Boosting PostgreSQL Performance with Amazon EBS io2 Block Express

Introduction

Ensuring consistent and high-speed performance is essential for organizations relying on databases to support business-critical applications. Database slowdowns, particularly due to storage latency, can lead to cascading effects that impact end-user experience, operations, and business continuity.

AWS introduced Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) io2 Block Express to address such performance bottlenecks in December 2020. Designed for high-performance workloads, this storage solution delivers better durability and significantly lower I/O latency than standard volumes, such as gp3. In this blog, we explore the performance benefits of using io2 Block Express for PostgreSQL, particularly in I/O-intensive environments.

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Understanding io2 Block Express Capabilities

Amazon EBS io2 Block Express supports:

Up to 256,000 IOPS
Up to 4,000 MiB/s throughput per volume
Up to 64 TiB volume size
Sub-millisecond latency with low variance

AWS Nitro System and its Scalable Reliable Datagram (SRD) protocol enable this high-performance profile, which ensures fast, reliable communication between Amazon EC2 instances and EBS volumes. io2 Block Express is especially well-suited for applications that require extremely fast disk I/O, such as large databases, ERP systems, and real-time analytics workloads.

PostgreSQL on gp3 vs. io2 Block Express

To compare the performance of gp3 and io2 Block Express volumes, we set up benchmarking environments using Amazon EC2 r5b.24xlarge instances (96 vCPUs and 768 GB RAM) and PostgreSQL 16.5 running on Amazon Linux 2023.

Both environments were configured with the same IOPS (80,000) and throughput (8,000 MiB/s), though the volume configuration differed:

gp3: Eight volumes (10,000 IOPS, 1,000 MiB/s each)
io2 Block Express: Two volumes (40,000 IOPS, 4,000 MiB/s each)

We used HammerDB, a popular benchmarking tool, to simulate OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) workloads based on TPC-C and TPC-H standards.

Four Benchmark Tests Conducted

We evaluated performance through four distinct tests:

OLTP Load Test: Measured write latency during OLTP schema creation.
OLAP Load Test: Measured write latency during OLAP schema creation.
OLTP Stress Test: Simulated 10 million transactions per user across 100 warehouses with 10 virtual users.
OLAP Stress Test: Simulated 10 queries per user with 10 virtual users to assess complex analytical query performance.

Key Benchmark Results

OLTP Load Test

While loading the OLTP schema using 10 users across 100 warehouses, io2 Block Express volumes showed 3.47x lower average write latency than gp3.

OLAP Load Test

During OLAP schema creation, io2 Block Express volumes demonstrated 3.13x lower latency than gp3.

OLTP Stress Test

Under heavy transaction processing:

io2 Block Express achieved 0.39 ms average latency
gp3 had 1.67 ms latency
Result: io2 Block Express was 4.28x faster

In terms of transaction performance:

gp3: 129,729 TPM and 55,120 NOPM (New Orders Per Minute)
io2 Block Express: 269,823 TPM and 117,460 NOPM
Result: 08x improvement in TPM, 2.13x in NOPM

OLAP Stress Test

For analytical workloads:

io2 Block Express write latency: 0.7 ms
gp3 write latency: 3.44 ms
Read latency improvement: 1.50x
Write latency improvement: 4.91x

These results highlight the substantial benefits of io2 Block Express in both transactional and analytical scenarios, especially where disk I/O speed is critical.

Feature and Pricing Comparison: gp3 vs. io2 Block Express

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While gp3 offers cost-effective performance suitable for development and test environments, io2 Block Express is ideal for mission-critical production workloads where latency and durability are non-negotiable.

Cost vs. Performance Trade-Off

In the test scenario, gp3 costs approximately $1,375.36/month, while io2 Block Express costs $4,184.92/month for equivalent performance provisioning (80,000 IOPS and 8,000 MiB/s). However, the significant performance gains and enhanced durability may justify the higher cost for applications that demand high reliability and ultra-fast storage responsiveness.

Conclusion

For I/O-heavy PostgreSQL workloads, especially those used in production environments requiring consistent, low-latency performance, Amazon EBS io2 Block Express provides clear advantages over gp3 volumes.

Its ability to deliver sub-millisecond latency, higher IOPS, and greater durability makes it a strong candidate for:

Financial systems
Real-time analytics
Healthcare data applications
Any environment where downtime or data loss is unacceptable

While it may come at a higher price point, the investment in io2 Block Express translates into measurable improvements in throughput, latency, and overall user experience, making it an ideal storage solution for mission-critical workloads on AWS.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Amazon EBS io2 Block Express and we will get back to you quickly.

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FAQs

1. What is the primary trade-off when choosing io2 Block Express over gp3?

ANS: – The primary trade-off is cost. io2 Block Express is significantly more expensive than gp3 but offers higher performance and durability. For critical production systems, the performance gains often justify the cost.

2. What workloads benefit most from io2 Block Express?

ANS: – Workloads that are storage-intensive and require consistent, low-latency performance, such as OLTP databases, real-time analytics, ERP systems, and large-scale PostgreSQL deployments, benefit the most from io2 Block Express.