AWS Developer Associate Part 1

Questions and Answers

What is the primary function of an Internet Gateway in a VPC?

To connect EC2 instances to AWS Global services like AWS Lambda

To establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to a Customer Gateway

To allow connection to the Internet at the VPC level (correct)

To monitor network traffic within the VPC

What is the purpose of a VPC Endpoint?

To authorize another security group through rules

To capture information about IP traffic going to instances

To connect EC2 instances to AWS Global services like AWS Lambda without using the Internet (correct)

To establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to a Customer Gateway

What type of log captures information about IP traffic going to instances in a VPC?

VPC Flow logs (correct)

Security Group logs

ENI flow logs

Subnet flow logs

What is the benefit of adding rules to authorize another security group?

To allow EC2 instances to connect without specifying IP addresses Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a Customer Gateway?

To establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to a hardware or virtual gateway Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of a VPC architecture?

Three-Tier Architecture Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of MFA in AWS?

To add an extra layer of security for IAM users Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using IAM Access Advisor?

To identify unused permissions and last access times Signup and view all the answers

Who is responsible for managing IAM users, groups, and roles in AWS?

You (the customer) Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an IAM Credentials Report?

To list all account users and their credential status Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using EBS Snapshots?

To backup EBS volumes Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)?

To encrypt EBS volumes Signup and view all the answers

What is the main characteristic of an EBS volume?

It persists data even after EC2 termination Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an AMI?

To create a customized EC2 instance Signup and view all the answers

What happens to the root EBS volume by default when an EC2 instance is terminated?

It is deleted Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the 'Delete on Termination' attribute for EBS volumes?

To determine EBS volume behavior when the EC2 instance terminates Signup and view all the answers

What is the key benefit of using AWS CloudShell over a local terminal?

CloudShell eliminates the need to configure AWS access keys. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a serverless CI/CD environment for AWS applications?

AWS CodeBuild Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a buildspec.yaml file in AWS CodeBuild?

Specifying the build steps and actions to execute. Signup and view all the answers

Which of these services is NOT a part of the AWS Amplify framework?

AWS CloudShell Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using AWS CodeCommit over GitHub or GitLab?

CodeCommit seamlessly integrates with other AWS services. Signup and view all the answers

Which service allows you to export your application's configuration to a CloudFormation template?

AWS Amplify Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed load balancer for forwarding traffic to multiple downstream servers?

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using AWS CLI?

Provides a graphical interface for managing AWS resources Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service enables you to define and manage infrastructure as code using a declarative language?

AWS CloudFormation Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between vertical and horizontal scalability?

Horizontal scalability involves adding more instances to a cluster, while vertical scalability involves increasing the size of individual instances. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a centralized location for managing and auditing changes to your AWS infrastructure?

AWS CloudTrail Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to monitor and manage your applications in real-time, providing insights into performance and health?

Amazon CloudWatch Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a framework for building and deploying applications on AWS, including tools for project management, source code repository, build automation, and deployment?

AWS CodeStar Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to store and manage log files generated by your applications and infrastructure?

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary disadvantage of using EC2 Instance Store for data storage?

Data is lost if the EC2 instance is stopped. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a suitable use case for Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)?

Database storage for Teradata applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the key advantage of using Amazon EFS over EC2 Instance Store?

EFS provides persistent storage, while Instance Store is ephemeral. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main reason for choosing the 'Max IO' performance mode for Amazon EFS?

When high throughput is required for large data sets. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following storage tiers is most suitable for data that is rarely accessed (few times per year)?

Archive Signup and view all the answers

Which storage option would be best suited for a web server application that requires high availability, scalability, and a managed NFS service?

Amazon EFS Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when choosing between the 'Bursting' and 'Provisioned' throughput modes for Amazon EFS?

The performance requirements of the application. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using lifecycle policies with Amazon EFS?

To optimize storage costs by moving files between storage tiers. Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum number of read replicas for an Elasticache Redis cluster with cluster-mode disabled?

5 Signup and view all the answers

Which caching design pattern involves writing to the cache when the database is updated?

Write Through Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using Lazy loading caching design pattern?

Only requested data is cached Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following caching technologies supports Sets and Sorted Sets?

Redis Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of Memcached compared to Redis?

All of the above Signup and view all the answers

Which caching design pattern involves checking if cached data is present, and loading from the database if not?

Lazy loading Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to query data stored in S3 buckets in an interactive manner?

Amazon Athena Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using Kinesis Data Streams over SQS?

Kinesis Data Streams is a real-time service, while SQS is a message queuing service. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of CloudFront in AWS?

To serve content from edge locations, improving performance and reducing latency. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of an Edge Network?

It is only available in specific regions, making it unsuitable for global deployments. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS Firehose?

To stream data from multiple sources to destinations like S3, Redshift, or Elasticsearch. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a way to access AWS services?

Amazon CloudWatch Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a valid state type in AWS Step Functions?

Queue Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services is designed for orchestrating Lambda functions?

Step Functions Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a benefit of using the FIFO queue type in SQS?

Guaranteed message delivery order Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of EC2 User Data?

To configure an EC2 instance at launch with custom scripts and settings Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using a Writer Endpoint for Amazon DynamoDB?

It simplifies write operations by providing a single DNS endpoint to access the master instance, regardless of its location. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using a compute-optimized EC2 instance type?

Fast processing speeds for intensive workloads Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using Amazon ElastiCache for read-intensive workloads?

It reduces the load on the database by caching frequently accessed data, resulting in faster response times for read operations. Signup and view all the answers

Which of these is NOT a core characteristic of Amazon DynamoDB?

Supports traditional relational database queries (SQL) Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a visual representation of the workflow in Step Functions?

State Machine Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Amazon EFS over EC2 Instance Store?

Lower cost per GB of storage Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes the role of a Reader Endpoint in the context of Amazon DynamoDB?

It provides a single DNS endpoint for accessing read replicas, balancing the load across multiple instances. Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary advantage of using Amazon ElastiCache for a web application that requires statelessness?

It provides a high-performance, low-latency cache that can be used to store session data, making the application stateless. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key consideration when choosing between the 'Bursting' and 'Provisioned' throughput modes for Amazon EFS?

The frequency of data access Signup and view all the answers

Which of these options is a potential disadvantage of using Amazon ElastiCache for your application?

It requires significant modifications to your application code to effectively query data from the cache. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a Route Table in a VPC?

To control network traffic flow within a VPC Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about VPC peering is TRUE?

VPC peering enables private connectivity between two VPCs over AWS's network. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using VPC Endpoints?

They allow you to access AWS services using private IP addresses instead of public IP addresses. Signup and view all the answers

Which security feature in a VPC operates at the subnet level?

Network ACLs Signup and view all the answers

Which of these statements about Security Groups is TRUE?

Security Groups can only be associated with EC2 instances. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using Direct Connect over a Site-to-Site VPN?

Direct Connect allows for higher bandwidth than a Site-to-Site VPN. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of VPC peering?

It creates a private connection between two VPCs over AWS's network. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about Network ACLs is TRUE?

They are a more granular control mechanism than Security Groups, allowing for traffic filtering at the subnet level. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Lambda Layers?

To separate business logic from its dependencies Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an Alias in Lambda Versions?

To point to a specific version of a Lambda function Signup and view all the answers

What happens to a Lambda function when it connects to a VPC?

It loses access to the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Amazon Aurora?

It is 'AWS cloud optimized' Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between Relational and NoSQL databases?

Relational databases are harder to make schema changes Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of AWS SAM?

To model and deploy serverless applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Elastic Beanstalk?

To easily deploy web applications and services Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Amazon ECR?

To store and manage container images Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using stickiness in load balancers?

To ensure user session data is not lost Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of SSL/TLS certificates in load balancers?

To enable encryption in transit between clients and load balancers Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using connection draining in load balancers?

To allow 'in-flight requests' to complete while target group instances are de-registering or unhealthy Signup and view all the answers

What is the default behavior of cross-zone load balancing in ALB?

Enabled by default, with no charge for inter-AZ data transfer Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of SNI in SSL/TLS?

To allow multiple SSL certificates to be hosted on a single web server Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of security groups in load balancers?

To restrict access to load balancers from specific IP addresses Signup and view all the answers

What type of cookies are used in stickiness for Application Load Balancers (ALB)?

Application-based cookies Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)?

To upload and manage SSL/TLS certificates for load balancers Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of scaling cooldowns in predictive scaling?

To allow metrics to stabilise Signup and view all the answers

What is the minimum and maximum size of a VPC CIDR block?

/28 to /16 Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a NAT device in a VPC?

To provide a highly available and scalable connection to the public internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using Instance Refresh in EC2?

To replace all EC2 instances with new instances launched from an updated launch template Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a DHCP options set in a VPC?

To automatically provision IP addresses for EC2 instances and other resources Signup and view all the answers

What is the key difference between a NAT instance and a NAT gateway?

A NAT gateway is highly available and scalable, while a NAT instance is not Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using predictive scaling in EC2?

To continuously forecast load and schedule scaling ahead Signup and view all the answers

What is the main characteristic of a private subnet in a VPC?

It is not accessible from the public internet Signup and view all the answers

Which EBS volume type is best suited for applications that require high performance and consistent I/O operations, such as databases?

io1 / io2 Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum IOPS that can be independently set for a GP3 volume?

16,000 IOPS Signup and view all the answers

Which EBS volume type is designed for archiving data that is rarely accessed?

sc1 Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using EBS Multi-Attach?

It allows for high availability in clustered applications by sharing a single EBS volume among multiple instances. Signup and view all the answers

Which of these is NOT a valid source for EC2 instances?

AWS CloudFormation Templates Signup and view all the answers

Which EBS volume type is best suited for big data workloads, such as data warehouses and log processing?

st1 Signup and view all the answers

Which state type in AWS Step Functions is used to represent a single unit of work?

Task Signup and view all the answers

What advantage does EC2 User Data provide during the first launch of an EC2 instance?

It runs scripts as the root user. Signup and view all the answers

Which EC2 instance type is primarily optimized for memory-intensive applications?

m5.2xlarge Signup and view all the answers

Which state type in AWS Step Functions would you use for implementing if-then-else logic?

Choice Signup and view all the answers

What type of EC2 instance store is characterized by high speed but does not persist after instance termination?

EC2 Instance Store Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the 'Map' state type in AWS Step Functions?

For each loop execution Signup and view all the answers

In EC2 instance types, what does the '5' in 'm5.2xlarge' indicate?

Generation of the instance Signup and view all the answers

What kind of logic can the 'Choice' state type in AWS Step Functions implement?

If-then-else decision-making Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services is a fully managed, serverless data warehouse service that allows you to query data stored in S3 buckets in an interactive manner?

Amazon Athena Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed, serverless messaging service for sending messages to multiple subscribers, ensuring that at least one subscriber receives the message, even if others are unavailable?

Amazon SNS Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed, serverless compute platform that allows you to run code in response to events, such as HTTP requests, file uploads, or database changes?

Amazon Lambda Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed, serverless service for orchestrating and automating workflows, allowing you to chain together multiple tasks and functions to create complex business processes?

AWS Step Functions Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services is a managed, serverless database service that provides a highly scalable and performant NoSQL database solution?

Amazon DynamoDB Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed, serverless in-memory caching service that can be used to improve the performance of applications by storing frequently accessed data in memory?

Amazon ElastiCache Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services provides a managed, serverless service for managing and deploying applications on AWS, including tools for project management, source code repository, build automation, and deployment?

AWS CodeStar Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services provides a managed, serverless service for managing and monitoring your applications in real-time, providing insights into performance and health?

AWS CloudWatch Signup and view all the answers

When would choosing a Dedicated Host be a good idea?

When you need to be able to control the placement of your EC2 instances Signup and view all the answers

What is a cold start in the context of Lambda functions?

When a Lambda function is invoked for the first time after a period of inactivity Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using a Savings Plan compared to Reserved Instances?

Savings Plans allow you to use your credits on any instance type, even if it's not the type you originally committed to Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using AWS CloudShell over a local terminal?

Allows access to AWS services without needing to configure AWS credentials. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a benefit of using a Lambda function?

Lambda functions are highly scalable and only pay for the time they run Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a serverless CI/CD environment for AWS applications?

AWS CodeBuild Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a use case for Amazon ElastiCache?

Real-time processing of big unstructured data Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following purchase options is best for unpredictable workloads?

On-demand Instances Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a buildspec.yaml file in AWS CodeBuild?

Specifies the build steps to be executed for a particular project. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when choosing between the 'Bursting' and 'Provisioned' throughput modes for Amazon EFS?

The amount of data being accessed at any given time Signup and view all the answers

Which of these services is NOT a part of the AWS Amplify framework?

AWS CodeArtifact Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using AWS CodeCommit over GitHub or GitLab?

Integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, such as CodeBuild and CodePipeline. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using EC2 Instance Connect compared to traditional SSH?

EC2 Instance Connect allows you to access your EC2 instances without having to open any ports in your security groups Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary feature of Redis compared to Memcached?

Backup and restore features Signup and view all the answers

Which service allows you to export your application's configuration to a CloudFormation template?

Amplify Studio Signup and view all the answers

What is the typical maximum number of read replicas for an Elasticache Redis cluster with cluster-mode disabled?

5 Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of AWS CodeArtifact?

To manage and store software packages, like libraries and dependencies. Signup and view all the answers

Which caching design pattern requires checking if cached data is present in the application before loading from the database?

Cache-Aside Signup and view all the answers

Which of these services would you use to manage the source code for your application?

AWS CodeCommit Signup and view all the answers

What is a drawback of the Lazy Loading caching design pattern?

Data might become stale until needed. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is true about Memcached?

Does not have backup and restore features Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using the Write-Through caching design pattern?

Data in cache is updated at the same time as the database Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately describes a limitation of Memcached?

It lacks support for multi-threading. Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of Redis that enhances its performance?

In-memory data storage only Signup and view all the answers

What is one of the main advantages of using Amazon DynamoDB compared to a traditional SQL database?

It is a NoSQL database. Signup and view all the answers

How does the reader endpoint function in a typical setup?

It provides a single DNS endpoint to access read replicas. Signup and view all the answers

What is a significant limitation when modifying application code to use caching effectively?

It often requires heavy modifications to retrieve data from cache. Signup and view all the answers

What mechanism does Amazon ElastiCache utilize to enhance application performance?

It uses in-memory databases for high performance. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key feature of Amazon DynamoDB that contributes to its performance?

It automatically scales storage based on demand. Signup and view all the answers

In terms of data availability, how does the architecture of Amazon's database solution likely ensure higher availability?

It maintains 6 copies of data across 3 availability zones. Signup and view all the answers

What can be considered a key use case for implementing Amazon ElastiCache?

To reduce load on databases for read-intensive workloads. Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'cache miss' refer to in the context of managed Redis or Memcached instances?

Failing to find required data in the cache, necessitating a database fetch. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of the Operational Excellence pillar in the AWS Well-Architected Framework?

Running and managing AWS resources and applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using Amazon DynamoDB over Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)?

DynamoDB provides high performance and low latency Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a framework for building and deploying applications on AWS, including tools for project management, source code repository, build automation, and deployment?

AWS CodeStar Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Amazon S3 Glacier over Amazon S3?

S3 Glacier provides lower storage costs for infrequently accessed data Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed load balancer for forwarding traffic to multiple downstream servers?

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS CloudTrail?

Monitoring and logging AWS API calls Signup and view all the answers

Which caching design pattern involves writing to the cache when the database is updated?

Write-through caching Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Amazon EFS over EC2 Instance Store?

EFS provides a managed NFS service Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a route table in a VPC?

To allow access between subnets and to the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is a restriction of VPC peering connections?

They must not have overlapping CIDR blocks Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a Network ACL?

To allow or deny traffic at a subnet level Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of Security Groups?

They can only specify ALLOW rules Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using VPC Endpoints?

They provide enhanced security and lower latency to access AWS services Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a VPC Endpoint?

To connect to AWS services using private networks Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of Direct Connect (DX)?

It is a physical connection between on-premises and AWS Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of Site-to-Site VPN?

To connect on-premises VPN to AWS over the public internet Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of an AMI?

It is region-specific Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary use case for GP2/GP3 EBS volumes?

General-purpose SSD volumes for boot or data volumes Signup and view all the answers

What is a key feature of io1/io2 EBS volumes?

They support EBS multi-attach feature Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary use case for st1 EBS volumes?

Big data and data warehouses Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary use case for sc1 EBS volumes?

Archiving files Signup and view all the answers

What is EBS multi-attach feature used for?

To attach EBS volumes to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using EBS multi-attach feature?

Higher application availability in clustered Linux applications Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following EBS volume types is NOT suitable for boot volumes?

st1 Signup and view all the answers

Which purchasing option allows users to reserve capacity in a specific Availability Zone for a fixed duration?

Capacity Reservations Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary characteristic of dedicated instances?

Other customers will not share your hardware. Signup and view all the answers

What does a cold start of a Lambda function refer to?

The moment when the function is executed for the first time during a session. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using Savings Plans for long workloads?

Provides cost savings in exchange for a commitment to an amount of usage. Signup and view all the answers

Why are spot instances considered less reliable compared to on-demand instances?

There is a risk of losing instances at any time. Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of the event object in a Lambda function?

It provides parameters for the function to process. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key feature of Reserved Instances?

They provide significant savings for long workloads with a one- or three-year commitment. Signup and view all the answers

What does the Init phase of a Lambda function lifecycle involve?

Setting up the execution environment and resources. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary reason for applying the principle of least privilege in AWS IAM?

To limit users’ permissions to only those necessary for their role. Signup and view all the answers

Which component of AWS IAM allows you to group users for easier permission management?

Groups Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a policy in AWS IAM?

To define which actions are allowed or denied on specific resources. Signup and view all the answers

Which aspect of an AWS IAM policy structure identifies the actions allowed or denied?

Action Signup and view all the answers

What should be avoided when managing the root account in AWS?

Using the root account for everyday tasks. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a valid element of an IAM policy statement?

Association Signup and view all the answers

What role does Amazon Cognito play in AWS security and identity management?

It manages user identities and provides authentication services. Signup and view all the answers

In AWS IAM, what does the 'Principal' element in a policy specify?

The accounts, users, or roles the policy affects. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of a Lambda Layer?

To re-use external dependencies across multiple Lambda functions Signup and view all the answers

What happens to a Lambda function when it connects to a VPC?

It loses access to the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using Amazon Aurora over RDS?

It is cloud-optimized Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an Alias in Lambda Versions?

To point to a specific version of a Lambda function Signup and view all the answers

What is the advantage of using Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) over Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR)?

It provides a managed service for running containerized applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between Relational and NoSQL databases?

Relational databases make schema changes harder, while NoSQL databases make schema changes easier Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)?

To deploy a serverless application to AWS Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Lambda Versions and Aliases?

It allows for canary deployments and rolling back to previous versions Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using AWS CloudShell over a local terminal?

It eliminates the need to configure AWS with access keys Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a buildspec.yaml file in AWS CodeBuild?

It defines the build to run on the code pulled from the source repository Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using AWS CodeCommit over GitHub or GitLab?

It integrates well with other AWS services Signup and view all the answers

Which service allows you to export your application's configuration to a CloudFormation template?

AWS Amplify Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of AWS CodeBuild?

It provides a serverless CI environment Signup and view all the answers

What is the main characteristic of AWS CodeArtifact?

It provides a managed artifact repository Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a terminal in the cloud that works similar to AWS CLI?

AWS CloudShell Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using AWS CodeBuild over traditional CI/CD environments?

It reduces the need for patching and maintaining a dedicated server Signup and view all the answers

What type of storage is recommended for temporary content or scratch data?

EC2 Instance Store Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using Amazon EFS over EC2 Instance Store?

EFS provides high availability and scalability Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the 'Infrequent access (EFS-IA)' storage tier in Amazon EFS?

For rarely accessed data, with a lower price to store Signup and view all the answers

What is the main characteristic of the 'Archive' storage tier in Amazon EFS?

Rarely accessed data, with a 50% lower price to store Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of lifecycle policies in Amazon EFS?

To move files between storage tiers Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using Amazon EFS over Teradata?

EFS is more scalable than Teradata Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of the 'General Purpose' performance mode in Amazon EFS?

For general-purpose use cases, such as web serving and content management Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using the 'Provisioned' throughput mode in Amazon EFS?

It provides predictable throughput for applications with steady workloads Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a feature of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)?

Provides a high-latency data access compared to S3 Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)?

