CloudWatch Flashcards

This deck aims to help retain concepts related to the CloudWatch service.

1
Q

What AWS service provides the ability to monitor applications, infrastructure, networks, and services, enabling alarms, log analysis, and automated actions?

A

AWS CloudWatch

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2
Q

Is AWS CloudWatch a public service?

A

Yes, it is a public service accessible through AWS public endpoints and can be used from both AWS and on-premises environments

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3
Q

How do public AWS services access AWS CloudWatch?

A

Through an Internet Gateway

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4
Q

How do private AWS services access AWS CloudWatch?

A

Through a VPC Interface Endpoint

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5
Q

What type of native integration do AWS services have with AWS CloudWatch?

A

Managment Plane, that includes general metrics for the service

For EC2 this can be CPUUtilization, NetworkIn, NetworkOut metrics

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6
Q

What software is required to create custom metrics in AWS CloudWatch?

A

CloudWatch Agent (CWAgent)

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7
Q

What AWS CloudWatch software enables access to internal EC2 instance metrics like memory utilization, running processes, and disk space usage?

A

CloudWatch Agent (CWAgent)

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8
Q

How can on-premises applications integrate with AWS CloudWatch?

A
  • AWS CloudWatch API
  • AWS CloudWatch Agent (CWAgent)
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9
Q

What options are available for viewing data stored in AWS CloudWatch?

A
  • Console UI
  • CLI
  • API
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10
Q

Which AWS CloudWatch feature monitors metrics and triggers actions when thresholds are exceeded?

A

CloudWatch Alarms, which track metrics over time and respond based on threshold values

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11
Q

What states can an AWS CloudWatch Alarm transition between?

A
  • OK: Metric remains below the threshold
  • ALARM: Metric exceeds the threshold
  • INSUFFICIENT_DATA: Not enough data to determine the state
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12
Q

What happens when an AWS CloudWatch Alarm breaches its threshold?

A

Entering the ALARM state triggers one or more predefined actions:

  • Sending notifications via SNS
  • Executing remediation tasks
  • Modifying Auto Scaling policies
  • Initiating EventBridge events
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13
Q

What metric type can a high-resolution AWS CloudWatch Alarm monitor?

A

High-resolution metrics with a period of 10 or 30 seconds

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14
Q

What is the smallest unit of information in CloudWatch, consisting of a value, timestamp, and optionally a unit of measure?

A

Datapoint

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14
Q

What CloudWatch component acts as a container for grouping metrics from different services?

A

Namespace (e.g., AWS/EC2, AWS/Lambda)

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15
Q

What CloudWatch component represents a named, time-ordered series of datapoints?

A

Metric, identified by a MetricName (e.g., CPUUtilization) and a Namespace (e.g., AWS/EC2)

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16
Q

What CloudWatch component represents a name/value pair attached to datapoints, used to differentiate or aggregate metric data?

A

Dimension

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17
Q

What information does a datapoint include when sent to AWS CloudWatch?

A
  • Value
  • Timestamp
  • Unit of measure
  • MetricName
  • Namespace
  • One or more Dimensions
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18
Q

How can metrics for different services and resources be distinguished in AWS CloudWatch?

A

By combining the following pieces of information:
- Namespace: AWS/EC2
- Metric Name: CPUUtilization
- Dimensions: Name=InstanceId, Value=i-1234567890abcdef0

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19
Q

What are the types of metric resolutions supported in AWS CloudWatch?

A
  • Standard Resolution: 60-second granularity
  • High Resolution: 1-second granularity (higher cost)
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20
Q

What AWS CloudWatch metric resolution type is used by AWS services by default?

A

Standard resolution (60 seconds)

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21
Q

Which CloudWatch metric resolution provides faster, more immediate insights?

A

High resolution (1 second)

22
Q

Does AWS CloudWatch retain the original resolution of metrics as data ages?

A

No, data is aggregated and stored with lower resolution over time:
- Sub-60-second data: retained for 3 hours
- 60-second (1-minute) data: retained for 15 days
- 300-second (5-minute) data: retained for 63 days
- 3600-second (1-hour) data: retained for 455 days

23
Q

What CloudWatch component allows aggregating metric data over a specified time period?

A

Statistics

24
Q

What types of statistics does AWS CloudWatch support for a metric?

