SOA-C02 AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02) Questions and Answers

To determine the service costs incurred by each developer, follow these steps:

Activate the createdBy Tag:

Tagging resources with a createdBy tag helps identify which user created the resource. This tag should be applied consistently across all resources created by the developers.

Snapshot Deletion Policy:

The Snapshot Deletion Policy ensures that a snapshot is created when an RDS instance is deleted as part of a CloudFormation stack deletion.

Steps:

Update your CloudFormation template to include the DeletionPolicy attribute for the RDS instance resource.

Example template snippet:

Resources:

MyDBInstance:

Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance

Properties:

# DB instance properties

DeletionPolicy: Snapshot

 This configuration retains a snapshot of the RDS instance data when the stack is deleted.

 Reference: AWS CloudFormation DeletionPolicy

One possible cause for the failure of the CloudFormation template to create an EC2 instance in the us-west-2 Region is that the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID referenced in the template could not be found in the us-west-2 Region. This could be due to the fact that the AMI is not available in that region, or the credentials used to access the AMI were not configured properly. The other options (resource tags defined in the CloudFormation template are specific to the us-east-I Region, the cfn-init script did not run during resource provisioning in the us-west-2 Region, and the IAM user was not created in the specified Region) are not valid causes for this failure.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/improving-application-availability-with-amazon-rds-proxy/

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

The web application experiences performance degradation during random periods of increased traffic.

Analyze the Requirements:

Implement a scalable solution to handle varying traffic loads.

Maintain application performance during traffic spikes.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Monitor application latency with CloudWatch alarm and increase instance size.

Manually resizing instances is not efficient for handling random traffic spikes.

Option B: Use EventBridge rule to add EC2 instance to ALB.

This approach is not as efficient as Auto Scaling for dynamic traffic management.

Option C: Deploy to an Auto Scaling group with target tracking scaling policy.

Automatically adjusts the number of instances based on traffic demand.

Ensures consistent application performance by scaling in response to traffic changes.

Option D: Deploy to an Auto Scaling group with scheduled scaling policy.

Suitable for predictable traffic patterns but not for random traffic spikes.

Select the Best Solution:

Option C: Using an Auto Scaling group with a target tracking scaling policy ensures the application scales dynamically based on traffic, maintaining performance.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Target Tracking Scaling Policies

Auto Scaling with a target tracking policy provides a robust solution for handling random traffic increases by dynamically adjusting the number of instances.

To address the performance issues of a CPU-heavy application running on a t2.large EC2 instance, the best course of action is to upgrade to a compute-optimized instance. Compute-optimized instances provide a higher ratio of CPU resources compared to memory, making them ideal for applications that require high CPU performance.

Upgrade to a Compute-Optimized Instance:

Identify a suitable compute-optimized instance type, such as the c5.large, which offers better CPU performance compared to the t2.large.

Stop the current EC2 instance and change the instance type to the chosen compute-optimized instance.

To prioritize alarm notifications over information notifications in an Amazon SQS environment, creating separate queues for each type of notification is the best approach. This allows the application processing the queues to prioritize fetching messages from the alarm notifications queue first. Option D directly addresses the need for prioritization without complicating the existing infrastructure. This setup is supported by best practices for using Amazon SQS, where using multiple queues to segregate message types is a recommended strategy Amazon SQS Best Practices.

S3 Storage Lens and Lifecycle Policies:

Incomplete Multipart Upload Bytes Metric: This metric in S3 Storage Lens helps you identify the storage consumed by incomplete multipart uploads.

S3 Lifecycle Policies: Lifecycle policies allow you to automatically manage the lifecycle of objects, including deleting incomplete multipart uploads after a specified number of days.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to S3 and select the bucket.

Go to the "Metrics" tab and view the "Incomplete Multipart Upload Bytes" metric in the S3 Storage Lens dashboard.

To create a lifecycle policy:

Select the bucket.

Go to the "Management" tab.

Under "Lifecycle rules," click "Create lifecycle rule."

Define a rule name.

Choose "Multipart upload" and specify "Delete incomplete multipart uploads" after 7 days.

Save the rule.

AWS S3 Storage Lens

AWS S3 Lifecycle Policies

To provide the ability to recover deleted EBS snapshots for a specified period, creating a Recycle Bin retention rule for EBS snapshots is the appropriate solution.

Recycle Bin:

The Recycle Bin for Amazon EBS snapshots allows you to recover snapshots that were deleted within a specified retention period.

Creating a Retention Rule:

Open the Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager console.

Create a new Recycle Bin retention rule for EBS snapshots and specify the desired retention period.

Amazon EBS Recycle Bin

To increase the cache hit ratio for an Amazon CloudFront distribution, you can make several adjustments to its configuration:

Minimize Forwarding of Cookies, Query Strings, and Headers:

By default, CloudFront caches based on URL, but if it forwards headers, cookies, and query strings to the origin, it can decrease the cache hit ratio.

Navigate to your CloudFront distribution in the AWS Management Console.

In the Behaviors tab, edit the cache behavior.

Set the option to forward only the necessary cookies, query strings, and headers. This reduces the variations of objects stored in the cache.

Increase Time to Live (TTL) Settings:

Increasing the TTL allows objects to stay in the cache for a longer period, reducing the frequency of fetching data from the origin.

In the same Behaviors tab, adjust the Minimum TTL, Maximum TTL, and Default TTL settings to higher values. This ensures that content remains cached for a longer duration before it needs to be fetched again from the origin.

Cache Behavior Settings

Optimizing Cache Behavior

Problem Analysis:

The CloudWatch agent configuration is inconsistent across instances.

A centralized and automated mechanism is needed for consistent configuration management.

Action: Store Configuration in Systems Manager Parameter Store:

Parameter Store allows for secure, centralized storage of configuration files.

Steps:

Open Systems Manager Console.

Navigate to Parameter Store.

Create a parameter with the CloudWatch agent configuration file content.

Action: Use State Manager to Apply Configuration:

Systems Manager State Manager automates repetitive tasks such as ensuring consistent configuration.

Steps:

Open State Manager Console.

Create an association using the AmazonCloudWatch-ManageAgent document.

Configure the document to use Parameter Store as the configuration source.

Use tags (key = "OS", value = "Windows") to target the Windows EC2 instances.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

A: Using an S3 bucket for configuration storage lacks integration with Systems Manager for automation.

B: OpsCenter is for managing operational issues, not configuration files.

E: S3 as a configuration source is valid but introduces additional operational complexity compared to Parameter Store.

In cross-account Amazon S3 replication, by default, the source account retains ownership of the replicated objects in the destination bucket. This ownership can lead to access issues, such as "Access Denied" errors, when users in the destination account attempt to access these objects.

To resolve this, the replication configuration must be modified to change the ownership of the replicated objects to the destination account. This is achieved by enabling the AccessControlTranslation setting in the replication configuration, which instructs Amazon S3 to change the ownership of the replicated objects to the destination bucket owner.

