Tutorial / Cram Notes
AWS provides several services that can be used to monitor resources and send alerts. The most common among these is Amazon CloudWatch.
Amazon CloudWatch
CloudWatch allows you to collect and track metrics, collect and monitor log files, and set alarms. Here’s how you can use it for alerting:
- Metrics: Monitor the performance of EC2 instances, DynamoDB tables, RDS DB instances, and other AWS resources.
- Alarms: Set up thresholds to initiate actions (like sending an SNS notification) when a metric crosses the threshold.
- Logs: Analyze and respond to system-wide performance changes.
An example of a CloudWatch alarm trigger for an EC2 instance when the CPU Utilization exceeds 80% might look like this:
Alarm:
Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm
Properties:
AlarmDescription: “Trigger when CPU exceeds 80%”
Namespace: AWS/EC2
MetricName: CPUUtilization
Statistic: Average
Period: ‘300’
EvaluationPeriods: ‘1’
Threshold: ’80’
ComparisonOperator: GreaterThanThreshold
AlarmActions:
– Ref: HighCpuAlarmTopic
In the example, AWS::CloudWatch::Alarm is specified in CloudFormation template with properties like metric name, namespace (resource type), statistic type, threshold, and period. If the alarm triggers, it will send a message to the specified SNS topic (HighCpuAlarmTopic).
AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS)
SNS is a highly available, durable, secure, fully managed pub/sub messaging service that enables you to decouple microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. You can use SNS in conjunction with CloudWatch alerts to notify operations teams or trigger automated processes.
Automatic Remediation Strategies in AWS
Automatic remediation in AWS often involves responding to alerts with predefined actions or workflows that fix the underlying problem without human intervention.
AWS Systems Manager
AWS Systems Manager provides visibility and control of your infrastructure on AWS. Here’s how you can use it for automatic remediation:
- Automation: Using predefined runbooks or custom ones to fix common issues.
- Patch Manager: Automatically apply patches to your EC2 instances.
- State Manager: Ensure that your instances are in the desired state.
An example of remediation using Systems Manager might be automatically patching an EC2 instance when a compliance check identifies missing patches.
AWS Lambda
Lambda allows you to run code in response to events, such as changes in data, application activity, or system state. Lambda functions can be triggered by AWS services like CloudWatch Events (or EventBridge) to perform remediation tasks.
Example: A Lambda function could be triggered when an alarm state is reached to modify an Auto Scaling group, start/stop EC2 instances, or detach a misbehaving instance from an ELB.
Combining Strategies with AWS EventBridge
AWS EventBridge is a serverless event bus service that you can use to connect your applications with data from various AWS services. You can use EventBridge to create rules that match events within your AWS environment and route them to targets like Lambda functions for automated remediation.
For instance, you could create an EventBridge rule to catch CloudWatch alarm state changes and target a Lambda function that performs a specific remediation action.
Putting It All Together
In practice, an effective alerting and remediation strategy in AWS might involve:
- Monitoring your resources with CloudWatch for metrics that reflect the health and performance of those resources.
- Setting up CloudWatch Alarms that trigger on breaches of those metrics’ thresholds.
- Configuring SNS Topics to notify operations teams when alarms trigger.
- Linking CloudWatch Alarms to EventBridge rules to invoke automated remediation via a Lambda function or a Systems Manager Automation Document.
By implementing such comprehensive alerting and automatic remediation strategies, a well-crafted AWS environment will not only be resilient and self-healing but also optimally tuned to minimize downtime and reduce the need for manual intervention. This proactive maintenance greatly benefits any enterprise focusing on the availability and reliability of its cloud infrastructure, a core aspect of the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional exam’s objectives.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: Amazon CloudWatch cannot trigger AWS Lambda functions for automatic remediation.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: B
Explanation: Amazon CloudWatch can indeed trigger AWS Lambda functions for automatic remediation. You can set up CloudWatch alarms that invoke Lambda functions to perform automatic remediation actions when particular thresholds are breached.