Offers encryption services for EBS volumes at rest Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a method supported by Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in AWS?

Password only Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a responsibility of AWS in the shared responsibility model for IAM?

Managing user access permissions Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to encrypt EBS volumes at rest?

AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key benefit of using EBS Snapshots?

EBS Snapshots provide a point-in-time backup of your EBS volumes Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the 'Delete on Termination' attribute for EBS volumes?

To ensure that EBS volumes are automatically deleted when the EC2 instance is terminated Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an AMI in AWS?

A template that defines the configuration of an EC2 instance Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of GP2 and GP3 EBS volume types?

They are cost-effective storage with low latency and general purpose SSD Signup and view all the answers

What is a use case for io1 and io2 EBS volume types?

Applications that need sustained IOPS performance Signup and view all the answers

What is a feature of EBS Multi-attach?

Attach the same EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between GP2 and GP3 EBS volume types?

GP2 has preconfigured throughput and storage, whereas GP3 can independently set throughput and storage Signup and view all the answers

What is a use case for st1 EBS volume type?

Big data and data warehouses Signup and view all the answers

What is a feature of io2 EBS volume type?

All of the above Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of sc1 EBS volume type?

Suitable for archiving Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using EBS Multi-attach?

Higher application availability in clustered linux applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of connection draining in relation to Load Balancers?

Allowing for the graceful termination of connections to target group instances during deregistration or unhealthy states. Signup and view all the answers

What is the key difference between Application Load Balancers (ALB) and Network Load Balancers (NLB) in terms of cross-zone load balancing?

NLB charges for inter-AZ data transfer, while ALB does not. Signup and view all the answers

How does Server Name Indication (SNI) improve SSL certificate management on Application Load Balancers (ALBs)?

SNI allows the use of a single SSL certificate for multiple domains, eliminating the need for separate certificates. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of sticky sessions in the context of load balancing?

Ensuring that all traffic is routed to the same target group instance for a specific user session. Signup and view all the answers

Which type of load balancer supports the use of Application Security Groups to restrict access from load balancer security groups only?

Application Load Balancers (ALB) Signup and view all the answers

What is the main purpose of a payload manipulation technique in an Intrusion Detection System (IDS)?

To modify incoming traffic to prevent malicious attacks. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Application Load Balancers (ALB) for cross-zone load balancing?

Elimination of charges for inter-AZ data transfer. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using SSL/TLS certificates with load balancers?

Protecting sensitive data in transit between clients and load balancers. Signup and view all the answers

What is the default time interval for draining an instance in an autoscaling group?

300 secs Signup and view all the answers

Which component is NOT typically included in a launch template for autoscaling groups?

Database Connection String Signup and view all the answers

What type of scaling is used when an autoscaling group adjusts based on a CloudWatch alarm?

Step scaling Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following scaling policies is an example of dynamic scaling?

Average CPU target tracking Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of autoscaling groups in the context of EC2 instances?

To automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances Signup and view all the answers

When configuring an autoscaling group, which parameter defines the minimum number of instances that should be maintained?

Minimum size Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the autoscaling group?

Has a fixed instance count Signup and view all the answers

In the context of autoscaling, what does 'scheduled scaling' refer to?

Increasing instance capacity daily at specific times Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using On-demand instances in EC2 pricing?

Predictable pricing without upfront fees Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of Dedicated Hosts in AWS?

They enable control over instance placement and licensing Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following accurately describes the purpose of Reserved Instances?

Designed for long-term workloads requiring cost efficiency Signup and view all the answers

What happens during a cold start in AWS Lambda?

The execution environment is set up fresh, and resources are allocated Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes the concept of Savings Plans in EC2?

A commitment to a specific amount of usage to reduce costs Signup and view all the answers

In the context of AWS Lambda, what is the role of the Event Object?

To provide parameters for the lambda function to process Signup and view all the answers

What is a consequence of using Spot Instances for workloads?

They might not remain allocated when capacity is needed elsewhere Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately reflects the characteristics of EC2 Instance Connect?

It allows direct SSH access without the need for a public IP Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary role of AWS CodeDeploy?

Deployment automation for applications Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes Vertical Scalability?

Increasing the size of an existing instance Signup and view all the answers

What aspect of AWS CLI allows it to be an alternative to the AWS Management Console?

It provides command line access to AWS services Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately differentiates Scalability from High Availability?

Scalability only considers resource upgrades, while High Availability is concerned with redundancy. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows for version control and collaboration on code repositories?

AWS CodeCommit Signup and view all the answers

What benefit does using Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) provide?

It distributes incoming traffic to multiple EC2 instances. Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary attribute of the AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)?

It enables infrastructure provisioning as code using familiar programming languages. Signup and view all the answers

Which service provides real-time monitoring of resources and applications in AWS?

Amazon CloudWatch Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service is used to monitor and manage applications in real-time, offering insights into performance and health?

Amazon CloudWatch Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to define and manage infrastructure as code using a declarative language?

AWS CloudFormation Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using AWS CLI?

Provides a graphical user interface Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a framework for building and deploying applications on AWS, including tools for project management, source code repository, build automation, and deployment?

AWS CodeStar Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between vertical and horizontal scalability?

Vertical scalability increases the size of instances while horizontal scalability increases the number of instances. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to store and manage log files generated by your applications and infrastructure?

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a suitable use case for Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)?

Supporting a single EC2 instance for a database Signup and view all the answers

What is the key advantage of using Amazon EFS over EC2 Instance Store?

EFS provides persistent storage that survives instance termination, unlike Instance Store. Signup and view all the answers

Which storage option is most suitable for storing data that is rarely accessed (few times per year)?

Amazon EFS - Archive Signup and view all the answers

Which of these storage options is suitable for managing content, web serving, and data sharing?

Amazon EFS Signup and view all the answers

Which performance mode in Amazon EFS is best for general web site use cases?

General Purpose Signup and view all the answers

Which storage option is best for high-performance, low-latency workloads requiring ephemeral storage?

EC2 Instance Store Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements is true regarding Amazon EFS?

Amazon EFS scales automatically, requiring no capacity planning. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key difference between EC2 Instance Store and Amazon EFS?

Amazon EFS is a managed service, while EC2 Instance Store is not. Signup and view all the answers

What is a major consideration when choosing between Amazon EFS's Bursting and Provisioned throughput modes?

The expected workload pattern and performance requirements. Signup and view all the answers

Which Amazon EFS storage tier is most suitable for frequently accessed files?

Standard Signup and view all the answers

What is a major benefit of using AWS CodeBuild?

Fully managed and reduces idle time billing Signup and view all the answers

How does AWS CloudShell differ from traditional command line interfaces?

Provides terminal access pre-configured with your AWS user Signup and view all the answers

What defines the build process in AWS CodeBuild?

buildspec.yaml file Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using AWS CodeCommit?

Integrates well with other AWS services Signup and view all the answers

Which feature of AWS CodeArtifact is particularly highlighted?

Enables artifact storage and distribution Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of AWS Amplify's services?

Offers tools for full-stack development and deployment Signup and view all the answers

Which component is essential for AWS CodeBuild to run builds based on the source code?

buildspec.yaml file Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately describes AWS Cloud9?

It is a fully managed IDE that runs in the cloud Signup and view all the answers

What is one of the main advantages of using Athena compared to S3 Select?

Athena can query the entire bucket. Signup and view all the answers

Which characteristic distinguishes Kinesis Data Streams from SQS?

Kinesis allows real-time data processing. Signup and view all the answers

Which access method uses access keys for AWS interaction?

Both b and c Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about Edge Networks is incorrect?

Edge Networks can only serve dynamic content. Signup and view all the answers

What functionality does CloudFront provide in relation to edge locations?

CloudFront serves content at edge locations for reduced latency. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key difference between Kinesis Data Streams and Kinesis Firehose?

Data Streams requires a consumer to process data. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements is true about AWS Athena's billing?

Athena charges based on the amount of data scanned during queries. Signup and view all the answers

Which service is necessary to obtain an ordered stream of messages in Kinesis?

Kinesis Data Streams supports ordered data natively. Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum time you can set for draining an instance before it is terminated in an autoscaling group?

3600 seconds Signup and view all the answers

What are the two main types of scaling policies for autoscaling groups?

Dynamic and Scheduled Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of Launch Templates in AWS Auto Scaling?

To define the size and type of EC2 instances to be launched in an autoscaling group Signup and view all the answers

Which of these is NOT included in the Launch Template for an autoscaling group?

The AWS region Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a Target Tracking scaling policy?

To scale the autoscaling group based on a specific metric, such as CPU utilization Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using a Simple scaling policy?

It is easier to configure than a target tracking scaling policy Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using AWS Auto Scaling?

It allows you to automatically scale your application's resources based on demand Signup and view all the answers

How can you specify the minimum and maximum number of instances in an autoscaling group?

By using the autoscaling group's configuration settings Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of stickiness in load balancers?

To ensure user sessions are routed to the same target group Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between Cross Zone load balancing and normal load balancing?

Cross Zone load balancing distributes requests across all AZs, while normal load balancing does not Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of SNI?

To allow multiple SSL certificates on one web server Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of connection draining?

To complete in-flight requests while target group instances are de-registering or unhealthy Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using SSL/TLS certificates with load balancers?

To allow encryption in transit (in-flight encryption) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of security groups with load balancers?

To restrict access to load balancers Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary difference between ALB and NLB in terms of cross-zone load balancing?

ALB has cross-zone load balancing enabled by default, while NLB has it disabled by default Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using application-based cookies with load balancers?

To allow custom attributes required by the application Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to manage and audit changes to your AWS infrastructure?

AWS CloudTrail Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a benefit of using AWS CLI?

It provides a high-level API to interact with AWS services. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a framework for building and deploying applications on AWS, including tools for project management, source code repository, build automation, and deployment?

AWS CodeStar Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed load balancer for forwarding traffic to multiple downstream servers?

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of AWS CodeDeploy?

Provides a managed service for deploying and managing applications on AWS. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using AWS SDK?

Requires extensive knowledge of AWS CLI commands to use it. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of horizontal scalability?

Adding more servers to a load balancer. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services allows you to define and manage infrastructure as code using a declarative language?

AWS CloudFormation Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a way to establish a connection to the internet at the VPC level?

VPC Endpoint Signup and view all the answers

How does a VPC Flow Log capture information about IP traffic going to instances?

By intercepting and analyzing network packets. Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of adding rules to authorize another security group in a VPC?

To allow instances in one security group to communicate with instances in another security group. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a benefit of using VPC Endpoints to connect EC2 instances to AWS global services?

All of the above. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a Customer Gateway in a VPC?

To establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to an on-premises data center. Signup and view all the answers

In a three-tier architecture, which tier typically handles user requests and interacts with the database tier?

Presentation Tier Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a valid destination for VPC Flow Logs?

Amazon CloudTrail Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using Subnet Flow Logs compared to VPC Flow Logs?

All of the above. Signup and view all the answers

What distinguishes GP3 volumes from GP2 volumes in EBS storage?

GP3 allows independent configuration of throughput and storage. Signup and view all the answers

Which type of EBS volume is best suited for applications that require sustained IOPS performance?

io1 / io2 Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum provisioned IOPS for an io2 EBS volume?

256,000 IOPS Signup and view all the answers

What feature does EBS Multi-attach provide for EC2 instances?

Enables full read and write permissions for multiple instances to the same EBS volume. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary use case for st1 EBS volumes?

Big data, data warehouses, or log processing. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about AMIs is true?

AMIs can be created only in the same region as the EC2 instance. Signup and view all the answers

When using io1 volumes, what is the maximum IOPS to GiB ratio allowed?

100:1 Signup and view all the answers

What differentiates sc1 volumes from st1 volumes?

sc1 is more cost-effective for archiving. Signup and view all the answers

What controls the network traffic in a VPC through subnet routing?

Route table Signup and view all the answers

What is a requirement for establishing a VPC peering connection?

No overlapping CIDR in the IP address range Signup and view all the answers

Which statement is true regarding security groups in a VPC?

They only specify ALLOW rules. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of VPC endpoints?

To connect to AWS services using a private network. Signup and view all the answers

Which features of network ACL and security groups differ fundamentally?

Security Groups work at the instance level. Signup and view all the answers

What does the Direct Connect (DX) service provide?

Physical connection with lower latency to on-premises infrastructure. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about route tables is incorrect?

Each subnet can have more than one route table associated. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key feature of the Site to Site VPC VPN?

It provides an encrypted connection over the public internet. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework is concerned with the ability to run and monitor systems to deliver business value?

Operational Excellence Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using a regional Amazon S3 bucket?

Lower latency Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed relational database service that combines the high performance and availability of commercial-grade relational databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open-source databases?

Amazon Aurora Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of Amazon CloudWatch

To monitor and manage AWS resources and applications Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service enables developers to write, run, and debug code quickly and safely in a cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE)?

AWS Cloud9 Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)?

Simplified container management Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a fully managed service that makes it easy to create, manage, and scale event-driven architectures?

EventBridge Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS Config?

To evaluate and manage the configuration of AWS resources Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of an AMI?

It is region-specific Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between GP2 and GP3 EBS volume types?

GP2 has preconfigured throughput and storage, while GP3 allows independent configuration Signup and view all the answers

What is the main use case for io1 and io2 EBS volume types?

Applications that need sustained IOPS performance Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of EBS Multi-attach?

Achieve higher application availability in clustered Linux applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between st1 and sc1 EBS volume types?

st1 is for hard disk drives and sc1 is for solid-state drives Signup and view all the answers

What is a key feature of io1 and io2 EBS volume types?

Independently set IOPS and storage Signup and view all the answers

What is the main limitation of GP2 EBS volume types?

It has a maximum IOPS of 16,000 Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using EBS volume types?

All of the above Signup and view all the answers

Which state type in Step Functions signifies successful completion of a workflow?

Succeed Signup and view all the answers

What is one of the primary uses for EC2 instance types labeled as 'memory optimized'?

High performance databases Signup and view all the answers

Which type of task allows concurrent execution of various jobs in AWS Step Functions?

Parallel Signup and view all the answers

What is a common use case for EC2 User Data scripts'

Install software during instance launch Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following state types in AWS Step Functions is used for conditional logic?

Choice Signup and view all the answers

What benefits do Compute optimized EC2 instances provide?

Suitable for batch processing and media transcoding Signup and view all the answers

What happens to the EC2 instance's User Data script during subsequent restarts?

Runs only the first time the instance is launched Signup and view all the answers

How can AWS Step Functions enhance workflows in a serverless architecture?

By orchestrating Lambda functions visually Signup and view all the answers

Which condition can trigger cache eviction?

An item is deleted explicitly Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary advantage of using Amazon RDS over EC2 for database management?

Automated backups and maintenance Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about RDS read replicas is accurate?

Up to 15 read replicas can be created within the same region Signup and view all the answers

What is the main feature of Amazon RDS Proxy?

It pools and shares database connections to enhance efficiency Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the Time to Live (TTL) in caching?

To define how long an item can stay in the cache before being evicted Signup and view all the answers

When converting an unencrypted RDS database to an encrypted one, which is the correct method?

Create a snapshot, copy it, enable encryption, and restore Signup and view all the answers

Which use case is most suitable for implementing read replicas?

Reporting and analytics in read-heavy environments Signup and view all the answers

How does scaling out or scaling up affect cache eviction due to memory limits?

It can help alleviate frequent evictions by providing more resources Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) over EC2 Instance Store for applications requiring high availability and scalability?

EFS provides persistent storage that survives instance termination, while Instance Store is ephemeral. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key consideration when choosing between the 'Bursting' and 'Provisioned' throughput modes for Amazon EFS?

The expected peak throughput requirements for the application. Signup and view all the answers

Which storage tier in Amazon EFS is most cost-effective for data that is rarely accessed (few times per year)?

Archive Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a suitable use case for Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)?

Storing temporary data that is frequently accessed by a single EC2 instance. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using lifecycle policies with Amazon EFS?

Automated data migration to different storage tiers based on access patterns. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) is TRUE?

EFS is a fully managed service that requires no capacity planning. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)?

Offers consistent low latency for all access patterns. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main reason for choosing the 'Max IO' performance mode for Amazon EFS?

To optimize performance for applications that require high IOPS and throughput. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a route table in a VPC?

To control the access between subnets and the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is a key requirement for VPC peering connections?

Non-overlapping CIDR blocks Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using VPC Endpoints?

Enhanced security and lower latency to access AWS Services Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a Network ACL?

To allow or deny traffic at the subnet level Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of Security Groups?

They can only specify allow rules Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of a VPC Endpoint?

To allow access to AWS services using a private network Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Site-to-Site VPN?

Connect on-premises VPN to AWS via an encrypted public internet connection Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of Direct Connect?

To connect on-premises infrastructure to AWS via a physical connection Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of an AMI?

It is region specific Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between GP2 and GP3 EBS volume types?

GP3 can independently set throughput and storage, whereas GP2 cannot Signup and view all the answers

What is a suitable use case for io1/io2 EBS volume types?

Database workloads that require sustained IOPS performance Signup and view all the answers

What is the EBS Multi-attach feature used for?

To attach a single EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same availability zone Signup and view all the answers

What type of EBS volume is suitable for big data, data warehouses, and log processing?

st1 Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum IOPS for an io1 EBS volume type?

64,000 IOPS Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using io2 EBS volume types?

They provide high IOPS performance Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary use case for sc1 EBS volume types?

Archiving and cold storage Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an EC2 User Data script?

To automatically install software and configure the EC2 instance at launch. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)?

To enable communication between different AWS services. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a state type available in AWS Step Functions?

Switch Signup and view all the answers

Which EC2 instance type is designed for high-performance databases with memory-intensive workloads?

m5.2xlarge Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) for message queues compared to Amazon SNS?

SQS allows for guaranteed message delivery, while SNS does not. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS AppSync?

To create a serverless API for accessing data from multiple data sources. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service is used to manage the flow and execution of lambda functions in a serverless environment?

AWS Step Functions Signup and view all the answers

Which of these is a key difference between a standard SQS queue and a FIFO (First-In, First-Out) SQS queue?

FIFO queues provide guaranteed message order delivery, while standard queues do not. Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service allows you to connect EC2 instances within a VPC to services like AWS Lambda or S3 without internet traffic?

VPC Endpoint Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a Customer Gateway in AWS VPC?

To establish an AWS Direct Connect connection to an on-premises data center Signup and view all the answers

How can you authorize communication between EC2 instances in different security groups within a VPC?

By adding rules to a security group to allow traffic from the other security group Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of VPC Flow Logs?

To capture information about IP traffic going to or from instances within a VPC Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a valid destination for VPC Flow Logs?

All of the above Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using VPC Endpoints compared to connecting EC2 instances directly to the internet?

All of the above Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a valid use case for a three-tier architecture in AWS?

A monolithic application with all components deployed on a single EC2 instance Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of an Internet Gateway in AWS VPC?

To allow connection to the internet at the VPC level Signup and view all the answers

What is the main function of scaling cooldowns in a cloud environment?

To prevent multiple scaling actions from occurring too quickly. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about NAT devices is correct?

NAT Instances operate within the public subnet and manage private instance connections. Signup and view all the answers

What does the CIDR notation /28 represent in terms of IP addresses?

16 IP addresses available. Signup and view all the answers

What configuration is automatically provisioned by DHCP options set in AWS?

Configures DNS, Netbios Name server, and NTP settings. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is true regarding the limitations of a private subnet within a VPC?

It is typically used for backend systems like databases. Signup and view all the answers

Why is it important to specify a minimum healthy percentage during instance refresh?

To control the number of running instances during updates. Signup and view all the answers

In which scenario would using a VPC be unsuitable?

When no alternative routing options are needed. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary reason for using predictive scaling?

To forecast load and schedule resource scaling proactively. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of the Operational Excellence pillar in the AWS Well-Architected Framework?

Running and using AWS resources efficiently Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) over Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR)?

Container orchestration and management Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services is primarily used for real-time data processing and analysis?

Amazon Kinesis Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using Amazon Aurora over Amazon RDS?

Faster database performance Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key characteristic of a highly available architecture in AWS?

Auto-scaling and load balancing Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS CloudTrail?

Security and compliance auditing Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services is primarily used for building, testing, and deploying software?

AWS CodePipeline Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) over Amazon S3?

Faster access to files Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about Teradata applications are TRUE? (Select all that apply)

Teradata applications must be able to handle multiple write operations happening simultaneously. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a suitable use case for Amazon EFS?