Additionally, the destination bucket policy must grant the source account the necessary permissions to perform this ownership change. Specifically, the policy should allow the s3:ObjectOwnerOverrideToBucketOwner action for the source account.

By configuring the replication settings to change object ownership and updating the destination bucket policy accordingly, the destination account gains full control over the replicated objects, eliminating access issues.

AWS Config can continuously monitor and record your AWS resource configurations. It provides AWS Config rules that automatically check the configuration of AWS resources and notify you of compliance and non-compliance.

Steps:

Enable AWS Config:

Open the AWS Config console.

Follow the steps to set up AWS Config if it is not already enabled.

Add AWS Managed Rules:

In the AWS Config console, choose "Rules".

Add the s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited managed rule.

Configure the rule to check all S3 buckets.

Set Up SNS Notifications:

Create an Amazon SNS topic.

Subscribe your email or other communication channels to the SNS topic.

In AWS Config, configure the rule to send notifications to the SNS topic whenever there is a compliance change.

This approach ensures operational efficiency as AWS Config will automatically monitor S3 buckets and notify you through SNS if any bucket becomes publicly accessible.

Modifying the DB instance to a Multi-AZ deployment is the recommended solution for failover and high availability in RDS. Multi-AZ RDS automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone, allowing automatic failover in case of an instance or Availability Zone failure.

Multi-AZ Deployment: Provides resilience with automatic failover and minimizes application downtime.

No Application Changes Needed: Multi-AZ is managed by AWS, so the failover is transparent to the application.

Read replicas and Auto Scaling groups do not provide automatic failover for write operations, and RDS Proxy only improves connection management rather than high availability.

https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-sysops-associate/AWS-Certified-SysOps-Administrator-Associate_Sample-Questions_C02.pdf

Evictions in Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached occur when the cache runs out of available memory and needs to remove existing data to store new data. To reduce evictions, you can either add more nodes to the cluster or increase the size of the individual nodes.

Add an Additional Node:

Open the Amazon ElastiCache console at Amazon ElastiCache Console.

Select your Memcached cluster and choose Modify.

Increase the number of nodes in the cluster to add more memory capacity.

Apply the changes to scale out the cluster.

Increase the Individual Node Size:

Open the Amazon ElastiCache console and select your Memcached cluster.

Choose Modify and change the node type to a larger instance size with more memory.

Apply the changes to scale up the cluster.

Both actions will provide additional memory capacity, reducing the likelihood of evictions due to insufficient memory.

Scaling ElastiCache for Memcached

Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached User Guide

To configure Route 53 for high availability with failover between a primary and a secondary server, the following steps should be taken:

Create Health Checks:

Create HTTP health checks for both the primary and secondary servers. Ensure these health checks are configured to look for HTTP 2xx or 3xx status codes.

To centrally store traffic logs for a website delivered through Amazon CloudFront and ensure all data is encrypted at rest, using an S3 bucket with default server-side encryption is the optimal solution.

Create an S3 Bucket:

Open the Amazon S3 console at Amazon S3 Console.

Create a new S3 bucket for storing the logs.

Enable Default Encryption:

Select the S3 bucket, navigate to Properties, and enable Default encryption.

Choose AES-256 for server-side encryption.

Configure CloudFront Logging:

Open the Amazon CloudFront console at Amazon CloudFront Console.

Select the CloudFront distribution and navigate to Edit.

In the logging section, enable logging and specify the S3 bucket created for log storage.

This setup ensures that all logs are encrypted at rest using AES-256 and stored centrally in an S3 bucket.

Amazon CloudFront Access Logs

Amazon S3 Default Encryption

To efficiently manage and automate the creation and termination of development environments:

AWS CloudFormation Templates:

Provide a standardized CloudFormation template for developers to create identical development environments.

To restrict resource creation in unapproved regions across multiple AWS accounts efficiently, combining SCPs and Control Tower settings is effective:

SCP for Regional Restrictions: Create and apply an SCP that explicitly denies access to AWS services in unapproved regions. This policy will enforce region-based restrictions at the organizational unit or account level.

Control Tower Regional Governance: Adjust the settings in AWS Control Tower's landing zone to include governance for approved regions. This helps in maintaining a standard configuration that aligns with organizational policies regarding AWS regions.

AWS Documentation Reference:

For more information, check the AWS documentation on SCPs and AWS Control Tower:

Service Control Policies

AWS Control Tower.

To ensure that the Auto Scaling group scales out when CPU utilization rises above 50%, the administrator should configure the Auto Scaling group to dynamically scale based on demand. This is achieved by setting up a scaling policy that triggers based on specific CloudWatch alarms—like CPU utilization exceeding 50%. This dynamic scaling method directly responds to changes in workload, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and promptly as demand increases. Option C is the correct answer, aligning with best practices for managing EC2 Auto Scaling based on real-time metrics. Further guidance is available in AWS documentation on dynamic scaling Dynamic Scaling for EC2.

Using a Route 53 Resolver outbound endpoint allows DNS queries for on-premises hosts to be forwarded to the on-premises DNS server over the Direct Connect connection, minimizing maintenance and automating name resolution without the need for manual entry or file management.

To allow AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to access your EC2 instances, you need to attach an IAM instance profile with the necessary permissions to the instances.

Create IAM Role for Systems Manager:

Open the IAM console at IAM Console.

Create a new role and choose EC2 as the trusted entity.

Attach the AmazonEC2RoleforSSM managed policy to the role.

Attach IAM Role to Instances:

Open the Amazon EC2 console at Amazon EC2 Console.

Select the instances that you want to manage with Systems Manager.

Choose Actions, then Instance Settings, and select Attach/Replace IAM Role.

Attach the IAM role you created.

This setup ensures that Systems Manager has the necessary permissions to manage the instances.

Setting Up AWS Systems Manager

Create an IAM Instance Profile for Systems Manager

If a user is unable to connect to an EC2 instance via RDP, the issue could be related to network ACLs or route table configurations.

Network ACL Blocking Traffic:

A network ACL (NACL) associated with the bastion's subnet might be blocking traffic on port 3389 (RDP).

Open the Amazon VPC console and navigate to Network ACLs.

Check the inbound and outbound rules for the NACL associated with the subnet. Ensure that port 3389 is allowed.

Route Table Missing Route to Internet Gateway:

The subnet's route table may not have a route to the internet gateway, which is necessary for internet connectivity.

Open the Amazon VPC console and navigate to Route Tables.

Check the route table associated with the subnet. Ensure there is a route with destination 0.0.0.0/0 pointing to the internet gateway (igw-xxxxxxxx).

Ensuring proper configuration of network ACLs and route tables will enable the required internet connectivity for RDP access.

