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AWS Cloud Architect > Module 10: Monitoring, elasticity and high availability > Flashcards

Module 10: Monitoring, elasticity and high availability Flashcards

1
Q

What is Amazon CloudWatch?

A

A monitoring and observability service that collects data from AWS resources, applications, and services in real-time.

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2
Q

What are the primary components of CloudWatch?

A

Metrics, Alarms, Logs, Events, and Dashboards.

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3
Q

What is a CloudWatch metric?

A

A data point representing a specific performance characteristic of a resource, such as CPU utilization or network traffic.

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4
Q

How often are metrics collected by default for EC2 instances?

A

Every 5 minutes for basic monitoring, every 1 minute for detailed monitoring.

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5
Q

: How can you analyze log data in CloudWatch?

A

Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to query and analyze log data interactively.

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6
Q

What is a CloudWatch Alarm?

A

A feature that monitors a specific metric and performs an action (e.g., sending notifications) when the metric crosses a defined threshold.

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7
Q

What are the three alarm states in CloudWatch?

A

OK, ALARM, and INSUFFICIENT_DATA.

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8
Q

What action can a CloudWatch Alarm trigger?

A

Send notifications via SNS, perform an EC2 Auto Scaling action, or execute an AWS Lambda function for example.

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9
Q

What is a CloudWatch Dashboard?

A

A customizable, visual interface for monitoring metrics and alarms across multiple AWS resources.

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10
Q

How can you share a CloudWatch Dashboard?

A

Dashboards can be shared with team members or made public for specific viewers.

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11
Q

What is Amazon EventBridge?

A

A serverless event bus service that makes it easy to connect applications using event-driven architecture.

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12
Q

What is an EventBridge Event Bus?

A

A logical grouping of events that applications can subscribe to and process. AWS services send events to the default event bus.

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13
Q

What is AWS Cost Explorer used for?

A

To visualize and analyze AWS costs and usage over time, identifying spending patterns and anomalies.

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14
Q

What is the AWS Budget tool used for?

A

To set custom cost, usage, or savings plans thresholds and receive alerts when those thresholds are breached.

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15
Q

What is AWS Cost and Usage Report for?

A

contains the most comprehensive set of AWS cost and usage data available, including additional metadata about AWS services, pricing, and reservations.AWS

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16
Q

What is vertical scaling?

A

Replacing a resource with a larger or smaller one (e.g., upgrading an EC2 instance for more RAM or CPU). It may involve downtime.

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17
Q

What is horizontal scaling?

A

Adding or removing instances or resources (e.g., increasing the number of EC2 instances). This enables building internet-scale applications.

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18
Q

Why is horizontal scaling preferred for high availability?

A

It distributes traffic across multiple instances, reducing the impact of failures and improving cost efficiency.

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19
Q

What is an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group?

A

A logical collection of EC2 instances managed across multiple Availability Zones.

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20
Q

What does a launch template specify in an Auto Scaling group?

A

Configuration details for EC2 instances, including AMI ID, instance type, and network settings.

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21
Q

What triggers Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?

A

Scaling policies, schedule actions, and health checks from ELB or Auto Scaling.

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22
Q

What is the role of Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) in Auto Scaling?

A

ELB distributes incoming traffic to instances in the Auto Scaling group and reports unhealthy instances.

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23
Q

What are the benefits of EC2 Auto Scaling?

A

Better fault tolerance: Replaces unhealthy instances.
Better availability: Matches traffic demand dynamically.
Better cost management: Avoids overprovisioning.

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24
Q

What are the three capacity settings of an Auto Scaling group?
A:

A

Minimum capacity: Smallest number of instances needed.
Maximum capacity: Largest number of instances permitted.
Desired capacity: Optimal number of instances under normal conditions.