Managing website content and files for web servers. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using Amazon EFS over EC2 Instance Store?

Ability to mount the filesystem on multiple EC2 instances simultaneously. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Amazon EFS?

Offers a single storage tier for all data types. Signup and view all the answers

Which storage tier in Amazon EFS is designed for rarely accessed data (few times per year)?

Archive Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a scaling cooldown period in cloud scaling activities?

To allow metrics to stabilize after a scaling event Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using lifecycle policies with Amazon EFS?

Optimizing storage costs by moving data to the appropriate tier based on access frequency. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when choosing between the 'Bursting' and 'Provisioned' throughput modes for Amazon EFS?

The expected peak throughput requirements for the workload. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately describes a private subnet within a VPC?

It is not accessible from the internet. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about EC2 Instance Store is TRUE?

It's well-suited for buffering and caching frequently accessed data. Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of NAT Devices in a VPC environment?

To enable EC2 instances in a private subnet to access the public internet Signup and view all the answers

What does an Instance Refresh in a VPC accomplish?

It updates the launch template for EC2 instances without downtime Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of CIDR blocks in a VPC configuration?

They specify the size of the network and the number of available IP addresses. Signup and view all the answers

Which description best represents a NAT Gateway compared to a NAT Instance?

NAT Gateways offer increased scalability and availability. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using DHCP options in a VPC?

They provision IP addresses automatically for resources within the VPC. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about VPC subnets is false?

A subnet can contain resources from multiple availability zones. Signup and view all the answers

What type of health check does the Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) perform?

Checks for specific response codes on a defined route Signup and view all the answers

Which feature is unique to the Application Load Balancer (ALB)?

Can load balance to multiple applications Signup and view all the answers

What protocol is supported by the Network Load Balancer (NLB)?

TCP and UDP Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary feature of the Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB)?

Manages a fleet of third-party network virtual appliances Signup and view all the answers

What is a notable capability of Application Load Balancers concerning redirection?

Supports redirects from HTTP to HTTPS Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer is best suited for applications that require high throughput and low latency?

Network Load Balancer (NLB) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following load balancer types is specifically mentioned as being replaced in capabilities?

Classic Load Balancer Signup and view all the answers

What is a common feature between the Application Load Balancer and Network Load Balancer in terms of session management?

Both can be configured for session stickiness Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about route tables in a VPC is accurate?

Every subnet must have one route table associated with it. Signup and view all the answers

What is a requirement for establishing a VPC peering connection?

The VPCs must not have overlapping CIDR ranges. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a feature of Security Groups in a VPC?

Inbound traffic is denied by default. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about VPC endpoints is true?

Endpoints reduce latency and enhance security when connecting to AWS services. Signup and view all the answers

What describes the main functionality of Direct Connect (DX)?

It offers a physical connection for faster and more secure network access to AWS. Signup and view all the answers

What capability does a Network ACL provide in a VPC?

Allows or denies traffic at the subnet level explicitly. Signup and view all the answers

In terms of traffic management, how do VPC Security Groups differ from Network ACLs?

Security Groups can only specify ALLOW rules, whereas Network ACLs can specify both ALLOW and DENY rules. Signup and view all the answers

What is a unique characteristic of VPC peering connections?

Each peering connection must be established directly between two VPCs. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between Lazy loading and Write Through caching design patterns?

Lazy loading checks if cached data is present, and loading from the database if not, while Write Through writes to the cache when the database is updated Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of using Memcached compared to Redis?

Memcached does not support Sets and Sorted Sets Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Lazy loading caching design pattern?

Only requested data is cached, and node failures are not fatal Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of Write Through caching design pattern?

Data in cache is never stale, and writes require 2 calls Signup and view all the answers

Which caching technology supports Sets and Sorted Sets?

Redis Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum number of read replicas for an Elasticache Redis cluster with cluster-mode disabled?

5 Signup and view all the answers

Which caching design pattern involves checking if cached data is present, and loading from the database if not?

Lazy loading Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using Cache-Aside caching design pattern?

Reduces the load on the database, and improves application performance Signup and view all the answers

Which of these scenarios benefit from enabling sticky sessions on a load balancer?

An online shopping cart application where users need to maintain their items in the cart across multiple requests. Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type allows you to disable cross-zone load balancing at the target group level, without incurring charges for inter-AZ data transfer?

Application Load Balancer (ALB) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of using a default certificate on an HTTPS listener for an Application Load Balancer (ALB)?

To automatically redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, providing a more secure connection for users. Signup and view all the answers

Which of these techniques helps address the challenge of managing multiple SSL certificates for different domains on a single web server?

Utilizing Server Name Indication (SNI) to allow the client to specify the hostname during the initial SSL handshake. Signup and view all the answers

Which of these describes the concept of connection draining in the context of load balancer target group instances?

The process of gracefully removing unhealthy instances from the load balancer's target group, while ensuring that ongoing requests are completed. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key benefit of using an Application Security Group (ASG) in conjunction with a load balancer?

It allows you to configure access control rules to restrict inbound and outbound traffic to the load balancer and its associated target group instances. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is TRUE?

ACM provides a centralized location for managing SSL/TLS certificates used for various AWS services, including load balancers, CloudFront, and API Gateway. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of using a Network Load Balancer (NLB) in an AWS environment?

To route traffic based on the source IP address of the client requests, providing high availability for network services. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary role of Step Functions in AWS?

To enable serverless workflows and orchestrate Lambda functions Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following EC2 instance types is optimized for high-performance databases?

m5.2xlarge Signup and view all the answers

Which state type in Step Functions is used to introduce a delay in execution?

Wait Signup and view all the answers

What type of EC2 User Data script is run during the first launch of an instance?

A one-time setup script to install software or updates Signup and view all the answers

What does the 'Map' state type in Step Functions facilitate?

Parallel execution of multiple tasks over a collection Signup and view all the answers

Which configuration does NOT pertain to EC2 instance sizing options?

Data transfer limits Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of the 'Choice' state in Step Functions?

Executes a specified task based on predefined conditions Signup and view all the answers

Which EC2 instance type naming convention indicates it is memory optimized?

m Signup and view all the answers

What is a distinguishing feature of Amazon DynamoDB compared to traditional databases?

It is a NoSQL database. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using the Writer and Reader endpoints provided by a data service?

They streamline the application’s connection process to different instance types. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement is true about Amazon ElastiCache?

It is a fully managed service providing in-memory data store options. Signup and view all the answers

How does caching improve the performance of applications utilizing in-memory databases?

By reducing the load on databases during read-intensive workloads. Signup and view all the answers

What must be modified in application code to effectively utilize caching with Amazon ElastiCache?

The query patterns need to incorporate cache hit and miss strategies. Signup and view all the answers

What is the expected behavior when an application experiences a cache miss?

Data is fetched from the database after failing to find it in the cache. Signup and view all the answers

Why is high availability important for data management services such as those mentioned?

It allows for automatic failover and redundancy in data storage. Signup and view all the answers

What primary role does the connection load balancer play in the context of the Reader endpoint?

It manages the traffic between application requests and read replicas. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes the role of IAM policies in AWS security?

IAM policies are used to define the permissions for AWS users and groups, allowing or denying access to specific resources and actions. Signup and view all the answers

What is the significance of the 'Effect' element within an IAM policy statement?

The 'Effect' element specifies the type of access control rule, such as 'Allow' or 'Deny', determining whether the policy grants or prohibits access to a specific resource. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following scenarios BEST illustrates the concept of the 'Principle of Least Privilege' in AWS IAM?

A security administrator is assigned a role that grants access only to specific security monitoring tools and dashboards. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements regarding AWS IAM Roles is CORRECT?

IAM Roles are designed to grant permissions to AWS services, allowing them to access specific resources on behalf of the service. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of the 'Resource' element within an IAM policy statement?

The 'Resource' element identifies the specific AWS resources that the policy grants or denies access to, such as S3 buckets or EC2 instances. Signup and view all the answers

In an IAM policy, which of the following elements is OPTIONAL?

Statement Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements BEST explains the purpose of the 'Principal' element within an IAM policy statement?

The 'Principal' element identifies the user, group, or role that the policy applies to, determining who or what is subject to the policy's rules. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key benefit of using IAM Groups in AWS security?

IAM Groups allow for centralized management of permissions for multiple users, simplifying the process of assigning and modifying access controls. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when setting up a password policy in IAM?

Setting a minimum length for the password Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using IAM Access Advisor?

It shows service permissions granted to the user and when those were last accessed Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of an EBS volume?

It persists data even after EC2 termination Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary use case for AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)?

To encrypt EBS at rest Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS)?

To request temporary, limited-privilege credentials for IAM users or roles Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using EBS Snapshots?

It provides a backup of your EBS volume Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of MFA in AWS?

To provide an additional layer of security for IAM users Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary responsibility of the user in the Shared Responsibility Model of IAM?

Applying appropriate permissions in IAM Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed caching service, offering high performance, scalability, and in-memory data storage, supporting both Redis and Memcached?

Amazon ElastiCache Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS pricing models offers the most cost savings for a long-running workload with a consistent usage pattern, but requires a commitment to a specific amount of usage?

Savings Plans Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service offers the ability to manage and deploy your applications in a serverless environment, allowing you to focus on code development rather than infrastructure management?

AWS Lambda Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using the "Context Reuse" feature in AWS Lambda?

Reduces cold start latency by reusing resources from the "INIT" phase, up to 512MB. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using Dedicated Instances in AWS EC2?

Ability to install and manage custom operating systems on the instances. Signup and view all the answers

In AWS Lambda, what is the purpose of the "Event Object"?

It provides the input data that triggers the Lambda function execution. Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary advantage of using "Spot Instances" in AWS EC2?

They are highly cost-effective for short-duration workloads, but may be interrupted. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services is NOT directly related to managing and deploying applications in a serverless environment?

Amazon ElastiCache Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes the advantages of using Lambda Layers?

Lambda Layers offer reduced deployment time by allowing the reuse of external dependencies across multiple Lambda functions. Signup and view all the answers

Which type of AWS Step Function state is specifically designed to perform a single unit of work?

Task Signup and view all the answers

What is a key feature of the EC2 User Data script during instance initialization?

It runs only once at the first instance start. Signup and view all the answers

Which state type in AWS Step Functions is used to implement an if-then-else logic?

Choice Signup and view all the answers

For which use case is a Compute Optimized EC2 instance type most suitable?

Media transcoding Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following correctly describes the 'Map' state in AWS Step Functions?

Executes units of work in parallel for each item in a collection. Signup and view all the answers

What characteristic does an EC2 Instance store have that differentiates it from EBS and EFS?

Ephemeral data storage Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about 'Fail' and 'Succeed' states in AWS Step Functions is accurate?

The Fail state stops execution and marks it as a failure. Signup and view all the answers

What does the naming convention 'm5.2xlarge' tell you about the EC2 instance type?

The instance type is memory optimized, is the fifth generation, and has large specs. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of using Amazon DynamoDB compared to Amazon RDS for a database-driven application?

DynamoDB offers higher availability due to its distributed nature, making it more resilient to failures. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately describes the Writer Endpoint functionality in the context of Amazon RDS?

The Writer Endpoint provides a single DNS endpoint for writing to the master instance of the RDS cluster, simplifying application code. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using Amazon ElastiCache (Redis) over Amazon RDS for read-intensive workloads?

ElastiCache offers lower latency for read operations compared to RDS, resulting in faster response times. Signup and view all the answers

Which scenario best illustrates a use case where Amazon ElastiCache (Memcached) would be an effective solution?

An e-commerce platform with a large product catalog and a need for fast product lookups. Signup and view all the answers

What is the main challenge associated with using Amazon ElastiCache to enhance application performance?

ElastiCache requires significant application code modifications to effectively leverage its caching capabilities. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement best describes the concept of 'Cache Miss' when using Amazon ElastiCache?

When the requested data is not found in the cache and needs to be retrieved from the underlying database. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using Amazon ElastiCache (Redis) for session management in a web application?

Redis's in-memory data storage provides fast access to session data, improving application responsiveness. Signup and view all the answers

How does Amazon RDS differ from Amazon DynamoDB in terms of its data model?

RDS is a relational database that adheres to SQL standards, while DynamoDB is a NoSQL database with a key-value data model. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of the Operational Excellence pillar in the AWS Well-Architected Framework?

Continuous improvement and learning Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using Amazon Aurora's writer/reader endpoint?

Improved read performance Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using AWS CodeCommit over other version control systems?

Tighter integration with AWS services Signup and view all the answers

What is the main purpose of AWS CloudWatch Logs?

Log file storage and management Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Amazon ElastiCache with Redis?

In-memory data storage Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using AWS Lambda over EC2 instances?

Cost savings due to serverless computing Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS X-Ray?

Distributed tracing and analytics Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using AWS CloudFormation over manual infrastructure deployment?

Version control and infrastructure as code Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using a Virtual Private Gateway in a VPC?

It establishes an AWS DirectConnect connection to a Customer Gateway at the VPC level Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a Subnet flow log in a VPC?

To capture information about IP traffic going to a specific subnet Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using a Three-Tier Architecture in a VPC?

It provides a scalable and secure architecture for web applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of VPC Flow logs?

To capture information about IP traffic going to instances in a VPC Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using a VPC Endpoint for AWS services?

It provides a secure connection to AWS services over the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of a Customer Gateway?

To establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to a Virtual Private Gateway at the VPC level Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of adding rules to authorize another security group in a VPC?

It allows load balancers to connect to EC2 instances without specifying IP addresses Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of an Elastic Network Interface Flow log in a VPC?

To capture information about IP traffic going to a specific Elastic Network Interface Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using IAM Access Advisor in AWS?

To provide insights into service-level permissions Signup and view all the answers

What is the key difference between a User and a Group in IAM?

A User is an individual, while a Group is a collection of users Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the Principal element in an IAM policy?

To specify the account or user that the policy applies to Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using roles in IAM?

To assign permissions to AWS services Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a Condition element in an IAM policy?

To specify the condition for when the policy is in effect Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using Amazon Cognito?

It provides user identity and access management for web and mobile applications Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)?

To manage and provision SSL/TLS certificates for AWS resources Signup and view all the answers

What is the principle of least privilege in IAM?

Assigning only the necessary permissions to users and groups Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of scaling cooldowns in a scaling activity?

To allow for metric stabilization after a scaling change Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately describes a private subnet within an Amazon VPC?

It is confined to one availability zone and not internet accessible Signup and view all the answers

What does the CIDR block notation /16 signify in an Amazon VPC?

It allows for a maximum of 65,536 IP addresses Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary distinction between NAT instances and NAT gateways?

NAT gateways are managed by AWS, while NAT instances require customer management Signup and view all the answers

What happens to EC2 instances when an instance refresh is executed?

All instances are recreated based on the updated launch template Signup and view all the answers

What role does DHCP options set serve in an Amazon VPC?

To automatically provision IP addresses and configure DNS and network settings Signup and view all the answers

What is the consequence of reserving the first four and last IP addresses in a CIDR block for Amazon?

These addresses are reserved for AWS management and cannot be used by customers Signup and view all the answers

How does a NAT device function within a private subnet of a VPC?

It routes internet traffic from private instances to the public internet while isolating them Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of a route table within a VPC?

It controls the flow of network traffic through subnet routing. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement about VPC peering connections is true?

You can connect two VPCs that belong to different AWS accounts through VPC peering. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of security groups in a VPC?

Security groups are stateful and remember inbound connections. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes Network ACLs?

They provide a firewall mechanism to explicitly allow or deny traffic by various parameters. Signup and view all the answers

What are VPC endpoints mainly used for?

To provide private connections to AWS services without going through the internet. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of Direct Connect (DX) within a VPC context?

To establish a physical and dedicated connection from on-premises to AWS. Signup and view all the answers

What traffic management capabilities does a route table provide within a subnet?

It defines how traffic should be directed to and from subnets. Signup and view all the answers

Which characteristic is NOT true regarding site-to-site VPN connections?

They are capable of site-to-site communication without latency issues. Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum number of read replicas for an Elasticache Redis cluster with cluster-mode disabled?

5 Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of using the Write Through caching design pattern?

Data in cache is never stale Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of Memcached compared to Redis?

It does not support Sets and Sorted Sets Signup and view all the answers

Which caching design pattern involves checking if cached data is present, and loading from the database if not?

Lazy loading Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using the Lazy loading caching design pattern?

Only requested data is cached Signup and view all the answers

Which caching technology supports Multi-AZ with Auto-failover?

Redis Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of the Cache-Aside caching design pattern?

Data is loaded from the database into the cache when requested Signup and view all the answers

Which caching technology does not support high availability?

Memcached Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of "Connection Draining" in relation to load balancers?

To ensure that all in-flight requests are completed before an instance is de-registered or becomes unhealthy. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of "Sticky Sessions" in a load balancer setup?

To ensure that requests from the same client are always routed to the same target instance. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes how SSL/TLS certificates are managed in AWS Load Balancers?

Load balancers utilize AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to manage SSL/TLS certificates, allowing users to upload custom certificates or leverage ACM's managed certificates. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of "Server Name Indication (SNI)" in the context of AWS Load Balancers?

SNI allows a single load balancer to host multiple domains with different SSL certificates, enabling secure communication for each domain. Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type allows you to disable cross-zone load balancing at the target group level?

Application Load Balancer (ALB) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes the behavior of a load balancer with cross-zone load balancing disabled?

Requests are distributed evenly across instances within the same availability zone as the load balancer. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes the impact of enabling "Stickiness" on load balancer behavior?

Enabling Stickiness can cause uneven distribution of traffic, potentially overloading some instances. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a valid use case for "Stickiness" in load balancing?

Distributing traffic evenly across all instances in a target group. Signup and view all the answers

What must be true for two VPCs to establish a peering connection?

They must not have overlapping CIDR blocks. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of Security Groups in AWS?

They can only specify allow rules, not deny. Signup and view all the answers

Which statement correctly describes the functionality of VPC Endpoints?

They enhance security by allowing connections over a private network. Signup and view all the answers

How does a Network ACL differ from a Security Group in AWS?

Network ACLs operate at the subnet level, while Security Groups operate at the instance level. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a feature of Route Tables in a VPC?

They control access between different VPCs. Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of VPC peering connections?

They are not transitive and require direct connections. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Direct Connect (DX)?

It provides a secure, fast, and private physical connection. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about Site-to-Site VPN is true?

It is encrypted over a public internet connection. Signup and view all the answers

What is a specific purpose of the 'Wait' state type in Step Functions?

To delay execution for a specified time period Signup and view all the answers

Which EC2 instance characteristic does NOT influence its performance?

Geographic location of the AWS region Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following states in Step Functions is responsible for running a single unit of work?

Task Signup and view all the answers

Which EC2 instance type is best suited for media transcoding and batch processing?

c5d.4xlarge Signup and view all the answers

What is NOT a state type in AWS Step Functions?

Diversion Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following options describes EC2 User Data?

Instructions that execute only once at the first start Signup and view all the answers

What does the 'Map' state in AWS Step Functions do?

Runs units of work in parallel for each item in a collection Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service is primarily used to connect and manage serverless workflows?

Step Functions Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements regarding IAM Policies is incorrect?

Policies can only allow access to resources; they cannot deny access to specific resources. Signup and view all the answers

A developer requires access to create and manage AWS Lambda functions, but should not be able to modify any IAM roles. Which of the following actions should NOT be included in the developer's IAM policy?

iam:CreateRole Signup and view all the answers

A company wants to ensure that only users belonging to the 'Sales' group can access the 'Marketing-Data' S3 bucket. Which of the following policy statements would correctly implement this restriction?

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [{ "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": {"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:group/Sales"}, "Action": "s3:GetObject", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::Marketing-Data/*" }] } Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about IAM Roles is incorrect?

Roles can be assigned to individual users, allowing them to access resources on behalf of the role's permissions. Signup and view all the answers

A company uses a separate IAM User for each developer working on their project. Which of the following scenarios demonstrates the principle of least privilege?

Each developer is assigned to a group with a policy that grants them access to only the resources and services necessary to complete their assigned tasks. Signup and view all the answers

An organization wants to ensure that its developers can only deploy code to specific environments, based on their team affiliation. Which of the following approaches would be most effective in achieving this requirement?

Create different IAM Roles for each development team, granting each role access to the specific environments they are responsible for. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements regarding the 'Effect' statement in an IAM Policy is correct?