Network ACLs

Route Tables

The issue of "request timed out" when pinging the public IP address of the EC2 instance could be due to the Network ACL (NACL) inbound rules.

Check NACL Inbound Rules:

Network ACLs act at the subnet level and can explicitly allow or deny traffic to or from a subnet.

Ensure that the NACL associated with the subnet containing the EC2 instance has inbound rules that allow ICMP traffic (which is used for ping).

Example rule to allow inbound ICMP traffic:

Rule Number: 100

Type: ICMP

Protocol: 1

Port Range: N/A (ICMP doesn't use ports)

Source: 0.0.0.0/0 (or specific IP range)

Allow/Deny: ALLOW

To analyze CloudWatch logs across multiple AWS Lambda functions for historical errors, the most operationally efficient way is to use AWS Glue and Amazon Athena.

AWS Glue and Amazon Athena:

AWS Glue can crawl the data in S3, creating a catalog that makes it queryable.

Amazon Athena allows you to run SQL queries on the data cataloged by AWS Glue.

Steps to Implement:

Set up an AWS Glue crawler to index the logs stored in S3.

Configure the crawler to create a table in the AWS Glue Data Catalog.

Use Amazon Athena to query the table for errors using SQL. Since errors have a common string prefix, you can use SQL queries to filter and find these errors.

AWS Glue

Amazon Athena

To count application errors grouped by type across all CloudWatch Logs log groups, use CloudWatch Logs Insights.

Steps:

Access CloudWatch Logs Insights:

Open the CloudWatch console and navigate to Logs Insights.

Increasing the IOPS for the gp3 EBS volume will address the high VolumeQueueLength by allowing more read/write operations, directly improving performance for I/O-intensive tasks. ElastiCache and enhanced networking do not directly affect EBS performance for this issue.

Aurora Auto Scaling:

Aurora Auto Scaling adjusts the number of Aurora Replicas in response to changes in connectivity or workload.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to RDS and select the Aurora cluster.

Under "Actions," choose "Add Aurora Replica" to initially add replicas if needed.

Go to the "Auto Scaling" section and create an auto scaling policy.

Set the target value for the DatabaseConnections metric to 195.

Define the minimum and maximum number of replicas.

Save the configuration.

This ensures that the Aurora cluster scales automatically when the number of connections approaches the threshold, improving read performance.

Aurora Auto Scaling

Auto Scaling groups automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances to handle the load on your application. A target tracking scaling policy adjusts the capacity of the Auto Scaling group based on a target metric, such as CPU utilization or application latency.

Create an Auto Scaling Group:

Navigate to the EC2 console and select "Auto Scaling Groups".

Create a new Auto Scaling group and specify the launch template or configuration for your EC2 instances.

Configure Target Tracking Scaling Policy:

In the Auto Scaling group settings, add a scaling policy.

Choose "Target Tracking" and select a predefined metric such as "Average CPU Utilization".

Set the target value (e.g., 50% CPU utilization).

Attach ALB to Auto Scaling Group:

In the "Load Balancing" section of the Auto Scaling group settings, attach your existing ALB.

This ensures that new instances are automatically registered with the ALB.

Review and Create:

Review the Auto Scaling group settings and create the group.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Target Tracking Scaling Policies

To enable HTTPS support on an Application Load Balancer, you must:

Use a public SSL/TLS certificate

Associate it with the HTTPS listener on the ALB

From the AWS Certificate Manager and ALB documentation:

You can use ACM to provision, manage, and deploy public SSL/TLS certificates for your load balancers.

After the certificate is issued, you can attach it to your ALB's HTTPS listener.

AWS Backup provides a centralized way to manage backups across AWS services. Here's how to implement the required backup strategy with minimal administrative effort:

Create Backup Plans: Set up different backup plans in AWS Backup, each configured for a specific backup frequency—daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Set Retention Periods: For each backup plan, configure the retention settings to align with the required retention durations: 6 days, 4 weeks, 11 months, and 7 years respectively.

Tag Resources: Apply tags to each EC2 and RDS resource that needs to be backed up. This allows for the automated inclusion of these resources in the respective backup plans based on their tags.

Assign Resources to Backup Plans: Use the tags to define which resources are included in each backup plan, ensuring that all necessary resources are backed up according to the defined schedules and retention policies.

AWS Documentation Reference:

More details on setting up and managing AWS Backup can be found here: AWS Backup.

In AWS CloudFormation, the PrivateDnsName property of an EC2 instance cannot be directly set within the template. This property is automatically assigned by AWS when the instance is launched within a VPC and is associated with the private IP address of the instance. The attempt to explicitly set PrivateDnsName in a CloudFormation template will result in an error, causing the stack creation to fail. Therefore, option C is correct. For reference, the AWS documentation on EC2 instances in CloudFormation does not list PrivateDnsName as a configurable property AWS CloudFormation User Guide.

 AWS Config Managed Rule for S3 Logging:

The s3-bucket-logging-enabled AWS Config rule checks whether S3 buckets have logging enabled.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to AWS Config.

Create a rule using s3-bucket-logging-enabled.

Add a remediation action using an AWS Lambda function or Systems Manager Automation runbook.

AWS Config Managed Rules

 Using AWS Lambda for Remediation:

Create a Lambda function that enables logging on S3 buckets.

Steps:

Write a Lambda function in Python or Node.js to enable logging.

Configure the function to trigger on non-compliant buckets.

The key requirements are:

Minimize application downtime

Minimize risk of failed deployment

From AWS Deployment Strategies:

Blue/Green deployment:Deploys new version alongside the old one, then switches traffic. Allows easy rollback and zero downtime.

Immutable deployment:Deploys a new environment (new EC2 instances) and switches traffic to it, without modifying existing instances.

Both provide safe, low-risk deployments with high availability.

To securely manage and rotate the credentials for an Amazon RDS database created by a CloudFormation template, you should use AWS Secrets Manager. The AWS::SecretsManager::Secret resource can be used to create a secret, and the resolve:secretsmanager dynamic reference can be used to retrieve the secret.

Define Secrets Manager Resource in CloudFormation Template:

Add an AWS::SecretsManager::Secret resource to the CloudFormation template to store the database credentials.

Reference the Secret in RDS Resource:

Use the resolve:secretsmanager dynamic reference to retrieve the secret when creating the AWS::RDS::DBInstance resource.

Example CloudFormation Template:

MyDatabaseSecret:

Type: AWS::SecretsManager::Secret

Properties:

Name: MyDatabaseSecret

GenerateSecretString:

SecretStringTemplate: '{"username": "admin"}'

GenerateStringKey: "password"

PasswordLength: 16

ExcludeCharacters: '"@/\\'

MyRDSInstance:

Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance

Properties:

DBInstanceIdentifier: MyRDSInstance

Engine: mysql

MasterUsername: !Sub '{{resolve:secretsmanager:MyDatabaseSecret:SecretString:username}}'

MasterUserPassword: !Sub '{{resolve:secretsmanager:MyDatabaseSecret:SecretString:password}}'

DBInstanceClass: db.t2.micro

AllocatedStorage: 20

AWS::SecretsManager::Secret

Dynamic References

CloudWatch alarm actions like EC2 reboot require CloudWatch to assume a service-linked role to interact with EC2 on behalf of the user.

