Amazon DOP-C02 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 23

* Ensure that the Amazon CloudWatch agent is installed on all EC2 instances:

The Amazon CloudWatch agent collects and logs metrics and sends them to Amazon CloudWatch.

To install the CloudWatch agent:

Download the CloudWatch agent package.

Install the agent on your EC2 instances.

Configure the agent to collect disk space metrics.

* Create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm to monitor available disk space on all EC2 instances Add the alarm as a safety control to the Systems Manager Automation task:

Create CloudWatch alarms to monitor the available disk space and trigger notifications or actions when the disk space falls below a defined threshold.

Add the CloudWatch alarm to the Systems Manager Automation task to halt or fail the task if disk space is insufficient.

To create the alarm:

Navigate to the CloudWatch console and create a new alarm.

Set the metric to monitor (e.g., disk space utilization).

Define the threshold and notification actions.

Amazon CloudWatch agent

Creating Amazon CloudWatch alarms

* Create an AWS Identity and Access Management Roles Anywhere trust anchor Create an IAM role that allows CodeArtifact actions and that has a trust relationship on the trust anchor. Update the on-premises CI/CD pipeline to assume the new IAM role and to publish the packages to CodeArtifact:

Roles Anywhere allows on-premises servers to assume IAM roles, making it easier to integrate on-premises environments with AWS services.

Steps:

Create a trust anchor in IAM.

Create an IAM role with permissions for CodeArtifact actions (e.g., publishing packages).

Update the CI/CD pipeline to assume this role using the trust anchor.

* Create a new Amazon S3 bucket. Generate a presigned URL that allows the PutObject request. Update the on-premises CI/CD pipeline to use the presigned URL to publish the packages from the on-premises location to the S3 bucket. Create an AWS Lambda function that runs when packages are created in the bucket through a put command Configure the Lambda function to publish the packages to CodeArtifact:

Using an S3 bucket as an intermediary, you can easily upload packages from on-premises systems.

Steps:

Create an S3 bucket.

Generate presigned URLs to allow the CI/CD pipeline to upload packages.

Configure an AWS Lambda function to trigger on S3 PUT events and publish the packages to CodeArtifact.

IAM Roles Anywhere

Amazon S3 presigned URLs

AWS Lambda function triggers

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_examples_aws_deny-ip.html

* Impact of Removing FullAWSAccess and Adding Policy for EC2 Actions:

The FullAWSAccess policy allows all actions on all resources by default. Removing this policy from the Department OU will limit the permissions that accounts within this OU inherit from the parent OU.

Adding a policy that allows only Amazon EC2 API operations will restrict the permissions to EC2 actions only.

* Permissions of Administrative IAM Roles:

The administrative IAM roles in the Engineering OU have the AdministratorAccess policy attached, which grants full access to all AWS services and resources.

Since SCPs are restrictions that apply at the organizational level, removing FullAWSAccess and replacing it with a policy allowing only EC2 actions means that for all accounts in the Engineering OU:

They will have full access to EC2 actions due to the new SCP.

They will be restricted in other actions that are not covered by the SCP, hence, non-EC2 API actions will be denied.

* Conclusion:

All API actions on EC2 resources will be allowed.

All other API actions will be denied due to the absence of a broader allow policy.

* Use AWS Step Functions to Orchestrate Processing:

AWS Step Functions allow you to build distributed applications by combining AWS Lambda functions or other AWS services into workflows.

Decoupling the processing into Step Functions tasks enables you to retry individual steps without reprocessing the entire record.

* Architectural Steps:

Create a web application to pass records to AWS Step Functions:

The web application can be a simple frontend that receives input and triggers the Step Functions workflow.

Define a Step Functions state machine:

Each step in the state machine represents a processing stage. If a step fails, Step Functions can retry the step based on defined conditions.

Use AWS Lambda functions:

Lambda functions can be used to handle each processing step. These functions can be stateless and handle specific tasks, reducing the complexity of error handling and reprocessing logic.

* Operational Efficiency:

Using Step Functions and Lambda improves operational efficiency by providing built-in error handling, retries, and state management.

This architecture scales automatically and isolates failures to individual steps, ensuring only failed steps are retried.

