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

Weighted routing in Route 53 allows you to direct a percentage of traffic to different resources by configuring specific weights. For this requirement, you can:

Weighted Routing Policy: This is the most suitable approach for gradually rolling out a new version by controlling traffic distribution.

Weight Configuration: Setting a weight of 80 for the original resource and 20 for the new resource ensures that 80% of the traffic continues to go to the existing version, while 20% is directed to the new version.

Other routing policies, such as failover and multivalue answer, are not intended for traffic distribution based on percentage; they serve different use cases.

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

AWS Compute Optimizer recommends optimal AWS resources for your workloads to reduce costs and improve performance. It provides actionable recommendations to help you choose the right EC2 instances and AWS Lambda configurations.

Access AWS Compute Optimizer:

Open the AWS Compute Optimizer console at AWS Compute Optimizer Console.

Review the recommendations for your EC2 instances and AWS Lambda functions.

Implement Recommendations:

Analyze the recommendations, which might include resizing instances, changing instance types, or modifying Lambda memory settings.

Apply the recommendations to optimize your resources and reduce costs.

AWS Compute Optimizer

Getting Started with AWS Compute Optimizer

The rejected traffic in the flow logs is due to the network ACL associated with the subnet not allowing outbound traffic for the ephemeral port range.

Network ACLs:

Network ACLs act as a firewall for controlling traffic in and out of one or more subnets.

By default, NACLs allow all inbound and outbound traffic, but custom NACLs require specific rules to allow traffic.

Ephemeral Ports:

Ephemeral ports are temporary ports used for client-side communication. The default range is 1024-65535.

Ensure that the network ACL allows outbound traffic on these ports.

Steps to Resolve:

Check the network ACL rules for the associated subnet.

Add outbound rules to allow traffic from the ephemeral port range (1024-65535).

Amazon VPC Network ACLs

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/red-ug/scaling-redis-cluster-mode-enabled.html As demand on your clusters changes, you might decide to improve performance or reduce costs by changing the number of shards in your Redis (cluster mode enabled) cluster. We recommend using online horizontal scaling to do so, because it allows your cluster to continue serving requests during the scaling process. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/red-ug/redis-cluster-vertical-scaling-scaling-down.html

Adding a Route to the Route Tables:

When new subnets are created, they need appropriate routing to ensure communication with on-premises networks.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to VPC.

Select the route table associated with the new subnets.

Choose "Edit routes."

Add a new route with the destination CIDR block of the on-premises network.

For the target, select the virtual private gateway (VGW).

This ensures that traffic destined for the on-premises network is routed correctly through the VPN connection.

AWS VPC Route Tables

Using an AMI with CloudWatch Agent:

The CloudWatch agent can collect memory utilization metrics and send them to CloudWatch.

Steps:

Create or use an existing AMI that includes the CloudWatch agent installed and configured.

Ensure the CloudWatch agent is configured to collect memory metrics.

Use this AMI for instances in the Auto Scaling group.

Collecting Metrics and Logs from Amazon EC2 Instances and On-Premises Servers with the CloudWatch Agent

To meet the requirements of the workload, a company should store the data in an Amazon S3 Glacier vault and configure a vault lock policy for write-once, read-many (WORM) access. This will ensure that the data is stored securely and cannot be edited in the future. The other solutions (storing the data in an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume and configuring AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encryption, storing the data in Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) and configuring server-side encryption, or storing the data in Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) and configuring multi-factor authentication (MFA)) will not meet the requirements, as they do not provide a way to protect the audit logs from future edits.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/zh_tw/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/object-lock.html

Using AWS CloudFormation stack sets allows you to manage CloudWatch alarms across multiple accounts efficiently:

Create Stack Set: Use a CloudFormation template that defines the required CloudWatch alarms and configures them to publish alerts to an SNS topic.

Specify SNS Topic: Ensure the SNS topic is located in the logging account and has the necessary permissions set to receive publications from all accounts in the organization.

Deploy Across Organization: Implement the stack set across all accounts, ensuring centralized management and standardized deployment.

AWS Documentation Reference:

Learn more about deploying resources with CloudFormation StackSets: Working with AWS CloudFormation StackSets.

To set up notifications for when combined billing exceeds a certain threshold for all AWS accounts within an organization, follow these steps:

Enable Billing Alerts:

In the payer account, go to the Billing and Cost Management console.

Under "Billing preferences", enable the "Receive Billing Alerts" option.

Set Up a Billing Alarm in CloudWatch:

Navigate to the CloudWatch console.

Create a new billing alarm, specifying the threshold for the combined billing amount.

Set the alarm to publish a notification to an SNS topic when the threshold is breached.