From the Amazon CloudWatch documentation:

When you create an alarm that performs actions such as rebooting an instance, CloudWatch uses a service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForCloudWatchEvents to execute the action.

To create this role, a user must have the iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole permission.

To deliver digital content to authorized users through CloudFront while restricting unauthorized access, you can use an origin access identity (OAI) with signed URLs.

Store Content in S3 with Public Access Blocked:

Ensure the S3 bucket has public access blocked.

Navigate to the S3 console, select the bucket, and configure the "Block Public Access" settings.

Reuse templates to replicate stacks in multiple environments After you have your stacks and resources set up, you can reuse your templates to replicate your infrastructure in multiple environments. For example, you can create environments for development, testing, and production so that you can test changes before implementing them into production. To make templates reusable, use the parameters, mappings, and conditions sections so that you can customize your stacks when you create them. For example, for your development environments, you can specify a lower-cost instance type compared to your production environment, but all other configurations and settings remain the same. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html#reuse

To manage Amazon EC2 instances using AWS Systems Manager, you need to ensure that the instances are associated with an IAM instance profile that grants the necessary permissions.

Attach IAM Instance Profile:

Create an IAM role with the AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore policy.

Attach this IAM role to your EC2 instances.

Steps to Attach IAM Instance Profile:

Open the EC2 console and select the instances.

Choose "Actions" -> "Instance Settings" -> "Attach/Replace IAM Role."

Select the IAM role with AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore policy and attach it to the instances.

AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore Policy:

This policy grants the required permissions for Systems Manager to manage the EC2 instances.

It includes permissions for SSM Agent to communicate with the Systems Manager service.

AWS Systems Manager Prerequisites

AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore Policy

To enforce compliance with tagging policies in real-time:

AWS Config Setup: Implement an AWS Config rule to continuously monitor and evaluate EC2 instances for compliance with the tagging requirements. The required-tags managed rule can be configured to specifically check for the presence of a 'department' tag.

Automatic Remediation: Configure AWS Config to automatically execute the AWS-TerminateEC2Instance Systems Manager Automation document as a remediation action. This runbook will terminate any EC2 instance identified as noncompliant due to missing required tags.

Operational Efficiency: This setup allows for the enforcement of company tagging policies automatically and in near real-time, reducing the manual overhead of monitoring and ensuring compliance.

This method provides an efficient and effective solution to ensure that all EC2 instances meet the company's tagging requirements and that any noncompliant instances are dealt with promptly.

Using CloudFormation Stack Sets:

CloudFormation stack sets allow you to deploy CloudFormation stacks across multiple AWS accounts and regions.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to CloudFormation and select "StackSets."

Click on "Create StackSet."

Provide the template URL or upload a template file.

Configure the stack set options and specify the accounts and regions.

Deploy the stack set to the specified accounts and regions.

AWS CloudFormation StackSets

The best combination of steps to meet this requirement is to sign in to the new account by using root user credentials and change the support plan, and to create an IAM user that has administrator privileges in the new account.

Signing in to the new account by using root user credentials will allow the SysOps administrator to access the account and change the support plan to AWS Business Support. Additionally, creating an IAM user that has administrator privileges in the new account will ensure that the SysOps administrator has the necessary access to manage the account and make changes to the support plan if necessary.

To automate the invocation of an AWS Lambda function at the end of each day, you can use Amazon EventBridge (formerly known as CloudWatch Events) to create a scheduled rule.

Create a Scheduled EventBridge Rule:

Open the Amazon EventBridge console at Amazon EventBridge Console.

Choose Create rule.

Provide a name and description for the rule.

For Rule type, choose Schedule.

Define a cron expression that runs the rule at the end of each day. For example, cron(0 0 * * ? *) runs the function at midnight UTC.

Set the Target:

In the Targets section, choose Add target.

For Target type, select Lambda function.

Choose the Lambda function you want to invoke.

Create the Rule:

Review the settings and choose Create rule.

This setup ensures that the Lambda function runs automatically at the specified time every day.

Amazon EventBridge Scheduler

Managing EventBridge Rules

To receive email notifications when IAM CreateUser API calls are made, you need to create an EventBridge rule that captures these events from CloudTrail and then routes them to an SNS topic that has an email subscription.

Enable CloudTrail:

Ensure AWS CloudTrail is enabled in your account to log API activity. Go to AWS CloudTrail Console and enable it if not already enabled.

Create SNS Topic:

Open the Amazon SNS console at Amazon SNS Console.

Create a new topic and name it (e.g., IAMCreateUserNotifications).

Create an email subscription for the topic by entering your email address and confirming the subscription via the email received.

Create EventBridge Rule:

Open the Amazon EventBridge console at Amazon EventBridge Console.

Create a new rule and provide a name and description.

For the Event source, select AWS events or EventBridge Schema.

In Event pattern, select AWS services and choose CloudTrail as the service.

Specify the event type as AWS API Call via CloudTrail.

In the Event source dropdown, select IAM and in the API operation, enter CreateUser.

Add Target:

Add a target and select SNS topic.

Choose the SNS topic you created earlier (IAMCreateUserNotifications).

Configure Permissions:

Ensure that the EventBridge rule has permission to publish to the SNS topic.

This configuration will trigger an email notification whenever an IAM CreateUser API call is made, keeping you informed of new user creations.

Creating an EventBridge Rule That Triggers on an Event

Setting Up a CloudWatch Event to Trigger SNS

Creating CloudTrail Event Rules

Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics:

CloudWatch Synthetics allows you to create canaries to monitor your endpoints and API calls, simulating user behavior to detect issues before users do.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to CloudWatch and select "Synthetics."

Click on "Create canary."

Choose "Heartbeat monitoring" as the blueprint.

Configure the canary to point to the FQDN of the website.

Set the frequency and retention settings as per your requirement.

Create the canary.

This setup continuously checks the operational status of your website, alerting you if it becomes unreachable or has issues.

AWS CloudWatch Synthetics

Enabling the organizational view in AWS Health will allow the SysOps administrator to consolidate the alerts from each account’s Personal Health Dashboard. It will also provide the administrator with a single view of all the accounts in the organization, allowing them to easily monitor the health of all the accounts in the organization.

To transition the Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon ES) domain to a highly available, production-grade deployment:

Cluster Configuration:

Use a cluster of six data nodes to handle data ingestion and querying.