Which AWS service can be used for real-time monitoring and alerting?
- (A) AWS CloudTrail
- (B) AWS Config
- (C) Amazon CloudWatch
- (D) AWS IAM
Answer: C
Explanation: Amazon CloudWatch is the AWS service that offers real-time monitoring and alerting for AWS resources and the applications you run on AWS.
Can AWS Config trigger remediation actions based on configuration changes?
- (A) Yes
- (B) No
Answer: A
Explanation: AWS Config can trigger remediation actions if desired configurations deviate. AWS Config rules can be defined to evaluate the configuration settings and with AWS Systems Manager, it can automate remediation actions.
AWS Systems Manager can be used for which of the following purposes?
- (A) Patching EC2 instances
- (B) Configuring EC2 instances at scale
- (C) Monitoring EC2 instance health
- (D) All of the above
Answer: D
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager can be used for patching, configuring, and monitoring EC2 instances at scale. It offers a collection of capabilities to automate tasks across your AWS resources.
True or False: SNS topics can only trigger Lambda functions and cannot send notifications to other services like email, SMS, or HTTP endpoints.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: B
Explanation: Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) can trigger AWS Lambda functions and also send notifications to a variety of services including email, SMS, and HTTP/HTTPS endpoints.
What feature does Amazon CloudWatch provide to react to specific system events?
- (A) Events
- (B) Logs
- (C) Alarms
- (D) Insights
Answer: A
Explanation: Amazon CloudWatch Events delivers a near real-time stream of system events that describe changes in AWS resources. It can be used to trigger automated actions like auto-remediation.
True or False: AWS Step Functions cannot be used to create an automatic remediation workflow.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: B
Explanation: AWS Step Functions can be used to create serverless workflows that connect AWS services such as Lambda and SNS for various automation scenarios, including automatic remediation workflows.
To automatically manage instance scaling, which service should a solutions architect use?
- (A) AWS Lambda
- (B) AWS Auto Scaling
- (C) AWS EC2
- (D) Amazon ECS
Answer: B
Explanation: AWS Auto Scaling allows you to automatically adjust the number of instances in response to traffic demands to maintain performance and cost efficiency.
Which AWS service would you use to automate code deployment without impacting an application’s availability?
- (A) AWS CodeCommit
- (B) AWS CodeBuild
- (C) AWS CodePipeline
- (D) AWS CodeDeploy
Answer: D
Explanation: AWS CodeDeploy is a service that automates code deployments to any instance, including EC2 instances and instances running on-premises, ensuring that the application’s availability is not impacted.
What AWS tool helps you view consolidated billing, cost structure, and overall compliance of resources in one place?
- (A) AWS Trusted Advisor
- (B) AWS Cost and Usage Report
- (C) AWS Budgets
- (D) AWS Organizations
Answer: D
Explanation: AWS Organizations allows you to manage policies, consolidate billing, and automate AWS account management. It provides an integrated view to manage multiple AWS accounts.
True or False: Amazon EventBridge is the newer version of AWS CloudWatch Events and can be used to create event-driven applications using events generated from AWS services.
- (A) True
- (B) False
Answer: A
Explanation: Amazon EventBridge is indeed the newer version of AWS CloudWatch Events. It allows you to build event-driven applications by using events generated from AWS services, your own applications, or SaaS applications.
AWS CloudFormation can perform which of the following tasks?
- (A) Provisioning AWS resources
- (B) Automatically remediating configuration drift in AWS resources
- (C) Monitoring application metrics
- (D) Both (A) and (B)
Answer: D
Explanation: AWS CloudFormation is used to provision and manage a collection of related AWS resources, and it can also automatically remediate configuration drifts if the template definitions are defined to do so.
Interview Questions
What AWS service can you use to set up alerts for CPU utilization of EC2 instances?
