Amazon Web Services SOA-C02 AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02) Exam Practice Test

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/

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, text, application Description automatically generated

Graphical user interface, application, Teams Description automatically generated

Improve S3 Upload Performance:

Using multiple bucket prefixes can improve throughput by allowing parallel upload streams.

Steps:

Modify the application to write files to different prefixes in the S3 bucket.

Example: Instead of writing all files to s3://bucket-name/, write to s3://bucket-name/prefix1/, s3://bucket-name/prefix2/, etc.

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights allows you to interactively search and analyze your log data. This can be used to quickly identify the top internet destinations accessed by the EC2 instances.

Steps:

Open CloudWatch Logs Insights:

Open the Amazon CloudWatch console.

In the navigation pane, choose "Logs Insights".

Select the Log Group:

Select the log group that contains the VPC flow logs for the NAT gateway.

Run a Query:

Use the following query to identify the top five internet destinations:

sql

Copy code

fields @timestamp, dstAddr

| stats count(*) as requestCount by dstAddr

| sort requestCount desc

| limit 5

This query will count the number of requests to each destination address, sort them in descending order, and limit the results to the top five.

Analyze Results:

Review the output to identify the top five internet destinations that the EC2 instances communicate with for downloads.

References:

CloudWatch Logs Insights

Analyzing VPC Flow Logs with CloudWatch Logs Insights

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.

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is designed to protect web applications from common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. AWS WAF can help mitigate cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities by allowing users to create rules to filter specific types of HTTP requests.

Create a Web ACL:

Go to the AWS WAF & Shield console.

Click "Create web ACL" and specify a name and the AWS resource to protect (e.g., an Application Load Balancer).

Add Rules to Mitigate XSS:

Within the Web ACL, add a new rule.

Select "Rule builder" and choose a rule type. For mitigating XSS, use "AWS Managed Rules" or create a custom rule.

AWS Managed Rules include a predefined set for XSS that you can enable.

Configure the XSS Rule:

If using a custom rule, configure it to inspect requests and block any that contain XSS patterns.

Use regular expressions or specific patterns to identify malicious scripts.

Deploy the Web ACL:

Once configured, save the Web ACL.

Associate it with your Application Load Balancer or CloudFront distribution to start filtering requests.

Monitor and Adjust:

Monitor the requests being blocked by AWS WAF.

Adjust the rules as necessary to ensure legitimate traffic is not affected and the application remains protected.

References:

AWS WAF Developer Guide

AWS WAF Managed Rules

The requirement is to automate recovery if the service crashes on any of the EC2 instances.

Option A: Install the Amazon CloudWatch agent on the EC2 instances. Configure the CloudWatch agent to monitor the service. Set the CloudWatch action to restart if the service health check fails . This is a valid solution because the CloudWatch agent can be configured to monitor the service and take action (restart the service) if the health check fails .

Option C: Tag the EC2 instances. Use AWS Systems Manager State Manager to create an association that uses the AWS-RunShellScript document. Configure the association command with a script that checks if the service is running and that starts the service if the service is not running. For targets, specify the EC2 instance tag. Schedule the association to run every 5 minutes678. This is a valid solution because AWS Systems Manager State Manager can be used to maintain a consistent state of the EC2 instances. It can run a script to check if the service is running and start the service if it’s not running678.

Option B: Tag the EC2 instances. Create an AWS Lambda function that uses AWS Systems Manager Session Manager to log in to the tagged EC2 instances and restart the service. Schedule the Lambda function to run every 5 minutes . This is not a valid solution because AWS Lambda functions are not designed to log in to EC2 instances and restart services. They are used for running serverless applications.

Option D: Update the EC2 user data that is specified in the Auto Scaling group’s launch template to include a script that runs on a cron schedule every 5 minutes131415. This is not a valid solution because user data scripts are run only during the launch of an EC2 instance. They are not designed to run on a schedule.

Option E: Update the EC2 user data that is specified in the Auto Scaling group’s launch template to ensure that the service runs during startup. Redeploy all the EC2 instances in the Auto Scaling group with the updated launch template131416. This is not a valid solution because while user data can be used to ensure that the service runs during startup, it does not provide a solution for when the service crashes after the EC2 instance has started.

To supply documentation of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance for the infrastructure managed by AWS, the SysOps administrator should download the applicable reports from the AWS Artifact portal.

AWS Artifact:

AWS Artifact is a service that provides on-demand access to AWS’ security and compliance reports and select online agreements.