Distribute these nodes across three Availability Zones (AZs) for high availability and fault tolerance.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides a fully managed native Microsoft Windows file system that supports the SMB protocol and Windows ACLs, ensuring compatibility with existing applications and processes. Using a Multi-AZ deployment ensures high availability by providing automatic failover to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone.

Create Amazon FSx for Windows File Server:

Open the Amazon FSx console at Amazon FSx Console.

Choose Create file system.

Select Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, then click Next.

Configure File System Settings:

In the File system details section, provide the necessary details such as Deployment type, Storage capacity, and Throughput capacity.

Select Multi-AZ deployment to ensure high availability.

Choose the Windows authentication method, either AWS Managed Microsoft AD or Self-managed Microsoft AD.

Network & Security Configuration:

Select the VPC, subnet, and security groups to attach to the file system.

Ensure subnets are in different Availability Zones for Multi-AZ configuration.

Review and Create:

Review the settings and click Create file system.

Access the File System:

Once the file system is created, you can map the network drive using the provided DNS name and manage permissions using Windows ACLs.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server Documentation

Creating a Multi-AZ File System

Update AWS Account Name:

The AWS account name can only be changed by the root user of the account.

Steps:

Sign in to the AWS Management Console using the root user credentials.

Navigate to the "My Account" page.

Update the account name field and save the changes.

Updating the AWS Account Name

When an EC2 instance stops responding and the system status checks are failing, the recommended first step is to stop and then start the instance. This action will cause the instance to be moved to a new host, potentially resolving the underlying hardware issue.

Stop and Start the Instance:

In the AWS Management Console, navigate to the EC2 dashboard and stop the affected instance.

After the instance has stopped, start it again to launch it on a new host.

To meet the requirements of logging all access attempts to the S3 bucket and receiving immediate notification about any delete events, the company can enable S3 server access logging and set up an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) notification for the S3 bucket. The S3 server access logs will record all access attempts to the bucket, including delete events, and the SNS notification can be configured to send an alert when a DeleteObject event occurs.

The Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) automatically scales the number of pods in a deployment, replica set, or stateful set based on observed CPU utilization or other custom metrics.

From Kubernetes documentation:

The HPA automatically scales the number of pods in a deployment depending on CPU usage or other select metrics.

It is commonly used to handle traffic surges with minimal manual intervention.

This is the most efficient and low-maintenance way to scale workloads in Amazon EKS in response to traffic changes.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-attribute-dependson.html

Syntax The DependsOn attribute can take a single string or list of strings. "DependsOn" : [ String, ... ] Example The following template contains an AWS::EC2::Instance resource with a DependsOn attribute that specifies myDB, an AWS::RDS::DBInstance. When CloudFormation creates this stack, it first creates myDB, then creates Ec2Instance.

When encountering an InstanceLimitExceeded error, this indicates that you have reached your account limit for the number of EC2 instances.

Use Service Quotas:

Open the Service Quotas console.

In the navigation pane, choose "AWS services" and then "Amazon EC2."

Select the quota you want to increase, such as "Running On-Demand Standard (A, C, D, H, I, M, R, T, Z) instances."

Click on "Request quota increase."

Fill in the required information, specifying the new quota value.

Submit the request.

Launch Instances After Approval: Once the quota increase is approved, you will be able to launch additional instances.

EC2 Service Quotas

Service Quotas Console

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/default-bucket-encryption.html

You can set the default encryption behavior on an Amazon S3 bucket so that all objects are encrypted when they are stored in the bucket. The objects are encrypted using server-side encryption with either Amazon S3-managed keys (SSE-S3) or AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer master keys (CMKs).

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-prevent-uploads-of-unencrypted-objects-to-amazon-s3/

How to Prevent Uploads of Unencrypted Objects to Amazon S3#

By using an S3 bucket policy, you can enforce the encryption requirement when users upload objects, instead of assigning a restrictive IAM policy to all users.

To enable an Amazon EC2 instance in a private subnet to access Amazon S3 via a gateway endpoint, the following configurations are essential:

Route Table Configuration:The route table associated with the private subnet must have a route that directs traffic destined for Amazon S3 to the S3 gateway endpoint. This ensures that requests to S3 are routed internally within the AWS network, without traversing the internet.

Security Group Configuration:The security group attached to the EC2 instance must allow outbound traffic to Amazon S3. This can be achieved by adding an outbound rule that permits traffic to the prefix list associated with Amazon S3. Prefix lists are managed sets of CIDR blocks for AWS services, and using them simplifies the management of security group rules.

By ensuring both the route table and security group are correctly configured, the EC2 instance in the private subnet can access Amazon S3 without requiring internet access, thus maintaining the isolation of the private subnet.

Objective:

Add custom dimensions to the metrics collected by the Amazon CloudWatch agent.

Using append_dimensions:

The append_dimensions field in the Amazon CloudWatch agent configuration file allows adding custom dimensions to the metrics collected.

Dimensions help categorize and filter metrics in CloudWatch for more granular insights.

Steps to Implement:

Step 1: Edit the Amazon CloudWatch agent configuration file (commonly located at /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/config.json).

Step 2: Add the append_dimensions field under the desired metrics section, specifying the custom dimensions in key-value pairs:

{

"metrics": {

"append_dimensions": {

"InstanceId": "${aws:InstanceId}",

"CustomDimensionKey": "CustomDimensionValue"

}

}

}

Step 3: Restart the CloudWatch agent:

sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl \

-a stop

sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl \

-a start

AWS References:

Amazon CloudWatch Agent Configuration:CloudWatch Agent Configuration

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: Writing a custom script is unnecessary as the CloudWatch agent natively supports appending dimensions.

Option B: EventBridge rules do not interact with CloudWatch metrics for adding dimensions.

Option C: AWS Lambda functions are not required for this use case.

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) provides a scalable and highly available file storage solution for use with Amazon EC2 instances. To achieve high availability and durability:

EFS Standard Storage Class: Stores data redundantly across multiple Availability Zones, ensuring data durability and availability.

Mount Targets: For optimal performance and availability, create a mount target in each Availability Zone. EC2 instances should connect to the mount target in their respective Availability Zone.

By configuring EFS in this manner, the company ensures that all EC2 instances, regardless of their Availability Zone, have reliable and efficient access to shared data.

To centrally store traffic logs for the website and ensure all data is encrypted at rest, using an Amazon S3 bucket with default server-side encryption is the best solution.

Create an Amazon S3 Bucket with Server-Side Encryption:

Open the S3 console and create a new bucket.

In the bucket properties, enable default server-side encryption using AES-256.

Configure CloudFront to Use the S3 Bucket as a Log Destination:

Open the CloudFront console.

Select the CloudFront distribution and configure the logging settings.

Specify the S3 bucket as the log destination.

Server-Side Encryption:

Ensure that the S3 bucket is configured to use server-side encryption with AES-256 by default, ensuring that all logs stored are encrypted at rest.