Publish SNS Message:

Create an SNS topic to receive the billing alarm notifications.

Configure the billing alarm to send notifications to the SNS topic.

Setting Up a CloudWatch Billing Alarm

AWS Billing and Cost Management User Guide

Cluster placement groups are designed to place EC2 instances close together within a single Availability Zone, which reduces latency and maximizes network performance between instances.

Cluster Placement Group: Reduces network latency by keeping instances in close proximity within the same hardware, providing low-latency, high-throughput networking.

High Network Performance: Ideal for latency-sensitive applications, especially those running within a clustered architecture.

Spread placement groups are designed for high availability rather than low latency. Jumbo frames may improve throughput but not significantly reduce latency.

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

AWS Config rules can be used to automatically detect and remediate noncompliant resources, such as security groups that allow inbound traffic from 0.0.0.0/0.

Steps:

Create a Custom AWS Config Rule:

Open the AWS Config console.

Choose "Rules" and then "Add rule".

Create a custom rule or use a predefined rule such as security-group-rule-restricted.

Configure Remediation:

Use AWS Config to set up automatic remediation.

Define an AWS Systems Manager Automation document that changes the source address from 0.0.0.0/0 to the approved CIDR block.

Associate this automation document with the AWS Config rule.

Deploy Across Accounts:

Use AWS Config Aggregator to aggregate the compliance data across multiple accounts.

Ensure the remediation actions are consistently applied across all accounts.

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.

If AWS Lambda function logs are not appearing in Amazon CloudWatch, it is typically due to insufficient permissions:

IAM Role Permissions: The execution role assigned to the Lambda function must have the necessary permissions to interact with CloudWatch Logs. This includes actions like logs:CreateLogGroup, logs:CreateLogStream, and logs:PutLogEvents.

Check and Update Role: Verify that the IAM role used by the Lambda function includes a policy granting these permissions. If not, update the role to include these permissions.

Log Group and Stream: With the appropriate permissions, the Lambda function will be able to create or use a log group and stream in CloudWatch Logs and publish log messages accordingly.

Ensuring the Lambda function has the correct permissions is essential for diagnostics and monitoring, allowing log data to be captured and reviewed in CloudWatch Logs.

When you have EC2 instances requiring low-latency, high-throughput communication, the best placement strategy is to use a cluster placement group.

From the AWS EC2 Placement Group Guide:

A cluster placement group is a logical grouping of instances within a single AZ.

This strategy enables workloads to achieve low-latency network performance needed for tightly coupled node-to-node communication.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect:

B: Elastic IPs are used for static public IP addressing — they do not affect intra-cluster latency.

C: Jumbo frames require support from all hardware/network layers and are not guaranteed to lower latency.

D: Spread placement groups distribute instances across different hardware, which increases latency.

The problem requires modifying the inbound SSH rule to restrict access to a list of trusted IPs instead of deleting it entirely. AWS Config rules can be configured with automatic remediation actions using either Systems Manager Automation runbooks or Lambda functions. However, AWS Systems Manager Automation runbooks are often more appropriate for managing infrastructure changes like security group modifications because they are reusable, parameterized, and easier to audit.

Create a Systems Manager Automation runbook: This runbook will contain steps to add or modify the existing security group rule, allowing SSH access only from the specified IP addresses.

Update the AWS Config rule: Modify the Config rule to call this new runbook for its automatic remediation. This will prevent deletion of the SSH rule and instead update it based on the IP list.

"The limit for a backtrack window is 72 hours.....Backtracking is only available for DB clusters that were created with the Backtrack feature enabled....Backtracking "rewinds" the DB cluster to the time you specify. Backtracking is not a replacement for backing up your DB cluster so that you can restore it to a point in time....You can backtrack a DB cluster quickly. Restoring a DB cluster to a point in time launches a new DB cluster and restores it from backup data or a DB cluster snapshot, which can take hours."

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/AuroraMySQL.Managing.Backtrack.html

To meet the requirements for data storage and retrieval, the most cost-effective solution is to store the data in S3 Standard for the first 90 days and set up an S3 Lifecycle rule to move the data to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 90 days.

S3 Standard:

Provides high availability and low latency access.

Suitable for frequently accessed data.

S3 Lifecycle Rule:

Set up a lifecycle rule to transition the data from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 90 days.

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers low-cost archival storage with retrieval times ranging from minutes to hours, which meets the requirement of less than 5 hours.

Implementation Steps:

Open the S3 console.

Select the bucket and navigate to "Management" -> "Lifecycle rules."

Create a new lifecycle rule to transition objects from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 90 days.

Amazon S3 Storage Classes

S3 Lifecycle Configuration

 AWS Config Managed Rule:

AWS Config can be used to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources. The managed rule can check if instances are launched from approved AMIs.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to AWS Config.