It includes compliance reports for standards such as PCI DSS, SOC, ISO, and more.

Steps to Access Reports:

Open the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to the AWS Artifact console.

Browse and download the PCI DSS compliance report.

Providing Documentation:

Download the relevant PCI DSS reports and provide them to the auditors as required.

References:

AWS Artifact

PCI DSS Compliance

To design a high-traffic static website that is highly available and provides low latency globally, you can use Amazon S3, CloudFront, and Route 53. This solution leverages the global edge locations of CloudFront to deliver content with low latency.

Create an Amazon S3 Bucket:

Open the S3 console at Amazon S3 Console.

Create a new bucket and upload your website content.

Configure S3 for Static Website Hosting:

Go to the Properties tab of your bucket.

Enable Static website hosting and set the index document (e.g., index.html).

Create a CloudFront Distribution:

Open the CloudFront console at Amazon CloudFront Console.

Create a new distribution and set the S3 bucket as the origin.

Configure distribution settings, including caching behaviors and SSL/TLS settings.

Create Route 53 Alias Record:

Open the Route 53 console at Amazon Route 53 Console.

Select the hosted zone for your domain.

Create a new record set, choose ALIAS as the record type, and point it to the CloudFront distribution.

References:

Amazon S3 Static Website Hosting

Creating a CloudFront Distribution

Routing Traffic to a CloudFront Distribution

To achieve maximum cost savings and flexibility for a 24/7 running application across different AWS regions and operating systems, the best approach is to use a Compute Savings Plan. Compute Savings Plans provide the most flexibility by automatically applying to any EC2 instance usage regardless of instance family, size, OS, tenancy, or AWS Region, and also apply to AWS Fargate and AWS Lambda usage.

Understand Compute Savings Plans:

Compute Savings Plans offer significant savings over On-Demand prices, with the flexibility to use the compute option that best suits your needs.

Purchase a Compute Savings Plan:

Login to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to the Savings Plans section.

Choose Purchase Savings Plan and select Compute Savings Plan.

Define the hourly commitment amount and the term length (one or three years).

Monitor and Optimize Usage:

Ensure that your usage aligns with the Savings Plan to maximize savings.

Use AWS Cost Explorer and Savings Plans Utilization reports to monitor usage.

References:

Savings Plans

Compute Savings Plans

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.

References:

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Target Tracking Scaling Policies

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.

References:

AWS Config Managed Rules

Setting Up AWS Config

To ensure that all users within the AWS Organization have read-level access to a specific Amazon S3 bucket, while preventing access outside the organization, you can specify a wildcard principal ("Principal": "*") and use the PrincipalOrgId condition key in the bucket policy.

Specify the Principal:

Use "Principal": "*". This means that any principal can access the bucket, but the actual access will be controlled by the condition.

Add Condition with PrincipalOrgId:

Add a condition to restrict access based on the PrincipalOrgId. This condition ensures that only the principals from the specified AWS Organization can access the bucket.

Example bucket policy:

{

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

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Principal": "*",

"Action": "s3:GetObject",

"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::bucket-name/*",

"Condition": {

"StringEquals": {

"aws:PrincipalOrgID": "o-exampleorgid"

}

}

}

]

}

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/hosted-zones-private.html

To apply an existing Amazon Route 53 private hosted zone to a new VPC, the appropriate step is to associate the private hosted zone with the new VPC. This allows the resources within the VPC to use the custom DNS settings defined in the private hosted zone. Option A is the correct step to ensure that DNS queries from the new VPC are resolved using the specified private hosted zone. Detailed steps for this process can be found in the AWS Route 53 documentation on associating hosted zones with VPCs Associating Hosted Zones with VPCs.

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.

To resolve issues with high disk I/O during the bootstrap process:

Increase EBS Volume IOPS: Higher IOPS allows the EBS volume to handle more input/output operations per second, which is critical for high I/O demands like downloading large Docker images.

Increase EBS Volume Throughput: Boosting throughput allows for faster data transfer rates, which is useful when the workload requires sustained high data throughput during initialization.

Increasing the instance size or changing the instance type is not necessary if the root cause is related specifically to EBS performance. Nitro instances generally provide higher performance and are well-suited for high I/O tasks.

AWS Config is the best service to automatically manage and remediate S3 bucket permissions that violate corporate policies against public access. AWS Config continuously monitors and records AWS resource configurations and allows you to create rules that trigger automatic responses when public access configurations are detected. This approach is highly operationally efficient as it automates compliance and enforcement of security policies without manual intervention. Option A is correct. AWS Config can be used to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources, including S3 buckets. Reference AWS Config.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/using-features.rolling-version-deploy.html

To maintain full capacity during new deployments in AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you can use the "Immutable" or "Rolling with additional batch" deployment policies.

