AWS CCP Certification Essentials Part-07 (Other Services and Tools)
Now that we’ve covered some of the services provided by AWS, let’s take a closer look at deployment and infrastructure management services, messaging services, and auditing, logging, and monitoring services.
Deployment and Infrastructure Management Services
In today’s fast-paced technology landscape, managing the deployment and infrastructure of applications can be a daunting task. Fortunately, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers several deployment and infrastructure management services that can make the process smoother and more efficient. In this blog post, we will take a closer look at CloudFormation, Elastic Beanstalk, and OpsWorks.
1. CloudFormation
CloudFormation is a service that allows you to provision AWS resources using Infrastructure as Code (IaC). With CloudFormation, you can create templates for the resources you want to provision, which provides a repeatable process for provisioning resources. This service works with most AWS services and allows you to automate the infrastructure-provisioning process for EC2 servers. By using CloudFormation, you can easily and quickly create and manage a wide range of AWS resources with ease.
2. Elastic Beanstalk
Elastic Beanstalk is an orchestration service that provisions resources and automatically handles the deployment of web applications and web services to AWS. It also monitors application health via a health dashboard. Elastic Beanstalk is only used to deploy applications to the AWS Cloud, and it is not used to deploy applications on-premises. This service is an excellent choice for developers who want to quickly deploy a scalable Java-based web application to AWS without worrying about infrastructure management.
3. OpsWorks
OpsWorks is a service that allows you to use Chef or Puppet to automate the configuration of your servers and deploy code. With OpsWorks, you can deploy code and manage applications on-premises servers or EC2 instances in AWS Cloud. This service works with Chef and Puppet automation platforms and can deploy applications on-premises. By using OpsWorks, you can automate software configurations and infrastructure management for your application.
Messaging Services
Building loosely coupled systems is essential for building scalable and resilient applications. AWS offers several messaging services that allow component-to-component communication using messages.
1. Simple Queue Service (SQS)
SQS is a message queuing service that allows you to build loosely coupled systems. Multiple components or producers can add messages to the queue, and messages are processed in an asynchronous manner. This service is an excellent choice for building microservices in loosely coupled systems.
2. Simple Notification Service (SNS)
SNS is a service that allows you to send emails and text messages from your applications. You can publish messages to a topic, and subscribers receive messages. This service is an excellent choice for sending email and text messages.
3. Simple Email Service (SES)
SES is an email service that allows you to send richly formatted HTML emails from your applications. This service is an ideal choice for marketing campaigns or professional emails. Unlike SNS, SES sends HTML emails.
Auditing, Logging, and Monitoring Services
Auditing, Logging, and Monitoring services are critical components of any cloud infrastructure. They help businesses to keep track of their cloud resources, detect anomalies, and mitigate risks. In this blog post, we’ll discuss two AWS services, CloudWatch and CloudTrail, which are designed to provide auditing, logging, and monitoring functionalities.
1. CloudWatch
CloudWatch is a comprehensive set of services that enable businesses to monitor and observe their cloud resources. It collects and stores data in the form of metrics, logs, and events, which can be used to monitor the performance of the infrastructure and identify issues. Let’s have a look at the different services provided by CloudWatch:
- CloudWatch Alarms: This service allows you to set high-resolution alarms that notify you when a specified threshold is crossed. This enables you to take timely action and prevent any potential downtime.
- CloudWatch Logs: This service enables you to monitor and analyze the logs generated by your applications and resources. You can use the logs to troubleshoot issues and identify opportunities for optimization.
- CloudWatch Metrics: This service provides a way to visualize time-series data that represent the performance of your applications and resources. You can use the metrics to understand the behaviour of your infrastructure and take proactive measures to optimize it.
- CloudWatch Events: This service enables you to trigger an event based on a specific condition. You can use this to automate tasks or take corrective measures in response to any changes in your infrastructure.
2. CloudTrail
CloudTrail is a service that tracks user activity and API calls within your AWS account. It provides a detailed history of changes made to your infrastructure, which can be used to identify security threats, troubleshoot issues, and optimize resource usage. Here are some of the things you can track with CloudTrail:
- Username: You can identify the user who made the changes to your infrastructure.
- Event time and name: You can see when the events occurred and what action was performed.
- IP address: You can track the IP address from where the changes were made.
- Access key: You can identify the access key used to make the changes.
- Region: You can see the region where the changes were made.
- Error code: You can see any errors that occurred during the execution of the API call.
CloudWatch and CloudTrail are two essential AWS services that provide auditing, logging, and monitoring functionalities to help businesses monitor and optimize their cloud infrastructure. By using these services, businesses can ensure that their cloud infrastructure is secure, optimized, and efficient.
Woah… With Part 7 we are done with the Technology section of the CCP certification which amounts to 33 - 40 % of the exam question. That’s a lot. It’s awesome what AWS services offer to all the aspects of cloud computing. Hope you have enjoyed this article series! 😁 We will meet again with the next section of this article series: “Security and Compliance”. Cheers!! 🍻