The 'Effect' statement can be set to either 'Allow' or 'Deny', allowing for both positive and negative authorization of actions. Signup and view all the answers

A company has several development teams, each with their own set of resources and permissions. Which of the following approaches would be most efficient in managing IAM permissions for this organization?

Create different IAM Roles for each development team, granting each role access to the specific resources and permissions required for their work. Signup and view all the answers

Which type of load balancer is best suited for scaling applications with EC2 Auto Scaling groups?

Application Load Balancer (ALB) Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary role of EC2 Auto Scaling groups in conjunction with load balancers?

Managing the deployment of new instances to replace unhealthy ones Signup and view all the answers

How do EC2 Auto Scaling groups interact with Application Load Balancers (ALB) to maintain application availability?

Auto Scaling groups register EC2 instances with ALBs, ensuring traffic is distributed to healthy instances. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using EC2 Auto Scaling groups in a production environment?

Reduced cost by only running instances when needed Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following scenarios would benefit most from the use of EC2 Auto Scaling groups?

A mobile game server with fluctuating player counts Signup and view all the answers

How do EC2 Auto Scaling groups contribute to fault tolerance in a system?

By automatically launching new instances to replace unhealthy ones Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when configuring EC2 Auto Scaling groups?

All of the above Signup and view all the answers

What is the main purpose of scaling policies in EC2 Auto Scaling groups?

To determine when and how to adjust the number of instances based on metrics Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service can be used to automatically scale EC2 instances based on predefined metrics?

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Signup and view all the answers

What is the main purpose of scaling groups in EC2 Auto Scaling?

To define the scaling policies for a set of instances Signup and view all the answers

What are the two main types of scaling policies in EC2 Auto Scaling?

Manual and Automated Signup and view all the answers

Which type of scaling policy in EC2 Auto Scaling allows you to set a desired number of instances to maintain?

Manual Scaling Policy Signup and view all the answers

Which scaling policy in EC2 Auto Scaling adjusts the number of instances based on predefined thresholds and cool-down periods?

Step Scaling Policy Signup and view all the answers

Which scaling policy in EC2 Auto Scaling aims to maintain a specific target value for a chosen metric?

Target Tracking Scaling Policy Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of a Launch Configuration in EC2 Auto Scaling?

To specify the configuration of instances launched in a scaling group Signup and view all the answers

Which of these is NOT a benefit of using EC2 Auto Scaling?

Guaranteed performance for all applications Signup and view all the answers

What component is used to configure the specifications for instances in an Auto Scaling Group?

Launch template Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a type of scaling policy used in Auto Scaling Groups?

Static scaling Signup and view all the answers

What is the default duration for draining an instance in an Auto Scaling Group?

300 seconds Signup and view all the answers

What parameters must be specified when configuring an Auto Scaling Group?

Minimum size and maximum size Signup and view all the answers

How is dynamic scaling commonly triggered in an Auto Scaling Group?

Through CloudWatch alarms Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes target tracking scaling?

Adjusting instances to maintain a specific performance metric Signup and view all the answers

What type of information can be included in a Launch template for an Auto Scaling Group?

AMI and IAM roles Signup and view all the answers

What does scheduled scaling accomplish in Auto Scaling Groups?

It sets fixed numbers of instances for specific times. Signup and view all the answers

What does vertical scalability refer to in cloud architecture?

Increasing the size of a single instance to improve performance Signup and view all the answers

Which approach best describes horizontal scalability?

Adding more servers to share the load Signup and view all the answers

What key advantage does auto scaling provide to applications?

Dynamically adjusts resources based on demand Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service is commonly used for implementing auto scaling?

Amazon CloudWatch Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) in conjunction with auto scaling?

To evenly distribute incoming application traffic across multiple instances Signup and view all the answers

What is a common misconception about auto scaling?

It guarantees zero downtime during scaling Signup and view all the answers

How does auto scaling contribute to high availability in cloud applications?

By automatically replacing unhealthy instances Signup and view all the answers

What is a benefit of using an auto scaling group?

Enables automatic management of instance lifecycle events Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of scaling cooldowns in Auto Scaling?

To prevent instances from being added before previous ones have initialized Signup and view all the answers

What does 'Instance Refresh' in EC2 Auto Scaling allow you to do?

Recreate all EC2 instances after updating the launch template Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of predictive scaling?

It forecasts load and schedules scaling in advance Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes a NAT Gateway in a VPC?

An AWS-managed device that connects private subnet instances to the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the function of the CIDR Block in a VPC?

Specifies the size of the network and available IP addresses Signup and view all the answers

How does a private subnet differ from a public subnet in a VPC?

Public subnets have instances that are accessible from the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the minimum healthy percentage in the context of instance refresh?

The minimum number of instances required for operations during refresh Signup and view all the answers

What is a common disadvantage of using a NAT Instance compared to a NAT Gateway?

NAT Instances are less scalable and not as highly available Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Lambda Layers?

Separation of concern and managing all dependencies in a single layer Signup and view all the answers

What happens to a Lambda function when it connects to a VPC?

It loses access to the internet Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)?

To build serverless applications Signup and view all the answers

What is Amazon Aurora optimized for?

AWS cloud optimization Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using RDS over Amazon Aurora?

RDS is less expensive Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using Lambda Versions and Aliases?

Canary deployments and zero-downtime updates Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between Relational and NoSQL databases?

Relational databases are harder to make schema changes Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of an SNS Notification event?

To trigger a Lambda function Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services is designed primarily for storing and managing source code?

AWS CodeCommit Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services allows users to directly access and manipulate files within the service, creating a stateful environment?

AWS CloudShell Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services is used for building and testing applications, providing pre-packaged environments and reducing the need for server maintenance?

AWS CodeBuild Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services offers the ability to export your application's configuration into a CloudFormation template?

AWS Amplify Studio Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services is NOT directly part of the AWS Amplify framework?

AWS CloudShell Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services offers a managed Git-based source code repository, designed for integration with other AWS services?

AWS CodeCommit Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services is a serverless CI/CD environment that focuses on building and testing applications, and reduces the need for maintaining dedicated servers?

AWS CodeBuild Signup and view all the answers

Which of these AWS services enables users to store and manage code artifacts, providing a centralized repository for managing dependencies and packages?

AWS CodeArtifact Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type offers the ability to assign a static IP address and supports TCP, HTTP, and HTTPS health checks?

Network Load Balancer (NLB) Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type would be the most appropriate choice for an application that needs to handle millions of requests per second and requires a static IP address for its external access?

Network Load Balancer (NLB) Signup and view all the answers

You need to create a load balancer that can support routing based on query strings or parameters. Which load balancer type would best meet this requirement?

Application Load Balancer (ALB) Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type supports sticky sessions, allowing you to keep a specific client connected to the same server for a period of time?

Both ALB and NLB Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in relation to the underlying infrastructure?

Managing communication between EC2 instances and external users. Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type operates at layer 3 (Network Layer) and is primarily used for deploying and managing a fleet of 3rd party network virtual appliances?

Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) Signup and view all the answers

You need a load balancer that can handle a large volume of requests and distribute traffic across multiple EC2 instances, Lambda functions, or ECS clusters. Which load balancer type would be the most suitable choice?

Application Load Balancer (ALB) Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type is considered deprecated and is no longer recommended for new deployments?

Classic Load Balancer (CLB) Signup and view all the answers

What differentiates GP3 EBS volumes from GP2 volumes?

GP3 volumes allow independent configuration of throughput and storage rates. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following EBS volume types is specifically designed for applications that require high and consistent IOPS performance?

io1/io2 Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum provisioned IOPS that can be achieved with io2 EBS volumes?

256,000 IOPS Signup and view all the answers

In which scenario would you most likely utilize EBS multi-attach feature?

To achieve higher application availability in clustered applications. Signup and view all the answers

What type of AMI can be used to launch EC2 instances predominantly designed by AWS?

Public AMI Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes the primary use case for st1 EBS volumes?

Storage for data warehousing and big data. Signup and view all the answers

Which feature of io1 EBS volumes requires the use of Nitro instances to exceed a specific IOPS limit?

Provisioned IOPS setting. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements is true regarding AMIs?

AMIs can be public, private, or community-based. Signup and view all the answers

A user in the "developers" group needs to access Amazon S3 to upload code artifacts. Which of the following policy statements would most appropriately grant this access, while adhering to the principle of least privilege?

Option A Signup and view all the answers

What is the maximum time that an instance can be draining before autoscaling routes traffic to other instances?

300 secs Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an IAM role in an autoscaling launch template?

To grant permissions to the EC2 instance Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of using target tracking scaling in autoscaling?

It maintains a specific average utilization level Signup and view all the answers

What can be based on a CloudWatch alarm in autoscaling?

Scaling policies Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of scaling cooldowns in Auto Scaling?

To allow metrics to stabilise after a scaling activity Signup and view all the answers

What is the minimum healthy percentage used to trigger an Instance Refresh in Auto Scaling?

0% Signup and view all the answers

What is specified in the initial capacity of an autoscaling group?

The desired number of instances Signup and view all the answers

What can be attached to an autoscaling group?

A security group Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of predictive scaling in Auto Scaling?

To continuously forecast load and schedule scaling ahead Signup and view all the answers

What is the default time period for scaling cooldowns in Auto Scaling?

300 seconds Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using autoscaling?

It automatically adjusts the number of instances to match changing workloads Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of an Instance Refresh in Auto Scaling?

To recreate all EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group Signup and view all the answers

What is the cost model for autoscaling?

You pay for the underlying EC2 instances only Signup and view all the answers

What is the warm-up time used for in an Instance Refresh?

To specify the time before an instance can be used Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference between scalability and high availability in AWS?

Scalability is about adding more resources to handle increased load, while high availability is about ensuring data is available even in data center loss. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary function of Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) in AWS?

To distribute traffic across multiple instances for scalability. Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of Auto Scaling?

To maintain a desired number of EC2 instances Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using predictive scaling in Auto Scaling?

Proactive scaling based on forecasted load Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of using Auto Scaling in AWS?

It allows for horizontal scaling by adding or removing instances as needed. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS CodePipeline?

To provide a serverless CI/CD environment for AWS applications. Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between vertical and horizontal scalability in AWS?

Vertical scalability is about increasing instance size, while horizontal scalability is about adding more instances. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS CodeCommit?

To provide a source code repository for version control. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using AWS CodeBuild?

It provides automated build and testing for code changes. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of AWS CodeStar?

To provide a framework for building and deploying applications on AWS. Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type supports HTTP to HTTPS redirection?

Application Load Balancer Signup and view all the answers

What is a primary advantage of using a Network Load Balancer?

Works best with static IP provisioning Signup and view all the answers

Which type of load balancer operates at layer 3?

Gateway Load Balancer Signup and view all the answers

What type of health check does the Network Load Balancer support?

TCP, HTTP, and HTTPS Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following features is NOT supported by the Application Load Balancer?

Static IP address provisioning Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer can effectively load balance various applications on the same machine?

Application Load Balancer Signup and view all the answers

What is a key characteristic of the Classic Load Balancer?

It has been replaced by newer types Signup and view all the answers

Which load balancer type is best suited for high throughput and low latency applications?

Network Load Balancer Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of the 'Task' state in Step Functions?

Represents a single unit of work Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of EC2 User Data?

To run scripts or commands at the first launch Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following EC2 instance types is specifically memory optimized?

r5.4xlarge Signup and view all the answers

What type of state in Step Functions is used for if-then-else logic?

Choice Signup and view all the answers

Which EC2 instance configuration component determines the speed of data transfer?

Network card Signup and view all the answers

In the context of EC2, what does the term 'Bootstrapped' refer to?

An initial configuration script for the instance Signup and view all the answers

Which state type in Step Functions is used to pause execution for a specified duration?

Wait Signup and view all the answers

What is a key function of the 'Map' state in Step Functions?

To iterate over a collection of items Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a key advantage of using VPC peering over VPC endpoints?

Reduced security risks Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of security groups compared to network ACLs?

Security groups can only specify allow rules Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of a VPC endpoint?

Provides a private connection to AWS services Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when designing a VPC architecture with multiple availability zones?

Implementing redundancy within each availability zone Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a benefit of using Direct Connect over Site-to-Site VPN?

Higher bandwidth Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of network ACLs compared to security groups?

Network ACLs are stateless Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a characteristic of a VPC peering connection?

Has a maximum limit on the number of connections Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using VPC endpoints over Site-to-Site VPN?

Private access to AWS services Signup and view all the answers

What is a key consideration when choosing between the 'Bursting' and 'Provisioned' throughput modes for Amazon EFS?

Predictable throughput requirements Signup and view all the answers

What is the main advantage of using Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) over EC2 Instance Store for data storage?

Support for multiple Availability Zones Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following use cases is most suitable for Amazon EFS?

Content management Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using lifecycle policies with Amazon EFS?

Cost optimization by moving files to lower-cost storage tiers Signup and view all the answers

Which storage tier is most suitable for data that is rarely accessed (few times per year) in Amazon EFS?

Archive Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary characteristic of the 'Max IO' performance mode in Amazon EFS?

High-throughput file system for big data workloads Signup and view all the answers

What is the limitation of using EC2 Instance Store for data storage?

Data loss when instance is stopped Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a requirement for using Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)?

Linux-based AMI Signup and view all the answers

What is a feature of Reserved Instances in AWS?

Commitment to a specific instance type for a duration Signup and view all the answers

Which invocation method allows for immediate response but can lead to delays in processing in Lambda?

Synchronous invocation Signup and view all the answers

What is the main characteristic of dedicated hosts in AWS?

Full control over instance placement and configuration Signup and view all the answers

What effect does a cold start have on a Lambda function?

It requires longer execution times due to resource initialization. Signup and view all the answers

How are savings plans different from reserved instances in AWS?

Savings plans provide more flexibility in terms of instance types. Signup and view all the answers

What does the Execution Context in Lambda functions allow for?

Speed up by maintaining state between invocations Signup and view all the answers

In which scenario would you typically prefer using Spot Instances?

For processing batch jobs that can handle interruptions Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using the Event Object in Lambda functions?

It provides parameters in JSON format for processing. Signup and view all the answers

What does the writer endpoint in a database setup provided by Amazon allow applications to do?

Direct write operations through a centralized DNS endpoint Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is a primary advantage of using Amazon ElastiCache?

Provides in-memory data storage for high performance Signup and view all the answers

Which statement accurately describes the function of cache hits and misses?

Cache hits indicate successful retrieval of data from the cache Signup and view all the answers

What is a notable operational feature of Amazon DynamoDB?

It is designed as a NoSQL database for rapid throughput Signup and view all the answers

Which advantage does cross-region replication provide?

Enhances data availability by distributing copies across regions Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of using Memcached compared to Redis?

Memcached does not have advanced data structure support Signup and view all the answers

How does the reader endpoint facilitate database access?

It uses a connection load balancer for distributing read requests Signup and view all the answers

Which scenario is best suited for using Amazon ElastiCache?

Handling read-intensive workloads with low latency demands Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a managed load balancer for forwarding traffic to multiple downstream servers, and offers features like health checks and automatic scaling?

AWS Amplify Hosting Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about AWS CodeBuild is FALSE?

CodeBuild can upload build artifacts to CodeCommit, but not to external artifact repositories like S3. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key advantage of using AWS CloudShell over a local terminal when working with AWS resources?

CloudShell provides access to AWS resources without requiring you to configure your local terminal with AWS credentials. Signup and view all the answers

Which service offers a serverless CI/CD environment for AWS applications, allowing you to automate the build, test, and deployment process without managing infrastructure?

AWS CodeBuild Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following AWS services is NOT a part of the AWS Amplify framework?

AWS CodeBuild Signup and view all the answers

Which AWS service provides a Git-based code repository hosted in S3, offering high availability and resiliency, and seamless integration with other AWS services?

AWS CodeCommit Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements accurately describes AWS CodeArtifact?

CodeArtifact is a fully managed, private artifact repository service that allows you to store and manage code artifacts for use in your applications. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of using AWS CloudShell over a local terminal for managing AWS resources?

CloudShell is more secure than a local terminal as it provides access to all AWS services, including those with sensitive data. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Amplify

Amplify studio, libraries, CLI, and hosting are available
Can export to CloudFormation template

AWS Cloud9

cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE)

AWS CloudShell

Available in a few AWS regions only
Terminal in the cloud, works similar to AWS CLI
Advantage: no need to configure AWS with access key
Supports Linux commands like ls, echo, cat, etc.
Stateful: creates or edits files

AWS CodeArtifact

Artifact repository service

AWS CodeBuild

Serverless continuous integration (CI) service
Reduces need for patching/maintaining a dedicated server
Only pay for time it takes to build (not idle time)
Provides pre-packaged environments like Docker containers
Build environment: OS + programming env + tools used by CodeBuild
Can test/run application locally
Can create build project using CodeBuild console/AWS CLI/AWS SDK/creation of CodePipeline
Buildspec.yaml defines the build to run
Can upload build artifact to CodeArtifact or another artifact repo
Supports Amazon SNS on build notifications (e.g., build failure)

AWS CodeCommit

Hosted in S3, provides high availability and resiliency
Integrates well with other AWS services
Advantage over GitHub/Stash: can omit an event when code has been committed and changed for other services to use

AWS CodeDeploy

Continuous deployment service

Amazon CodeGuru

Machine learning-based code review service

AWS CodePipeline

Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) service

AWS CodeStar

Development environment for building, deploying, and managing applications

AWS CodeWhisperer

AI-powered coding companion

AWS X-Ray

Service for analyzing and debugging distributed applications

Management and Governance

AWS AppConfig

Service for managing application configuration and deployment

AWS CLI

Command-line tool to interact with AWS services
Protected by access keys
Alternative to AWS Management Console
Built on AWS SDK for Python
Supports direct access to public APIs of AWS services

AWS SDK

Set of libraries to access language-specific APIs
Embedded within an application
High-level SDK and low-level SDK (for API-level commands)
Programming language-specific (e.g., JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, Go)

AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)

Open-source software development framework

AWS CloudFormation

Service for infrastructure as code (IaC)

AWS CloudTrail

Service for auditing and tracking AWS resource usage

Amazon CloudWatch

Monitoring and logging service

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Service for monitoring and logging AWS resource usage

AWS Systems Manager

Service for managing and monitoring AWS resources

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway

RESTful API service

Amazon CloudFront

Content delivery network (CDN)

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Managed load balancer service
Scalability vs high availability: vertical scalability (e.g., increase instance size of EC2), horizontal scalability (add load balancer/auto-scaling group)
Scalability is linked to but different from high availability (e.g., auto-scaling group multi-AZ/load balancer multi-AZ)

Amazon S3

Object storage service
VPC Endpoint can be used to connect EC2 instance in the VPC to AWS global services like AWS Lambda/S3
Traffic does not pass through the internet
Supports VPC gateway endpoint available for Amazon S3 and DynamoDB

Security

AWS Access Keys

Generated through AWS Console
Users are responsible for their own access keys
Access Key ID ~= username, Secret Access Key ~= password

AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)

Can be used to encrypt EBS at rest

AWS Private Certificate Authority

Service for managing private certificates

AWS Secrets Manager

Service for managing secrets and credential rotation

AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS)

Service for temporary security credentials

AWS WAF

Web application firewall service

Storage

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)

Network drive you can attach to your instances
Persists data even after EC2 termination
Bound to specific AZ (need to snapshot it to move it across)
Can be detached from EC2 instance and attached to another one quickly
Has a provisioned activity (IOPS, space, etc.)
Delete on Termination attribute: controls EBS behavior when EC2 instance terminates

EBS Snapshots

Backup of your EBS volume
Can copy snapshots across AZ
Features: move to archive tier (75% cheaper), recycle bin for snapshots, Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR)

AMI overview

Customization of an EC2 instance
Up to 16 EC2 instances at a time
Must use a filesystem that's cluster-aware (not XFS, EXT4...)