Immutable Deployment:

This policy ensures that a new set of instances is launched with the new version of the application. The new instances are only promoted to serve traffic if the deployment succeeds. This ensures zero downtime and maintains full capacity during deployment.

Rolling with Additional Batch:

This policy launches a new batch of instances to handle the traffic while the old instances are being updated. This maintains the full capacity during the deployment process, ensuring that the application remains fully operational.

How to Configure Deployment Policies:

Open Elastic Beanstalk Console:

Navigate to the AWS Elastic Beanstalk console at AWS Elastic Beanstalk Console.

Update Environment Configuration:

Select the environment you want to configure.

Go to Configuration and then Rolling updates and deployments.

Choose either Immutable or Rolling with additional batch as the deployment policy.

References:

AWS Elastic Beanstalk Deployment Policies

Managing and Configuring Environments

Using a Systems Manager Automation runbook is appropriate for managing security group rules within the AWS Config remediation framework. A runbook provides a reusable, automated solution that can update the security group rule based on an IP list.

Automation Runbook for Security Group Updates: A runbook can automate security group modifications, such as adding the trusted IP addresses specified by the business units.

AWS Config Integration: Config rules can be set to use this runbook for automatic remediation, ensuring that the rule is updated without deleting it, which aligns with the requirement for SSH access from specific IPs.

Lambda functions could work but would require additional customization and complexity, making the runbook a more manageable and scalable solution for this task.

To fulfill the requirement of sharing the same data across multiple EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones with scalability, the most appropriate solution is Amazon Elastic File System (EFS).

Deploy Amazon EFS:

Amazon EFS provides a scalable and fully managed NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources.

It is designed to grow and shrink automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage they need, when they need it.

Create Mount Targets:

Go to the EFS console and create a new file system.

Create mount targets in each subnet within your VPC across the multiple Availability Zones.

Attach the EFS file system to your EC2 instances by mounting the EFS file system using the mount target IP addresses or DNS names.

Scalability:

EFS can scale to petabytes without the need to provision storage in advance.

It provides high availability and durability, automatically replicating data across multiple Availability Zones.

References:

Amazon EFS Documentation

Creating EFS File Systems

Access to Amazon DynamoDB requires credentials. Those credentials must have permissions to access AWS resources, such as an Amazon DynamoDB table or an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance. The following sections provide details on how you can use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and DynamoDB to help secure access to your resources. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/authentication-and-access-control.html

To enforce the use of approved EC2 instance configurations across different business units efficiently:

AWS Service Catalog: Utilize AWS Service Catalog to manage and govern commonly deployed IT services. Create a catalog of pre-approved products (in this case, EC2 instance configurations).

Publish Products: Define and publish EC2 instance configurations as products within the Service Catalog. These products will incorporate all the necessary and approved configurations, options, and software.

Launch Constraints: Assign launch constraints to these products, ensuring that users can only launch EC2 instances as defined by the pre-approved configurations.

Control Access: Grant business units access only to the Service Catalog for provisioning EC2 instances. This ensures they use only those configurations that comply with company policies and standards.

This approach not only standardizes resource deployment but also simplifies management and enhances compliance across the organization.

If the MFA device for the root user is lost, you can regain access to the AWS account by using email and phone verification. AWS Support provides a process to recover root account access.

Recover Root Account Access:

Go to the AWS sign-in page and choose Root user.

Enter the root user email address.

On the MFA prompt page, choose Troubleshoot MFA.

Follow the prompts for email and phone verification to verify your identity.

Set Up a New MFA Device:

Once you regain access, navigate to the IAM console at IAM Console.

Go to the Users section and select the root user.

Set up a new MFA device.

Change the Root User Password:

It is recommended to change the root user password after recovering access for security reasons.

References:

Enabling and Managing Virtual MFA Devices (AWS Management Console)

Troubleshooting Multi-Factor Authentication

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

Setting up an AWS managed VPN connection requires creating a customer gateway resource.

The customer gateway device is behind a NAT gateway in the data center.

Analyze the Requirements:

The customer gateway resource needs to be created using an IP address that can be reached by AWS.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: The private IP address of the customer gateway device.

A private IP address is not reachable by AWS over the internet.

Option B: The MAC address of the NAT device.

MAC addresses are not used for identifying gateways in AWS.

