# AWS EFS

> Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is a managed, elastic NFS file system that many Linux EC2 instances, containers and Lambda functions can share.

- Source: https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-efs/
- Published: 2026-10-05
- Updated: 2026-10-05
- Author: Javier Ruiz Jiménez (https://www.javierruizjimenez.com/)
- Site: IT Wonder Lab (https://www.itwonderlab.com/)

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**Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)** provides a simple, scalable, shared file system for Linux workloads. It grows and shrinks automatically as files are added and removed, and thousands of clients can mount it at the same time over the **NFS v4** protocol.

### Key concepts

- **File system** with **mount targets**: one network interface per [subnet](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-subnets/) (one per Availability Zone), with its own [security group](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-security-groups/) that must allow NFS (TCP 2049) from the clients.
- **Regional** file systems store data redundantly in several Availability Zones; *One Zone* file systems cost less and keep it in a single zone.
- **Performance modes** (General Purpose, Max I/O) and **throughput modes** (Elastic, Provisioned, Bursting).
- **Storage classes and lifecycle management** move files not accessed for a while to cheaper classes (Infrequent Access, Archive).
- **Access points** enforce a user and a root directory per application, and [IAM](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-iam/) policies can control mounting. Data is encrypted at rest with [KMS](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-kms/) and in transit with TLS.
- Used by [EC2](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-ec2/), [ECS](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-ecs/), [Fargate](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-fargate/), [EKS](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-eks/) and [Lambda](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-lambda/).

### EBS, EFS or S3?

| | Access | Use |
|---|---|---|
| [EBS](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-ebs/) | One instance (block device) | Boot volumes and databases |
| **EFS** | Many Linux clients (file system) | Shared files, content management, home directories |
| [S3](https://www.itwonderlab.com/aws-s3/) | HTTP API (objects) | Backups, static files, data lakes |

### Pricing

Per GB stored per month (depending on the storage class) plus throughput charges in some modes. See the [EFS pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/efs/pricing/).

### With Terraform

The resources are `aws_efs_file_system`, `aws_efs_mount_target`, `aws_efs_access_point` and `aws_efs_file_system_policy`.

See tutorials:

-   [How to use an external NFS Persistent Volume on Kubernetes](https://www.itwonderlab.com/kubernetes-nfs/)