EC2 Instance Store

High-performance, low-latency, better I/O performance
Hardware disk attached via network drive to EC2
Ephemeral storage: lose their storage if EC2 instance is stopped
Good as a buffer/cache/scratch data/temporary content

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Managed NFS (Network File System) that can be mounted on many EC2
EFS can work in multiple AZ
Highly available, scalable, expensive (3x the cost of gp2), and pay-per-use
Use cases: content management, web serving, data sharing, WordPress
Only compatible with Linux-based AMI (not Windows)
Encryption with KMS at rest
POSIX file system with standard file API
File system scales automatically: no capacity planning, pay-per-use
Scalability and performance modes: EFS Scale, Performance mode (General Purpose, Max IO), Throughput mode (Bursting, Provisioned)
Storage tiers: Standard, Infrequent Access (EFS-IA), Archive
Can implement lifecycle policies to move files between storage tiers

Accessing AWS

AWS can be accessed through the management console (protected by password and MFA), AWS CLI (protected by access keys), and AWS SDK (protected by access keys)

Edge Networks

Allow content to be cached closer to other locations
Also known as CDN, uses CloudFront to serve content at edge locations
CloudFront can also run Lambda functions

Major AWS Services

Analysis

Athena: interactive query service stored in S3, serverless, and costs less compared to RedShift/EMR or ES
Athena vs S3 Select: can query the entire bucket instead of just a subset with S3
Kinesis: real-time data streams, preserves order of messaging by default, supports multiple data sources
Kinesis vs SQS: Kinesis is real-time, provides ability to perform analysis
OpenSearch Service: search service for log analysis

Application Integration

SQS: standard vs FIFO (benefits), ordered, and supports multiple data sources
SNS: notification service
EventBridge: event-driven architecture
AppSync: managed GraphQL service
Step Functions: orchestrates lambda functions, visual review of workflow, 8 state types

Compute

EC2: provides various sizing and configuration options, such as OS, CPU, RAM, EBS, and EFS
EC2 User Data: bootstrapped, run once only at the first instance start, as root user
EC2 Instance types: many different types, naming convention: m5.2xlarge (memory optimized, generation, spec)
EC2 Instance types: compute optimized, memory optimized, higher availability, supports cross-region replication

Database

Amazon DynamoDB: No SQL database, writer/reader endpoint
Amazon ElastiCache: managed Redis or Memcached instances, in-memory dbs with high performance
ElastiCache: maximum number of read replicas for Elasticache Redis cluster with cluster-mode disabled = 5
Memcached vs Redis: multi AZ with auto-failover, read replicas, backup and restore, sets and sorted sets

Caching Design Patterns

Lazy loading/ Cache-Aside/ Lazy Population
Write Through: write to cache when DB is updated
Pros and Cons of each caching design pattern

Networking

Route table: controls network traffic in your VPC through subnet routing
VPC peering: connects two VPC privately using AWS' network
VPC endpoints: connect to AWS services using private network instead of www network
Site to Site VPC: connect on-premises VPN to AWS (encrypted over public internet)
Direct Connect (DX): physical connection between on-premises and AWS

Security Features

Network ACL: firewall to allow or deny at a subnet level
Security Groups: works at instance level (e.g. EC2), can only specify ALLOW rules not DENY

Video Streams

No additional information provided

OpenSearch Service

No additional information provided

Application Integration

SQS: Standard vs FIFO (benefits)

SNS

No additional information provided

EventBridge

No additional information provided

AppSync

No additional information provided

Step Functions

Orchestrates lambda functions
Statemachine - serverless workflow - allows you to review flow visually
8 state types:
- Task - single unit of work
- Choice - if-then-else logic
- Parallel - run units of work in parallel
- Wait - delay execution for a time period
- Fail - stop execution, mark as failure
- Succeed - stop execution, mark as success
- Pass - passes input to its output
- Map - for each loop
Has built-in retry/error handling that you can implement at each state

Compute

EC2
- Sizing and configuration options:
  - OS (Linux, Windows, or Mac OS)
  - CPU
  - RAM
  - EBS and EFS (Network attached)
  - EC2 Instance Store (Hardware)
  - Network card (speed of card / public IP address)
  - Security Group (Firewall rules)
  - Bootstrap Script (configure at first launch: EC2 User Data)
- EC2 User Data
  - Bootstrapped, Run once only at the first instance start
  - e.g., installing updates / software
  - Run as root user
- EC2 Instance types:
  - e.g., t2.micro, c5d.4xlarge - many different types
  - Naming convention: m5.2xlarge (m = memory optimized, 5 = generation (AWS improves over time). 2xLarge = spec)
  - Compute optimized - Use cases: good for batch processing / media transcoding / machine learning / dedicate gaming server
  - Memory optimized - Use cases: High-performance databases (with memory). Web scale cache stores (e.g., SNS Notification event, Amazon S3 event)

Lambda

Context object describes the current execution event of the lambda function (e.g., memory of the function, get remaining time in millis, etc.)
Lambda Layers
- Allow you to re-use external dependencies that will be used by multiple Lambda functions
- Deployed as zips that can be re-used
- Advantages:
  - Can be shared with all lambda functions inside a region
  - Faster Deployments
  - Separation of concern - can separate business logic from its dependencies
  - Can manage all dependencies for shared resources in a single layer, rather than repeating the same dependency / utility function in each lambda function
Lambda Versions / Aliases
- Allows new version of function can be created to avoid affecting Prod
- Useful for Canary deployments
- Versions auto-increment number
- Alias is like a nickname for a version - can change the version it's pointing to (so your other code can refer to the alias)
- Like a symlink, referring code does not need to update version it's pointing to, can just point to alias
Lambda / VPC integration
- Need to assign execution role IAM managed policy with LambdaVPCAccessExecutionRole to allow access (to the Lambda)
- Lambda function will lose access to the internet after it connects to VPC

AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)

No additional information provided

Elastic Beanstalk

No additional information provided

Containers

AWS Copilot
- No additional information provided
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR)
- No additional information provided
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
- No additional information provided
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS)
- No additional information provided

Database

Relational vs No SQL
- Harder to make Schema changes with relational
Amazon Aurora
- Basic
  - Autoscales in increments of 10GB up to 128TB
  - Supports MySQL and PostgreSQL
  - 20% more expensive than RDS but "AWS cloud optimized" e.g., Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Payload Manipulation)
Security Groups / Use cases
- Load balancers can have security groups which can be set up to allow HTTP traffic, and can connect Application Security group to restrict access from load balance security group only
- IP address to load balance to, must be private IPs

Load Balancing

Stick sessions / Session Affinity
- Ensure use request only routed to the same target group
- CLB and ALB use cookie with expiration date
- Use case - make sure user doesn't lose his session data
- Enabling stickiness may cause EC2 instances to not be equally balanced
- Application-based Cookies: Check for custom attributes required by the application
- Duration-based cookies: Generated by load balancer
Cross Zone load balancing: (Cross AZ load balancing)
- With Enabled: each load balancer instance distributes evenly across all registered instances in all AZ
- With Disabled: Requests are distributed in the instances of the node of the Elastic Load Balancer
- ALB - enabled by default (can be disabled at target group level), no charge for inter AZ data
- NLB - disabled by default (Pay charges for cross zone AZ)
SSL / TLS
- Can use SSL Cert / TLS cert between your clients and your load balancer to allow encryption in transit (in-flight encryption) - TLS is newer
- Managed via AWS ACM (Certificate manager) - Load balancer uses an X.509 Cert but you can upload your own certs to ACM
- Set a default certificate on HTTPS listener (with optional list of domains)
- Clients can use SNI (Server name Indication) to indicate the hostname they would like to reach on initial SSL handshake
- SNI solves the problem of multiple SSL Certs onto one web server (you may have more than one domain SSL cert at the ALB level)
- SNI only works for ALB / NLB and CloudFront
Connection Draining / Deregistration delay
- Can set time to complete 'in-flight requests' while target group instances are de-registering or unhealthy

Amazon Route 53

No additional information provided

Amazon VPC

VPC can only exist within one region
Private subnet within one availability zone only (one subnet cannot span two or more AZs) (for backend systems like DBs, app servers) - not accessible from internet
Public subnet - can have multiple subnets in the same AZ (e.g., publicly accessible web servers)
CIDR Block
- allows you to specify size of network between /16 (16 netmask allows 65,536 IP addresses) and /28 (16 IP addresses) netmask (total number of available hosts for network)
- IPV4 / IPV6 CIDR range
- First 4 and last 1 IP address reserved for Amazon
DHCP options set
- Automatically provision IP addresses for EC2 instances and other resources
- Configures DNS, Netbios Name server, and NTP
NAT Devices
- Enable EC2 instances in private subnet to connect to public internet or other AWS services (lives in public subnet, and has a route to Internet Gateway)
- Like a gateway but Prevents Public Internet from initiating connections with your private EC2 instances
- Two types
  - NAT Instance - virtualized running in EC2, managed by customer, not highly scalable or available
  - NAT Gateway - Managed by AWS not on VPC, Highly available and scalable

AMI

AMI is region-specific
EC2 instances can be launched from public (made by AWS) and private AMIs (made yourself) or AWS MarketPlace AMI (made by someone else and potentially sold by)

EBS Volume types

GP2 / GP3 - Cost-effective storage, low latency, general-purpose SSD volume
- (can be used for boot volume) -
- GP3 can independently set throughput and storage, whereas for GP2 is preconfigured (GP2 older) - up to 16,000 iops
io1 / io2 - Provisioned IOPS SSD -
- Applications that need sustained IOPS performance eg. Database workloads - sensitive to storage performance and consistency
- io1 can independently set IOPs up to 64,000 IOPS for Nitro instances, IO2 set with a max PIOPS of 256,000 with a IOPS to GiB ratio of 100:1. If you want over 32,000 IOPS you need nitro
- Supports EBS multi-attach feature
- Can be used for boot volume
st1 - Hard disk drives (HDD)
- Suitable for Big data, data warehouses, log processing (500 iops)
sc1 - Cold HDD
- Suitable for archiving

EBS Multi-attach

Attach the same EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ
Each instance has full read-write permissions to the high-performance volume
Use case:
- Achieve higher application availability in clustered Linux applications

General Concepts

AWS Well-Architected Framework consists of six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability.
AWS Global Architectures comprise Availability Zones (60 miles apart) and Regions (made up of multiple Availability Zones).

Major AWS Services

Analysis

Athena: Real-time processing of big unstructured data.
Kinesis: Storage optimized - Use cases: High frequency OLTP systems / DB (relational and NoSQL) / data warehouses, etc.
OpenSearch Service: General purpose - Good general diversity for general websites.

Application Integration

SQS: Queue-based service.
SNS: Fanout to multiple subscribers.
EventBridge: Serverless event bus.
AppSync: GraphQL API.
Step Functions: Serverless functions.

Compute

EC2: Virtual machines.
Lambda: Serverless compute.
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM): Framework for building serverless applications.
Elastic Beanstalk: Managed platform for deploying web applications.

Containers

AWS Copilot: Develop, deploy, and manage containerized applications.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR): Container registry.
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS): Container orchestration.
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS): Managed Kubernetes service.

Database

Relational vs NoSQL databases.
Amazon Aurora: MySQL-compatible database with high performance and reliability.
Amazon DynamoDB: NoSQL database.
Amazon ElastiCache:
- Basic: Managed Redis or Memcached instances.
- Supports high performance and low latency.
- Use cases: Reduce load off of databases for read-intensive workloads, make applications stateless.
Amazon RDS:
- Basic: Relational database service.
- RDS Storage Auto Scaling: Automatic storage scaling.
- Read Replicas: Improve read performance and availability.
- RDS Multi-AZ: Disaster recovery.
- Encrypting an Unencrypted RDS DB: Enables encryption.

Developer Tools

AWS Amplify:
- Amplify Studio: Visual interface for developing applications.
- Amplify Libraries: Client-side libraries for AWS services.
- Amplify CLI: Command-line interface for Amplify.
- Amplify Hosting: Hosting for Amplify applications.
AWS Cloud9: Cloud-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
AWS CloudShell:
- Terminal in the cloud.
- Supports Linux commands.
- Stateful if you create or edit files.
AWS CodeArtifact: Artifact repository.
AWS CodeBuild:
- Serverless CI/CD server for AWS.
- Reduces need for patching/maintaining a dedicated server.
- Only pay for time it takes to build (not idle time).
AWS CodeCommit: Git-based code repository hosted in S3.

Management and Governance

AWS AppConfig: Application configuration and deployment.
AWS CLI: Command-line interface for AWS.
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK): Framework for defining cloud infrastructure.
AWS CloudFormation: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) service.
AWS CloudTrail: Auditing and logging service.
Amazon CloudWatch:
- Monitoring and logging service.
- Supports metrics and logs.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs: Log aggregation and analysis.
AWS Systems Manager:
- Management service for AWS resources.
- Supports automation and orchestration.

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway: RESTful API service.
Amazon CloudFront: Content delivery network (CDN).
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Load balancing service.
Amazon Route 53: DNS service.
Amazon VPC: Virtual private cloud (VPC).

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): Certificate issuance and management.
Amazon Cognito: User identity and access management.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Identity and access management.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS): Key management service.
AWS Private Certificate Authority: Private certificate authority.
AWS Secrets Manager: Secrets management service.
AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS): Token-based authentication.
AWS WAF: Web application firewall.

Storage

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS): Block-level storage.
EC2 Instance Store: Instance-level storage.
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS): File-level storage.
Amazon S3: Object-level storage.
Amazon S3 Glacier: Archival storage.

General Concepts

AWS Well Architected Framework consists of six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability.
AWS Global architectures include Availability Zones, Regions, and Edge Locations.

Major AWS Services

Analysis

Athena: Real-time processing of big unstructured data.
Kinesis: Real-time processing of big unstructured data.
OpenSearch Service: Real-time processing of big unstructured data.

Application Integration

SQS: Queue-based messaging service for decoupling applications.
SNS: Fanout messaging service for decoupling applications.
EventBridge: Event-driven architecture for decoupling applications.
AppSync: GraphQL-based API for mobile and web applications.
Step Functions: Orchestration service for coordinating microservices.

Compute

EC2: Virtual machine service for running applications.
Lambda: Serverless compute service for event-driven applications.
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM): Framework for building serverless applications.
Elastic Beanstalk: Managed platform for deploying web applications.

Containers

AWS Copilot: Tool for containerizing and deploying applications.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR): Container registry for storing and managing container images.
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS): Container orchestration service for running containerized applications.
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS): Managed Kubernetes service for running containerized applications.

Database

Relational vs NoSQL databases: Relational databases use structured data, while NoSQL databases use unstructured or semi-structured data.
Amazon Aurora: Relational database service with high performance and availability.
Amazon DynamoDB: NoSQL database service with high performance and scalability.
Amazon ElastiCache: In-memory caching service for improving database performance.
Cache Eviction / TTL (Time to Live): Mechanism for managing cache data.
Amazon MemoryDB for Redis: In-memory database service for real-time data processing.

Developer Tools

AWS Amplify: Development framework for building cloud-native applications.
AWS Cloud9: Integrated development environment (IDE) for coding and debugging.
AWS CloudShell: Browser-based shell for running scripts and commands.
AWS CodeArtifact: Package manager for storing and managing software packages.
AWS CodeBuild: Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) service for building and deploying applications.
AWS CodeCommit: Version control service for managing code repositories.
AWS CodeDeploy: Continuous deployment service for automating code deployments.
Amazon CodeGuru: AI-powered code review service for improving code quality.
AWS CodePipeline: Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) service for automating workflows.
AWS CodeStar: Development environment for building and deploying applications.

Management and Governance

AWS AppConfig: Configuration management service for managing applications.
AWS CLI: Command-line interface for managing AWS services.
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK): Framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code.
AWS CloudFormation: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) service for managing cloud resources.
AWS CloudTrail: Audit logging service for tracking API calls.
Amazon CloudWatch: Monitoring and logging service for tracking application performance.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs: Log management service for collecting and analyzing logs.
AWS Systems Manager: Automation service for managing and configuring resources.

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway: API management service for building and managing APIs.
Amazon CloudFront: Content Delivery Network (CDN) for distributing static assets.
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Load balancing service for distributing traffic.
Amazon Route 53: Domain Name System (DNS) service for managing domain names.
Amazon VPC: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for creating isolated networks.

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): Certificate management service for managing SSL/TLS certificates.
Amazon Cognito: Identity management service for managing user identities.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Identity and access management service for managing access to AWS resources.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS): Key management service for managing encryption keys.
AWS Private Certificate Authority: Certificate authority service for issuing private certificates.
AWS Secrets Manager: Secret management service for storing and managing sensitive data.
AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS): Token service for managing temporary credentials.
AWS WAF: Web Application Firewall (WAF) for protecting applications from attacks.

Storage

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS): Block-level storage service for EC2 instances.
EC2 Instance Store: Instance store service for storing data locally on EC2 instances.
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS): File-level storage service for EC2 instances.
Amazon S3: Object-level storage service for storing and serving objects.
Amazon S3 Glacier: Archival storage service for storing and retrieving infrequently accessed data.

AWS Lambda

Context object describes the current execution event of the Lambda function, including memory and remaining time in millis
Lambda Layers allow reusing external dependencies across multiple Lambda functions, advantageous for shared resources and faster deployments
Lambda Versions/Aliases enable creating new versions of functions without affecting production, useful for Canary deployments, with aliases serving as nicknames for versions
Lambda/VPC integration requires assigning an execution role with LambdaVPCAccessExecutionRole policy, but affects internet access

AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)

Enables building serverless applications

Containers

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) for storing container images
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) for managing containers
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) for managing Kubernetes clusters

Database

Relational databases vs NoSQL databases, with relational databases being harder to make schema changes
Amazon Aurora, a cloud-optimized relational database, supports MySQL and PostgreSQL, and autoscales in increments of 10GB up to 128TB

AWS Copilot

Simplifies containerized application development and deployment

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Enables deploying web applications and services to the cloud

AWS Cloud9

Provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for writing, running, and debugging code

AWS CloudShell

Offers a terminal in the cloud, available in a few AWS regions, with no need to configure AWS access keys
Supports Linux commands like ls, echo, and cat, and is stateful for created or edited files

AWS CodeArtifact

Provides a package manager for AWS services

AWS CodeBuild

Offers a serverless CI/CD service for building and testing code, reducing the need for patching/maintaining dedicated servers
Provides pre-packaged environments, such as Docker containers, and supports Amazon SNS for build notifications

AWS CodeCommit

Offers a Git-based code repository, hosted in S3 for high availability and resiliency
Integrates well with other AWS services, such as Route 53, ELB, and EC2

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) for managing SSL/TLS certificates
Amazon Cognito for user identity and access management
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for access control and security
Best practices: use the principle of least privilege, avoid using the root account, and apply policies to users, groups, and roles

Users and Groups

Users can be part of multiple groups
Groups can be assigned policies, which are JSON documents defining permissions

Policies

Policy structure includes version, ID, statement, effect, principal, action, resource, and condition
Policies can be assigned to users, groups, or resources

Roles

Can be assigned to AWS services, such as EC2 instances or Lambda functions

Password Policy

Can be set up for minimum length, specific character types, and password expiry
Can be enabled to prevent password reuse and allow users to change their own passwords

MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)

Combines something you know (password) with something you own (security device)
Supports virtual MFA devices, U2F security keys, and hardware key fobs

Security Tools

IAM Credentials Report for account-level credential status
IAM Access Advisor for service permissions and last access times

Shared Responsibility of IAM

AWS is responsible for infrastructure, configuration, and vulnerability analysis
Users are responsible for users, groups, roles, policies, monitoring, and MFA enablement

AWS Access Keys

Generated through the AWS Console, should be kept secret, and rotated regularly

AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)

Can be used to encrypt EBS at rest

AWS Private Certificate Authority

Enables creating and managing private certificates

AWS Secrets Manager

Enables securely storing and retrieving sensitive data

AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS)

Provides temporary security credentials for AWS services

AWS WAF

Provides a web application firewall for protecting web applications

Storage

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides a network drive for EC2 instances
EBS persists data even after EC2 termination and has a provisioned activity (IOPS, space, etc.)
EBS Snapshots enable backing up EBS volumes, with features like copying across AZs, moving to an archive tier, and fast snapshot restore
EC2 Instance Store provides high-performance, low-latency storage, but is ephemeral and loses data if the instance is stopped
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) offers a managed NFS for multiple EC2 instances, with high availability, scalability, and pay-per-use pricing.