Option C: The public IP address of the customer gateway device.

This would be correct if the device were directly connected to the internet, but it is behind a NAT.

Option D: The public IP address of the NAT device in front of the customer gateway device.

The NAT device's public IP address is reachable by AWS and will route traffic to the customer gateway device.

Select the Best Solution:

Option D: Using the public IP address of the NAT device ensures that AWS can establish a VPN connection with the customer gateway device behind the NAT.

References:

AWS Site-to-Site VPN Documentation

Customer Gateway Devices Behind a NAT

Specifying the public IP address of the NAT device ensures proper routing of VPN traffic to the customer gateway device.

The issue with the inability to upload a file to an Amazon S3 bucket from an EC2 instance in a private subnet is likely due to missing route table entries for the S3 gateway endpoint.

Update the Route Table:

Ensure that the route table associated with the EC2 subnet includes the S3 prefix list destination routes to the S3 gateway endpoint.

This allows the EC2 instance to communicate with the S3 bucket using the S3 gateway endpoint.

To implement a highly available database solution that is ideal for multi-tenant workloads, migrating the database to an Amazon Aurora DB cluster and adding an Aurora Replica is the most suitable solution.

Amazon Aurora:

A fully managed relational database engine that's compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Provides high availability and durability through multiple replicas and automated failover.

Aurora Replicas:

Aurora Replicas share the same storage as the primary instance, providing increased read throughput and high availability.

In the event of a primary instance failure, an Aurora Replica can be promoted to primary.

Implementation Steps:

Migrate the MySQL database to an Amazon Aurora DB cluster.

Add one or more Aurora Replicas to the cluster to distribute read traffic and enhance availability.

References:

Amazon Aurora

High Availability for Amazon Aurora

To centrally manage Security Hub across an organization, AWS allows you to delegate a member account as the Security Hub administrator. This enables centralized configuration and security insights without directly using the management account, which is a best practice.

Delegating a Non-Management Account: AWS recommends using a designated Security Hub administrator account (different from the management account) for central security configurations.

Security Hub Central Configuration: Configuring Security Hub in this manner ensures that security findings from all member accounts are consolidated and manageable from the designated administrator account.

To reduce S3 storage costs while ensuring the images remain highly available and immediately accessible, transitioning the images to S3 Standard-IA after 7 days is the most cost-effective solution.

Understand Storage Classes:

S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is designed for data that is accessed less frequently but requires rapid access when needed. It offers lower storage costs compared to S3 Standard, but higher retrieval costs.

A stack policy is used to protect specific resources within a CloudFormation stack from being unintentionally updated or deleted. By using a stack policy, you can explicitly deny updates to critical resources while allowing updates to other parts of the stack.

Create a Stack Policy:

Define a JSON stack policy that includes an explicit allow for all resources and an explicit deny for the protected resources. For example:

json

Copy code

{

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": "Update:*",

"Principal": "*",

"Resource": "*"

},

{

"Effect": "Deny",

"Action": "Update:*",

"Principal": "*",

"Resource": "arn:aws:cloudformation:region:account-id:stack/stack-name/protected-resource"

}

]

}

Replace region, account-id, stack-name, and protected-resource with the appropriate values.

Apply the Stack Policy:

Navigate to the CloudFormation console.

Select the stack you want to protect.

Choose "Stack actions" and then "Edit stack policy".

Paste the stack policy JSON and save the policy.

Perform Stack Updates:

When performing stack updates, the stack policy will enforce the rules specified, preventing accidental updates to the protected resources.

Review and Adjust:

Periodically review the stack policy to ensure it still meets the needs of the organization and update it as necessary.

References:

AWS CloudFormation Stack Policies

Creating and Applying a Stack Policy

To increase upload speeds into the S3 bucket from Europe and Australia, the SysOps administrator should use Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration and multipart uploads. These methods are cost-effective and efficient.

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration:

This feature speeds up uploads by using the globally distributed edge locations of Amazon CloudFront. Data is routed to the closest edge location, which then forwards the data to the S3 bucket in the destination region.

This reduces latency and increases the upload speed for large files.

Multipart Uploads:

Multipart upload allows you to upload a single large object as a set of parts. Each part is independently uploaded and can be uploaded in parallel.

This method improves the upload efficiency and resiliency, especially for large files.

Configuration Steps:

Enable Transfer Acceleration on the S3 bucket through the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.

Implement multipart upload in the application or scripts used for uploading files.

