How to Easily Pass the Amazon Web Services SOA-C02 Exam: Expert Advice

The issue where EC2 instances show up as healthy in the Auto Scaling group but unhealthy in the ALB target group is likely due to the target group health check being configured with an incorrect port or path.

Health Checks:

ALB target groups use health checks to determine the health of instances. These health checks are configured with a specific port and path.

If the health check configuration does not match the actual application endpoint on the instances, the instances will fail the health check.

Troubleshooting Steps:

Verify the health check settings for the target group in the ALB. Ensure the port and path are correctly configured to match the application on the EC2 instances.

Adjust the settings if necessary and monitor the health status of the instances in the target group.

The issue of "request timed out" when pinging the public IP address of the EC2 instance could be due to the Network ACL (NACL) inbound rules.

Check NACL Inbound Rules:

Network ACLs act at the subnet level and can explicitly allow or deny traffic to or from a subnet.

Ensure that the NACL associated with the subnet containing the EC2 instance has inbound rules that allow ICMP traffic (which is used for ping).

Example rule to allow inbound ICMP traffic:

Rule Number: 100

Type: ICMP

Protocol: 1

Port Range: N/A (ICMP doesn't use ports)

Source: 0.0.0.0/0 (or specific IP range)

Allow/Deny: ALLOW

To identify both tagged and untagged EC2 instances across multiple AWS Regions efficiently:

AWS Tag Editor: Tag Editor allows you to search for resources across your AWS account by tags, including both tagged and untagged resources.

Search Setup: In the Tag Editor, select all the Regions where the company operates. Specify the resource type as AWS::EC2::Instance to focus the search on EC2 instances.

View and Export Data: Execute the search to view all EC2 instances, along with their associated tags and instance IDs. This data can be exported for further analysis or reporting.

Using the Tag Editor is an operationally efficient way to quickly get a comprehensive view of resource tagging across multiple Regions, aiding in compliance and resource management tasks.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

Share an AMI with other AWS accounts while ensuring it is encrypted with AWS KMS keys and accessible only to authorized accounts.

Analyze the Requirements:

Encrypt the AMI with a customer-managed key (CMK).

Share the AMI securely with specific AWS accounts.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Create a CMK and modify the key policy but do not create a copy of the AMI.

This does not re-encrypt the AMI with the CMK.

Option B: Create a CMK, modify the key policy, create a copy of the AMI, and specify the CMK.

This ensures the AMI is encrypted with the CMK and shared securely.

Option C: Create a CMK, modify the key policy, create a copy of the AMI, and make it public.

Making the AMI public does not meet the requirement of sharing with specific accounts only.

Option D: Modify the key policy of the AWS managed key and share the AMI.

AWS managed keys cannot have their key policies modified to add permissions for other accounts.

Select the Best Solution:

Option B: Creating a CMK, modifying the key policy, creating a copy of the AMI with the CMK, and specifying the permissions ensures the AMI is securely shared with specific AWS accounts.

References:

Copying an AMI

Creating and Managing Keys

Sharing AMIs

This solution ensures the AMI is encrypted with a customer-managed key and shared securely with the specified AWS accounts.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/ Cookies.html

You can configure each cache behavior to do one of the following: Forward all cookies to your origin – CloudFront includes all cookies sent by the viewer when it forwards requests to the origin. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elastic loadbalancing/latest/application/sticky-sessions.html

By default, an Application Load Balancer routes each request independently to a registered target based on the chosen load-balancing algorithm.

Cluster Placement Group:

Cluster placement groups are used to ensure low-latency networking between EC2 instances. They place instances physically close to each other within the same Availability Zone.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to EC2 and select "Placement Groups."

Create a new cluster placement group.

Back up the existing EC2 instance to an AMI.

Launch new EC2 instances from the AMI into the cluster placement group.

Ensure all instances are in the same Availability Zone.

The most operationally efficient way to monitor state changes in EC2 instances and notify the operations team is by using Amazon EventBridge. EventBridge can be configured with a rule that listens for state change events from EC2 instances. These events can then be directed to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic, which will distribute the notification to the relevant parties. This solution does not require deploying additional scripts or functions, thereby enhancing operational efficiency. Option B is correct. For more details, see the Amazon EventBridge documentation Amazon EventBridge.

To minimize costs while moving from EC2 instances to AWS Fargate, Compute Savings Plans are the most flexible and cost-effective option. Compute Savings Plans apply to a variety of compute services including AWS Fargate, Amazon EC2, and AWS Lambda, allowing for greater flexibility in managing costs as the company transitions to using only Fargate.

Compute Savings Plans:

Savings Plans provide significant savings over On-Demand pricing, up to 66% savings.

Compute Savings Plans offer the flexibility to move across instance types, AWS Regions, and operating systems.

Payment Options:

The No Upfront payment option provides the most flexibility and avoids large upfront capital expenditures.

The Partial Upfront payment option offers more savings but requires an initial payment.

1-Year Term:

A 1-year term is suitable for the company's 6-month transition period, allowing for cost savings without a long-term commitment.

References:

AWS Savings Plans

Compute Savings Plans

To configure integration with an external vendor and ensure that the vendor can use the AWS KMS key to encrypt the company's data in the vendor's AWS account, follow these steps:

Create a New KMS Key:

Navigate to the AWS KMS console.

Create a new KMS key that will be used to encrypt the data.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps.html

If you're using AWS Organizations, check the service control policies for any statements that explicitly deny Amazon S3 access. In particular, check the service control policies for statements denying the s3:PutBucketPolicy action. https://aws.amazon.com/tw/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/s3-access-denied-bucket-policy/