EC2

Storage optimized instances are ideal for high frequency OLTP systems, databases, and data warehouses
General purpose instances provide good general diversity for general websites
HPC optimized instances are designed for high-performance computing workloads
On-demand instances offer short workloads with predictable pricing, and users pay by the second
Reserved instances (1 & 3 years) are suitable for long workloads, with the option to convert to convertible reserved instances for flexible instances
Savings plans (1 & 3 years) provide a commitment to an amount of usage, resulting in cost savings
Spot instances are ideal for short workloads, offering cheap prices, but may lose instances and are less reliable
Dedicated hosts allow users to book an entire physical server, with control over instance placement, making it suitable for bring-your-own-license and regulatory requirements
Dedicated instances ensure no other customers share the user's hardware, with the option to have their own instance on their own hardware
Capacity reservations allow users to reserve capacity in a specific availability zone (AZ) for a specified duration

Lambda

Asynchronous and synchronous invocations are supported
The execution lifecycle of a function includes cold start, init, invoke, and shutdown
Cold start up to 10 seconds is not charged, and init and invoke phases can be reused up to 512MB
Event and context objects provide parameters to the lambda function, with the event object containing JSON data for processing

AWS Services

AWS CodeDeploy, CodeGuru, CodePipeline, CodeStar, and CodeWhisperer are development tools
AWS X-Ray provides management and governance
AWS AppConfig and AWS CLI provide protected access keys, command-line tools, and direct access to public APIs
AWS SDK offers language-specific APIs for embedded application development
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) and AWS CloudFormation provide infrastructure as code
AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch provide monitoring and logging
AWS Systems Manager provides system management and automation

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway manages APIs
Amazon CloudFront provides content delivery
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) supports scalability and high availability
Scalability is achieved through vertical (increasing instance size) and horizontal (adding load balancers/auto-scaling groups) scaling
High availability ensures data is available in at least two data centers to survive data center loss
Load balancing distributes traffic to multiple servers downstream, with ELB offering a managed load balancer with features like sticky sessions and security groups
Security groups can be attached to load balancers to restrict access
Cross-zone load balancing distributes requests across all registered instances in all AZs
SSL/TLS encryption is supported using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and can be used with load balancers

Autoscaling

Autoscaling groups (ASG) automatically scale out or scale in to match load requirements
ASG is free, with costs incurred only for underlying EC2 instances
ASG can be configured using launch templates containing AMI, instance type, EC2 user data, EBS volumes, security groups, SSH key pairs, IAM roles, and network information
Scaling policies can be based on CloudWatch alarms, with options for target tracking, dynamic scaling, and scheduled scaling
AMI is region-specific, and EC2 instances can be launched from public, private, or AWS Marketplace AMIs

Storage

EBS volume types include:
- GP2/GP3: cost-effective storage with low latency, general-purpose SSD volume
- io1/io2: provisioned IOPS SSD for applications requiring sustained IOPS performance
- st1: hard disk drives (HDD) for big data, data warehouses, and log processing
- sc1: cold HDD for archiving
EBS multi-attach allows attaching the same EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ, with each instance having full read-write permissions

Edge Networks

Allow content to be cached closer to other locations
Also known as CDN (Content Delivery Network)
Use CloudFront to serve content at edge locations, which can also run Lambda functions

Accessing AWS

AWS Management Console: protected by password and MFA
AWS CLI: protected by access keys, command line tool to interact with AWS services
AWS SDK: protected by access keys, set of libraries to access language-specific APIs

Major AWS Services

Analysis

Athena

Interactive Query service stored in S3
Allows querying entire bucket instead of just a subset with S3
Serverless, costs less compared to RedShift/EMR or ES

Kinesis

DataStreams: real-time, preserves order of messaging by default, supports multiple data sources
Data Analytics: provides ability to perform analysis
Firehose: can stream data without need for a consumer

AWS Cloud9

Integrated development environment (IDE) that provides a cloud-based development environment

AWS CloudShell

Available in a few AWS regions only, terminal in the cloud
Advantage over terminal: no need to configure AWS with access key
Supports Linux commands like ls, echo, cat, etc.
Stateful if you create or edit files

AWS Code Services

CodeArtifact

Used for storing and sharing artifacts like code and dependencies

CodeBuild

Serverless CI Server for AWS, reduces need for patching/maintaining a dedicated server
Only pay for time it takes to build, provides pre-packaged environments like Docker containers
Build environment = OS + Programming env + Tools used by CodeBuild to run the build
Can create build project using CodeBuild console/AWS CLI/AWS SDK/creation of CodePipeline
Buildspec.yaml defines the build to run (on the code pulled from source repo)

CodeCommit

Git-based code repository, hosted in S3, high availability and resiliency
Advantage over GitHub/Stash: integrates well with other AWS services

CodeDeploy

Automated deployment service that helps deploy applications to various environments

CodeGuru

Machine learning-based service that helps improve code quality and identify bugs

CodePipeline

Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) service

CodeStar

Integrated development environment (IDE) for creating and managing applications

CodeWhisperer

AI-powered coding companion that provides suggestions and completions

Management and Governance

AppConfig

Helps manage application configurations and settings

AWS CLI

Command line tool to interact with AWS services using commands in your shell
Direct access to the public APIs of AWS Services
Opensource, alternative to AWS management console
Built on AWS SDK for Python

AWS SDK

Set of libraries to access language-specific APIs (embedded within application)
Programming language-specific (e.g., JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, Go, etc.)

AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)

Open-source framework that allows defining cloud infrastructure in code

AWS CloudFormation

Service that helps use templates to define and deploy infrastructure as code

AWS CloudTrail

Service that provides governance, compliance, and audit for AWS API calls

Amazon CloudWatch

Monitoring and logging service that provides insights into application performance

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Service that helps monitor and troubleshoot application logs

AWS Systems Manager

Service that helps manage and configure AWS resources

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway

Fully managed service that makes it easy to create, publish, and manage RESTful APIs

Amazon CloudFront

Fast, highly secure, and programmable content delivery network (CDN)

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Managed load balancer that helps distribute traffic across multiple targets

Scalability vs High Availability

Vertical scalability: increases instance size of EC2
Horizontal scalability: adds load balancer/autoscaling group
Scalability is linked to but different from high availability

Load Balancing

Forward traffic to multiple servers downstream (e.g., EC2 instances)

ELB

Managed load balancer, more cost-effective compared to setting up own load balancer
Integrates with many AWS offerings/services

Autoscaling Groups (ASG)

Automatically scales out (adds EC2 instances) or scales in (removes EC2 instances) to match load per requirements
Configured via Launch template containing various settings
Can attach security groups to ASG just like EC2
Scaling policies: based on CloudWatch alarm, dynamic scaling, scheduled scaling

AWS Services

AWS CodeDeploy: not described
Amazon CodeGuru: not described
AWS CodePipeline: not described
AWS CodeStar: not described
Amazon CodeWhisperer: not described
AWS X-Ray: not described

Management and Governance

AWS AppConfig: not described
AWS CLI:
- Protected by Access Keys
- Command line tool to interact with AWS services using commands in your shell
- Direct access to the public APIs of AWS Services
- Opensource
- Alternative to AWS management console
- Built on AWS SDK for Python
AWS SDK:
- Set of libraries to access Language specific APIs (embedded within application) - high level SDK and low level SDK (for API level commands)
- Programming language specific e.g. Javascript, java, python, PHP, Go etc)
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK): not described
AWS CloudFormation: not described
AWS CloudTrail: not described
Amazon CloudWatch: not described
Amazon CloudWatch Logs: not described
AWS Systems Manager: not described

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway: not described
Amazon CloudFront: not described
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB):
- Scalability vs High Availability
- Vertical scalability (e.g. Increase instance size of EC2)
- Horizontal scalability (Add load balancer / auto scaling group)
- Scalability is linked to but different to high availability (Means your data is running at least 2 data centers - to survive data center loss)
- Load balancing: forward traffic to multiple servers downstream (e.g. EC2 instances)
- Managed load balancer - more cost effective compared with setting up your own load balancer / AWS guarantees it is working / upgrades / maintenance etc.
- Integrates with many AWS offerings / services: e.g. Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Payload Manipulation
- Supports Sticky Sessions
Stick sessions / Session Affinity:
- Ensure user request only routed to same target group
- CLB and ALB use cookie with expiration date
- Use case - make sure user doesn't lose his session data
- Enabling stickiness may cause ec2 instances to not be equally balanced
- Application based Cookies: Check for custom attributes required by the application
- Duration based cookies: Generated by load balancer
Cross Zone load balancing:
- With Enabled: each load balancer instance distributes evenly across all registered instances in all AZ
- With Disabled: Requests are distributed in the instances of the node of the Elastic Load Balancer
- ALB - enabled by default (can be disabled at target group level), no charge for inter AZ data
- NLB - disabled by default (Pay charges for cross zone AZ)
SSL / TLS:
- Can use SSL Cert / TLS cert between your clients and your load balancer to allow encryption in transit (in-flight encryption)
- Managed via AWS ACM (Certificate manager) - Load balancer uses an X.509 Cert but you can upload your own certs to ACM
- Set a default certificate on HTTPS listener (with optional list of domains)
- Clients can use SNI (Server name Indication) to indicate the hostname they would like to reach on initial SSL handshake
- SNI solves the problem of multiple SSL Certs onto one web server (you may have more than one domain SSL cert at the ALB level)
- SNI only works for ALB / NLB and CloudFront
Connection Draining / Deregistration delay:
- Can set time to complete 'in-flight requests' while target group instances are de-registering or unhealthy
- Associated with particular AZ only (so can implement redundancy by implementing for each AZ separately)
Route table:
- Controls the network traffic in your vpc through subnet routing
- Allow access between subnets / to the internet
- One route table can be associated with multiple subnets, but each subnet must have exactly one route table associated
VPC peering:
- Connect two VPC privately using AWS' network - make them behave as if they were in the same network
- Must not have overlapping CIDR (IP address range)
- VPC peering connection is not transitive (if a is connected to b, and b is connected to c, then a is not connected to c, unless a direct connection exists)
VPC Endpoints:
- Endpoints allow you to Connect to AWS services using private network instead of www network
- Enhanced security and lower latency to access AWS Services
- Site to Site VPC - connect on-premises VPN to AWS (encrypted over public internet)
- Direct Connect (DX) - Physical connection between on-premises and AWS - secure, fast and private network

Security Features

Network ACL:
- Firewall to allow or deny at a subnet level - explicitly allow or deny traffic by Port / IP address / Destination
Security Groups:
- Works at instance level (e.g. EC2).(ENI - elastic network interface)
- Can only specify ALLOW rules not DENY
- Inbound security group all deny by default, outbound security group is allow all by default
- Security group rule, comprises of IP / port (e.g. ssh) or other security groups
- Rules can be added to authorize another security group through (useful for load balancer where ec2 instances can connect without needing to specify IP all the time)
Virtual private gateway / public gateway:
- Internet Gateway - allow connection to Internet at the VPC level
- Customer Gateway - Virtual private gateway can be used to establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to CustomerGateway (which could be a hardware or virtual gateway in the customers own on-premises data centre) at VPC level
VPC Flow log:
- Capture information about IP traffic going to instances - there are also Subnet flow logs, ENI (Elastic Network Interface Flow logs)
- Monitor network traffic through the VPC
- Can be sent to S3, CloudWatch, or Kinesis data firehose

Example Architectures

Three Tier Architecture:
- Understanding of general diagram (For e.g. Pre-packing the software with EC2 instance)
AMI:
- AMI is region specific
- EC2 instances can be launched from public (made by AWS) and private AMIs (made yourself) or AWS MarketPlace AMI (made by someone else and potentially sold by)

EBS Volume types

GP2 / GP3:
- Cost effective storage, low latency, general purpose SSD volume (can be used for boot volume)
- GP3 can independently set throughput and storage, whereas for GP2 is preconfigured (GP2 older) - up to 16,000 iops
io1 / io2:
- Provisioned IOPS SSD -
- Applications that need sustained IOPS performance eg. Database workloads - sensitive to storage performance and consistency
- io1 can independently set IOPs upto 64,000 IOPS for Nitro instances, IO2 set with a max PIOPS of 256,000 with a IOPS to GiB ratio of 100:1. If you want over 32,000 IOPS you need nitro
- Supports EBS multi attach feature
- Can be used for boot volume
st1:
- Hard disk drives (HDD)
- Suitable for Big data, data warehouses, log processing (500 iops)
sc1:
- Cold HDD
- Suitable for archiving

EBS Multi-attach

Attach the same EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ
Each instance has full read write permissions to the high performance volume
Use case: Achieve higher application availability in clustered linux applications (e.g.

General Concepts

AWS Well-Architected Framework consists of six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability
AWS Global architectures include:
- Availability Zones (60 miles apart)
- Regions (made up of multiple Availability Zones)
- Video Streams

Major AWS Services

Analysis

Athena: a query service for analyzing data in Amazon S3
Kinesis: a real-time data processing service
OpenSearch Service: a search service for log analytics and application monitoring

Application Integration

SQS: a message queue service with Standard and FIFO (First-In-First-Out) queues
- Benefits of FIFO: exactly-once processing, and message deduplication
SNS: a publish-subscribe messaging service
EventBridge: a serverless event bus service
AppSync: a managed service for building GraphQL APIs
Step Functions: a service for orchestrating AWS Lambda functions
- Features:
  - 8 state types: Task, Choice, Parallel, Wait, Fail, Succeed, Pass, and Map
  - Built-in retry/error handling at each state
  - Visual workflow management

Compute

EC2:
- Sizing and configuration options:
  - OS (Linux, Windows, or Mac OS)
  - CPU
  - RAM
  - EBS and EFS (Network-attached)
  - EC2 Instance Store (Hardware)
  - Network card (speed of card and public IP address)
  - Security Group (Firewall rules)
  - Bootstrap Script (configure at first launch: EC2 User Data)
- EC2 User Data:
  - Bootstrapped, run once only at the first instance start
  - e.g., installing updates/software
  - Run as root user
- EC2 Instance types:
  - e.g., t2.micro, c5d.4xlarge (many different types)
  - Naming convention: m5.2xlarge (m = memory optimized, 5 = generation, 2xLarge = spec)
  - Compute optimized: good for batch processing, media transcoding, machine learning, dedicated gaming server, etc.
  - Memory optimized: good for high-performance databases (with memory), web scale cache stores, etc.

Database

Relational vs No SQL:
- Relational: Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS
- No SQL: Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon Aurora:
- Basic: MySQL-compatible database engine
- Writer/Reader endpoint: supports read replicas
Amazon DynamoDB:
- Fast, fully managed No SQL database service
Amazon ElastiCache:
- Basic: in-memory data store for Redis and Memcached
- Memcached vs Redis: Memcached is a simple, key-value store, while Redis is a data structure server
Cache Eviction/TTL (Time to Live):
- Cache can be evicted if:
  - item is deleted explicitly in cache
  - memory is full and it's not recently used (LRU)
  - TTL that has been set is exceeded
- If too many evictions happen due to memory limits, you should scale out or up
Amazon MemoryDB for Redis:
- Redis-compatible, durable, in-memory database
- Ultra-high performance with over 160 million requests/second
- Scale seamlessly to 100s of TB of storage
- Use cases: web apps, online gaming, media streaming, etc.
Amazon RDS:
- Basic: managed relational database service
- RDS Storage Auto Scaling: automatically scale database storage up to a set Maximum Storage Threshold
- Read Replicas:
  - Replications are asynchronous - data will be eventually consistent
  - Up to 15 read replicas within AZ, Cross AZ, or Cross Region
  - Replicas can be promoted to their own DB
  - Applications must update connection string to use a read replica
  - Use cases: reporting, analytics, read-only high load environments
- RDS Multi AZ (Disaster Recovery):
  - Synchronous replication - main purpose is to increase availability, not for scaling
  - One DNS name - automatic app failover to standby
  - Read replicas can be set up as Multi AZ for DR
  - Going from Single AZ to Multi AZ is a zero-downtime operation
- Encrypting an Unencrypted RDS DB:
  - Create a snapshot of DB, copy the snapshot, click "Enable Encryption", then restore the DB instance from encrypted snapshot
  - Unencrypted RDS DB will always have unencrypted read replicas

Developer Tools

AWS Amplify:
- Deploy application in serverless architecture, allows auto-deployment/scaling/management of application and underlying resources
- Complete solution that allows frontend web and mobile developers to easily build, connect, and host full-stack applications
AWS Cloud9:
- Cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE) for writing, running, and debugging code
AWS CodeArtifact:
- Fully managed artifact repository service
AWS CodeBuild:
- Fully managed continuous integration service
AWS CodeCommit:
- Fully managed version control service
AWS CodeDeploy:
- Fully managed deployment service
Amazon CodeGuru:
- Machine learning-powered code review and debugging service
AWS CodePipeline:
- Fully managed continuous delivery service
AWS CodeStar:
- Cloud-based service for creating, managing, and scaling continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines
Amazon CodeWhisperer:
- AI-powered coding companion that provides real-time code suggestions and recommendations
AWS X-Ray:
- Distributed tracing service for debugging and analyzing distributed applications

Management and Governance

AWS AppConfig:
- Fully managed service for managing and monitoring application configurations
AWS CLI:
- Command-line tool for managing AWS resources
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK):
- Open-source framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code
AWS CloudFormation:
- Service for managing infrastructure as code
AWS CloudTrail:
- Service for monitoring and logging AWS API calls
Amazon CloudWatch:
- Monitoring and logging service for AWS resources and applications
Amazon CloudWatch Logs:
- Logs monitoring and analysis service
AWS Systems Manager:
- Service for managing and automating AWS resources and applications

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway:
- Fully managed API management service
Amazon CloudFront:
- Content delivery network (CDN) service
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB):
- Load balancing service for distributing traffic across multiple targets
Amazon Route 53:
- Domain name system (DNS) service
Amazon VPC:
- Virtual private cloud (VPC) service for creating a virtual network in the cloud

Video Streams and Application Integration

Video Streams and Application Integration involves OpenSearch Service, SQS, SNS, EventBridge, and AppSync.

Compute

EC2 instance types have different naming conventions, such as m5.2xlarge (m = memory optimized, 5 = generation, 2xLarge = spec).
Compute optimized instances are suitable for batch processing, media transcoding, machine learning, and dedicated gaming servers.
Memory optimized instances are suitable for high-performance databases with memory and web-scale cache stores.
Predictive scaling continuously forecasts load and schedules scaling ahead, with scaling cooldowns allowing metrics to stabilize.
Instance Refresh recreates all EC2 instances after updating a launch template, with a minimum healthy percentage as a trigger and warm-up time.

Amazon Route 53 and VPC

A VPC can only exist within one region, with private subnets within one availability zone (AZ) only.
Public subnets can have multiple subnets in the same AZ, with CIDR Block specifying the size of the network.
DHCP options set automatically provision IP addresses for EC2 instances and other resources, configuring DNS, Netbios Name server, and NTP.
NAT Devices enable EC2 instances in private subnets to connect to the public internet or other AWS services, with two types: NAT Instance and NAT Gateway.
Route tables control network traffic in a VPC through subnet routing, allowing access between subnets and to the internet.
VPC peering connects two VPCs privately using AWS' network, with no overlapping CIDR ranges.
VPC Endpoints allow connecting to AWS services using a private network, enhancing security and reducing latency.

Security Features

Network ACLs work at the subnet level, explicitly allowing or denying traffic by port, IP address, or destination.
Security Groups work at the instance level, specifying ALLOW rules only, with default deny for inbound and default allow for outbound.
Security Group rules comprise IP, port, or other security groups, with rules added to authorize another security group.

VPC Endpoints and Gateways

Virtual private gateways/public gateways allow connections to the internet at the VPC level.
Customer Gateways establish an AWS DirectConnect connection to a CustomerGateway.
VPC Endpoint connects EC2 instances in a VPC to AWS global services like AWS Lambda and S3, without passing through the internet.

EBS Volume Types

GP2/GP3 are cost-effective storage, low-latency, general-purpose SSD volumes, with GP3 allowing independent throughput and storage configuration.
IO1/IO2 are provisioned IOPS SSD volumes, suitable for applications needing sustained IOPS performance, such as databases.
ST1 is a hard disk drive (HDD) suitable for big data, data warehouses, and log processing.
SC1 is a cold HDD suitable for archiving.

EBS Multi-attach

Attaches the same EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ, with each instance having full read-write permissions to the high-performance volume.
Used for achieving higher application availability in clustered Linux applications.