References:

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

Multipart Upload Overview

To restrict EC2 resource deployment in a specific region and restrict root credentials usage:

Create Service Control Policies (SCPs):

Use AWS Organizations to create SCPs that restrict actions for all member accounts.

Create an SCP to deny the creation of EC2 instances in the ap-southeast-2 region.

Create an SCP to deny the use of root credentials in member accounts.

CloudWatch Metrics Explorer is a powerful tool for creating dynamic dashboards based on tags. This method is efficient for monitoring Auto Scaling groups:

Use Metrics Explorer: Navigate to the Metrics Explorer in the CloudWatch console and select the CPUUtilization metric. Use the aws:autoscaling:groupName tag to filter the metric, ensuring that it only shows data for EC2 instances within the specified Auto Scaling group.

Create Visualization: Configure the visualization settings as needed and add it to a CloudWatch dashboard.

Monitor Automatically: This setup will automatically update to include metrics from new EC2 instances that join the Auto Scaling group, without any need for manual intervention or scripting.

AWS Documentation Reference:You can learn more about using Metrics Explorer here: Using CloudWatch Metrics Explorer.

You can only use the Intrinsic Ref function to reference a resource that is being created at the same time as the current CloudFormation template. The question states that the CloudWatch dashboard was previously created using the AWS Management Console, so there is no ID to reference the existing CloudWatch dashboard in the CloudFormation template. You would need to export the existing CloudWatch dashboard as JSON, then use the DashboardBody property in the CloudFormation template to replicate it upon each deployment (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/APIReference/CloudWatch-Dashboard-Body-Structure.html )

You can create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that monitors an Amazon EC2 instance and automatically recovers the instance if it becomes impaired due to an underlying hardware failure or a problem that requires AWS involvement to repair. Terminated instances cannot be recovered. A recovered instance is identical to the original instance, including the instance ID, private IP addresses, Elastic IP addresses, and all instance metadata. If the impaired instance has a public IPv4 address, the instance retains the public IPv4 address after recovery. If the impaired instance is in a placement group, the recovered instance runs in the placement group. When the StatusCheckFailed_System alarm is triggered, and the recover action is initiated, you will be notified by the Amazon SNS topic that you selected when you created the alarm and associated the recover action. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-recover.html

Dedicated Hosts are physical servers that are dedicated to a single customer, ensuring that the customer’s workloads are not shared with other customers or with other AWS accounts within the company. This will ensure that the company’s security policy is followed and that sensitive workloads are running on hardware that is not shared with other customers or with other AWS accounts within the company.

Technology to use is a VPC endpoint - "A VPC endpoint enables private connections between your VPC and supported AWS services and VPC endpoint services powered by AWS PrivateLink. AWS PrivateLink is a technology that enables you to privately access services by using private IP addresses. Traffic between your VPC and the other service does not leave the Amazon network." S3 is an example of a gateway endpoint. We want to see services in AWS while not leaving the VPC.

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.

The provided IAM policy grants the following permissions:

Describe AWS Load Balancers:

The policy allows actions with the prefix elasticloadbalancing:. This includes actions like DescribeLoadBalancers and other Describe* actions related to Elastic Load Balancing.

This solution is operationally efficient and leverages AWS services to provide notifications when the Lambda function is not invoked, indicating that the file did not arrive.

Steps:

Create a CloudWatch Alarm:

Open the Amazon CloudWatch console.

In the navigation pane, choose "Alarms" and then "Create Alarm".

Select Lambda Metrics:

Choose "Select metric" and then navigate to "AWS Lambda" metrics.

Select the Lambda function that processes the S3 files.

Choose the "Invocations" metric.

Configure the Alarm:

Set the period to 1 hour.

Define the threshold condition to trigger when the Invocations metric is zero.

Under "Additional configuration", configure the alarm to treat missing data as "breaching".

Set Alarm Actions:

Configure the alarm action to send a notification to an Amazon SNS topic.

Create an SNS topic if one does not exist, and subscribe the application team to this topic.

Testing and Verification:

Ensure that the alarm triggers correctly by simulating a missing file scenario and confirming that the notification is sent to the SNS topic.

This approach uses CloudWatch to monitor the invocation frequency of the Lambda function, ensuring that the application team is notified whenever the expected file does not arrive within the specified timeframe.

References:

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Monitoring Lambda Functions

Amazon SNS Notifications

Applying SCPs to an Organizational Unit:

Service Control Policies (SCPs) allow you to manage permissions for multiple AWS accounts within an organization.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to AWS Organizations.

Create an Organizational Unit (OU) if not already created.