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25
What is the significance of scaling in multiple Availability Zones?
Ensures high availability by distributing instances across zones, reducing the impact of a zone failure.
26
How does EC2 Auto Scaling handle Spot Instances?
It provisions Spot Instances if they are available, based on cost preferences in the launch template.
27
What are the types of scaling mechanisms for EC2 Auto Scaling?
Manual scaling: User adjusts capacity manually. Scheduled scaling: Based on predefined times. Dynamic scaling: Responds to real-time metrics. Predictive scaling: Uses historical data for capacity forecasts.
28
What is target tracking scaling?
Adjusting capacity to maintain a specific metric (e.g., keeping CPU utilization at 50%).
29
How does step scaling differ from simple scaling?
Step scaling adjusts capacity based on the size of the alarm breach, while simple scaling waits for scaling to finish before responding to new alarms.
30
What is predictive scaling?
Uses machine learning to forecast traffic patterns and scale resources in advance.
31
What workloads are ideal for predictive scaling?
Cyclical traffic, batch processing, or applications with long initialization times.
32
Can dynamic and predictive scaling work together?
Yes, combining them ensures both proactive and reactive scaling for optimal efficiency.
33
What is an example of a target tracking policy?
Keeping average CPU utilization at 50%, scaling out when the metric exceeds the target and scaling in when it drops below.
34
What is a step adjustment in step scaling?
Defines how much capacity to add or remove based on the metric's deviation from thresholds.
35
What is a scheduled scaling policy?
Automates scaling actions based on a specific date and time (e.g., scaling up every Wednesday morning).
36
Why is scaling out important during traffic spikes?
Prevents performance degradation by provisioning additional resources to meet demand.
37
What happens if a load balancer reports an unhealthy instance?
EC2 Auto Scaling terminates the unhealthy instance and replaces it with a new one.
38
How does an Auto Scaling group handle minimum capacity?
Ensures at least the minimum number of instances are running, even during low demand periods.
39
What metric does an Auto Scaling group commonly track for scaling?
CPU utilization, but it can track other metrics like SQS queue length or network traffic.
40
What is AWS Auto Scaling?
A service to configure scaling plans across multiple AWS services, such as Aurora, ECS, and DynamoDB.
41
What is Application Auto Scaling?
A service for scaling individual AWS resources like Lambda functions, SageMaker, or ElastiCache
42
How does Application Auto Scaling support target tracking?
Automatically adjusts resources to maintain a predefined target metric.
43
What is the main difference between AWS Auto Scaling and Application Auto Scaling?
AWS Auto Scaling manages scaling for groups of resources, while Application Auto Scaling focuses on individual scalable resources.
44
What are the two primary types of scaling for databases?
Vertical scaling (increasing instance size) and horizontal scaling (adding resources, such as read replicas).
45
What does "service-managed storage scaling" mean?
AWS automatically manages storage growth for databases like Aurora and DynamoDB.
46
Why is database scaling not instantaneous?
Scaling typically involves background processes that can take time to complete.
47
How can Aurora be scaled vertically?
By changing the DB instance class size.
48
How can Aurora be scaled horizontally?
By adding up to 15 read replicas.
49
What is Aurora Auto Scaling?
A feature that dynamically adjusts the number of Aurora Replicas based on workloads using CloudWatch metrics.
50
How does Aurora Serverless handle scaling?
It uses Aurora Capacity Units (ACUs) to scale horizontally within a defined minimum and maximum range.
51
What is an ACU in Aurora Serverless?
A unit of approximately 2 GiB of memory, corresponding CPU, and networking.
52
Can Aurora Serverless handle intermittent workloads?
Yes, it automatically starts, stops, and scales based on demand.
53
What are the two ways Aurora manages high availability during scaling?
Using replicas for failover and performing maintenance during scheduled windows.
54
How is vertical scaling achieved in Amazon RDS?
By modifying the instance class or increasing storage size.
55
What is the role of Multi-AZ in scaling Amazon RDS?
Minimizes downtime by upgrading the standby database first, then failing over to it.
56
How does horizontal scaling work in Amazon RDS?
By adding read replicas to handle read-heavy workloads.
57
