Amazon SOA-C02 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 33

To prevent all teams within an AWS Organizations structure from using Amazon DynamoDB while allowing access to other AWS services, the most effective solution is to use a Service Control Policy (SCP). SCPs apply at the organization, organizational unit (OU), or account level and can override individual IAM policies, including the root user's permissions:

B: Create a service control policy (SCP) in the management account to deny all DynamoDB actions. Apply the SCP to the root of the organization. This policy will effectively block DynamoDB actions across all member accounts without affecting the ability to access other AWS services. SCPs are powerful tools for centrally managing permissions in AWS Organizations and can enforce policy compliance across all accounts. Further information on SCPs and their usage can be found in the AWS documentation on Service Control Policies AWS Service Control Policies.

To alleviate performance degradation on a heavily queried Amazon Aurora DB cluster:

A: Create an Aurora Replica node and implement an Auto Scaling policy based on CPU utilization. Ensure all reporting requests use the read-only connection string to redirect read queries to the replica. This setup alleviates the load on the primary DB instance by balancing read traffic, which can significantly improve stability during periods of high demand. Aurora Replicas are ideal for scaling read operations and can improve the performance of the primary instance by offloading read requests. More details on Aurora Replicas and their benefits can be found in the AWS documentation on Aurora Replicas Amazon Aurora Replicas.

To ensure all EC2 instances upload build artifacts through a single IP address:

A: Move all of the EC2 instances behind a NAT gateway. Provide the IP address of the NAT gateway to the third-party service for the allow list. A NAT gateway enables instances in a private subnet to connect to services outside AWS (such as a third-party service) but prevents the internet from initiating connections with those instances. Using a NAT gateway standardizes all outgoing traffic to use a single IP address. More information on NAT gateways can be found in AWS documentation NAT Gateways.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch-Agent-procstat-process-metrics.html

To efficiently manage application deployments and updates on Amazon EC2 instances within an Auto Scaling group, along with ensuring security through vulnerability scans:

EC2 Image Builder: This AWS service automates the creation, management, and deployment of customized, secure, and up-to-date 'golden' server images. By using EC2 Image Builder, you can automate the installation of software, patches, and security configurations.

Custom Recipes: Define a custom recipe in EC2 Image Builder that includes steps to install the application and its dependencies. Additionally, configure the recipe to perform vulnerability scans as part of the image creation process.

Automated Pipeline: Set up an Image Builder pipeline that triggers on a regular schedule (e.g., weekly) to incorporate the latest application updates and security patches into the AMI. The new AMIs can then be automatically used by the Auto Scaling group to launch updated and secure instances.

This solution not only streamlines the management of application deployments and updates but also ensures that all instances launched by the Auto Scaling group meet the latest security and compliance standards, minimizing operational overhead and enhancing security.

To address the issue of slow startup times during unexpected traffic surges, a warm pool for the Auto Scaling group is an effective solution:

Warm Pool Concept: A warm pool allows you to maintain a set of pre-initialized or partially initialized EC2 instances that are not actively serving traffic but can be quickly brought online when needed.

Management of Instances: Instances in the warm pool can be kept in a stopped state and then started much more quickly than launching new instances, as the machine-specific data caches are already created.

Scalability and Responsiveness: During a surge in traffic, especially unpredictable ones like those triggered by advertisements, instances from the warm pool can be rapidly activated to handle the increased load, ensuring that the application remains responsive without the typical delays associated with boot processes.

This method significantly reduces the time to scale out by utilizing pre-warmed instances, enhancing the application's ability to cope with sudden and substantial increases in traffic.

For the issue of 'too many connections' on a MySQL database, using RDS Proxy offers a streamlined solution:

RDS Proxy Setup: RDS Proxy sits between your application and the database. It pools and efficiently manages database connections, which reduces the number of direct connections to the database.

Connection Management: By handling connection pooling, RDS Proxy can help mitigate issues related to connection overhead and limits, such as the 'too many connections' error, by allowing the database to serve more requests from a smaller and more stable number of connections.

Minimal Code Changes: Integrating RDS Proxy requires changes only to the database connection settings in the application's configuration files to point to the RDS Proxy endpoint instead of directly to the database. This minimizes the amount of code change needed and leverages RDS Proxy to handle connection scaling and management more efficiently.

This approach enhances database performance and scalability by efficiently managing connections without the need for significant application changes or database resizing.

If AWS Lambda function logs are not appearing in Amazon CloudWatch, it is typically due to insufficient permissions:

IAM Role Permissions: The execution role assigned to the Lambda function must have the necessary permissions to interact with CloudWatch Logs. This includes actions like logs:CreateLogGroup, logs:CreateLogStream, and logs:PutLogEvents.

Check and Update Role: Verify that the IAM role used by the Lambda function includes a policy granting these permissions. If not, update the role to include these permissions.

Log Group and Stream: With the appropriate permissions, the Lambda function will be able to create or use a log group and stream in CloudWatch Logs and publish log messages accordingly.

Ensuring the Lambda function has the correct permissions is essential for diagnostics and monitoring, allowing log data to be captured and reviewed in CloudWatch Logs.

To ensure comprehensive and automated security scanning across multiple AWS accounts:

Security Hub Administrator Account: Designate one account within AWS Organizations as the Security Hub administrator account. This centralizes security findings management.

Automate Account Association: Configure Security Hub to automatically associate new accounts in the organization as member accounts. This ensures all new and existing accounts are continuously monitored under the same security policies.

Enable CIS Benchmark Scans: Within Security Hub, enable the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark standard. This automatically scans all member accounts against this set of security best practices and compliance standards.

This configuration provides an operationally efficient and scalable way to manage security and compliance across an extensive AWS environment, leveraging the native integration of AWS services.