Amazon S3 Server-Side Encryption

CloudFront Access Logs

To configure integration with an external vendor and ensure that the vendor can use the AWS KMS key to encrypt the company's data in the vendor's AWS account, follow these steps:

Create a New KMS Key:

Navigate to the AWS KMS console.

Create a new KMS key that will be used to encrypt the data.

When using the RequestCountPerTarget metric for scaling in an Auto Scaling group, the behavior of instance scaling follows specific rules set by Auto Scaling policies and cooldown periods:

Scaling Trigger: The Auto Scaling group triggers a scaling action whenever the RequestCountPerTarget exceeds the predefined limit set in the scaling policy.

Cooldown Period: After launching an EC2 instance due to a scaling action, the Auto Scaling group enters a cooldown period. During this period, despite further breaches of the threshold, no additional instances will be launched. This is designed to give the newly launched instance time to start and begin handling traffic, preventing the Auto Scaling group from launching too many instances too quickly.

This mechanism helps maintain efficient use of resources by adapting to changes in load while avoiding rapid, unnecessary scaling actions.

To enable troubleshooting of EC2 instances marked as unhealthy before they are terminated by the Auto Scaling group, you can use lifecycle hooks:

Add a Lifecycle Hook: Configure a lifecycle hook in the Auto Scaling group. This hook will hold the instance in a "wait" state either when it launches or terminates (in this case, when it's about to be terminated due to health check failure).

Integration with Amazon EventBridge (CloudWatch Events): Set up the lifecycle hook to send an event to EventBridge (formerly CloudWatch Events) when an instance is in the termination lifecycle state.

Invoke Lambda Function: Configure EventBridge to trigger an AWS Lambda function when it receives the termination lifecycle event from the Auto Scaling group. This Lambda function can then perform necessary diagnostics, logging, or data capture activities on the instance before it's terminated.

This configuration allows the SysOps administrator to perform necessary investigations on why instances were marked unhealthy before they are automatically replaced, offering a chance to diagnose and potentially correct underlying issues.

To ensure that the application endpoint has a static public IP address, the SysOps administrator should deploy the application behind an internet-facing Network Load Balancer (NLB):

Network Load Balancer:

An NLB automatically provides a static IP address that can be associated with the load balancer. It supports static IP addresses for each Availability Zone and can handle a high number of requests per second.

For member accounts in AWS Organizations to receive notifications about estimated costs exceeding a predetermined amount, billing alerts must be enabled in the management/payer account.

Enable Billing Alerts in the Management Account:

Open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console at AWS Billing Console.

In the navigation pane, choose Billing preferences.

Under Billing preferences, ensure that Receive Billing Alerts is enabled.

Create a Budget and Set Up Notifications:

Open the AWS Budgets console at AWS Budgets Console.

Create a budget and configure it to monitor the estimated costs.

Set up notifications for when the budget thresholds are exceeded and specify the email addresses of the managers in the member accounts.

By enabling billing alerts in the management account, you allow member accounts to receive notifications about their estimated costs.

Setting Up Alerts and Notifications

Creating an AWS Budget

To monitor and receive notifications when a KMS key deletion is scheduled, you can implement the following steps:

Create an Amazon EventBridge Rule:AWS KMS emits events to EventBridge when a key deletion is scheduled. You can create an EventBridge rule that listens for these specific events. This rule can then trigger actions, such as sending notifications or initiating automated workflows.

Create an Amazon SNS Topic:Amazon SNS is a fully managed messaging service that enables you to decouple and scale microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. By configuring the EventBridge rule to send events to an SNS topic, you can ensure that notifications are sent to the appropriate recipients, such as the security team.

By combining these two services, you can effectively monitor for scheduled deletions of KMS keys and notify the relevant stakeholders without altering the developers' IAM permissions.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

The security team is concerned about the increasing number of IAM policies.

The task is to report on the current number of IAM policies and compare them to the service limits.

Analyze the Requirements:

The solution should help in checking the usage of IAM policies against the service limits.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: AWS Trusted Advisor

AWS Trusted Advisor provides real-time guidance to help you provision your resources following AWS best practices.

It includes a service limits check that alerts you when you are approaching the limits of your AWS service usage, including IAM policies.

Option B: Amazon Inspector

Amazon Inspector is an automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS. It does not report on IAM policy usage.

Option C: AWS Config

AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. While useful for compliance, it does not provide a comparison against service limits.

Option D: AWS Organizations

AWS Organizations helps you centrally manage and govern your environment as you grow and scale your AWS resources. It does not provide insights into IAM policy limits.

Select the Best Solution:

Option A: AWS Trusted Advisor is the correct answer because it includes a service limits check that can report on the current number of IAM policies in use and compare them to the service limits.

AWS Trusted Advisor Documentation

IAM Service Limits

AWS Trusted Advisor is the appropriate tool for monitoring IAM policy usage and comparing it against service limits, providing the necessary insights to manage and optimize IAM policies effectively.

To securely allow a security administrator to review the VPC configuration of developer AWS accounts, the best approach is to create a cross-account IAM role with read-only access to VPC resources. Here’s how to do it:

Create IAM Policy:

In each developer account, create an IAM policy with read-only permissions "Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": [

"ec2:DescribeVpcs",

"ec2:DescribeSubnets",

"ec2:DescribeRouteTables",

"ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",

"ec2:DescribeNetworkAcls"

],

"Resource": "*"

}

]

}

Create Cross-Account IAM Role:

Create an IAM role in each developer account, assign the read-only policy to the role, and allow the security administrator's account to assume the role.

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Principal": {

"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::security-admin-account-id:root"

},

"Action": "sts:AssumeRole"

}

]

}

Assume the Role:

The security administrator can assume the role from their own account using the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.

aws sts assume-role --role-arn arn:aws:iam::developer-account-id:role/role-name --role-session-name security-admin-session

Review VPC Configuration:

After assuming the role, the security administrator can review the VPC configuration using the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI with the temporary credentials.

IAM Policies and Roles

Cross-Account Access

AWS CLI Assume Role

To ensure comprehensive and automated security scanning across multiple AWS accounts:

Security Hub Administrator Account: Designate one account within AWS Organizations as the Security Hub administrator account. This centralizes security findings management.

Automate Account Association: Configure Security Hub to automatically associate new accounts in the organization as member accounts. This ensures all new and existing accounts are continuously monitored under the same security policies.

Enable CIS Benchmark Scans: Within Security Hub, enable the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark standard. This automatically scans all member accounts against this set of security best practices and compliance standards.

This configuration provides an operationally efficient and scalable way to manage security and compliance across an extensive AWS environment, leveraging the native integration of AWS services.

In AWS, there are default limits (also known as quotas) for the number of various resources that can be created in an account. One of these limits is the number of Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) that can be created in a single AWS account within a Region. The default limit for the number of VPCs per account per Region is typically 5.