A
  • SampleCount
  • Sum
  • Average
  • Minimum
  • Maximum
  • Percentile (p)
  • Trimmed Mean (TM)
  • Interquartile Mean (IQM)
  • Winsorized Mean (WM)
  • Percentile Rank (PR)
  • Trimmed Count (TC)
  • Trimmed Sum (TS)
25
Q

Which AWS CloudWatch statistic helps analyze the distribution of metric data by showing the relative standing of a value and eliminating outliers?

A

Percentile (p)

26
Q

Is AWS CloudWatch Logs a global service?

A

No, it is a regional service

26
Q

Which AWS service centralizes logs from systems, applications, and AWS services into a scalable solution?

A

AWS CloudWatch Logs

27
Q

If AWS CloudWatch Logs is regional, where are logs from global AWS services like Route 53 stored?

A

In the us-east-1 region

28
Q

Does AWS CloudWatch Logs support logging only for AWS services?

A

No, it supports logs from:
- AWS services
- On-premises systems
- IoT devices and other applications

29
Q

Which AWS services integrate with AWS CloudWatch Logs?

A
  • VPC Flow Logs
  • CloudTrail
  • Route 53
  • API Gateway
  • Lambda
  • Elastic Beanstalk
  • ECS and more
30
Q

What software is required to send system or custom application logs to AWS CloudWatch Logs?

A

CloudWatch Agent (CWAgent)

31
Q

What are the two main functional sides of AWS CloudWatch Logs?

A
  • Ingestion Side: Handles the process of collecting and storing logs in the system
  • Subscription Side: Enables other services to use logs for additional actions, such as analysis or triggering workflows
32
Q

How does log data get into AWS CloudWatch Logs?

A

Logging sources send log events to CloudWatch Logs via:
- CloudWatch Agent (CWAgent)
- CloudWatch API

33
Q

What AWS CloudWatch Logs component represents a single unit of log data ingestion, and consists of Timestamp and a Raw Message?

A

Log Event

34
Q

What AWS CloudWatch Logs component represents a series of Log Events generated by the same source (resoruce)?

A

Log Stream

35
Q

What AWS CloudWatch Logs component groups multiple Log Streams together and defines shared settings like retention policies, monitoring, and access controls?

A

Log Group

36
Q

Which AWS CloudWatch Logs component is used to configure retention, permissions, and encryption?

A

Log Group

37
Q

What feature in AWS CloudWatch Logs enables pattern detection within a Log Stream inside a Log Group?

A

Metric Filter

38
Q

How data captured by AWS CloudWatch Logs Metric Filters can be used?

A

Can be used to create a Metrics that can trigger an Alarms, which can initiate actions, such as notifications or automated responses

39
Q

What are common use cases for AWS CloudWatch Logs Metric Filters?

A

Monitoring application failures:
- Application crashes (e.g., HTTP 500 errors)
- Failed login attempts, and more

40
Q

What are the two options for exporting data from AWS CloudWatch Logs?

A
  • S3 Export
  • CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter
41
Q

Which CloudWatch Logs export option is a non-realtime, manual process that can take up to 12 hours to complete?

A

S3 Export, using the CreateExportTask operation

42
Q

Which CloudWatch Logs export option provides access to real-time feed of log events, delivering them to various AWS services?

A

CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter

43
Q

What AWS CloudWatch Logs feature specifies the filter pattern for selecting log events and determines where to send matching events?

A

CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter

43
Q

When AWS CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter delivers log events to receiving services, are the events in raw format?

A

No, the event data is base64-encoded and compressed using gzip

44
Q

Which AWS services can be used with CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter for real-time log event processing?

A
  • Lambda for custom processing
  • Lambda + Kinesis Data Streams
  • Lambda + Kinesis Data Firehose (NOT real-time)
45
Q

What option in AWS CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter determines which log events are processed by the filter?

A

Pattern

46
Q

What option in AWS CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter specifies the target for log event delivery?

A

Destination ARN

47
Q

Which AWS CloudWatch Subscription Filter option determines how log events are grouped before being sent to the destination service?

A

Distribution

48
Q

Which AWS CloudWatch Subscription Filter option specifies the access permissions required to deliver log events to the destination service?

A

Permissions

49
Q

What AWS CloudWatch Logs feature enables centralizing logs from multiple AWS accounts into a single account for analysis?

A

CloudWatch Logs Subscription Filter

50
Q
A