General Concepts

AWS Well-Architected Framework consists of six pillars:
- Operational Excellence
- Security
- Reliability
- Performance Efficiency
- Cost Optimization
- Sustainability

Compute Services

EC2:
- Supports various instance types and operating systems
- Can be launched in a VPC or a subnet
Lambda:
- Serverless computing service
- Supports Node.js, Python, Java, and Go languages
- Can be triggered by various AWS services
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM):
- Framework for building serverless applications
- Supports AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and other services

Containers

AWS Copilot:
- Service for deploying and managing containerized applications
- Supports Docker and Kubernetes
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR):
- Fully-managed container registry service
- Supports Docker container images
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS):
- Fully-managed container orchestration service
- Supports Docker containers and Kubernetes
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS):
- Managed Kubernetes service
- Supports Kubernetes clusters

Database Services

Relational vs NoSQL databases:
- Relational databases: support structured data and SQL queries
- NoSQL databases: support semi-structured or unstructured data and flexible schema
Amazon Aurora:
- Relational database service
- Supports MySQL and PostgreSQL databases
- Offers high performance and durability
Amazon DynamoDB:
- NoSQL database service
- Supports key-value and document data models
- Offers high performance and low latency
Amazon ElastiCache:
- In-memory caching service
- Supports Memcached and Redis engines
- Improves application performance and reduces latency
Cache eviction and TTL (Time to Live):
- Cache eviction: process of removing data from the cache
- TTL: sets the maximum time data remains in the cache

Storage Services

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS):
- Block-level storage service
- Supports persistent data storage for EC2 instances
- Offers high performance and low latency
EC2 Instance Store:
- Temporary storage service
- Supports ephemeral data storage for EC2 instances
- Data is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS):
- File-level storage service
- Supports shared file storage for multiple EC2 instances
- Offers high availability, scalability, and durability
- Supports NFS protocol and POSIX file system
- Offers encryption at rest using KMS

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM):
- Service for managing access and permissions to AWS resources
- Supports users, groups, roles, and policies
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS):
- Service for managing encryption keys
- Supports key creation, rotation, and deletion
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM):
- Service for managing SSL/TLS certificates
- Supports certificate creation, validation, and revocation
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS):
- Service for managing temporary security credentials
- Supports temporary access to AWS resources
- Integrates with AWS services and resources

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway:
- Service for creating RESTful APIs
- Supports API creation, deployment, and management
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
Amazon CloudFront:
- Content delivery network (CDN) service
- Supports fast and secure content delivery
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB):
- Service for distributing traffic across EC2 instances
- Supports load balancing for HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP protocols
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
Amazon Route 53:
- Domain name system (DNS) service
- Supports domain registration, routing, and management
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
Amazon VPC:
- Virtual private cloud service
- Supports isolated and secure networking for EC2 instances
- Integrates with AWS services and resources

Application Integration

SQS:
- Message queuing service
- Supports decoupling of applications and services
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
SNS:
- Messaging service
- Supports fan-out messaging and event-driven architecture
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
EventBridge:
- Event-driven service
- Supports event bus, event source, and event target
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
AppSync:
- Service for building scalable and secure APIs
- Supports GraphQL and RESTful APIs
- Integrates with AWS services and resources
Step Functions:
- Service for building distributed workflows
- Supports step-by-step execution of tasks
- Integrates with AWS services and resources

Video Streams

OpenSearch Service for application integration
SQS (Standard vs FIFO) for message queuing
SNS for fanout messaging
EventBridge for event-driven architecture
AppSync for managed GraphQL service

Compute

EC2 instance types: Compute, Memory, and Storage optimized
EC2 instance store: provides temporary storage for instances
EBS and EFS: network-attached storage options
Security groups: act as virtual firewalls for instances
Bootstrap script: configures instances during first launch
EC2 user data: runs once at first instance start, ideal for installing updates/software

Databases

Amazon DynamoDB: NoSQL database
Amazon ElastiCache: in-memory database for high performance and low latency
Redis vs Memcached: Redis supports multi-AZ with auto-failover and backup/restore features
Caching design patterns: Lazy loading, Cache-Aside, Write Through, and more

Security Groups and Load Balancers

Security groups: restrict access to instances and load balancers
Load balancers: can have security groups to allow HTTP traffic
Stick sessions: ensure requests are routed to the same target group
Cross-zone load balancing: distributes requests across all availability zones
SSL/TLS: encrypts data in transit using X.509 certificates

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): manages SSL/TLS certificates
Amazon Cognito: provides user identity management
IAM best practices: use least privilege, avoid using the root account
Users: can be grouped and assigned policies
Groups: group users together for easier management
Policies: JSON documents that define permissions for users and groups
Roles: assign permissions to AWS services

Video Streams and OpenSearch Service

Video Streams and OpenSearch Service are application integration services in AWS

Message Queue and Notification Services

SQS (Standard and FIFO queues) benefits:
- Decouples microservices and allows parallel processing
- Acts as a buffer for high-volume messages
SNS (Simple Notification Service) benefits:
- Fanout messaging for decoupling microservices
- Publish-subscribe messaging pattern
EventBridge benefits:
- Event-driven architecture for decoupling microservices
- Supports event buses and event sources
AppSync benefits:
- Real-time data synchronization and offline data access
- GraphQL API for mobile and web applications

Compute Services

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) features:
- Sizing and configuration options:
  - OS (Linux, Windows, or Mac OS)
  - CPU, RAM, EBS, and EC2 Instance Store
  - Network card and public IP address
  - Security Group (Firewall rules)
  - Bootstrap Script (EC2 User Data)
- EC2 Instance types:
  - Compute optimized (e.g., t2.micro, c5d.4xlarge)
  - Memory optimized (e.g., m5.2xlarge)
  - Storage optimized
  - General purpose
- EC2 Instance Connect for SSH access
- IAM roles for EC2 instances
- Security Groups for port configuration
- Purchasing options:
  - On-demand instances
  - Reserved instances (1 & 3 years)
  - Savings plans (1 & 3 years)
  - Spot instances
  - Dedicated Hosts
  - Dedicated Instances
  - Capacity Reservations
Lambda features:
- Asynchronous and synchronous invocation
- Execution lifecycle (init, invoke, shutdown)
- Event Object and Context Object
- Lambda Layers for reusing external dependencies
- Lambda Versions and Aliases for canary deployments
- VPC integration (LambdaVPCAccessExecutionRole)

Container Services

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR) features:
- Container registry for Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) features:
- Container orchestration service
- Supports Amazon ECR and Docker Hub
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) features:
- Managed Kubernetes service
- Supports Amazon ECR and Docker Hub

Database Services

Relational databases vs NoSQL databases:
- Relational databases (e.g., Amazon Aurora) for structured data
- NoSQL databases (e.g., Amazon DynamoDB) for unstructured data
Amazon Aurora features:
- Autoscales in increments of 10GB up to 128TB
- Supports MySQL and PostgreSQL
- Higher availability with 6 copies of data across 3 AZ
- Cross Region Replication
Amazon DynamoDB features:
- NoSQL database for large-scale applications
Amazon ElastiCache features:
- Managed Redis or Memcached instances
- In-memory database for high performance and low latency

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Password policy features:
- Minimum length and character types
- Password expiry and reuse prevention
MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) features:
- Virtual MFA device (Google Authenticator or Authy)
- U2F security key hardware
- Hardware Key Fob MFA device
Security tools:
- IAM Credentials Report
- IAM Access Advisor
Shared Responsibility Model:
- AWS: Infrastructure, Configuration, and Compliance
- You: Users, Groups, Roles, Policies, Monitoring
AWS Access Keys features:
- Generated through AWS Console
- Access Key ID and Secret Access Key
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) features:
- Encryption for EBS at rest
AWS Private Certificate Authority features:
- Private Certificate Authority for AWS services
AWS Secrets Manager features:
- Secure storage for secrets and credentials
AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS) features:
- Temporary security credentials for IAM users and roles
AWS WAF features:
- Web Application Firewall for AWS services

Storage Services

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) features:
- Network drive for EC2 instances
- Persists data even after EC2 termination
- Bound to specific AZ
- Can be detached and attached to another instance
- Provisioned activity (IOPS, space, etc.)
- Delete on Termination attribute
EBS Snapshots features:
- Backup of EBS volume
- Can copy snapshots across AZ
- Archive tier for cost-effective storage
- Recycle bin for snapshots
- Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR)
AMI (Amazon Machine Image) features:
- Customization of EC2 instance
- Add own software, OS monitoring

General Concepts

AWS Well Architected Framework consists of six pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability.
AWS Global architectures are composed of Availability Zones (60 miles apart) and Regions (made up of multiple Availability Zones).

Major AWS Services

Analysis

Athena: analytical service for querying data in S3.
Kinesis: real-time data processing and analytics service.
OpenSearch Service: search service for searching and analyzing data.

Application Integration

SQS: message queue service for decoupling applications.
SNS: fan-out messaging service for sending and receiving messages.
EventBridge: event-driven service for integrating applications.
AppSync: managed GraphQL service for real-time data synchronization.
Step Functions: service for orchestrating serverless workflows.

Compute

EC2: virtual machine service for compute tasks.
Lambda: serverless compute service for running code.
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM): framework for building serverless applications.
Elastic Beanstalk: managed platform for deploying web applications.

Containers

AWS Copilot: containerized application service for deploying containers.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR): container registry service for storing and managing containers.
Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS): container orchestration service for running and managing containers.
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS): managed Kubernetes service for running Kubernetes applications.

Database

Relational vs NoSQL databases.
Amazon Aurora: relational database service for MySQL and PostgreSQL.
- Basic: single instance database.
- Writer/Reader endpoint: endpoint for reading and writing data.
Amazon DynamoDB: NoSQL database service for large-scale applications.
Amazon ElastiCache: in-memory caching service for improving performance.
- Basic: caching service for Redis and Memcached.
- Memcached vs Redis: caching engines for ElastiCache.
- Caching Design Patterns: patterns for caching data.
- Cache Eviction/TTL (Time to Live): mechanism for managing cache expiration.
Amazon MemoryDB for Redis: in-memory database service for Redis workloads.
Amazon RDS: relational database service for various database engines.
- Basic: single instance database.
- RDS Storage Auto Scaling: automatic scaling for database storage.
- Read Replicas: read-only copies of the primary database.
- RDS Multi AZ (Disaster Recovery): high availability feature for databases.
- Encrypting an Unencrypted RDS DB: process for encrypting existing databases.

Developer Tools

AWS Amplify: development environment for building, deploying, and managing applications.
AWS Cloud9: integrated development environment for coding and debugging.
AWS CloudShell: interactive shell for AWS services and resources.
AWS CodeArtifact: package manager for software dependencies.
AWS CodeBuild: continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) service.
AWS CodeCommit: version control service for managing code repositories.
AWS CodeDeploy: automated deployment service for configuring and deploying applications.
Amazon CodeGuru: AI-powered code review service for improving code quality.
AWS CodePipeline: CI/CD service for automating workflows.
AWS CodeStar: project management service for creating and managing projects.
Amazon CodeWhisperer: AI-powered coding companion for writing code.
AWS X-Ray: service for analyzing and debugging distributed applications.

Management and Governance

AWS AppConfig: feature for managing application configurations.
AWS CLI: command-line interface for interacting with AWS services.
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK): framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code.
AWS CloudFormation: service for provisioning and managing infrastructure as code.
AWS CloudTrail: service for auditing and logging AWS API calls.
Amazon CloudWatch: monitoring and logging service for AWS resources.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs: service for storing and processing log data.
AWS Systems Manager: service for managing and patching AWS resources.

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway: RESTful API service for building and managing APIs.
Amazon CloudFront: content delivery network (CDN) for distributing content.
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): load balancing service for distributing traffic.
Amazon Route 53: DNS service for routing internet traffic.
Amazon VPC: virtual private cloud service for creating isolated networks.

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): service for managing SSL/TLS certificates.
Amazon Cognito: user identity and access management service.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): service for managing access and permissions.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS): service for managing encryption keys.
AWS Private Certificate Authority: service for creating and managing private certificates.
AWS Secrets Manager: service for managing secrets and credentials.
AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS): service for requesting temporary security tokens.
AWS WAF: web application firewall service for protecting web applications.

Storage

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS): block-level storage service for EC2 instances.
EC2 Instance Store: ephemeral storage service for EC2 instances.
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS): file-level storage service for EC2 instances.
Amazon S3: object-level storage service for storing and retrieving data.
Amazon S3 Glacier: long-term archival storage service for infrequently accessed data.

Amazon Route 53

Domain name system (DNS) service for routing internet traffic.

Amazon VPC

Virtual private cloud service for creating isolated networks.
VPC can only exist within one region.
Private subnet: isolated network for backend systems like DBs and app servers.
Public subnet: publicly accessible network for web servers and other resources.
CIDR Block: specifies the size of the network.
DHCP options set: automatically provisions IP addresses for EC2 instances and other resources.
NAT Devices: enables EC2 instances in private subnets to connect to the public internet or other AWS services.
Route table: controls network traffic in your VPC through subnet routing.
VPC peering: connects two VPCs privately using AWS' network.
VPC endpoints: connects to AWS services using a private network instead of the internet.

Security Features

Network ACL: explicitly allows or denies traffic at the subnet level.
Security Groups: works at the instance level, specifying ALLOW rules for inbound traffic and DENY rules for outbound traffic.

VPC Flow Logs

Captures information about IP traffic going to instances.
Can be sent to S3, CloudWatch, or Kinesis data firehouse.
Monitors network traffic through the VPC.

Example Architectures

Three-Tier Architecture: consists of a presentation layer, application layer, and data layer.
LAMP Stack on EC2: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP stack on EC2 instances.
Wordpress on AWS: WordPress installation on AWS services.

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM): service for managing SSL/TLS certificates.
Amazon Cognito: user identity and access management service.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): service for managing access and permissions.
IAM Best Practices:
- Root account should not be used or shared.
- Do not use Root (except for AWS account setup).
- Always apply the principle of least privilege.
Users: people in your organization can be grouped.
Groups: can group users together.
Policies: JSON documents that define permissions for users or groups.
- Policy structure:
  - Version: policy language version.
  - Id: identifier for the policy.
  - Statement: one or more individual statements.
    - Sid: optional identifier for the statement.
    - Effect: Allow or Deny.
    - Principal: which account/user/role the policy applies to.
    - Action: list of actions this policy allows or denies.
    - Resource: list of resources to which the actions apply.
    - Condition: conditions for when this policy is in effect.
Roles: can assign permissions to AWS services.

Video Streams and Application Integration

OpenSearch Service is a part of application integration
SQS (Standard vs FIFO) has benefits
SNS, EventBridge, AppSync, and Step Functions are also part of application integration

Step Functions

Orchestrates lambda functions
Statemachine - serverless workflow - allows reviewing the flow visually
8 state types:
- Task - single unit of work
- Choice - if-then-else logic
- Parallel - run units of work in parallel
- Wait - delay execution for a time period
- Fail - stop execution, mark as failure
- Succeed - stop execution, mark as success
- Pass - passes input to its output
- Map - for each loop
Has built-in retry/error handling that you can implement at each state

Compute

EC2:
- Sizing and configuration options:
  - OS (Linux, Windows, or Mac OS)
  - CPU
  - RAM
  - EBS and EFS (Network attached)
  - EC2 Instance Store (Hardware)
  - Network card (speed of card / public IP address)
  - Security Group (Firewall rules)
  - Bootstrap Script (configure at first launch: EC2 User Data)
- EC2 User Data:
  - Bootstrapped, run once only at the first instance start
  - e.g., installing updates / software
  - Run as root user
- EC2 Instance types:
  - e.g., t2.micro, c5d.4xlarge - many different types
  - Naming convention: m5.2xlarge (m = memory optimized, 5 = generation (AWS improves over time))
  - Compute optimized - Use cases: good for batch processing / media transcoding / machine learning / dedicated gaming server
  - Memory optimized - Use cases: High-performance dbs (with memory). Web scale cache stores (e.g., cache user session across application servers into Elasticache)

Memcached vs Redis

Redis:
- Multi-AZ with Auto-failover
- Read replicas to horizontally scale and provide availability
- Backup and restore features
- Support Sets and Sorted Sets
Memcached:
- Multi-node for partitioning (sharding) of data
- No high availability (replication)
- Non-persistent - no backup and restore
- Multi-threaded architecture

Caching Design Patterns

Lazy loading / Cache-Aside / Lazy Population:
- Check if cached data is present in application, if not load from DB into cache
- Pros:
  - Only requested data is cached (the cache isn’t filled up with unused data)
  - Node failures are not fatal (just increased latency to warm the cache)
Write Through:
- Write to cache when DB is updated
- Pros:
  - Data in cache is never stale, reads are quick
  - Write penalty vs Read penalty (each write requires 2 calls)

Security Groups / Use cases

Load balancers can have security groups which can be set up to allow HTTP traffic
Can connect Application Security group to restrict access from load balance security group only
IP address to load balance to, must be private IPs

Stick sessions / Session Affinity

Ensure user requests are routed only to the same target group
CLB and ALB use cookie with expiration date
Use case - make sure user doesn't lose his session data
Enabling stickiness may cause EC2 instances to not be equally balanced
Application-based Cookies: Check for custom attributes required by the application
Duration-based cookies: Generated by load balancer

Cross Zone Load Balancing

With Enabled: each load balancer instance distributes evenly across all registered instances in all AZ
With Disabled: Requests are distributed in the instances of the node of the Elastic Load Balancer
ALB - enabled by default (can be disabled at target group level), no charge for inter-AZ data
NLB - disabled by default (Pay charges for cross zone AZ)

SSL / TLS

Can use SSL Cert / TLS cert between clients and load balancer to allow encryption in transit (in-flight encryption) - TLS is newer
Managed via AWS ACM (Certificate manager) - Load balancer uses an X.509 Cert but you can upload your own certs to ACM
Set a default certificate on HTTPS listener (with optional list of domains)
Clients can use SNI (Server name Indication) to indicate the hostname they would like to reach on initial SSL handshake
SNI solves the problem of multiple SSL Certs onto one web server (you may have more than one domain SSL cert at the ALB level)
SNI only works for ALB / NLB and CloudFront

Connection Draining / Deregistration Delay

Can set time to complete 'in-flight requests' while target group instances are de-registering or unhealthy
Associated with particular AZ only (so can implement redundancy by implementing for each AZ separately)

Route Table

Controls the network traffic in your VPC through subnet routing
Allow access between subnets / to the internet
One route table can be associated with multiple subnets, but each subnet must have exactly one route table associated

VPC Peering

Connect two VPCs privately using AWS' network - make them behave as if they were in the same network
Must not have overlapping CIDR (IP address range)
VPC peering connection is not transitive (if A is connected to B, and B is connected to C, then A is not connected to C, unless a direct connection exists)

VPC Endpoints

Endpoints allow you to connect to AWS services using a private network instead of www network
Enhanced security and lower latency to access AWS Services
Site-to-Site VPC - connect on-premises VPN to AWS (encrypted over public internet)
Direct Connect (DX) - Physical connection between on-premises and AWS - secure, fast, and private network

Security Features

Network ACL:
- Firewall to allow or deny at a subnet level - explicitly allow or deny traffic by Port / IP address / Destination
Security Groups:
- Works at instance level (e.g., EC2)
- Can only specify ALLOW rules, not DENY
- Inbound security group all deny by default, outbound security group is allow all by default
- Security group rule, comprises of IP / port (e.g., User connects via Route 53, Tier1 ELB in public subnet, Tier 2 EC2 Autoscaling group private subnets, Tier 3 RDS / Elasticache (private subnet)

LAMP Stack on EC2

LAMP Stack on EC2 is possible

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
Amazon Cognito
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Best Practices:
- Root account created by default - shouldn't be used or shared
- Do not use Root (except AWS account setup)
- Always apply the principle of least privilege

IAM

Users:
- Users - people in your organization can be grouped
- Users can be part of multiple groups
Groups:
- Can group users together (e.g., developers / sales etc)
Policies:
- Users or groups can be assigned policies (which are JSON documents)
- If policy attached to group level, all users in group get policy
- Policy structure:
  - Version: policy language version (e.g., 2012-10-17)
  - Id: Identifier for policy (optional)
  - Statement: one or more individual statements (required):
    - Sid (optional) identifier for the statement
    - Effect: (Allow / Deny)
    - Principal: Which account/ user / role the policy applies to (e.g., AWS : aws:iam:123456789012:root for the root user)
    - Action: List of actions this policy allows or denies (e.g., s3:GetObject, s3:putObject) - supports for wildcard e.g., s3:Get* or just *
    - Resource: list of resources to which the actions apply to - supports * for wildcard
    - Condition: conditions for when this policy is in effect (optional)
Roles:
- Can assign permissions to AWS Services (e.g.,

