6.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a storage-optimized instance. In the name, "4" is the generation, "gen" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors, extended capacity and enhanced networking and "xlarge" is the size within the is4gen family. It runs on AWS Graviton2 Processor at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2021. is4gen is the current generation of the is family, so there is no newer AWS size to migrate to. mh.vs1.large on Rackspace Spot lines up one-for-one: 4 vCPU and 32 GiB, $0.576/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.021/hr on Rackspace Spot.

Match qualityx86 substitution

is4gen.xlarge is Graviton (arm64). Rackspace Spot does not have arm64 servers, so mh.vs1.large is an x86_64 substitute with similar specs.

You will need x86 builds of your container images. Most software rebuilds without changes, but anything with compiled native code needs a real rebuild rather than a retag. Speed per core also differs between the two chips, so it is worth testing before deciding how many nodes to run.

No local diskis4gen.xlarge comes with 1 × 3,750 GB NVMe SSD 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$0.576$0.141$0.393$0.251$0.021
$0.555 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.006
Sydney, Australia$0.691$0.110$0.471$0.300$0.006
$0.685 savings
London, UK$0.671$0.108$0.458$0.292$0.006
$0.665 savings
US West, San Jose$0.061
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
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 24 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 3,750 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 25 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 24 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
  • ●More than 6.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
$421/mo on AWS on-demand against $15/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 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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