Create a managed rule that checks for EC2 instances running approved AMIs.

Configure the rule to use a list of approved AMIs.

 Automatic Remediation with Systems Manager Automation:

AWS Systems Manager Automation runbooks can automate the process of remediating non-compliant resources.

Steps:

Create a Systems Manager Automation runbook that terminates instances not running approved AMIs.

Attach the runbook to the AWS Config rule for automatic remediation.

AWS Config Rules, AWS Systems Manager Automation

Aurora supports Auto Scaling of Aurora Replicas based on metrics like CPU utilization, which helps scale read capacity in read-heavy workloads.

From Aurora Auto Scaling documentation:

Aurora Auto Scaling automatically adds or removes Aurora Replicas based on CloudWatch metrics, such as CPU utilization.

Given that 95% of the workload is read, this is an ideal use case.

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

 Objective:

Publish VPC flow logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

 Root Cause:

VPC flow logs require an IAM role with permissions to create log groups, log streams, and write logs to CloudWatch Logs.

If the logs:CreateLogGroup permission is missing, the flow log cannot create the required log group, and logs will not appear in CloudWatch.

 Solution Implementation:

Step 1: Verify the IAM role attached to the VPC flow logs.

Step 2: Add the following permissions to the IAM policy:

logs:CreateLogGroup

logs:CreateLogStream

logs:PutLogEvents

Step 3: Update the IAM role policy and retry creating flow logs.

 AWS References:

VPC Flow Logs Permissions:Permissions for VPC Flow Logs

 Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option B: logs:CreateExportTask is for exporting logs from CloudWatch to S3, not for creating log groups.

Option C: IPv6 addresses do not impact the publishing of flow logs to CloudWatch Logs.

Option D: VPC peering does not block flow log functionality.

 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.

To ensure high availability and disaster recovery for the RDS for MySQL database, follow these steps:

Create a Cross-Region Read Replica:

In the RDS console, create a cross-Region read replica of the primary database instance. This read replica will provide high availability and the lowest RTO and RPO in case of a disaster.

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 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.

Objective:

Enforce corporate policy to prevent the creation of EC2 instances in unauthorized AWS Regions.

Using Service Control Policies (SCPs):

SCPs are an AWS Organizations feature that allow centralized control over permissions for all accounts in the organization.

By attaching an SCP to the root level of the organization, you can enforce the restriction across all accounts.

Solution Implementation:

Step 1: Open the AWS Organizations console.

Step 2: Create a new SCP with the following policy:

{

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

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Deny",

"Action": "ec2:RunInstances",

"Resource": "*",

"Condition": {

"StringNotEquals": {

"aws:RequestedRegion": [

"us-east-1",

"us-west-2"

]

}

}

}

]

}

Replace "us-east-1" and "us-west-2" with the allowed Regions.

Step 3: Attach the SCP to the root level of the organization.

AWS References:

Service Control Policies (SCPs):SCP Best Practices

Restricting EC2 Regions with SCP:SCP Examples

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: CloudTrail and EventBridge with Lambda are operationally less efficient and reactive rather than preventative.

Option B: IAM policies applied at the account level require manual configuration for each account, which is less efficient.

Option C: Permissions boundaries are more suited for controlling specific IAM user or role actions, not account-wide restrictions.

When using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) to encrypt an Amazon SQS queue, any service—like Amazon EventBridge—that attempts to publish messages to that queue must have the appropriate KMS permissions to perform encryption operations using the customer managed key (CMK).

To allow EventBridge to send messages to an encrypted SQS queue, it needs permissions to:

kms:Encrypt – This allows EventBridge to encrypt the message data before writing it to the SQS queue.

kms:DescribeKey – This is required so EventBridge can validate and retrieve metadata about the KMS key being used.

These actions are sufficient and minimal for the service to encrypt messages using the key.

Therefore, Option A provides the exact permissions required in the KMS key policy's Action section for EventBridge to continue publishing to the encrypted SQS queue.

Reference Extract from AWS Documentation:

When a customer managed CMK is used with an encrypted resource like an SQS queue, AWS services that write to that resource (such as EventBridge writing to SQS) must be granted kms:Encrypt and kms:DescribeKey permissions in the key policy.

To ensure that the CloudFormation stack fails and rolls back if the process stalls, you should add a CreationPolicy with a timeout set to 4 hours to the CloudFormation template.

CreationPolicy:

The CreationPolicy attribute enables you to specify how long CloudFormation should wait for a resource to be created or updated.

You can use this to ensure that the instance completes its software installation process within a specified period.

