Originally written in 2021. Updated in 2026 with current AWS recommendations.

If you have multiple Linux EC2 instances that need access to the same files, Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is one of the simplest managed solutions.

In this walkthrough, we’ll:

• Create an Amazon EFS file system
• Launch one or more Linux EC2 instances
• Configure the required security groups
• Mount the EFS file system on multiple EC2 instances
• Configure the mount to persist after reboot

Architecture

             Amazon EFS
                  │
      ┌───────────┴───────────┐
      │                       │
   EC2 Instance A        EC2 Instance B
      │                       │
      └──── Shared Files ─────┘

Step 1 – Create an Amazon EFS File System

1. Open the AWS Console.
2. Navigate to Amazon EFS.
3. Create a new file system.
4. Give it a meaningful name or tag.
5. Select the VPC that your EC2 instances will use.
6. Finish creating the file system.

Step 2 – Create Your EC2 Instances

Launch one or more Linux EC2 instances.

Ensure they:

• Are in the same VPC as the EFS file system
• Can communicate with the EFS mount targets

Step 3 – Configure Security Groups

Create:

• An EC2 security group
• An EFS security group

Allow inbound NFS (TCP 2049) traffic to the EFS security group from the EC2 security group.

Step 4 – Install the EFS Client

Amazon Linux:

sudo yum install amazon-efs-utils

Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install amazon-efs-utils

If amazon-efs-utils isn’t available for your distribution, install the appropriate package from AWS or your package repositories.

Step 5 – Create a Mount Point

sudo mkdir /backup

If desired:

sudo chmod 777 /backup

Step 6 – Mount the File System

Using the EFS DNS name (recommended):

sudo mount -t efs fs-12345678:/ /backup

You can find the exact mount command by selecting Attach from the EFS console.

Note: My original 2021 article used the EFS mount target IP address with a direct NFS mount. AWS now generally recommends using the EFS mount helper and DNS name because it supports TLS and simplifies mounting.

Step 7 – Mount Automatically After Reboot

Edit:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add:

fs-12345678:/ /backup efs defaults,_netdev 0 0

Then test:

sudo mount -a

Step 8 – Repeat on Additional EC2 Instances

Repeat the installation and mount steps on each EC2 instance that should share the file system.

Common Uses

Amazon EFS works well for:

• Shared application assets
• User uploads
• Backups
• Shared configuration
• Container workloads
• Content management systems

What I Learned

When I first wrote these notes in 2021, I was learning AWS and wanted a simple way for multiple Linux servers to share files.

Revisiting this article reminded me how much AWS has improved over the years. The EFS mount helper makes the process cleaner, more secure, and easier to maintain than mounting directly by IP.

One of the reasons I created this site is so I can revisit older work like this, update it with what I’ve learned, and hopefully make it more useful for the next person.