Scaling

Question 1

What is SSM?

Answer 1

Systems Manager

Question 2

How do you get the systems manager to work?

Answer 2

You must install the SSM agent onto the instance. It is installed on Amazon Linux AMI and Ubuntu already

Question 3

What should you do to make sure that the instance can use the SSM agent?

Answer 3

Make sure you assign an IAM role to the instance that allows SSM access (AWS managed role exists)

Question 4

What are 2 key aspects of Systems Manager that helps to automate patching etc?

Answer 4

• Resource Groups

- Tagging

Question 5

What is an SSM Document?

Answer 5

It is a JSON or YAML file that contains parameters and actions to perform such as runShellScript with input commands. It is essentially a script to run.

Question 6

What are the 4 features of RunCommand?

Answer 6

• Executes a document across multiple instances
• Provides Rate Control/Error control
• Integrated with IAM and Cloudtrail
• No need for ssh

Question 7

What are the 3 document types?

Answer 7

• Command Document
• Policy Document
• Automation Document

Question 8

What can you do in terms of Patching with SSM?

Answer 8

• List Software on an instance
• Patch Software
• Patch OS

Question 9

What is the Session Manager?

Answer 9

It allows you to start a secure shell on your VM without using ssh or bastion.

Question 10

What are the 5 traditional steps you should take if you lost your SSH key for an EBS backed instance?

Answer 10

• Stop the instance and detach the root volume
• Attach the volume to a new instance
• Modify the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file with your new key
• Move the volume back to the stopped instance
• Start the instance and you can ssh into it again

Question 11

Using SSM, what should you do if you lost your SSH key for an EBS backed instance?

Answer 11

Run the AWSSupport-ResetAccess automation document

Question 12

Using SSM, what should you do if you lost your SSH key for an instance store backed instance?

Answer 12

Use Session Manager to access the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file

Question 13

What is the Parameter Store?

Answer 13

It provides secure storage for configuration and secrets

Question 14

What are the 2 API calls you could make to Parameter Store to get params?

Answer 14

• GetParameters

- GetParametersByPath

Question 15

What is OpsWorks?

Answer 15

It is AWS managed Chef/Puppet. It is also kind of an alternative to SSM