Adding CreationPolicy to the Template:

Add the CreationPolicy attribute to the EC2 resource in the CloudFormation template.

Set the Timeout to 4 hours (PT4H).

Example:

Resources:

MyInstance:

Type: 'AWS::EC2::Instance'

Properties:

InstanceType: t2.micro

ImageId: ami-0abcdef1234567890

CreationPolicy:

ResourceSignal:

Count: 1

Timeout: PT4H

Ensuring Rollback:

If the instance does not signal success within the specified timeout, CloudFormation will mark the stack as failed and roll back the changes.

AWS CloudFormation CreationPolicy

Using Creation Policies with CloudFormation

To resolve the issue where mobile users are being served the desktop version of the website, you need to forward the User-Agent header from CloudFront to your origin (ALB). This allows the origin to detect the type of device and serve the appropriate content.

Login to AWS Management Console:

Open the CloudFront console at Amazon CloudFront Console.

Select the Distribution:

Choose the CloudFront distribution you want to modify.

Update Cache Behavior Settings:

Go to the Behaviors tab.

Select the default behavior (or any specific behavior that you want to update) and choose Edit.

Forward Headers:

Under Cache Key and Origin Requests, choose Origin Request Policy.

Select Create Policy and include the User-Agent header in the policy.

Save the policy and apply it to the cache behavior.

This configuration ensures that the User-Agent header is forwarded to the origin, enabling it to serve different content based on the device type.

Configuring CloudFront to Forward Headers

Creating CloudFront Cache Behaviors

https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/ec2-ri-consolidated-billing/

RI discounts apply to accounts in an organization's consolidated billing family depending upon whether RI sharing is turned on or off for the accounts. By default, RI sharing for all accounts in an organization is turned on. The management account of an organization can change this setting by turning off RI sharing for an account. The capacity reservation for an RI applies only to the account the RI was purchased on, no matter whether RI sharing is turned on or off.

To reduce costs effectively for jobs that are flexible in their scheduling and have a clear, predictable runtime:

Spot Instances with Defined Duration (Spot Blocks): Spot Instances offer significant discounts compared to On-Demand pricing. For workloads like the described jobs that have a predictable duration (slightly less than 2 hours), requesting Spot Instances with a defined duration (also known as Spot Blocks) is ideal. This option allows you to request Spot Instances guaranteed to not be terminated by AWS due to price changes for the duration specified.

Cost Efficiency: This method ensures that the instances will run for the duration required to complete the jobs without interruption, unless AWS experiences an exceptional shortage of capacity. The cost savings compared to On-Demand Instances can be substantial, especially for regular, predictable workloads.

Risk Mitigation: Although Spot Instances can be interrupted, using them with a defined duration reduces the risk of interruptions within the set time frame, making them suitable for jobs that can tolerate a restart in rare cases of interruption after the block time expires.

This strategy combines cost savings with the performance requirements of the jobs, making it an optimal choice for tasks that are not time-critical but need completion within a predictable timeframe.

To restrict access to content in specific countries using CloudFront, enabling the geo restriction feature in the CloudFront distribution is the most operationally efficient solution.

Geo Restriction in CloudFront:

CloudFront allows you to use geographic restrictions, also known as geo-blocking, to prevent users in specific geographic locations from accessing content that you're distributing through a CloudFront distribution.

Enabling Geo Restriction:

Go to the CloudFront console.

Select your distribution and click on "Restrictions."

Choose "Edit" and then enable "Geo restriction."

Specify the countries you want to restrict by selecting "Whitelist" or "Blacklist" and entering the appropriate country codes.

Operational Efficiency:

This method leverages CloudFront's built-in capabilities to restrict access at the edge locations, ensuring that unauthorized requests are blocked before reaching your origin.

It is a straightforward and scalable solution without requiring changes to your S3 bucket policy or application logic.

Using Geo Restriction to Restrict Access to Your Content

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.

This approach uses CloudWatch for monitoring and Lambda for automation, allowing for quick and efficient quota management:

Setup CloudWatch Alarm: Monitor the usage of EC2 instances against the service quota using CloudWatch.

Lambda Function: Write a Lambda function that triggers a quota increase request via the Service Quotas API when the threshold is met.

Integration: Configure the CloudWatch alarm to trigger this Lambda function when the instance count approaches the service quota.

AWS Documentation Reference:

Information on monitoring with CloudWatch and automating actions with Lambda can be found in these guides: Amazon CloudWatch Alarms, AWS Lambda.

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 enforce tag-based restrictions across multiple accounts in an OU, Service Control Policies (SCPs) are the best tool.

From SCP documentation:

You can deny access to APIs like ec2:RunInstances if a specific tag is not present using a condition such as Null:aws:RequestTag/CostCenter-Project: true.

