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

To send local logs from a fleet of servers to Amazon CloudWatch:

Install the Unified CloudWatch Agent: The unified CloudWatch agent is capable of collecting both logs and metrics from servers. This agent supports various operating systems and can be configured according to specific logging requirements.

Configuration of the Agent: The agent's configuration involves specifying which log files to monitor and how they should be processed. This configuration can be done manually or through the AWS Systems Manager for automated deployment across multiple servers.

Send Logs to CloudWatch: Once configured and running, the CloudWatch agent will continuously monitor the specified log files and send the log data to Amazon CloudWatch Logs, allowing you to view, search, and set alarms on log data.

This setup ensures a robust and scalable way to manage log data across a fleet of servers, leveraging AWS native services for seamless integration and management.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

Understand the Problem:

Setting up an AWS managed VPN connection requires creating a customer gateway resource.

The customer gateway device is behind a NAT gateway in the data center.

Analyze the Requirements:

The customer gateway resource needs to be created using an IP address that can be reached by AWS.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: The private IP address of the customer gateway device.

A private IP address is not reachable by AWS over the internet.

Option B: The MAC address of the NAT device.

MAC addresses are not used for identifying gateways in AWS.

Option C: The public IP address of the customer gateway device.

This would be correct if the device were directly connected to the internet, but it is behind a NAT.

Option D: The public IP address of the NAT device in front of the customer gateway device.

The NAT device's public IP address is reachable by AWS and will route traffic to the customer gateway device.

Select the Best Solution:

Option D: Using the public IP address of the NAT device ensures that AWS can establish a VPN connection with the customer gateway device behind the NAT.

References:

AWS Site-to-Site VPN Documentation

Customer Gateway Devices Behind a NAT

Specifying the public IP address of the NAT device ensures proper routing of VPN traffic to the customer gateway device.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/Creating_EBSbacked_W inAMI.html

"NoReboot By default, Amazon EC2 attempts to shut down and reboot the instance before creating the image. If the No Reboot option is set, Amazon EC2 doesn't shut down the instance before creating the image. When this option is used, file system integrity on the created image can't be guaranteed." Besides, we can use AWS EventBridge to invoke Lambda function https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/APIRef erence/API_CreateImage.html

This solution is operationally efficient and leverages AWS services to provide notifications when the Lambda function is not invoked, indicating that the file did not arrive.

Steps:

Create a CloudWatch Alarm:

Open the Amazon CloudWatch console.

In the navigation pane, choose "Alarms" and then "Create Alarm".

Select Lambda Metrics:

Choose "Select metric" and then navigate to "AWS Lambda" metrics.

Select the Lambda function that processes the S3 files.

Choose the "Invocations" metric.

Configure the Alarm:

Set the period to 1 hour.

Define the threshold condition to trigger when the Invocations metric is zero.

Under "Additional configuration", configure the alarm to treat missing data as "breaching".

Set Alarm Actions:

Configure the alarm action to send a notification to an Amazon SNS topic.

Create an SNS topic if one does not exist, and subscribe the application team to this topic.

Testing and Verification:

Ensure that the alarm triggers correctly by simulating a missing file scenario and confirming that the notification is sent to the SNS topic.

This approach uses CloudWatch to monitor the invocation frequency of the Lambda function, ensuring that the application team is notified whenever the expected file does not arrive within the specified timeframe.

References:

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Monitoring Lambda Functions

Amazon SNS Notifications

After increasing the size of an Amazon EBS volume, the operating system must be configured to use the additional space. For a Windows instance, you need to extend the file system using disk management tools.

Open Disk Management:

Connect to your Windows EC2 instance using RDP.

Open the Disk Management tool by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Disk Management.

Extend the Volume:

Locate the EBS volume that was resized.

Right-click on the volume and select Extend Volume.

Follow the Extend Volume Wizard to allocate the newly available space to the file system.

Verify the New Size:

After extending the volume, verify that the file system reflects the increased storage capacity.

References:

Modifying the Size, IOPS, or Throughput of an EBS Volume

Extending a Windows File System After Resizing a Volume

Understand the Problem:

All AWS resources must be tagged according to a company policy.

Continuous identification and enforcement of non-compliant resources are required.

Analyze the Requirements:

Monitor resources for compliance with tagging policies.

Enforce tagging policies and provide ongoing compliance reporting.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: AWS CloudTrail.