AWS Step Functions

Building Workflows with Step Functions

Verify No SCP Blocking Access:

Ensure that no Service Control Policy (SCP) is blocking access for developers to the S3 bucket. SCPs are applied at the organization or organizational unit (OU) level in AWS Organizations and can restrict what actions users and roles in the affected accounts can perform.

Verify No IAM Policy Permissions Boundaries Blocking Access:

IAM permissions boundaries can limit the maximum permissions that a user or role can have. Verify that these boundaries are not restricting access to the S3 bucket.

Make Necessary Changes to SCP and IAM Policy Permissions Boundaries:

Adjust the SCPs and IAM permissions boundaries if they are found to be the cause of the access issue. Make sure these changes are reflected in the code maintained in the AWS CodeCommit repository.

Invoke Deployment Through CloudFormation:

Commit the updated policies to the CodeCommit repository.

Use AWS CloudFormation to deploy the changes across the relevant accounts and resources to ensure that the updated permissions are applied consistently.

By ensuring no SCPs or IAM policy permissions boundaries are blocking access and making necessary changes if they are, the DevOps engineer can resolve the access issue for developers trying to access the S3 bucket.

AWS SCPs

IAM Permissions Boundaries

Deploying CloudFormation Templates

* Stack Export and Import:

Use the Export feature in CloudFormation to share outputs from one stack (e.g., database resources) and use them as inputs in another stack (e.g., web application resources).

* Steps to Create Stack Export:

Define the resources in the database CloudFormation template and use the Outputs section to export necessary values.

Outputs:

DBInstanceEndpoint:

Value: !GetAtt DBInstance.Endpoint.Address

Export:

Name: DBInstanceEndpoint

Steps to Import into Web Application Stack:

In the web application CloudFormation template, use the ImportValue function to import these exported values.

Resources:

MyResource:

Type: 'AWS::SomeResourceType'

Properties:

SomeProperty: !ImportValue DBInstanceEndpoint

Resource-Level Change-Set Reviews:

Both teams can continue using their respective review processes, as changes to each stack are managed independently.

Use CloudFormation change sets to preview changes before deploying.

By exporting resources from the database stack and importing them into the web application stack, both teams can maintain their separate review and lifecycle management processes while sharing necessary resources.

AWS CloudFormation Export

AWS CloudFormation ImportValue

Activate AWS Control Tower Guardrail:

Use AWS Control Tower to activate a detective guardrail that checks whether RDS storage is encrypted.

Create SNS Topic for Notifications:

Set up an Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) topic in the audit account to receive notifications about non-compliant databases.

Create EventBridge Rule to Filter Non-compliant Events:

Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that filters events related to the guardrail's findings on non-compliant RDS instances.

Configure the rule to send notifications to the SNS topic when non-compliant events are detected.

Subscribe Security Engineer's Email to SNS Topic:

Subscribe the security engineer's email address to the SNS topic to receive notifications when non-compliant databases are detected.

By using AWS Control Tower to activate a detective guardrail and setting up SNS notifications for non-compliant events, the company can efficiently monitor and ensure that all RDS databases are encrypted at rest.

AWS Control Tower Guardrails

Amazon SNS

Amazon EventBridge

Refactor User Data to Use cfn-init and cfn-hup:

cfn-init helps to bootstrap the instance, installing packages and starting services.

cfn-hup is a daemon that can monitor metadata changes and re-apply configurations when necessary.

Example user data script with cfn-init:

#!/bin/bash

yum update -y

yum install -y aws-cfn-bootstrap

/opt/aws/bin/cfn-init -v --stack ${AWS::StackName} --resource WebServer --region ${AWS::Region}

/opt/aws/bin/cfn-hup

Use Systems Manager State Manager:

State Manager can automatically apply an AWS Systems Manager document to instances at regular intervals, ensuring configurations are kept up-to-date.

Steps:

Create an SSM document that installs and configures your application.

Use State Manager to associate this document with your EC2 instances.

Example SSM document:

{

'schemaVersion': '2.2',

'description': 'Install My Application',

'mainSteps': [

{

'action': 'aws:runShellScript',

'name': 'installApplication',

'inputs': {

'runCommand': [

'yum install -y my-application'

]

}

}

]

}

Create State Manager association:

aws ssm create-association --name 'InstallMyApplication' --instance-id <instance-id> --document-version '\$LATEST'

Using cfn-init and cfn-hup

AWS Systems Manager State Manager