By attaching the SCP to the application OU, only the accounts within that OU are impacted.

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.

To delete the AWS CloudFormation stack without deleting the DynamoDB table, you need to apply a deletion policy to the DynamoDB resource. The Retain deletion policy ensures that the specified resource is not deleted when the stack is deleted. Instead, it is retained.

Steps:

Modify the CloudFormation Template:

Add a deletion policy to the DynamoDB table resource.

json

Copy code

{

"Resources": {

"MyDynamoDBTable": {

"Type": "AWS::DynamoDB::Table",

"DeletionPolicy": "Retain",

}

}

}

The most operationally efficient way to capture DHCP log files on 50 of the 100 EC2 instances is to create an additional CloudWatch agent configuration file and use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to update the CloudWatch agent configuration.

Create an Additional CloudWatch Agent Configuration File:

Create a new CloudWatch agent configuration file that includes the settings to capture DHCP log files.

Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command:

AWS Systems Manager Run Command allows you to remotely and securely manage the configuration of your managed instances.

Use the Run Command to restart the CloudWatch agent on each EC2 instance with the append-config option to apply the additional configuration file.

Steps:

Open the Systems Manager console.

Choose "Run Command."

Create a new command document or use an existing one that restarts the CloudWatch agent with the append-config option.

Target the 50 specific EC2 instances.

Amazon CloudWatch Agent Configuration

AWS Systems Manager Run Command

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Creating_EBSbacked_WinAMI.html

"NoReboot By default, Amazon EC2 attempts to shut down and reboot the instance before creating the image. If the No Reboot option is set, Amazon EC2 doesn't shut down the instance before creating the image. When this option is used, file system integrity on the created image can't be guaranteed." Besides, we can use AWS EventBridge to invoke Lambda function https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIReference/API_CreateImage.html

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

CloudTrail must be re-enabled immediately if it is disabled.

Analyze the Requirements:

Implement an automatic solution to monitor and re-enable CloudTrail.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Add the AWS account to AWS Organizations and enable CloudTrail in the management account.

This provides centralized management but does not ensure automatic re-enabling of CloudTrail.

Option B: Create an AWS Config rule with automatic remediation.

AWS Config can monitor changes and automatically remediate by re-enabling CloudTrail.

Option C: Create an AWS Config rule that invokes a Lambda function.

This requires custom code, which is not preferred.

Option D: Create an EventBridge rule with a Systems Manager Automation document.

This can re-enable CloudTrail but is more complex compared to AWS Config’s built-in remediation.

Select the Best Solution:

Option B: Using AWS Config with automatic remediation ensures CloudTrail is re-enabled without writing custom code.

AWS Config Rules

Automatic Remediation with AWS Config

Creating an AWS Config rule with automatic remediation ensures that CloudTrail is immediately re-enabled if it is disabled.

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

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

Elastic Load Balancing provides access logs that capture detailed information about requests sent to your load balancer. Each log contains information such as the time the request was received, the client's IP address, latencies, request paths, and server responses. You can use these access logs to analyze traffic patterns and troubleshoot issues.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/load-balancer-access-logs.html

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

AWS Organizations offers features that help manage multiple AWS accounts. To use AWS Compute Optimizer and AWS tag policies across all member accounts, the organization must have all features enabled.

Enable All Features in AWS Organizations:

Open the AWS Organizations console at AWS Organizations Console.

Navigate to Settings and ensure that All features are enabled.

Verify and Enable Trusted Access:

Ensure that trusted access is enabled for AWS Compute Optimizer and other relevant services.

This allows the management account to access and manage resources in member accounts.

Use AWS Compute Optimizer and Tag Policies:

Once all features are enabled, configure and manage AWS Compute Optimizer and tag policies from the management account.

AWS Organizations

Enabling All Features in Your Organization

Enabling Trusted Access with Other AWS Services

When working with AWS CloudFormation, understanding how the stack behaves during a failure is crucial for troubleshooting. By default, if a stack creation fails, CloudFormation will roll back any resources it created, leaving no trace of what went wrong. This default behavior makes debugging more difficult because the resources that may have caused the failure are deleted.

To change this behavior, AWS CloudFormation provides the --on-failure parameter when creating a stack using the AWS CLI or SDKs. The purpose of this parameter is to control what happens if stack creation fails.

From the AWS CloudFormation User Guide:

--on-failure

Required: No

Type: String

Valid values: DO_NOTHING | ROLLBACK | DELETE

Default: ROLLBACK

DO_NOTHING – If stack creation fails, do nothing. The stack remains in the CREATE_FAILED state. You can then investigate and take corrective action.

ROLLBACK – If stack creation fails, roll back all created resources.

