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AWS Limits

Links: 102 AWS DVA Index

API Rate Limits

  • For eg: DescribeInstances API for EC2 has a limit of 100 calls per seconds
  • GetObject on S3 has a limit of 5500 GET per second per prefix
  • For Intermittent Errors: implement Exponential Backoff.
  • For Consistent Errors: request an API throttling or limit increase.

Exponential Backoff

  • Exponential backoff means that we double the waiting time before each retry.
  • If you get ThrottlingException intermittently, use exponential backoff
  • Retry mechanism already included in AWS SDK API calls
  • Must implement yourself if using the AWS API as-is or in specific cases.
Must implement the retries on 5xx server errors and throttling

Retries should not implemented on the 4xx client errors since this means we are sending something wrong. So we will always get the same error on retry.

Service Limits (Service quotas)

  • For eg: Running On-Demand Standard Instances have a service limit of 1152 vCPU
  • Service limits can be increased in 2 ways:
    • You can request a service limit increase by opening a ticket
    • You can request a service quota increase by using the Service Quotas API

Last updated: 2022-06-06