Pass the Amazon Web Services AWS Certified Associate SOA-C02 Questions and answers with CertsForce

VPC peering allows two VPCs to communicate with each other securely. By configuring VPC peering between the two VPCs, the SysOps administrator will be able to give the EC2 instance in VPC1 the ability to connect to the database in VPC2. Once the VPC peering is configured, the EC2 instance will be able to communicate with the database using the private IP address of the DB instance in the private subnet.

To direct users to the region that provides the fastest response times, transitioning to a latency routing policy in Amazon Route 53 is the best solution.

Latency-Based Routing:

Latency-based routing allows you to route your traffic to the AWS region that provides the lowest latency.

Implementation:

In each new region (us-east-1 and ap-south-1), create a new Elastic Load Balancer and a new set of EC2 instances to run a copy of the application.

Open the Route 53 console.

Select the hosted zone and choose "Create Record Set."

Create latency-based records pointing to the load balancers in each region.

Amazon Route 53 Latency-Based Routing

DependsOn Attribute in CloudFormation:

The DependsOn attribute in AWS CloudFormation ensures that one resource is created only after another resource has been successfully created. In this case, it ensures that the EC2 instance is fully launched before the custom resource (the Lambda function) is executed.

Steps:

Update the CloudFormation template to include the DependsOn attribute for the custom resource.

Ensure that the custom resource references the EC2 instance.

Resources:

MyEC2Instance:

Type: AWS::EC2::Instance

Properties:

# EC2 properties

MyCustomResource:

Type: Custom::MyCustomResource

DependsOn: MyEC2Instance

Properties:

ServiceToken: !GetAtt MyLambdaFunction.Arn

# Other properties

AWS CloudFormation DependsOn Attribute

Objective:

Add custom dimensions to the metrics collected by the Amazon CloudWatch agent.

Using append_dimensions:

The append_dimensions field in the Amazon CloudWatch agent configuration file allows adding custom dimensions to the metrics collected.

Dimensions help categorize and filter metrics in CloudWatch for more granular insights.

Steps to Implement:

Step 1: Edit the Amazon CloudWatch agent configuration file (commonly located at /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/config.json).

Step 2: Add the append_dimensions field under the desired metrics section, specifying the custom dimensions in key-value pairs:

{

"metrics": {

"append_dimensions": {

"InstanceId": "${aws:InstanceId}",

"CustomDimensionKey": "CustomDimensionValue"

}

}

}

Step 3: Restart the CloudWatch agent:

sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl \

-a stop

sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl \

-a start

AWS References:

Amazon CloudWatch Agent Configuration:CloudWatch Agent Configuration

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: Writing a custom script is unnecessary as the CloudWatch agent natively supports appending dimensions.

Option B: EventBridge rules do not interact with CloudWatch metrics for adding dimensions.

Option C: AWS Lambda functions are not required for this use case.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/PostgreSQL.Concepts.General.SSL.htm

Amazon RDS supports SSL/TLS encryption for connections to the database, and this can be enabled by creating a custom parameter group and setting the rds.force_ssl parameter to 1. This will ensure that all connections to the database are encrypted, protecting the data and maintaining compliance with the company's requirements.l

Objective:

Notify administrators via email whenever a root user sign-in event occurs.

Using Amazon EventBridge and Amazon SNS:

EventBridge: Captures the root user sign-in events from AWS CloudTrail.

SNS: Publishes email notifications to subscribed recipients.

Steps to Implement:

Step 1: Enable CloudTrail for management events if not already enabled.

Step 2: Create an EventBridge rule:

Event pattern:

{

"source": ["aws.signin"],

"detail-type": ["AWS Console Sign In via Root Account"]

}

Step 3: Set the rule target to an SNS topic.

Step 4: Subscribe email addresses to the SNS topic.

AWS References:

EventBridge Rules:Creating EventBridge Rules

SNS Subscriptions:Amazon SNS Subscriptions

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: Trusted Advisor does not directly send notifications for root sign-ins.

Option B: Using an EC2 instance and scripts is less efficient and not operationally optimized.

Option C: Sending notifications to SQS introduces unnecessary complexity and delays.

"Network Load Balancer is optimized to handle sudden and volatile traffic patterns while using a single static IP address per Availability Zone." https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/network-load-balancer/

For an application that must scale to millions of requests per second and requires a single static IP address for each Availability Zone, a Network Load Balancer (NLB) is the most suitable option. NLBs are designed for high-performance, low-latency networking, and they support static IP addresses for each Availability Zone, making it ideal for volatile traffic patterns. Option D is the correct choice. AWS provides extensive documentation on NLB capabilities and configurations that suit these requirements AWS Network Load Balancer.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-enable-secure-access-to-kibana-using-aws-single-sign-on/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticsearch-service/latest/developerguide/es-cognito-auth.html

Objective:

Ensure the mem_used_percent metric from the EC2 instance is available in Amazon CloudWatch.

Root Cause:

The unified CloudWatch agent requires IAM permissions to publish custom metrics to CloudWatch.

If an IAM instance profile is not attached or is missing necessary permissions, the metric will not appear in CloudWatch.

Solution Implementation:

Step 1: Create an IAM role with the required permissions:

Use the AmazonCloudWatchAgentServerPolicy managed policy, which grants permissions for the CloudWatch agent to send metrics.

Step 2: Create an IAM instance profile for the role.

Step 3: Attach the instance profile to the EC2 instance.

Step 4: Restart the unified CloudWatch agent on the EC2 instance to apply the changes:

bash

Copy code

sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl -a stop

sudo /opt/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-agent/bin/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-ctl -a start

AWS References:

Unified CloudWatch Agent Configuration:CloudWatch Agent Permissions

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

Option A: Enabling detailed monitoring only collects predefined metrics; it does not affect custom metrics like mem_used_percent.

Option C: The subnet (public or private) does not affect the collection of metrics by the CloudWatch agent.

Option D: Using IAM user credentials is not a best practice for EC2 instances; instance profiles are the recommended method.

If a user is unable to connect to an EC2 instance via RDP, the issue could be related to network ACLs or route table configurations.

Network ACL Blocking Traffic:

A network ACL (NACL) associated with the bastion's subnet might be blocking traffic on port 3389 (RDP).

Open the Amazon VPC console and navigate to Network ACLs.

Check the inbound and outbound rules for the NACL associated with the subnet. Ensure that port 3389 is allowed.

Route Table Missing Route to Internet Gateway:

The subnet's route table may not have a route to the internet gateway, which is necessary for internet connectivity.

Open the Amazon VPC console and navigate to Route Tables.

Check the route table associated with the subnet. Ensure there is a route with destination 0.0.0.0/0 pointing to the internet gateway (igw-xxxxxxxx).

Ensuring proper configuration of network ACLs and route tables will enable the required internet connectivity for RDP access.

Network ACLs

Route Tables