DELETE – If stack creation fails, delete all created resources (i.e., behave as if the stack was never attempted).

✅ Why B is correct:

OnFailure=DO_NOTHING tells CloudFormation to retain all successfully created resources even if stack creation fails. This allows a SysOps administrator to inspect the created resources, review logs, or fix the template before attempting to resume or recreate the stack.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect:

A. DisableRollback = FalseThis is default behavior, meaning rollback will occur (i.e., resources will be deleted). This does not help preserve resources after failure.

C. Rollback trigger of DO_NOTHINGThere is no such rollback trigger value called DO_NOTHING. Rollback triggers are for monitoring CloudWatch alarms during stack updates or creations and do not influence what happens when a creation fails unless a trigger fires.

D. OnFailure = ROLLBACKThis is the default, and it removes all resources when the stack creation fails, which is the opposite of the requirement.

Conclusion:

To preserve resources that were successfully created during a failed CloudFormation stack creation, the correct and verified approach is:

Set OnFailure=DO_NOTHING during stack creation.

This enables post-mortem debugging by retaining the resources for inspection.

To define a custom health check for EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB), follow these steps:

Configure Health Checks on ALB:

In the AWS Management Console, navigate to the EC2 dashboard, then to Load Balancers.

Select your ALB and go to the "Health Checks" tab.

Set the HealthCheckPath to the specific path that your application uses to determine if an instance is healthy. This could be a specific URL or endpoint on your application.

To efficiently manage application deployments and updates on Amazon EC2 instances within an Auto Scaling group, along with ensuring security through vulnerability scans:

EC2 Image Builder: This AWS service automates the creation, management, and deployment of customized, secure, and up-to-date "golden" server images. By using EC2 Image Builder, you can automate the installation of software, patches, and security configurations.

Custom Recipes: Define a custom recipe in EC2 Image Builder that includes steps to install the application and its dependencies. Additionally, configure the recipe to perform vulnerability scans as part of the image creation process.

Automated Pipeline: Set up an Image Builder pipeline that triggers on a regular schedule (e.g., weekly) to incorporate the latest application updates and security patches into the AMI. The new AMIs can then be automatically used by the Auto Scaling group to launch updated and secure instances.

This solution not only streamlines the management of application deployments and updates but also ensures that all instances launched by the Auto Scaling group meet the latest security and compliance standards, minimizing operational overhead and enhancing security.

The reason is that it uses the Amazon CloudWatch billing alarm which is a built-in service specifically designed to monitor and alert on cost usage of your AWS account, which makes it a more suitable solution for this use case. The alarm can be configured to detect when costs reach 75% of the threshold and when it is triggered, it can publish a message to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic. The email distribution list can be subscribed to the topic, so that they will receive the alerts when costs reach 75% of the threshold.

AWS Budgets allows you to track and manage your costs, but it doesn't specifically focus on data transfer costs between regions, and it might not provide as much granularity as CloudWatch Alarms.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/Cookies.html

You can configure each cache behavior to do one of the following: Forward all cookies to your origin – CloudFront includes all cookies sent by the viewer when it forwards requests to the origin. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/sticky-sessions.html

By default, an Application Load Balancer routes each request independently to a registered target based on the chosen load-balancing algorithm.

To securely connect to Amazon S3 buckets from Amazon EC2 instances over a private connection without incurring additional costs, you can use a gateway VPC endpoint for S3. This method allows you to create a single gateway VPC endpoint for all S3 buckets in the same region, ensuring secure, private communication.

Create a Gateway VPC Endpoint:

Navigate to the VPC console.

In the navigation pane, choose "Endpoints" and then click "Create Endpoint".

Select "AWS services" and then choose "com.amazonaws..s3" from the service name dropdown.

Select the VPC in which to create the endpoint and the appropriate route tables.

Click "Create endpoint".

Update the Route Tables:

The gateway VPC endpoint will automatically update the selected route tables to include routes that direct S3 traffic through the endpoint.

Ensure that the route tables associated with your subnets include routes for the S3 service pointing to the gateway VPC endpoint.

Verify the Configuration:

Ensure that instances in the VPC can access the S3 buckets using private IP addresses.

Check the routing configuration to confirm that traffic to S3 is routed through the gateway VPC endpoint.

Gateway VPC Endpoints for Amazon S3

Creating a Gateway Endpoint

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/distributor-working-with-packages-deploy.html

To ensure that all Amazon EC2 Windows instances have a third-party agent installed and updated automatically, the SysOps administrator can use AWS Systems Manager Distributor and State Manager.

Create a Systems Manager Distributor Package:

Distributor is a capability of AWS Systems Manager that allows you to package and distribute software across your instances.

