AWS Services, Deploying and Monitoring Infrastructure Flashcards
What is AWS Lambda?
AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that allows you to run code without provisioning or managing servers. It offers seamless scaling and operates in a reactive manner.
How is AWS Lambda billed?
Hint: Consider both requests and the amount of time your code runs.
You are charged per request and for the compute time used by your Lambda functions.
What programming languages does AWS Lambda support?
AWS Lambda supports many programming languages, but not arbitrary Docker containers.
What is the maximum execution time for an AWS Lambda function?
Hint: Think of a quarter-hour.
Lambda functions can run for a maximum of 15 minutes per invocation.
Name three use cases for AWS Lambda.
Hint: These involve automation, event triggers, and APIs.
Answer:
- Creating thumbnails for images uploaded to S3
- Running a serverless cron job
- Exposing Lambda functions as HTTP APIs via API Gateway
What is AWS CloudFormation?
CloudFormation is a declarative way to manage and provision AWS infrastructure using templates.
What types of resources can you define in CloudFormation?
- Security groups
- EC2 instances
- S3 buckets
- Load balancers (ELB)
What are some key benefits of using CloudFormation?
- Infrastructure as code
- No manual resource creation
- Changes are reviewed through code
How can you estimate costs with CloudFormation?
You can estimate the cost of your resources by reviewing the template before deploying the stack.
What is a common savings strategy for CloudFormation in a development environment?
Automate deletion of templates at 5 PM and recreate them at 8 AM to save on resources.
What is the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)?
How does the CDK work with CloudFormation?
The CDK allows you to define your cloud infrastructure using a familiar programming language.
The CDK compiles code into a CloudFormation template (JSON/YAML), which is then used to deploy infrastructure.
Name two good use cases for the CDK.
- Defining Lambda functions
- Deploying Docker containers in ECS/EKS
What is Elastic Beanstalk?
Elastic Beanstalk is a developer-centric Platform as a Service (PaaS) that makes it easy to deploy applications in AWS.
What are the three Elastic Beanstalk architecture models?
- Single instance deployment (good for development)
- Load Balancer + ASG (for production/pre-production web apps)
- ASG only (for non-web apps in production)
What is the responsibility of a developer when using Elastic Beanstalk?
The developer is only responsible for the application code, as Elastic Beanstalk handles deployment, scaling, and monitoring.
What is AWS CodeDeploy?
CodeDeploy is a service that automates the deployment of applications to EC2 instances, on-premises servers, or both.
What must be done before using CodeDeploy?
Servers/instances must be provisioned and configured with the CodeDeploy agent.
What does AWS CodeBuild do?
CodeBuild is a fully managed build service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces deployment packages.
What are the benefits of using CodeBuild?
- Fully managed, serverless
- Continuously scalable
- Secure
- Pay-as-you-go pricing (you pay only for the build time)
What is AWS CodeCommit?
CodeCommit is a Git-based source control service that makes it easy to collaborate on code and automatically version changes.
What is AWS CodePipeline?
CodePipeline is a continuous integration and delivery service that orchestrates the steps to push code to production.
What services can CodePipeline integrate with?
- CodeCommit
- CodeBuild
- CodeDeploy
- Elastic Beanstalk
- CloudFormation
What does AWS Systems Manager (SSM) do?
SSM helps manage EC2 and on-premises systems at scale, providing operational insights and automation tools.
What is the SSM agent used for?
The SSM agent allows Systems Manager to control EC2 instances and on-premises servers, including running commands and automating patching.
What does SSM Session Manager enable?
SSM Session Manager enables secure shell access to EC2 and on-premises servers without the need for SSH keys or bastion hosts.
What is the role of CloudWatch Metrics?
CloudWatch Metrics monitor the performance of AWS services and billing metrics.
What is the function of CloudWatch Alarms?
CloudWatch Alarms automate notifications, perform EC2 actions, or notify SNS based on metric thresholds.
What does CloudWatch Logs do?
CloudWatch Logs collect log files from EC2 instances, servers, Lambda functions, and more.
What is CloudWatch Events (or EventBridge) used for?
CloudWatch Events (or EventBridge) reacts to events in AWS or triggers a rule on a schedule.
What is the purpose of CloudTrail in AWS?
CloudTrail audits API calls made within your AWS account, enabling governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing.
What does CloudTrail Insights provide?
CloudTrail Insights provides automated analysis of your CloudTrail Events.
What is AWS X-Ray used for?
AWS X-Ray traces requests made through your distributed applications, helping to debug production and distribution applications.
What does the AWS Health Dashboard provide?
The AWS Health Dashboard provides the status of all AWS services across all regions, along with alerts and remediation guidance when AWS is experiencing events that may impact you.
What does the AWS Service Health Dashboard offer?
The AWS Service Health Dashboard provides access to current status and historical data about every AWS service.
What is AWS CodeGuru used for?
AWS CodeGuru automatically analyzes code and provides performance recommendations.