Tracks user activity and API usage but does not enforce tagging policies.

Option B: Amazon Inspector.

Provides security assessments but does not monitor or enforce resource tagging.

Option C: AWS Config.

Monitors and evaluates the configurations of AWS resources.

AWS Config rules can be used to enforce tagging policies and continuously monitor compliance.

Option D: AWS Systems Manager.

Provides operational insights and management but does not specifically enforce tagging compliance.

Select the Best Solution:

Option C: AWS Config is designed for compliance and configuration monitoring, making it the ideal service for enforcing and identifying non-compliant resource tags.

References:

AWS Config

Managing Resource Tag Compliance with AWS Config

AWS Config provides the necessary tools to enforce and monitor resource tagging compliance, ensuring all resources adhere to the set policy.

To send an email notification when an ACM certificate has less than 14 days until expiration, the most operationally efficient solution is to create an Amazon EventBridge rule that directly monitors AWS ACM for certificate expiry details. EventBridge can capture aws.acm events related to certificate expiration and evaluate the DaysToExpiry metric directly. Configure the rule to send notifications to an Amazon SNS topic when DaysToExpiry is less than 14, and subscribe the necessary email addresses to this SNS topic. This approach avoids the need for custom metrics or manual monitoring, providing a streamlined and automatic notification system. Option B is the correct answer as it leverages native integration between ACM, EventBridge, and SNS for minimal operational overhead. More details on EventBridge rules can be found in AWS documentation EventBridge Rules.

Understand the Problem:

The requirement is to delete the CloudFormation stack without deleting the DynamoDB table.

Analyze the Requirements:

Ensure the DynamoDB table is preserved when the CloudFormation stack is deleted.

Evaluate the Options:

Option A: Add a Retain deletion policy to the DynamoDB resource.

The Retain policy ensures that the DynamoDB table is not deleted when the stack is deleted.

Option B: Add a Snapshot deletion policy to the DynamoDB resource.

Snapshot policy is not applicable to DynamoDB tables and would not retain the table itself.

Option C: Enable termination protection on the CloudFormation stack.

Prevents stack deletion entirely but does not specifically protect the DynamoDB table.

Option D: Update the IAM policy with a Deny statement for dynamodb:DeleteTable.

Prevents deletion of the table but is not a CloudFormation stack-specific solution.

Select the Best Solution:

Option A: Adding a Retain deletion policy to the DynamoDB resource in the CloudFormation stack ensures the table is preserved when the stack is deleted.

References:

AWS CloudFormation Deletion Policy

Using the Retain deletion policy ensures that the DynamoDB table is not deleted when the CloudFormation stack is deleted, preserving critical data.

To share an encrypted Amazon RDS DB instance snapshot across accounts, the least administrative overhead involves directly managing permissions on the AWS KMS key and sharing the snapshot. Here’s how to do it:

Take a Snapshot: Initiate a snapshot of your Amazon RDS DB instance in the production account. This captures the current state of the database.

Modify KMS Key Policy: Adjust the policy of the KMS key used for encryption (identified by the alias 'production-rds-key') to grant the kms:Decrypt permission to the migration account’s root user. This step is crucial as it allows the migration account to use the same encryption key to decrypt the snapshot.

Share the Snapshot: Share the newly created snapshot with the migration account using the RDS console or AWS CLI. The migration account will now be able to see and use this snapshot to create a new RDS instance.

AWS Documentation Reference:You can refer to the AWS documentation on sharing encrypted snapshots: Sharing Encrypted Snapshots.

For an RDS instance that needs high availability and automatic failover capabilities, setting it up as a Multi-AZ deployment is the most effective solution:

Multi-AZ Deployment: This feature allows Amazon RDS to automatically provision and manage a synchronous standby replica of your database in a different Availability Zone (AZ). The primary DB instance and the standby replica contain the same data, providing data redundancy and fail-safe mechanism.

Automatic Failover: In the event of a planned or unplanned outage of your primary DB instance (including DB instance failure, AZ failure, or network failure), RDS automatically fails over to the standby so that database operations can resume quickly without administrative intervention.

Data Integrity: This setup ensures no data loss for committed transactions, as the standby replica is always in sync with the primary.

By enabling Multi-AZ deployment, you ensure that your database environment has high availability and robustness, addressing both disaster recovery and operational continuity without losing any committed transactions.