Can RDS read replicas act as a primary database?
No, read replicas cannot replace the high availability features of Multi-AZ deployments.
58
What is Amazon RDS storage auto scaling?
A feature that dynamically adjusts storage capacity based on workload requirements.
59
What are the two capacity modes for DynamoDB tables?
On-demand mode and provisioned mode.
60
What is the benefit of DynamoDB on-demand mode?
Automatically scales to accommodate spiky or unpredictable workloads.
61
How does DynamoDB handle scaling in provisioned mode?
Uses Application Auto Scaling to adjust RCUs (Read Capacity Units) and WCUs (Write Capacity Units).
62
What are global secondary indexes in DynamoDB?
Separate indexes that can be scaled independently to reduce load on the base table.
63
Does DynamoDB automatically scale storage?
Yes, storage scaling is managed by the service.
64
How does vertical scaling differ between Aurora and RDS?
Aurora scales by changing the instance class size, while RDS scales instance size and storage separately.
65
How does horizontal scaling work for DynamoDB?
DynamoDB uses auto scaling for RCUs and WCUs, and supports scaling for global secondary indexes.
66
What storage scaling features are unique to Aurora?
Storage scaling is service-managed and spans across Availability Zones as part of the cluster volume.
67
What feature allows RDS to scale read operations?
Adding read replicas, which asynchronously replicate data from the primary instance.
68
When is Aurora Serverless most useful?
For intermittent, unpredictable workloads like reporting databases or testing environments.
69
What is a use case for RDS read replicas?
ffloading read-heavy traffic, such as business reporting or disaster recovery.
70
How can you optimize DynamoDB for spiky traffic?
Use on-demand capacity mode to scale dynamically with traffic levels.
71
Why use global secondary indexes in DynamoDB?
To distribute query load and reduce strain on the base table.
72
What does "auto scaling" enable across all AWS databases?
Dynamically adjusting capacity to handle traffic changes without manual intervention.
73
What are the main database scaling mechanisms across AWS services?
Aurora: Vertical (instance class) & Horizontal (read replicas, Aurora Serverless). RDS: Vertical (instance/storage size) & Horizontal (read replicas). DynamoDB: Horizontal (RCUs, WCUs, indexes), On-demand scaling.
74
What are the four types of AWS load balancers?
Application Load Balancer (ALB), Network Load Balancer (NLB), Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB), and Classic Load Balancer (CLB).
75
What key features are shared by all AWS load balancers?
High availability, automatic scaling, robust security, and health checks.
76
What traffic types does an ALB handle?
HTTP and HTTPS.
77
What routing features does an ALB provide?
Content-based routing using listener rules and algorithms like round-robin or least outstanding requests.
78
What is the use of Automatic Target Weights (ATW) in ALB?
ATW optimizes traffic distribution across targets based on health metrics like 5XX error
79
What traffic types does an NLB handle?
TCP, UDP, TCP_UDP, and TLS.
80
What is the primary use case for an NLB?
Handling millions of requests per second with ultra-low latency.
81
Can an NLB forward traffic to an ALB?
Yes, combining NLB and ALB features allows multi-protocol traffic handling.
82
What is the main use case for a GWLB?
Improving security and compliance by routing traffic through virtual appliances like firewalls or intrusion detection systems.
83
What protocol does a GWLB use to communicate with virtual appliances?
The GENEVE protocol.
84
Why is the CLB considered outdated?
It provides basic load balancing and is recommended only if upgrading to ALB or NLB is not feasible.
85
What is a listener in a load balancer?
A listener checks for connection requests using a specified protocol and port and routes traffic based on listener rules.
86
What is a target group in a load balancer?
A collection of registered targets (e.g., EC2 instances) that receive traffic based on listener rules.
87
What are health checks used for in a load balancer?
To monitor the health of registered targets and ensure traffic is only sent to healthy ones.
88
How does SSL/TLS encryption work in load balancers?
The load balancer uses a certificate to decrypt frontend traffic; NLBs can also pass encrypted traffic directly to targets.
89
How does an ALB achieve high availability?
By distributing traffic across EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones and replacing unhealthy targets.
90
How does Amazon RDS Multi-AZ improve high availability?
The primary database synchronously replicates data to a secondary database in another Availability Zone, ensuring failover.
