Integrating AWS event sources (for example, AWS Health, EventBridge, CloudTrail)

How do you integrate AWS Health events into your monitoring solution?

You can integrate AWS Health events into your monitoring solution by using Amazon EventBridge. First, create an EventBridge rule that matches AWS Health events. Then, direct these events to your chosen target, such as an AWS Lambda function, an SNS topic, or a Kinesis stream, depending on your monitoring workflow. AWS Health events contain valuable information about the state of your AWS resources and can help in proactive monitoring and incident response.

When would you use AWS CloudTrail in contrast to Amazon EventBridge for event-driven architecture?

AWS CloudTrail is primarily used for governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing of your AWS account, capturing API calls and related events. On the other hand, Amazon EventBridge is a serverless event bus service that you use to build event-driven applications by routing events between AWS services, integrated SaaS applications, and your own applications. In short, you use CloudTrail for logging and auditing, while EventBridge is for real-time event processing and workflow automation.

Can you route events from AWS Health to AWS Systems Manager (SSM)? If yes, describe the process.

Yes, you can route events from AWS Health to AWS Systems Manager by using EventBridge. First, create an EventBridge rule for AWS Health events, and as the target, choose the SSM Run Command or SSM Automation. This setup automatically responds to certain events, such as executing a document to remediate an issue when a specific AWS Health event is detected.

How would you set up a custom event bus in Amazon EventBridge, and why might you use one?

To set up a custom event bus in Amazon EventBridge, go to the AWS Management Console, visit the EventBridge service page, and create a new event bus. Define the name and permissions (which other AWS accounts or organizations can send events to your event bus). You might use a custom event bus to isolate and manage events for different environments (development, staging, production) or different applications to maintain a clean event namespace and tighten security.

Please describe how you would ensure the integrity of your logs in AWS CloudTrail?

To ensure the integrity of your logs in AWS CloudTrail, enable log file validation in CloudTrail. This feature creates hash values for log files upon delivery and writes the hash values to a signed digest file. This allows you to check the integrity of your log files by comparing the hash values. Additionally, store your CloudTrail logs in a write-once, read-many (WORM) model using S3 Object Lock to prevent them from being deleted or modified.

How do you trigger a Lambda function in response to an operational issue identified by AWS Health?

You trigger a Lambda function by creating an EventBridge rule that matches AWS Health events with specific parameters indicating an operational issue. Set the target of this rule as your AWS Lambda function. When the AWS Health event occurs, the event details will be passed to the Lambda function as input, and the function can then execute the code to handle the issue.

What is the benefit of using Amazon EventBridge Schema Registry, and how does it work with event-driven applications?

The benefit of using Amazon EventBridge Schema Registry is that it allows developers to discover, create, and manage event schemas, which helps in building event-driven applications. It automatically generates code bindings for events, making it easier to serialize and deserialize event data. When you use schemas, it also ensures that events adhere to a defined structure, increasing robustness and reducing integration issues.

How would you configure Amazon CloudWatch alarms to react to specific events from AWS Health?

To configure Amazon CloudWatch alarms for AWS Health events, you must first use Amazon EventBridge to route AWS Health events to CloudWatch Events/Logs. Then, by creating a CloudWatch metric filter, extract a metric from the event data. Once the metric is available, create a CloudWatch alarm based on this metric. This alarm can be configured to take specific actions when it is in the ‘ALARM’ state, such as sending notifications or invoking automation workflows.

Is it possible to capture AWS Management Console actions with AWS CloudTrail, and how can this be utilized?

Yes, AWS CloudTrail captures AWS Management Console actions. These actions are logged as events, including who made the request, the services used, the actions performed, and the parameters for the action. This can be utilized for security analysis, resource change tracking, and compliance assurance.

What are Event Patterns in Amazon EventBridge, and how would you use them when working with AWS Health events?

Event Patterns in Amazon EventBridge are JSON objects that define the structure of events that an EventBridge rule matches. When working with AWS Health events, you would create an event pattern that includes the source as ‘aws.health’ and define other details that match the specific events you want to capture, such as event type codes or entity values. This way, the rule only triggers for those AWS Health events that match the pattern.

How can you differentiate between AWS CloudTrail management events and data events?

AWS CloudTrail management events are operations that are performed on resources in your AWS account. These include actions like creating an EC2 instance or deleting an IAM user. Data events, on the other hand, are data plane operations that are performed on or within a resource, like S3 object-level actions (GetObject, DeleteObject) or Lambda function invoke operations. Management events are enabled by default in CloudTrail, while data events must be specifically configured.

How can AWS CloudTrail logs be secured at rest and how can you ensure they are not tampered with?

AWS CloudTrail logs can be secured at rest by storing them in an S3 bucket with encryption enabled. You can use server-side encryption with Amazon S3-managed encryption keys (SSE-S3), AWS Key Management Service (KMS) keys, or client-side encryption. To ensure logs are not tampered with, you should enable log file validation in CloudTrail, as well as use S3 bucket policies and IAM policies to restrict access. Furthermore, you could enable an S3 bucket with Object Lock to prevent deletion or modification of the log files.