Move the target accounts into the OU.

Create an SCP that denies the use of the specific EC2 instance family.

Attach the SCP to the OU.

This approach ensures that the policy is applied consistently across all accounts in the OU.

To set up a notification for failed health checks of targets in the ALB, follow these steps:

Create a CloudWatch Alarm:

Navigate to CloudWatch and create a new alarm based on the UnHealthyHostCount metric of the target group.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/zh_tw/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/resolver-forwarding-outbound-queries.html

To give the application the ability to resolve internal domain names, the SysOps administrator should create an Amazon Route 53 Resolver outbound endpoint and configure it to forward DNS queries to the on-premises DNS server.

Route 53 Resolver Outbound Endpoint:

An outbound endpoint enables DNS queries to be forwarded from AWS resources in a VPC to an on-premises DNS server.

Steps to Implement:

In the Route 53 console, create a new outbound endpoint in the VPC.

Configure the outbound endpoint with the IP address of the on-premises DNS server.

Update the VPC DNS settings to use the Route 53 Resolver.

References:

Route 53 Resolver Endpoints

Creating an Outbound Endpoint

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

The application read performance degrades when user connections exceed 200.

Need to automatically scale the database based on user demand.

Analyze the Requirements:

Implement auto scaling based on user connections to ensure optimal performance.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Migrate to a new Aurora multi-master DB cluster.

Multi-master clusters provide read and write scalability but may require significant changes to the application.

Option B: Modify the DB cluster to serverless mode.

Aurora Serverless provides automatic scaling, but it is more suitable for variable workloads with unpredictable demand.

Option C: Create an auto scaling policy with a target metric of 195 DatabaseConnections.

This directly addresses the need to scale based on user connections.

Auto scaling can add or remove replicas to maintain optimal performance.

Option D: Increase the Aurora Replica instance size.

This may improve performance but does not address scalability for sudden increases in user connections.

Select the Best Solution:

Option C: Creating an auto scaling policy with a target metric of 195 DatabaseConnections ensures the DB cluster scales automatically to handle increased load.

References:

Amazon Aurora Auto Scaling

Scaling Aurora DB Instances

Auto scaling based on DatabaseConnections ensures the Aurora DB cluster maintains optimal performance as user demand fluctuates.

To encrypt an existing Amazon RDS DB instance that is not encrypted, you cannot directly enable encryption. Instead, you need to follow these steps:

Take a Snapshot:

Open the Amazon RDS console at Amazon RDS Console.

Select the DB instance and take a snapshot.

Copy and Encrypt the Snapshot:

After the snapshot is created, select the snapshot and choose Copy Snapshot.

In the copy snapshot dialog, enable encryption and choose a KMS key.

Restore the Encrypted Snapshot:

Once the encrypted snapshot is created, select it and choose Restore Snapshot.

Provide the necessary details to create a new DB instance from the encrypted snapshot.

This process ensures that the new DB instance is encrypted at rest.

References:

Encrypting Amazon RDS Resources

Copying an Amazon RDS Snapshot

To reduce the cost of running the application without affecting availability or design, applying rightsizing recommendations from AWS Cost Explorer to reduce the instance size is the best approach.

Rightsizing Recommendations:

AWS Cost Explorer provides rightsizing recommendations that help you identify underutilized instances.

By resizing instances to a more appropriate size based on their utilization, you can reduce costs while maintaining performance.

Steps to Implement:

Open the AWS Cost Management console.

Navigate to "Cost Explorer" and select "Rightsizing Recommendations."

Review the recommendations and choose to resize the instances based on their actual usage.

Advantages:

Rightsizing ensures that you are not paying for unused resources while maintaining the necessary capacity and performance for your application.

References:

AWS Cost Explorer Rightsizing Recommendations

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.

References:

Setting Up AWS Systems Manager

Create an IAM Instance Profile for Systems Manager

Increasing the size of the 1 GiB EBS volumes will increase the IOPS capacity of the volumes, which will improve the I/O performance of the EBS volumes. This option does not require any changes to the instance types or EBS volume types, so it can be done quickly without the need for lengthy acceptance tests to validate that the company's applications will function properly.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/requesting-ebs-volume-modifications.html

To block traffic to a specific external IP address that has been identified as suspicious by GuardDuty, you should use a network ACL to add an outbound deny rule.

Create or Update Network ACL:

Open the Amazon VPC console at Amazon VPC Console.

Select Network ACLs in the navigation pane.

Create a new network ACL or select an existing one that is associated with the subnet containing the EC2 instance.