If an organization is running multiple applications, each requiring a new VPC, it is possible to reach this limit, causing subsequent CloudFormation stack deployments that attempt to create additional VPCs to fail.

Check VPC Limits:

To verify the current limit and usage of VPCs in your account, you can use the AWS Service Quotas console.

Open the Service Quotas console at Service Quotas Console.

Navigate to AWS services and select Amazon VPC.

Check the VPCs per Region quota to see the limit and how many VPCs are currently in use.

Requesting a Quota Increase:

If the default limit is reached, you can request a quota increase.

In the Service Quotas console, select the quota and choose Request quota increase.

Fill in the required information and submit the request. AWS typically reviews and approves these requests, but it may take some time.

CloudFormation Stack Failure:

When a CloudFormation stack fails due to reaching the VPC limit, the error message will indicate the issue related to the quota being exceeded.

You can view the specific error in the CloudFormation console under the Events tab of the stack.

Preventative Measures:

To avoid this issue, monitor resource usage and limits regularly.

Consolidate applications within fewer VPCs if possible, using subnets and security groups to isolate resources.

Amazon VPC Quotas

Service Quotas for VPC

Requesting a Quota Increase

To control access to Amazon EC2 instances using AWS Systems Manager Session Manager based on specific tags:

Attach an IAM Policy to Users or Groups: Create and attach an Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy to the IAM users or groups who need access to the EC2 instances. This policy should specify the permissions required to use Session Manager to start sessions with the instances.

Create an IAM Policy with Tag-Based Conditions: Create an IAM policy that includes a condition element to allow access to EC2 instances based on specific tags. This policy can be designed to grant the ssm:StartSession permission only for instances that match certain tags, as defined in the condition block of the IAM policy. Here is a sample condition block that could be used:

"Condition": {

"StringEquals": {

"ec2:ResourceTag/YourTagName": "YourTagValue"

}

}

This ensures that only authorized users can initiate sessions with instances that have the specified tags, enhancing security and operational management.

By implementing these policies, you ensure that only the appropriate personnel have the controlled access required, based on the specific business needs and security guidelines.

"A certificate is eligible for automatic renewal subject to the following considerations: ELIGIBLE if associated with another AWS service, such as Elastic Load Balancing or CloudFront. ELIGIBLE if exported since being issued or last renewed. ELIGIBLE if it is a private certificate issued by calling the ACM RequestCertificate API and then exported or associated with another AWS service. ELIGIBLE if it is a private certificate issued through the management console and then exported or associated with another AWS service." https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/managed-renewal.html

Objective:

Notify administrators via email whenever a root user sign-in event occurs.

Using Amazon EventBridge and Amazon SNS:

EventBridge: Captures the root user sign-in events from AWS CloudTrail.

SNS: Publishes email notifications to subscribed recipients.

Steps to Implement:

Step 1: Enable CloudTrail for management events if not already enabled.

Step 2: Create an EventBridge rule:

Event pattern:

{

"source": ["aws.signin"],

"detail-type": ["AWS Console Sign In via Root Account"]

}

Step 3: Set the rule target to an SNS topic.

Step 4: Subscribe email addresses to the SNS topic.

AWS References:

EventBridge Rules:Creating EventBridge Rules

SNS Subscriptions:Amazon SNS Subscriptions

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: Trusted Advisor does not directly send notifications for root sign-ins.

Option B: Using an EC2 instance and scripts is less efficient and not operationally optimized.

Option C: Sending notifications to SQS introduces unnecessary complexity and delays.

To manage scaling of EC2 instances in response to variable SQS message loads effectively:

Monitor SQS Queue Size: Utilize Amazon CloudWatch to monitor the number of visible messages in the SQS queue. This metric gives an indication of the workload that needs to be processed by the worker instances.

Metric Math Expression: Create a CloudWatch metric math expression that calculates the approximate number of messages visible per instance. This provides a more precise scaling metric, ensuring that each instance in the Auto Scaling group has a manageable load.

Target Tracking Scaling Policy: Implement a target tracking scaling policy based on this metric math expression. Configure the Auto Scaling group to automatically adjust its size to maintain a target value for the average number of SQS messages per instance. This approach ensures that the EC2 instances scale up during high traffic periods and scale down when the message load decreases.

This solution optimizes resource utilization and cost while maintaining performance by ensuring that the worker processes are neither overwhelmed nor idle.

The requirement is to implement a failover mechanism that minimizes downtime for an Amazon RDS for MySQL Single-AZ instance that handles read and write traffic.

From the RDS User Guide – Multi-AZ Deployments:

Multi-AZ deployments provide high availability and durability for Database (DB) instances, making them a natural fit for production database workloads.

When you create or modify your DB instance to run as a Multi-AZ deployment, Amazon RDS automatically provisions and maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone (AZ).

Failover is automatic and requires no manual intervention.

✅ Why A is correct:

Multi-AZ offers automated failover in case of instance failure, with minimal application downtime.

RDS automatically redirects traffic to the standby, which is promoted as the new primary.

❌ Why other options are incorrect:

B. Read replica is for read-only scaling. It does not support writes and is not a failover solution.

C. Auto Scaling Group cannot be applied to RDS instances, which are managed services.

D. RDS Proxy improves connection management, but does not provide failover capability for the RDS instance itself.

Storing the credentials in AWS Secrets Manager and configuring automatic rotation with a rotation interval of 30 days is the most efficient way to meet the requirements with the least operational overhead. AWS Secrets Manager automatically rotates the credentials at the specified interval, so there is no need for an additional AWS Lambda function or manual rotation. Additionally, Secrets Manager is integrated with Amazon RDS, so the credentials can be easily used with the RDS database.

Objective:

Resolve the HTTP 403 (Access Denied) error for the public S3 static website.

Root Cause:

By default, S3 buckets are private, and public access is blocked due to the Block Public Access settings.

Additionally, a bucket policy is needed to allow public access to the objects.

Solution Implementation:

Step 1: Turn off Block Public Access:

Navigate to the Permissions tab of the S3 bucket in the AWS Management Console.

Turn off the Block Public Access settings by disabling the following:

Block public access to buckets and objects via ACLs.

Block public access to buckets and objects via bucket policies.

Step 2: Add a Bucket Policy for Public Access:

Add a policy allowing GetObject for public access:

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Principal": "*",

"Action": "s3:GetObject",

"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::/*"

}

]

}

Step 3: Test Access:

Confirm that the website is accessible via the public URL.

AWS References:

Block Public Access Settings:S3 Block Public Access

Bucket Policies for Static Websites:Bucket Policy Examples

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: Route 53 is not required to resolve the 403 error; the issue is with S3 bucket permissions.

Option C: Editing file permissions alone will not work; bucket permissions must also allow public access.

