AWS EBS gp2-to-gp3 Volume Arbitrage Detector
Identify active General Purpose SSD (gp2) volumes and migrate to gp3 for an immediate 20% cost reduction with identical or superior performance.
1. Detection Scope & Operational Boundaries
Every ArthaOps detector enforces strict epistemic honesty. We clearly separate what can be mathematically proven via agentless telemetry from what requires contextual human judgement.
What This Detector Identifies
- Amazon EBS volumes configured as legacy gp2 volume type.
- Volumes where storage size between 1 GB and 16,000 GB can be converted to gp3 with 20% lower baseline price.
- Workloads that do not exceed 3,000 baseline IOPS or 125 MB/s throughput, where gp3 requires zero extra provisioned performance fees.
What It Cannot Establish Alone
- Whether legacy applications require burst IOPS scaling that relied on gp2 credit buckets for volumes under 1,000 GB.
- Whether a volume was modified within the last 6 hours (AWS Elastic Volumes 6-hour modification cooldown limitation).
2. Telemetry & Evidence Requirements
ArthaOps operates strictly via Plane 1 (Read-Only Discovery). The following CloudFormation / IAM permissions and CloudWatch metrics are evaluated:
AWS::EC2::VolumeVerification Protocol: Tested live Elastic Volumes modification from gp2 to gp3 on running EC2 instances with zero I/O interruption.
Validation Context: Validated across multiple production AWS Mumbai workloads yielding immediate risk-free savings.
3. Reproducible AWS CLI Verification Recipe
Query all gp2 volumes in ap-south-1 with their size and attachment state.
# List all gp2 volumes in ap-south-1
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
--region ap-south-1 \
--filters Name=volume-type,Values=gp2 \
--query "Volumes[*].{VolumeId:VolumeId,SizeGB:Size,State:State,InstanceId:Attachments[0].InstanceId}" \
--output table------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DescribeVolumes |
+----------------------+-----------+-------+---------------------------------+
| InstanceId | SizeGB | State | VolumeId |
+----------------------+-----------+-------+---------------------------------+
| i-0a1b2c3d4e5f67890 | 1000 | in-use| vol-0123456789abcdef0 |
+----------------------+-----------+-------+---------------------------------+💡 Every GB of gp2 storage in ap-south-1 costs $0.114/GB-mo. Migrating to gp3 drops the rate to $0.0912/GB-mo with zero downtime.
4. Transparent Economic Model
- Workloads utilize up to 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s baseline throughput (included in gp3 for free).
- Zero downtime live Elastic Volumes migration.
- If workload demands > 3,000 IOPS or > 125 MB/s, provisioned IOPS ($0.005/IOPS-mo) and throughput ($0.04/MB/s-mo) apply.
5. False-Positive Scenarios & Operational Risks
Never delete or terminate cloud resources blindly. These validated architectural scenarios must be reviewed before initiating remediation:
Documented False-Positive Scenarios
- Very Large Volumes (>1,000 GB) with High Bursts: Volumes between 1,000 GB and 16,000 GB on gp2 received 3 IOPS/GB (e.g. 3,334 GB received 10,000 IOPS). Converting to baseline gp3 without provisioning additional IOPS would cap performance at 3,000 IOPS.
Blast Radius & Remediation Risks
- 6-Hour Cooldown Limit: Once an EBS volume is modified, AWS imposes a strict 6-hour modification lock before another change can be made to that volume.
6. Remediation Procedure & Rollback Runbook
Follow this ordered sequence of verified AWS CLI actions to remediate the resource with complete rollback availability:
Execute Live Volume Type Modification
Modify volume type to gp3 while instance is running. Storage remains available throughout the migration.
aws ec2 modify-volume --region ap-south-1 --volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0 --volume-type gp3Monitor Modification Progress
Track modification progress until target state reaches completed.
aws ec2 describe-volumes-modifications --region ap-south-1 --volume-ids vol-0123456789abcdef0Forensic Rollback Procedure
If needed, execute `aws ec2 modify-volume --volume-id <id> --volume-type gp2` after the AWS 6-hour cooldown window expires.
🔒 ArthaOps Assurance: ArthaOps checks historical IOPS and throughput metrics before recommending gp3 to ensure no workload suffers IOPS throttling.
AWS Elastic Volumes enforces a 6-hour cooldown between modifications on any single volume. You cannot revert immediately within that 6-hour window.
How This Appears in the ArthaOps Control Plane
2,000 GB gp2 attached database volume consuming ₹19,152/mo. Modifying to gp3 drops bill to ₹15,322/mo with zero downtime.
Test Your Infrastructure in 180 Seconds
Explore our zero-setup interactive sample report covering real Mumbai findings, or launch a 100% read-only agentless scan across your AWS environment.