Add Outbound Deny Rule:

Choose Inbound Rules or Outbound Rules and then choose Edit rules.

Add a new rule to deny traffic to the specific external IP address.

Rule Number: Choose a rule number that is not used by another rule.

Type: All traffic or specific to the protocol and port.

Destination: The external IP address identified by GuardDuty.

Allow/Deny: Deny

Apply Changes:

Save the rule and ensure it is active.

Using a network ACL to block traffic at the subnet level provides an additional layer of security.

References:

Network ACLs

Working with Network ACLs

To implement a highly available solution that provides the functionality to use a minimum of three On-Demand instances and three Spot instances when prices are at a certain threshold, defining an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group using a launch template is the most suitable solution. This approach minimizes operational overhead by consolidating configuration and management tasks.

Define a Launch Template:

Use the provided AMI in the launch template.

Configure the instance type, key pair, security groups, and other necessary parameters.

Create an Auto Scaling Group:

Use the launch template for the Auto Scaling group.

Specify a desired capacity of three On-Demand instances.

Configure the Auto Scaling group to use mixed instances policies, which allow you to specify a combination of On-Demand and Spot instances.

Set the maximum price for Spot instances in the launch template to ensure that Spot instances are used only when their prices are below the specified threshold.

Configuration Steps:

Open the EC2 console and navigate to "Launch Templates."

Create a new launch template with the necessary configurations.

Navigate to "Auto Scaling Groups" and create a new Auto Scaling group using the launch template.

Configure the desired capacity, minimum capacity, and maximum capacity.

Under "Advanced Options," specify the mixed instances policy and set the maximum price for Spot instances.

References:

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Templates

Auto Scaling Mixed Instances Policies

FIFO queues don't support per-message delays, only per-queue delays. If your application sets the same value of the DelaySeconds parameter on each message, you must modify your application to remove the per-message delay and set DelaySeconds on the entire queue instead.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSSimpleQueueService/latest/SQSDeveloperGuide/FIFO-queues-moving.html

Split-tunnel routing allows you to specify that only the traffic destined for your VPC is routed through the VPN tunnel. All other internet traffic is routed through the user’s local network.

Steps:

Open the Client VPN Console:

Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

Open the Amazon VPC console.

Modify the Client VPN Endpoint:

Select the Client VPN endpoint.

Choose "Modify Client VPN endpoint".

Enable the "Split-tunnel" option.

Update Route Table:

Ensure that the route table associated with the Client VPN endpoint routes traffic destined for the VPC IP range to the appropriate target (e.g., VPC subnet).

This configuration ensures that only traffic destined for resources in the VPC is sent over the VPN tunnel, while other traffic uses the user’s local internet connection.

References:

Split-Tunnel VPN Routing

AWS Client VPN Documentation

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.

To maintain a documented trail of any changes made to the security groups and receive notifications, AWS Config is the best solution.

AWS Config:

AWS Config continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations.

You can set up AWS Config to record changes to your security groups.

Setting Up AWS Config:

Open the AWS Config console and choose "Set up AWS Config."

Select the resource types you want to record (in this case, security groups).

Specify an Amazon S3 bucket to store configuration snapshots and history files.

Notifications:

Create an Amazon SNS topic for notifications about configuration changes.

Subscribe the SysOps administrator's email address to the SNS topic.

References:

AWS Config

Setting Up AWS Config

To prevent the EC2 instances and their data from being deleted when a CloudFormation stack is deleted:

DeletionPolicy Attribute: In the CloudFormation template that defines the EC2 instances, set the DeletionPolicy attribute to Retain for each EC2 instance resource. This setting ensures that when the CloudFormation stack is deleted, the EC2 instances are not terminated.

Impact of the Retain Policy: With this policy, all data on the instance, such as data on its attached EBS volumes, remains intact even after the stack deletion. The resources will remain in your AWS account and will need to be managed or deleted manually thereafter.

This approach is directly supported by AWS CloudFormation and provides a simple and effective way to protect EC2 instances and their data during stack deletions.

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.

References:

Amazon S3 Server-Side Encryption

CloudFront Access Logs

The MixedInstancesPolicy feature in Auto Scaling groups allows for the configuration of both On-Demand and Spot Instances within a single Auto Scaling group, balancing cost savings and high availability:

MixedInstancesPolicy: Enables configuration to maintain a minimum of three On-Demand Instances and add Spot Instances when prices drop, without the need to create separate launch templates.