91
How can load balancers handle Availability Zone failures?
They route traffic only to healthy instances in operational zones.
92
What combination of load balancers can improve high availability?
An external-facing ALB for public traffic and an internal-facing ALB for private traffic.
93
What is the default routing algorithm for an ALB?
Round robin, with an option to use least outstanding requests.
94
What makes NLBs suitable for volatile network traffic?
Their ability to handle millions of requests per second with low latency.
95
What is the key advantage of using a GWLB?
Centralized traffic inspection and policy enforcement using third-party security appliances.
96
What is the main benefit of integrating load balancers with Auto Scaling?
Automatically replacing unhealthy instances to maintain capacity and availability.
97
What is Amazon Route 53?
A scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service that provides domain registration, DNS routing, and health checks.
98
What are the main routing options supported by Route 53?
Simple routing Weighted routing Latency routing Failover routing Geoproximity routing Geolocation routing Multivalue answer routing IP-based routing
99
What is a hosted zone in Route 53?
A container for DNS records that define how you want to route traffic for a specific domain or subdomain.
100
What is the difference between public and private hosted zones?
Public hosted zones: Route internet traffic to AWS resources. Private hosted zones: Route traffic within a VPC.
101
What is simple routing in Route 53?
A basic configuration where a DNS query returns a single value, such as the IP address of a web server.
102
What is weighted routing in Route 53?
Distributes traffic between resources based on assigned weights, allowing control over the proportion of traffic sent to each resource.
103
What is latency routing in Route 53?
Routes traffic to the region with the lowest latency for the user, improving performance.
104
How does failover routing work in Route 53?
Routes traffic to a secondary resource when the primary resource is deemed unhealthy based on health checks.
105
What is geoproximity routing?
Routes traffic based on the geographic location of users and resources, with an option to adjust traffic flow using a bias value.
106
How is geolocation routing different from geoproximity routing?
Geolocation routing: Routes based on the user's geographic location (e.g., country or continent). Geoproximity routing: Considers both user and resource location with optional bias adjustments.
107
What is multivalue answer routing?
Returns multiple IP addresses for DNS queries, filtering out unhealthy resources to improve availability.
108
What is IP-based routing?
Routes traffic based on user-IP-to-endpoint mappings, optimizing performance or reducing costs.
109
What is the role of health checks in Route 53?
Monitors the health of resources and ensures traffic is routed only to healthy targets.
110
How does Route 53 handle multi-region failover?
Routes traffic to a healthy resource in another region when a primary resource becomes unhealthy.
111
What is an active-passive failover configuration?
Traffic is routed to primary resources by default and switches to secondary resources only if all primary resources are unhealthy.
112
How can Route 53 create a tree of records for complex routing?
Combines multiple routing options (e.g., latency and weighted records) to route traffic based on multiple criteria.
113
What is an A record in Route 53?
Maps a domain to an IPv4 address.
114
What is an AAAA record in Route 53?
Maps a domain to an IPv6 address.
115
What is a CNAME record in Route 53?
Maps a domain or subdomain to another domain or subdomain.
116
What is an MX record in Route 53?
Specifies the mail servers for a domain.
117
What is an NS record in Route 53?
Identifies the name servers for a hosted zone.
118
How does Route 53 integrate with other AWS services for high availability?
Works with Elastic Load Balancing and Auto Scaling to distribute traffic and replace unhealthy instances.
119
What is the Route 53 Resolver?
Responds recursively to DNS queries from AWS resources for public records, VPC-specific DNS names, and private hosted zones.
120
How does Route 53 support content localization?
Geolocation routing directs traffic based on user location, allowing localized content delivery in preferred languages.
121
How does Route 53 help with disaster recovery?
Enables multi-region failover configurations, routing traffic to healthy resources during outages.

AWS Cloud Architect (16 decks)

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