EC2

Question 1

What does EC2 stands for?

Answer 1

Elastic Compute Cloud

Question 2

Allows which type of Cloud Computing?

Answer 2

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Question 3

What does EC2 consists of?

Answer 3

• Renting virtual Machines (EC2)
• Storing data on virtual drives (EBS)
• Distributing load across machines (ELB)
• Scaling the services using an auto-scaling group (ASG)

Question 4

What are EC2 sizing and configuration options?

Answer 4

• Operating System (OS): Linux, Windows, Mac OS
• Compute power and cores (CPU)
• Random Access Memory (RAM)
• Storage Space: Network attached (EBS & EFS) or hardware (EC2 Instance Store)
• Network Card: speed of the card, public IP address
• Firewall rules: security group
• Bootstrap script (configure at first launch): EC2 User Data

Question 5

What EC2 Instance Types exist?

Answer 5

General Purpose, Compute Optimised, Memory Optimised

Question 6

What are the characteristics of the General Purpose EC2 Instance Type?

Answer 6

Great for a diversity of workloads (web servers, code repos)
Balance between Compute, Memory, Networking

Question 7

What are the characteristics of the Compute Optimised EC2 Instance Type?

Answer 7

Great for compute intensive tasks that require high performance processors
Name: c-series

Question 8

What are the characteristics of the Memory Optimised EC2 Instance Type?

Answer 8

Fast for performance for workloads that process large data sets in memory (RAM)

Question 9

What are the characteristics of the Storage Optimised EC2 Instance Type?

Answer 9

Great for storage-intensive tasks that require high, sequential reand and write access to large data sets on local storage

Question 10

What do Security Groups control?

Answer 10

They control how traffic is allowed int or out of our EC2 Instances. They act as a firewall on EC2 instances and they regulate access to ports, authorised IP ranges (IPv4 and IPv6) and inbound and outbound network. They only contain allow rules and their rules can reference by IP or by security group.

Question 11

What are the default security group rules for inbound/outbound traffic?

Answer 11

Inbound traffic is blocked
Outbound traffic is allowed

Question 12

What is the SSH port and what is it for?

Answer 12

SSH (Secure Shell), port 22, log into a Linux instance

Question 13

What is the FTP port?

Answer 13

FTP (File Transfer Protocol), port 21, upload files into a file share

Question 14

What is the SFTP port?

Answer 14

SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol), port 22, upload files using SSH

Question 15

What is the RDP port and what is it for?

Answer 15

RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), port 3389, log into a Windows instance

Question 16

What is the RDP port and what is it for?

Answer 16

RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), port 3389, log into a Windows instance

Question 17

What types of purchasing options are there for EC2?

Answer 17

On-demand instances, Reserved (instances and convertible reserved instances), savings plans, spot instances, dedicated hosts, dedicated instances, capacity reservations

Question 18

What are the EC2 on demand characteristics?

Answer 18

Pay for what you use
Has the highest cost but no upfront payment
No long-term commitment

Recommended for short-term and uninterrupted workloads, where you can’t predict how the application will behave

Question 19

What are the EC2 reserved instances characteristics?

Answer 19

Discount compared to on demand EC2
Reserve a specific instance attributes (type, region, tenancy, OS)
specify a reservation period (1 or 3 years)
specify payment options (upfront, partial upfront, no upfront)
specify instance’s scope (region or zone)

Recommended for steady-state usage applications. Possible to buy and sell in the reserved instance marketplace

Convertible Reserved Instance: possible to change instance type, family, OS, scope and tenancy (less discount)