Setting Maximum Spot Price: Ensures that additional Spot Instances are launched only when within the defined budget.

This solution offers the least management overhead, as it combines both On-Demand and Spot instances seamlessly in one configuration.

When you create a hosted zone, Route 53 automatically creates a name server (NS) record and a start of authority (SOA) record for the zone. https://docs.aws.amazon. com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/migrate-dns-domain-in-use.html#migrate-dns-create-hosted-zone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOA_record

If users are unable to connect to a specific Ubuntu EC2 instance using AWS Systems Manager Session Manager while other instances are accessible, the issue is likely due to IAM permissions:

Instance Profile Permissions: Ensure that the EC2 instance has the necessary IAM permissions to interact with Systems Manager. The AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore managed policy includes permissions required for the SSM Agent on the instance to communicate with the AWS Systems Manager service.

Attach Managed Policy: Attach the AmazonSSMManagedInstanceCore policy to the IAM role that is associated with the Ubuntu instance's instance profile. This step is crucial as it authorizes the instance to use Systems Manager services, including Session Manager.

Verify Configuration and Connectivity: After updating the instance profile, verify that users can connect via Session Manager. This solution does not require any changes to network security settings like security groups.

By ensuring that the instance has the appropriate IAM permissions, you resolve issues related to access control and Systems Manager functionality, allowing authorized personnel to connect securely without using SSH or RDP.

To enable AWS Config in all accounts and all regions within an AWS Organization, the most operationally efficient method is to use AWS CloudFormation StackSets. This allows you to deploy CloudFormation stacks across multiple AWS accounts and regions from a single CloudFormation template.

Create CloudFormation Template:

The template should include the necessary resources to enable AWS Config, such as the AWS::Config::ConfigurationRecorder, AWS::Config::DeliveryChannel, and AWS::Config::ConfigurationAggregator resources.

Create StackSet:

Open the AWS CloudFormation console at AWS CloudFormation Console.

Choose Create StackSet and upload your CloudFormation template.

Configure StackSet:

Specify the AWS accounts and regions where you want to deploy the stacks.

Set the deployment options, including the execution role and administrator role.

Deploy Stack Instances:

Deploy the stack instances to all specified accounts and regions. This will automatically enable AWS Config in each account and region.

References:

AWS CloudFormation StackSets

Managing AWS Config Across Multiple Accounts

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.

References:

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server Documentation

Creating a Multi-AZ File System

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.

The most operationally efficient solution to provide email notifications and insert a record into a database when a file is put into an S3 bucket is to use S3 event notifications that target an SNS topic with two subscriptions.

Set Up S3 Event Notification:

Open the S3 console and select the bucket.

Navigate to "Properties" -> "Event notifications" -> "Create event notification."

Configure the event to trigger on s3:ObjectCreated:*.

Create an SNS Topic:

Open the SNS console and create a new topic.

Set up two subscriptions for the SNS topic:

One subscription to send the email notification.

Another subscription to invoke an AWS Lambda function that inserts the record into the database.

Lambda Function for Database Insertion:

Create an AWS Lambda function to handle the database insertion.

Configure the function to trigger from the SNS topic.

References:

Configuring S3 Event Notifications

Amazon SNS Subscriptions

Invoking Lambda with SNS

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/PostgreSQL.Concepts.General.SSL.htm

Amazon RDS supports SSL/TLS encryption for connections to the database, and this can be enabled by creating a custom parameter group and setting the rds.force_ssl parameter to 1. This will ensure that all connections to the database are encrypted, protecting the data and maintaining compliance with the company's requirements.l

To address high I/O requirements during the bootstrap process, increasing both IOPS and throughput on the EBS volume is recommended:

Increase EBS Volume IOPS: Enhances the instance’s ability to handle multiple read and write operations per second, essential for data-heavy tasks like downloading Docker images.

Increase EBS Volume Throughput: Provides higher data transfer rates, reducing bottlenecks during intensive I/O operations.

Increasing instance size is unnecessary if the primary issue is disk I/O, and changing from Nitro-based instances would not address the underlying storage performance need.

To prevent Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Multi-AZ DB instances from running low on disk space, enabling storage auto-scaling is the most straightforward solution. This feature automatically adjusts the storage capacity of the DB instance when it approaches its limit, thus preventing the database from running out of space and triggering CloudWatch alarms. Option C is the least intrusive and most effective solution as it only requires a modification to the existing CloudFormation template to enable auto-scaling on storage. For reference, see AWS documentation on managing RDS storage automatically Managing RDS Storage Automatically.