Create a Distributor package for the third-party agent.

AWS Systems Manager Distributor

Create a Systems Manager State Manager Association:

State Manager is a capability of AWS Systems Manager that automates the process of keeping your Amazon EC2 instances in a defined state.

Create a State Manager association to run the AWS-ConfigureAWSPackage document. Populate the details of the third-party agent package.

Specify instance tags based on the appropriate tag value for Windows with a schedule of 1 day to ensure the agent is updated periodically.

 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

CloudWatch alarms allow you to monitor AWS resources, and you can configure an SNS topic to send an email notification each time one of the alarms is triggered. This will ensure that the company receives email notifications each time one of the service quotas is exceeded, allowing the company to take action as needed.

Amazon EFS is an NFS-based file system, designed for Linux/Unix environments. Windows does not natively support NFSv4 without additional configuration (and is often not reliable).

From the Amazon EFS documentation:

Amazon EFS is not designed for use with Microsoft Windows EC2 instances.

For Windows workloads that require shared storage, use Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, which supports the SMB protocol.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect:

B: IAM is not used for mounting file systems like EFS.

C: Windows support for NFS is limited and complex, and not recommended.

D: Opening the NFS port won't help because Windows can't reliably mount NFSv4 volumes.

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.

To manage user accounts and permissions across multiple AWS accounts and integrate with an on-premises Active Directory, using AD Connector is the most operationally efficient solution. AD Connector serves as a directory gateway with which you can redirect directory requests to your on-premises Microsoft Active Directory without storing any directory data in the cloud. This setup allows IAM Identity Center to use the existing corporate credentials, ensuring centralized management and seamless user access control. Option C perfectly meets these requirements by leveraging existing infrastructure with minimal changes. AWS documentation on AD Connector offers guidance AWS Directory Service AD Connector.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

Minimize potential data loss and recovery time for a MySQL database running on an Amazon EC2 instance.

Analyze the Requirements:

Reduce the risk of data loss.

Ensure quick recovery in the event of a database failure.

Aim for operational efficiency.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Create a CloudWatch alarm to invoke a Lambda function that stops and starts the EC2 instance.

This addresses system failures but does not help with minimizing data loss or ensuring database redundancy.

Option B: Create an Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ DB instance and use a MySQL native backup stored in Amazon S3.

RDS Multi-AZ deployments provide high availability and durability by automatically replicating data to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone.

Using a MySQL native backup stored in Amazon S3 ensures data can be restored efficiently.

Option C: Create an RDS for MySQL Single-AZ DB instance with a read replica.

This provides read scalability but does not ensure high availability or failover capabilities.

Option D: Use Amazon DLM to take hourly snapshots of the EBS volume.

This helps with backups but does not provide immediate failover capabilities or minimize downtime effectively.

Select the Best Solution:

Option B: Using Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ ensures high availability and automated backups, significantly minimizing data loss and recovery time.

Amazon RDS Multi-AZ Deployments

Backing Up and Restoring an Amazon RDS DB Instance

Using Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ provides a highly available and durable solution with automated backups, ensuring minimal data loss and quick recovery.

NAT Gateway resides in public subnet, and traffic should be routed from private subnet to NAT Gateway: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-nat-gateway.html

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.

AWS CloudFormation StackSets

Managing AWS Config Across Multiple Accounts

Because the instance is:

In an isolated subnet (no internet or VPN access)

And you're not using Systems Manager

The best option is to use EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint, which allows SSH access to EC2 instances in private subnets without NAT or VPN.

From EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint documentation:

EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint enables secure connectivity to EC2 instances in private subnets without needing a public IP, bastion host, or VPN.

AWS CloudFormation StackSets allows you to deploy a single CloudFormation template across multiple AWS accounts and Regions. By using automatic deployments with StackSets:

New Accounts: When a new account is added to the organization or a specific organizational unit (OU), the StackSet automatically deploys the specified resources.

Consistency: Ensures that all accounts have a consistent base configuration.

Operational Efficiency: Reduces manual intervention, as deployments are handled automatically.

This method provides a scalable and efficient way to enforce baseline configurations across an organization.

Encrypt the snapshot copies by using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS). This solution will allow the company to automatically create encrypted snapshots of the EBS volumes and copy them to different AWS Regions with minimal effort.

To ensure all EC2 instances upload build artifacts through a single IP address:

A: Move all of the EC2 instances behind a NAT gateway. Provide the IP address of the NAT gateway to the third-party service for the allow list. A NAT gateway enables instances in a private subnet to connect to services outside AWS (such as a third-party service) but prevents the internet from initiating connections with those instances. Using a NAT gateway standardizes all outgoing traffic to use a single IP address. More information on NAT gateways can be found in AWS documentation NAT Gateways.