AWS CloudWatch can be used to monitor the CPU utilization of EC2 instances and create alarms to alert you when certain thresholds are crossed. CloudWatch provides detailed monitoring metrics and the ability to set alarms based on these metrics.
How can you set up automatic remediation for a security group that unintentionally allows unrestricted access to a port?
AWS Config can be used in conjunction with AWS Lambda for automatic remediation. If AWS Config detects a security group rule that allows unrestricted access to a port, it can trigger a Lambda function to modify the security group rules and restrict access.
Can you name a service that enables you to take automated action based on system-wide events across your AWS resources?
AWS CloudWatch Events (now known as Amazon EventBridge) allows you to respond to changes in your AWS resources with automated actions. It can trigger Lambda functions, SNS notifications, SQS messages, and more, based on the events that occur in your AWS environment.
How can you automatically recover an EC2 instance when it becomes impaired?
AWS EC2 Auto Recovery can be configured through CloudWatch alarms. When the status check fails for a certain period, the Auto Recovery action can be triggered to recover the EC2 instance, which may involve instance restarts or replacements.
What steps would you take to automatically scale resources based on demand?
AWS Auto Scaling can be configured to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances, Dynamodb throughput, or other scalable AWS resources in response to real-time demand, ensuring that the performance is maintained while controlling costs.
How do you set up an alert for potential DDoS attacks on your infrastructure?
AWS Shield Advanced, in conjunction with CloudWatch, can be used to set up alerts for possible DDoS attacks. CloudWatch metrics can monitor network flow or request rates and, if an anomaly is detected, it can alert administrators to take appropriate action.
How does AWS Systems Manager help in automatic remediation of compliance issues?
AWS Systems Manager provides a feature called Automation that allows you to define runbooks (called Automation Documents) to automate actions in response to events. It can automatically apply patches, update agents, or correct configurations on your instances, ensuring compliance.
Which feature or service allows you to automatically rollback CloudFormation stacks upon failure?
AWS CloudFormation has a built-in feature that automatically rolls back and deletes resources if a stack creation or update fails, ensuring that you’re not left with partially created or configured resources which can incur costs or lead to security vulnerabilities.
Explain how you could automatically stop underutilized EC2 instances to save costs.
By creating CloudWatch alarms that target EC2 instance metrics (like CPU Utilization or Network In/Out), you can use CloudWatch to trigger an AWS Lambda function or a Systems Manager Automation document to automatically stop instances that are underutilized.
How would you set up automated snapshots of EBS volumes for backup purposes?
AWS Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) can be used to automate the creation, retention, and deletion of snapshots of EBS volumes according to a defined schedule and policy. It ensures that you have regular and consistent backups for disaster recovery.
What can be done to automatically rollback a deployment if the application health checks fail?
AWS CodeDeploy allows you to define health checks and hooks as part of the deployment process. If the deployment fails health checks, CodeDeploy can automatically rollback to the last known good revision, ensuring that application uptime and stability are maintained.
How can AWS WAF help in automatically mitigating common web-based attacks?
AWS WAF can automatically block malicious web traffic based on rules that match common attack patterns (SQL injection, cross-site scripting, etc.). These rules can be managed manually or through managed rule sets that AWS provides, which are regularly updated to respond to the latest threat landscape.
Thanks for this blog post, it was really helpful!
Great overview on alerting and automatic remediation strategies. It’s essential for the SAP-C02 exam.
In AWS, which services do you prefer for setting up alerting and automatic remediation?
For anyone studying for SAP-C02, how deep should our knowledge be on AWS Systems Manager in terms of automatic remediation?
Can you integrate third-party alerting systems with AWS services for automatic remediation?
Appreciate the effort put into this blog. Very informative!
Does anyone have experience using AWS OpsCenter for incident management along with alerting and remediation?
Why is automatic remediation important in cloud environments compared to traditional setups?