Okay, so I heard about this thing called “gp3” and how it’s supposed to be way better than “gp2” for storage on AWS. I was running a bunch of stuff on gp2, so I figured, why not give this gp3 thing a shot? Seemed simple enough, right?

First things first, I logged into my AWS console. You know, the usual dashboard where all your cloud stuff lives. I went straight to the EC2 section, ’cause that’s where my volumes are hanging out.
Finding My Volumes
Once I was in the EC2 dashboard, I clicked on “Volumes” under the “Elastic Block Store” section. That brought up a list of all the volumes I had attached to my instances. It was a pretty long list, but I knew what I was looking for.
I found the first volume I wanted to upgrade. It was clearly marked as “gp2”. I selected it by checking the box next to it. Then, up top, I clicked on the “Actions” button and chose “Modify Volume”.
Making the Switch
A new window popped up, and this is where the magic happens. Under “Volume Type”, there was a dropdown. I clicked it and, sure enough, there was “gp3” staring right at me. I selected it.
Now, here’s the cool part. With gp3, you can also tweak the IOPS (that’s Input/Output Operations Per Second) and throughput. They had some default values, but I bumped them up a little bit, ’cause why not? More power!

- Volume Type: Changed from gp2 to gp3.
- IOPS: Increased from the default.
- Throughput: Also increased.
Confirming and Waiting
After setting everything up, I double-checked my changes and clicked “Modify”. AWS gave me a little warning, like, “Hey, are you sure about this?” I clicked “Modify” again, confirming my decision.
And then, the waiting game began. The volume status changed to “Optimizing”, which basically means AWS was working its magic behind the scenes. It took a little while, depending on the size of the volume and how much I/O was going on. You know, coffee break time.
I did this for each of my gp2 volumes, one by one. It wasn’t exactly rocket science, just a few clicks here and there.
Seeing the Results
After everything was done, I kept an eye on my monitoring tools. And guess what? Things were definitely running smoother. My applications were snappier, and everything just felt a bit faster. Success!
So, that’s my little adventure going from gp2 to gp3. It wasn’t too complicated, and the results were pretty noticeable. If you’re still on gp2, you might want to think about making the switch. It’s definitely worth it!