To ensure that the application running on an Amazon EC2 instance can read, write, and delete messages from the SQS queues in the most secure manner, the recommended approach is to use IAM roles for EC2 instances. This approach avoids the need to embed or export long-term AWS credentials, which can be a security risk.

Create an IAM Role for EC2:

Navigate to the IAM console in the AWS Management Console.

Choose "Roles" in the navigation pane, then click "Create role".

Select "AWS service" as the type of trusted entity and choose "EC2" as the use case. Click "Next: Permissions".

Attach the Required Permissions:

On the "Attach permissions policies" page, you can either select an existing policy or create a custom policy.

For a custom policy, click "Create policy" and use the following JSON policy to allow the required SQS actions:

json

Copy code

{

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

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": [

"sqs:SendMessage",

"sqs:ReceiveMessage",

"sqs:DeleteMessage"

],

"Resource": "arn:aws:sqs:region:account-id:queue-name"

}

]

}

Replace region, account-id, and queue-name with appropriate values for your SQS queues.

Assign the Role to the EC2 Instance:

After creating the role with the necessary permissions, navigate to the EC2 console.

Select the instance that needs access to the SQS queues.

In the "Actions" menu, choose "Security", then "Modify IAM role".

Attach the newly created IAM role to the instance.

Verify the Permissions:

Ensure that the IAM role is properly attached to the EC2 instance.

Test the application to confirm that it can successfully perform the required actions (read, write, delete) on the SQS queues.

IAM Roles for Amazon EC2

Amazon SQS Policy Examples

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, application, Teams Description automatically generated

The presigned URL expiration is the most common reason for access issues after some time. Additionally, if the SysOps administrator’s access key (used to generate the presigned URL) is invalid, the URL will no longer be usable. Block Public Access or ACL settings are irrelevant to presigned URLs.

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.

To ensure that the AWS CloudFormation template works in every region, you should use the Mappings section to specify region-specific AMI IDs. This allows the template to dynamically reference the correct AMI ID based on the region where the stack is being deployed.

Steps:

Add Mappings to the Template:

Define the AMI IDs for each region in the Mappings section of the CloudFormation template.

json

Copy code

{

"Mappings": {

"RegionMap": {

"us-east-1": { "AMI": "ami-0123456789abcdef0" },

"us-west-2": { "AMI": "ami-abcdef0123456789" }

}

}

}

Reference the Mapping in the Template:

Use the Fn::FindInMap function to reference the correct AMI ID based on the region.

json

Copy code

{

"Resources": {

"MyEC2Instance": {

"Type": "AWS::EC2::Instance",

"Properties": {

"ImageId": { "Fn::FindInMap": [ "RegionMap", { "Ref": "AWS::Region" }, "AMI" ] },

}

}

}

}

Deploy the Template:

Deploy the CloudFormation stack in any region, and it will use the correct AMI ID.

To automatically shut down EC2 instances with low CPU utilization:

Create CloudWatch Alarms:

Go to the CloudWatch console and create an alarm for each EC2 instance.

Set the alarm to monitor the CPUUtilization metric with a period of 1 hour and a threshold of 10%.

To restrict access to an application based on geographic location (France in this case), the appropriate routing policy in Amazon Route 53 is geolocation routing. This policy allows you to specify traffic routing based on the geographic location of your users:

B: Use a geolocation routing policy. Select France as the location in the record. This ensures that only DNS queries originating from France are routed to the application, fulfilling the requirement to limit access to users within France initially. More information about setting up geolocation routing can be found in the AWS Route 53 documentation on geolocation routing Amazon Route 53 Geolocation Routing.

To ensure that all traffic, including rejected traffic, is logged in VPC Flow Logs, you need to create a new flow log with a filter setting to capture all traffic.

Create a New Flow Log:

Open the VPC console.

Select the VPC for which you want to create the flow log.

Choose "Create flow log."

In the filter setting, select "All" to capture all traffic (accepted and rejected).

Flow Log Configuration:

Ensure that the destination for the flow logs (e.g., CloudWatch Logs or S3) is properly configured.

Specify the appropriate IAM role to allow VPC Flow Logs to publish logs to the destination.

VPC Flow Logs

Creating a Flow Log

Content-MD5 Header:

The Content-MD5 header provides an MD5 checksum of the object being uploaded. Amazon S3 uses this checksum to verify the integrity of the object.

Steps:

When uploading an object to S3, calculate the MD5 checksum of the object.

Include the Content-MD5 header with the base64-encoded MD5 checksum value in the upload request.

This ensures that S3 can detect if the object is corrupted during the upload process.

PUT Object - Amazon Simple Storage Service

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.