AWS Architectural Patterns and Global Infrastructure

Question 1

What are three ways to instantiate a business system application quickly for EC2, EBS and RDS

Answer 1

EC2: Use a golden AMI, user data bootstrap scripts for dynamic config, or use a hybrid of both (Beanstalk)
RDS: Restore from DB snapshots
EBS: Restore from snapshot

Question 2

What are the benefits of container with respect to the cost optimisation pillar (Choose 2)?
A: Can launch Quickly
B: Deliver increases Server Density
C: Easy to replicate server environments
D: Can run using less memory than physical servers

Answer 2

B and D. Both of these go to sever density and therefore getting most from your compute. Being able to replicate server environment is nice from a setup perspective, but has nothing to do with cost - same with A.

Question 3

What is EMR and how does it manage cost/resources

Answer 3

EMR is Elastic Map Reduce and is used for big data processing i.e HADOOP clusters. EMR will take care of provisioning and configuration of clusters. It supports auto-scaling and integration with spot instances.

Question 4

Why would you choose to use AWS OpsWorks over AWS Systems manager?

Answer 4

AWS Systems manager performs actions against AWS resources only - such as automating management tasks.
OpsWorks uses chef and puppet to accomplish the same thing but can be used across clouds

Question 5

When you delete a cloud formation template, what happens to resources created by the template in the stack?

Answer 5

All resources provisioned by the template will be deleted

Question 6

What does the name of an AZ always end in?

Answer 6

A letter - I.e us-northeast-1a

Question 7

Are availability zones located in the same or multiple data centres

Answer 7

AZ’s are spread over multiple AZ’s isolated from each other but close enough for low latency.

Question 8

In a multizone RDS deployment, does this benefit performance or availability?

Answer 8

Availability. Deploying RDS in a multizone model provides HA, not performance benefits. Deploying read replicas benefits performance of read heavy workloads.
RDS scales vertically. Multizone HA also allows for auto-fail over.

Question 9

Which AWS service would allow me to see service limits that apply to my account?

Answer 9

Trusted advisor

Question 10

What is AWS codebuild and what stage of the devops pipeline does it apply to?

Answer 10

Codebuild is a fully managed build tool which compiles code and can be used to run tests. It applies to the build/test phase.

Question 11

Which stage in the devops cycle would you use AWS code commit? What is Code Commit?

Answer 11

AWS Code commit is a fully managed Git source control system used in the code/build stage.

Question 12

Assuming a CI/CD environment with the following steps:
CODE
BUILD/TEST
DEPLOY & Provision
Which AWS services fit for each stage?

Answer 12

CODE: AWS Code Commit
Build/Test: AWS Code Build
Deploy & Provision: Elastic Beanstalk (severless)
Cloud Formation/Code Deploy if you are provisioning your own instances

Question 13

For AWS budgets - How long can it take for a cost allocation tag to appear in the billing and cost management dash board? Can a tag be applied to a resource that was launched before a tag was created?

Answer 13

24 hours and No.