Autoscaling Groups (ASG)

Automatically scales out (adds EC2 instances) or scales in (removes EC2 instances) to match load requirements
Configured via Launch template containing:
AMI + Instance Type
EC2 User Data
EBS Volumes
Security Groups
SSH Key Pair
IAM Roles for your EC2 Instances
Network + Subnets Information
Load Balancer Information
Can attach security groups to ASG just like EC2
Scaling policies:
Based on CloudWatch alarm (e.g. Average CPU, or other metric)
Dynamic scaling:
- Target tracking scaling (e.g. I want the average ASG CPU to stay at around 40%)
- Simple / Step Scaling (e.g. When a CloudWatch alarm is triggered, then add 2 units)
Scheduled scaling: e.g. increase the min capacity to 10 at 5pm on Fridays

AWS Services

AWS CodeDeploy
Amazon CodeGuru
AWS CodePipeline
AWS CodeStar
Amazon CodeWhisperer
AWS X-Ray
Management and Governance:
- AWS AppConfig
- AWS CLI:
  - Protected by Access Keys
  - Command line tool to interact with AWS services using commands in your shell
  - Direct access to the public APIs of AWS Services
  - Opensource
  - Alternative to AWS management console
  - Built on AWS SDK for Python
AWS SDK:
- Set of libraries to access Language specific APIs (embedded within application) - high level SDK and low level SDK (for API level commands)
- Programming language specific e.g. Javascript, Java, Python, PHP, Go etc)
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudTrail
Amazon CloudWatch
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
AWS Systems Manager

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway
Amazon CloudFront
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Scalability vs High Availability
Vertical scalability (e.g. Increase instance size of EC2)
Horizontal scalability (Add load balancer / auto scaling group)
Scalability is linked to but different to high availability (Means your data is running at least 2 data centers - to survive data center loss)
Load balancing:
Forward traffic to multiple servers downstream (e.g. EC2 instances)
ELB:
Managed load balancer - more cost effective compared with setting up your own load balancer / AWS guarantees it is working / upgrades / maintenance etc.
Integrates with many AWS offerings / services
Predictive scaling: Continuously forecast load and schedule scaling ahead
Scaling cooldowns = time period where another scaling in and out is not allowed to happen after a scaling activity (default 300 sec)
Instance Refresh = after updating launch template - you can recreate all EC2 instances (can specify minimum healthy percentage as a trigger / warm-up time (time before instance can be used)
Amazon Route 53
Amazon VPC
VPC can only exist within one region
Private subnet within one availability zone only (one subnet cannot span two or more AZs) - not accessible from internet
Public subnet - can have multiple subnets in the same AZ (e.g. publicly accessible web servers)
CIDR Block
- Allows you to specify size of network between /16 (16 netmask allows 65,536 IP addresses) and /28 (16 IP addresses) netmask (total number of available hosts for network)
- IPV4 / IPV6 CIDR range
- First 4 and last 1 ip address reserved for Amazon
DHCP options set
- Automatically provision IP addresses for EC2 instances and other resources
- Configures DNS, Netbios Name server and NTP
NAT Devices
- Enable EC2 instances in private subnet to connect to public internet or other AWS services (lives in public subnet, and has a route to Internet Gateway
- Like a gateway but Prevents Public Internet from initiating connections with your private EC2 instances
- Two types
  - NAT Instance - virtualized running in EC2, managed by customer, not highly scalable or available
  - NAT Gateway - Managed by AWS not on VPC, Highly available and scalable

Load Balancer Types

Classic load balancer
Protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, SSL
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs
Uses: General-purpose load balancer
Application load balancer (ALB)
Protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, Websocket
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs, ECS, Lambda (via HTTP)
Uses: Standard load balancer for general purpose, supports redirects from HTTP to HTTPS, Supports Query Strings / Parameters routing, Supports Sticky sessions
Network load balancer (NLB)
Protocols: TCP, TLS, UDP
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs, Application Load Balancer
Uses: High throughput, low latency load balancer, supports static IP provisioning, Supports Sticky Sessions
Gateway load balancer (GWLB)
Protocols: TCP, TLS, UDP
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs
Uses: Deploy, scale and manage a fleet of 3rd party network virtual appliances

Application Integration

SQS
Standard vs FIFO (benefits)
SNS
EventBridge
AppSync
Step Functions
Orchestrates lambda functions
Statemachine - serverless workflow - allows you to review flow visually
8 state types:
- Task - single unit of work
- Choice - if-then-else logic
- Parallel - run units of work in parallel
- Wait - delay execution for time period
- Fail - stop execution, mark as failure
- Succeed - stop execution, mark as success
- Pass - passes input to its output
- Map - for each loop
Has built-in retry/ error handling that you can implement at each state

Compute

EC2
Sizing and configuration options:
- OS (Linux, windows or Mac OS)
- CPU
- RAM
- EBS and EFS (Network attached)
- EC2 Instance Store (Hardware)
- Network card (speed of card / public IP address)
- Security Group (Firewall rules)
- Bootstrap Script (configure at first launch: EC2 User Data)
EC2 User Data
- Bootstrapped, Run once only at the first instance start
- e.g. installing updates / software
- Run as root user
EC2 Instance types:
- e.g. t2.micro, c5d.4xlarge - many different types
- Naming convention: m5.2xlarge (m = memory optimized, 5 = generation (aws improves over time). 2xLarge = spec
- Compute optimized - Use cases: good for batch processing / media transcoding / machine learning / dedicate gaming server etc.
- Memory optimized - Use cases: High performance dbs (with memory). Web scale cache stores (e.g.

AWS Lambda

Context object describes the current execution event of the Lambda function, including memory, remaining time, etc.
Lambda Layers allow re-using external dependencies across multiple Lambda functions
- Deployed as zips that can be re-used
- Advantages:
  - Can be shared with all Lambda functions inside a region
  - Faster deployments
  - Separation of concern - separate business logic from dependencies
  - Manage all dependencies for shared resources in a single layer
Lambda Versions / Aliases:
- Create new versions of functions to avoid affecting production
- Versions auto-incremented
- Alias is like a nickname for a version, can be changed to point to a different version
- Useful for Canary deployments
Lambda / VPC Integration:
- Need to assign execution role IAM managed policy with LambdaVPCAccessExecutionRole
- Lambda function will lose access to the internet after connecting to VPC

AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM)

No additional information provided

Elastic Beanstalk

No additional information provided

Containers

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
AWS Copilot

Database

Relational vs NoSQL:
- Harder to make schema changes with relational
Amazon Aurora:
- Autoscales in increments of 10GB up to 128TB
- Supports MySQL and PostgreSQL
- 20% more expensive than RDS but "AWS cloud optimized"
Amplify:
- Amplify studio
- Amplify libraries
- Amplify CLI
- Amplify Hosting
- Can export to CloudFormation template

Development Tools

AWS Cloud9
AWS CloudShell:
- Available in a few AWS regions only
- Terminal in the cloud, works similar to AWS CLI
- Advantage: No need to configure AWS with access key
- Supports Linux commands like ls, echo, cat, etc.
- Stateful if you create or edit files
AWS CodeArtifact
AWS CodeBuild:
- Serverless CI server for AWS
- Reduces need for patching/maintaining a dedicated server
- Only pay for time it takes to build (not idle time)
- Provides pre-packaged environments such as Docker containers
- Build environment = OS + programming env + tools used by CodeBuild to run the build
- Can upload build artifact to CodeArtifact or another artifact repo
- Supports Amazon SNS on build notifications (e.g. build failure)
AWS CodeCommit:
- Hosted in S3, which gives it high availability and resiliency
- Advantage: Integrates well with other AWS services

Health Checks

Done by ELB on a port and route (/health e.g.) to check 200 response to ensure downstream server is healthy

Load Balancers

Types of load balancers:
- Classic load balancer (replaced with v2 load balancers)
- Application load balancer (ALB):
  - Supports HTTP, HTTPS, Websocket
  - Targets: EC2, private IPs, Lambda functions
  - Features: Load balance to multiple applications, supports redirects from HTTP to HTTPS, query strings/parameters routing, sticky sessions, port mapping
- Network load balancer (NLB):
  - Supports TCP, TLS, UDP
  - Targets: EC2, private IPs
  - Features: High throughput, low latency, static IP provisioning, health checks support TCP, HTTP, and HTTPS protocols
- Gateway load balancer (GWLB):
  - Supports deploying, scaling, and managing fleet of 3rd party network virtual appliances

Security, Identity, and Compliance

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
Amazon Cognito
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM):
- Best practices:
  - Root account should not be used or shared
  - Apply principle of least privilege
- Users:
  - Can be grouped
  - Can be part of multiple groups
- Groups:
  - Can group users together
- Policies:
  - Are JSON documents
  - Can be assigned to users or groups
  - Policy structure: Version, Id, Statement (Sid, Effect, Principal, Action, Resource, Condition)
- Roles:
  - Can assign permissions to AWS services

Storage

EBS Volume types:
- GP2/GP3: Cost-effective storage, low latency, general-purpose SSD volume
- io1/io2: Provisioned IOPS SSD, suitable for applications that need sustained IOPS performance
- st1: Hard disk drives (HDD), suitable for big data, data warehouses, log processing
- sc1: Cold HDD, suitable for archiving
EBS Multi-attach:
- Attach the same EBS volume to multiple EC2 instances in the same AZ
- Each instance has full read-write permissions to the high-performance volume
- Use case: Achieve higher application availability in clustered Linux applications

Autoscaling Groups (ASG)

Automatically scales out (adds EC2 instances) or scales in (removes EC2 instances) to match load requirements
Configured via Launch template containing:
AMI + Instance Type
EC2 User Data
EBS Volumes
Security Groups
SSH Key Pair
IAM Roles for your EC2 Instances
Network + Subnets Information
Load Balancer Information
Can attach security groups to ASG just like EC2
Scaling policies:
Based on CloudWatch alarm (e.g. Average CPU, or other metric)
Dynamic scaling:
- Target tracking scaling (e.g. I want the average ASG CPU to stay at around 40%)
- Simple / Step Scaling (e.g. When a CloudWatch alarm is triggered, then add 2 units)
Scheduled scaling: e.g. increase the min capacity to 10 at 5pm on Fridays

AWS Services

AWS CodeDeploy
Amazon CodeGuru
AWS CodePipeline
AWS CodeStar
Amazon CodeWhisperer
AWS X-Ray
Management and Governance:
- AWS AppConfig
- AWS CLI:
  - Protected by Access Keys
  - Command line tool to interact with AWS services using commands in your shell
  - Direct access to the public APIs of AWS Services
  - Opensource
  - Alternative to AWS management console
  - Built on AWS SDK for Python
AWS SDK:
- Set of libraries to access Language specific APIs (embedded within application) - high level SDK and low level SDK (for API level commands)
- Programming language specific e.g. Javascript, Java, Python, PHP, Go etc)
AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudTrail
Amazon CloudWatch
Amazon CloudWatch Logs
AWS Systems Manager

Networking and Content Delivery

Amazon API Gateway
Amazon CloudFront
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Scalability vs High Availability
Vertical scalability (e.g. Increase instance size of EC2)
Horizontal scalability (Add load balancer / auto scaling group)
Scalability is linked to but different to high availability (Means your data is running at least 2 data centers - to survive data center loss)
Load balancing:
Forward traffic to multiple servers downstream (e.g. EC2 instances)
ELB:
Managed load balancer - more cost effective compared with setting up your own load balancer / AWS guarantees it is working / upgrades / maintenance etc.
Integrates with many AWS offerings / services
Predictive scaling: Continuously forecast load and schedule scaling ahead
Scaling cooldowns = time period where another scaling in and out is not allowed to happen after a scaling activity (default 300 sec)
Instance Refresh = after updating launch template - you can recreate all EC2 instances (can specify minimum healthy percentage as a trigger / warm-up time (time before instance can be used)
Amazon Route 53
Amazon VPC
VPC can only exist within one region
Private subnet within one availability zone only (one subnet cannot span two or more AZs) - not accessible from internet
Public subnet - can have multiple subnets in the same AZ (e.g. publicly accessible web servers)
CIDR Block
- Allows you to specify size of network between /16 (16 netmask allows 65,536 IP addresses) and /28 (16 IP addresses) netmask (total number of available hosts for network)
- IPV4 / IPV6 CIDR range
- First 4 and last 1 ip address reserved for Amazon
DHCP options set
- Automatically provision IP addresses for EC2 instances and other resources
- Configures DNS, Netbios Name server and NTP
NAT Devices
- Enable EC2 instances in private subnet to connect to public internet or other AWS services (lives in public subnet, and has a route to Internet Gateway
- Like a gateway but Prevents Public Internet from initiating connections with your private EC2 instances
- Two types
  - NAT Instance - virtualized running in EC2, managed by customer, not highly scalable or available
  - NAT Gateway - Managed by AWS not on VPC, Highly available and scalable

Load Balancer Types

Classic load balancer
Protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, SSL
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs
Uses: General-purpose load balancer
Application load balancer (ALB)
Protocols: HTTP, HTTPS, Websocket
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs, ECS, Lambda (via HTTP)
Uses: Standard load balancer for general purpose, supports redirects from HTTP to HTTPS, Supports Query Strings / Parameters routing, Supports Sticky sessions
Network load balancer (NLB)
Protocols: TCP, TLS, UDP
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs, Application Load Balancer
Uses: High throughput, low latency load balancer, supports static IP provisioning, Supports Sticky Sessions
Gateway load balancer (GWLB)
Protocols: TCP, TLS, UDP
Target Groups: EC2 instances, Private IPs
Uses: Deploy, scale and manage a fleet of 3rd party network virtual appliances

Application Integration

SQS
Standard vs FIFO (benefits)
SNS
EventBridge
AppSync
Step Functions
Orchestrates lambda functions
Statemachine - serverless workflow - allows you to review flow visually
8 state types:
- Task - single unit of work
- Choice - if-then-else logic
- Parallel - run units of work in parallel
- Wait - delay execution for time period
- Fail - stop execution, mark as failure
- Succeed - stop execution, mark as success
- Pass - passes input to its output
- Map - for each loop
Has built-in retry/ error handling that you can implement at each state

Compute

EC2
Sizing and configuration options:
- OS (Linux, windows or Mac OS)
- CPU
- RAM
- EBS and EFS (Network attached)
- EC2 Instance Store (Hardware)
- Network card (speed of card / public IP address)
- Security Group (Firewall rules)
- Bootstrap Script (configure at first launch: EC2 User Data)
EC2 User Data
- Bootstrapped, Run once only at the first instance start
- e.g. installing updates / software
- Run as root user
EC2 Instance types:
- e.g. t2.micro, c5d.4xlarge - many different types
- Naming convention: m5.2xlarge (m = memory optimized, 5 = generation (aws improves over time). 2xLarge = spec
- Compute optimized - Use cases: good for batch processing / media transcoding / machine learning / dedicate gaming server etc.
- Memory optimized - Use cases: High performance dbs (with memory). Web scale cache stores (e.g.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

EC2:
- Can use EC2 Instance Connect to SSH into the box
- Can add IAM roles for EC2 instances
- Setting up SSH and other ports using attached SecurityGroups
- Various purchasing options: On-demand instances, Reserved instances, Savings plans, Spot instances, Dedicated Hosts, and Dedicated Instances

Lambda

Asynchronous vs Synchronous invocation
Execution lifecycle of a function:
- Cold start / warm start (don't pay for cold start up to 10 secs)
- Init / Invoke / Shutdown
- Execution environment / Context Reuse (can speed up execution, by reusing resources from INIT phase up to 512MB)
Event Object / Context Object:
- Parameters into the lambda function parameter
- Event object JSON data for lambda function to process

Amazon DynamoDB

No SQL database
Writer / Reader endpoint:
- Writer endpoint: single DNS endpoint pointing to master instance to write
- Reader endpoint: single DNS endpoint to access read replicas (via connection load balancer)

Amazon ElastiCache

Basic:
- Managed Redis or Memcached instances (in-memory dbs with high performance and low latency)
- Need to heavily modify application code to effectively query from cache appropriately instead of DB
- Cache hit (get from cache) / Cache miss (fetch from DB)
Use cases / Advantages:
- Reduce load off of dbs for read intensive workloads
- Make your application stateless (e.g. WYSIWYG)

AWS Cloud9

Cloud integrated development environment (IDE)

AWS CloudShell

Available in a few AWS regions only (not every region)
Advantage over terminal: no need to configure AWS with access key (already set up for you with your logged-in AWS user)
Supports Linux commands like ls, echo, cat, etc.
Stateful if you create or edit files

AWS CodeArtifact

AWS CodeBuild:
- Serverless CI Server for AWS
- Reduces need for patching / maintaining a dedicated server
- Only pay for time it takes to build (not idle time)
- Provides pre-packaged environments such as Docker containers
- Build environment = OS + Programming env + Tools used by CodeBuild to run the build
- AWS Codebuild agent can test / run application locally
- Can create build project using CodeBuild console / AWS CLI / AWS SDK / creation of CodePipeline
- Buildspec.yaml defines the build to run (on the code pulled from source repo)
- Can upload build artifact to CodeArtifact or another artifact repo
- Supports Amazon SNS on build notifications (e.g. Build failure)

AWS CodeCommit

Hosted in S3 (which gives it high availability and resiliency)
Advantage over github/stash: Integrates well with other AWS services
Associated with particular AZ only (so can implement redundancy by implementing for each AZ separately)

Route Table

Controls the network traffic in your VPC through subnet routing
Allow access between subnets / to the internet
One route table can be associated with multiple subnets, but each subnet must have exactly one route table associated

VPC Peering

Connect two VPC privately using AWS' network
Make them behave as if they were in the same network
Must not have overlapping CIDR (IP address range)
VPC peering connection is not transitive (if a is connected to b, and b is connected to c, then a is not connected to c, unless a direct connection exists)

VPC Endpoints

Endpoints allow you to Connect to AWS services using private network instead of www network
Enhanced security and lower latency to access AWS Services
Site to Site VPC - connect on-premises VPN to AWS (encrypted over public internet)
Direct Connect (DX) - Physical connection between on-premises and AWS - secure, fast and private network

Security Features

Network ACL:
- Firewall to allow or deny at a subnet level
- Explicitly allow or deny traffic by Port / IP address / Destination
Security Groups:
- Works at instance level (e.g. EC2)
- Can only specify ALLOW rules, not DENY
- Inbound security group all deny by default, outbound security group is allow all by default
- Security group rule, comprises of IP / port (e.g. Teradata)

EC2 Instance Store

High performance, low latency, better io performance
Hardware disk attached via network drive to EC2
Ephemeral storage - lose their storage if EC2 instance is stopped
Good as a buffer / cache/ scratch data / temporary content

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Managed NFS (Network file system that can be mounted on many EC2)
EFS can work in Multiple AZ
Highly available, scalable, expensive (3x the cost of gp2), and pay per use
Use cases: Content management, web serving, datasharing, wordpress
Only compatible with Linux-based AMI (not windows)
Encryption with KMS at rest
Posix file system with standard file API
File system scales automatically - no capacity planning! - pay-per-use
Scalability and performance modes:
- EFS Scale: 1000s of NFS clients concurently, 10GB+ throughput - grow to petabyte scale automatically
- Performance mode:
  - General purpose - use case: general sites
  - Max IO e.g. Big data
- Throughput mode:
  - Bursting
  - Provisioned
Elastic
Storage tiers:
- Standard: for frequently accessed files
- Infrequent access (EFS-IA) cost to retrieve files, lower price to store
- Archive: Rarely accessed data (few times per year) - 50% Cheaper
- Can implement lifecycle policies to move files between storage tiers

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Description

This quiz covers various AWS development tools including Amplify Studio, Amplify CLI, AWS Cloud9, and AWS CloudShell. It tests knowledge of their features and functionalities.