Option D: PutObject permissions are unnecessary for serving a static website.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

Manage a database password securely and rotate it every 90 days.

Analyze the Requirements:

Ensure secure management and automatic rotation of the database password.

Minimize manual intervention and risk of exposing the password.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Use the AWS SecretsManager Secret resource with the GenerateSecretString property.

Secrets Manager can automatically generate a strong password.

The RotationSchedule resource defines a rotation schedule to rotate the password every 90 days.

Option B: Use the AWS SecretsManager Secret resource with the SecretString property.

Requires accepting a password as a CloudFormation parameter and does not automate password generation.

Option C: Use the AWS SSM Parameter resource.

AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store can store secure strings, but it does not support automatic rotation.

Option D: Use the AWS SSM Parameter resource without secure string.

This option does not offer the security of Secrets Manager and does not support automatic rotation.

Select the Best Solution:

Option A: Using AWS Secrets Manager with the GenerateSecretString property and RotationSchedule resource ensures secure management and automatic rotation of the database password.

AWS Secrets Manager

Rotate AWS Secrets Manager Secrets

AWS Secrets Manager provides secure storage, automatic rotation, and seamless integration with applications for accessing secrets.

 IAM Identity Center SAML Metadata:

This metadata is required to establish the trust relationship between AWS IAM Identity Center and the external SAML 2.0 identity provider.

Steps:

Download the IAM Identity Center SAML metadata from the AWS Management Console.

Provide this metadata to the external IdP.

 IdP Metadata:

The metadata from the IdP, including the public X.509 certificate, is needed to configure the trust relationship.

Steps:

Obtain the IdP metadata, which includes the entity ID, endpoints, and X.509 certificate.

Configure the IAM Identity Center with this information.

Configuring SAML 2.0 Federation with AWS IAM Identity Center

To allow the TTL (Time to Live) of individual pages to vary while adhering to the maximum and minimum TTL settings configured for the Amazon CloudFront distribution, setting cache behaviors directly at the origin is most effective:

Use Cache-Control Headers: By configuring the Cache-Control: max-age directive in the HTTP headers of the objects served from the origin, you can specify how long an object should be cached by CloudFront before it is considered stale.

Integration with CloudFront: When CloudFront receives a request for an object, it checks the cache-control header to determine the TTL for that specific object. This allows individual objects to have their own TTL settings, as long as they are within the globally set minimum and maximum TTL values for the distribution.

Operational Efficiency: This method does not require any additional AWS services or modifications to the distribution settings. It leverages HTTP standard practices, ensuring compatibility and ease of management.

Implementing the TTL management through cache-control headers at the origin provides precise control over caching behavior, aligning with varying content freshness requirements without complex configurations.

Here are the steps to configure Amazon EventBridge to meet the above requirements:

Log in to the AWS Management Console by using the AWS Management Console shortcut from the VM desktop. Make sure that you are logged in to the desired AWS account.

Go to the EventBridge service in the us-east-2 Region.

In the EventBridge service, navigate to the "Event buses" page.

Click on the "Create event bus" button.

Give a name to your event bus, and select "default" as the event source type.

Navigate to "Rules" page and create a new rule named "RunFunction"

In the "Event pattern" section, select "Schedule" as the event source and set the schedule to run every 15 minutes.

In the "Actions" section, select "Send to Lambda" and choose the existing AWS Lambda function named "LogEventFunction"

Create another rule named "SpotWarning"

In the "Event pattern" section, select "EC2" as the event source, and filter the events on "EC2 Spot Instance interruption"

In the "Actions" section, select "Send to SNS topic" and create a new standard Amazon SNS topic named "TopicEvents"

In the "Input Transformer" section, set the Input Path to {“instance” : “$.detail.instance-id”} and Input template to “The EC2 Spot Instance has been interrupted on account.

Now all Amazon EC2 events in the default event bus will be replayable for past 90 days.

Note:

You can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs to create and manage EventBridge resources.

You can use CloudTrail event history to replay events from the past 90 days.

You can refer to the AWS EventBridge documentation for more information on how to configure and use the service: https://aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/

Here are the steps to configure an Amazon S3 bucket to serve a static error page in the event of a failure at the primary site:

Log in to the AWS Management Console and navigate to the S3 service in the us-east-2 Region.

Find the existing S3 bucket named lab-751906329398-26023898.com and click on it.

In the "Properties" tab, click on "Static website hosting" and select "Use this bucket to host a website".

In "Index Document" field, enter the name of the object that you want to use as the index document, in this case, "index.html"

In the "Permissions" tab, click on "Block Public Access", and make sure that "Block all public access" is turned OFF.

Click on "Bucket Policy" and add the following policy to allow public read access:

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",

"Effect": "Allow",

"Principal": "*",

"Action": "s3:GetObject",

"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::lab-751906329398-26023898.com/*"

}

]

}

Now navigate to the Amazon Route 53 service, and find the existing hosted zone named lab-751906329398-26023898.com.

Click on the "A record" and update the routing policy to "Primary - Failover" and add the existing ALB as the primary record.

Click on "Create Record" button and create a new secondary failover alias record for the domain lab-751906329398-26023898.com that routes traffic to the existing S3 bucket.

Now, when the primary site (ALB) goes down, traffic will be automatically routed to the S3 bucket serving the static error page.

Note:

You can use CloudWatch to monitor the health of your ALB.

You can use Amazon S3 to host a static website.

You can use Amazon Route 53 for routing traffic to different resources based on health checks.

You can refer to the AWS documentation for more information on how to configure and use these services:

https://aws.amazon.com/s3/

https://aws.amazon.com/route53/

https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/

Graphical user interface, application, Teams Description automatically generated

Here are the steps to update an existing AWS CloudFormation stack:

Log in to the AWS Management Console and navigate to the CloudFormation service in the us-east-2 Region.

Find the existing stack named 1700182 and click on it.

Click on the "Update" button.

Choose "Replace current template" and upload the updated CloudFormation template from the Amazon S3 bucket named "cloudformation-bucket"

In the "Parameter" section, update the EC2 instance type to us-east-t2.nano and add the IP address range 192.168.100.0/30 for SSH access.

Replace the instance profile IAM role with IamRoleB.

In the "Capabilities" section, check the checkbox for "IAM Resources"

Choose the role CFServiceR01e and click on "Update Stack"

Wait for the stack to be updated.

Once the update is complete, navigate to the stack and click on the "Stack options" button, and select "Prevent updates to prevent accidental deletion"

To get the value of the Prodlnstanceld , navigate to the "Outputs" tab in the CloudFormation stack and find the key "Prodlnstanceld". The value corresponding to it is the value that you need to enter in the text box below.

Note:

You can use AWS CloudFormation to update an existing stack.

You can use the AWS CloudFormation service role to deploy updates.

You can refer to the AWS CloudFormation documentation for more information on how to update and manage stacks: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/