Miscellanies

AWS CloudFormation

  • provision infrastructure using a text-based template that describes exactly what resources are provisioned and their settings. Can use scripts to automate the creation of member accounts and VPCs.
  • manages the template history similar to how code is managed in source control
  • 2 methods of updating a stack
    1. ​direct update – CloudFormation immediately deploys your changes 
    2. change sets – preview your changes first, then decide if you want to deploy
  • ​AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model) is an extension of CloudFormation for packaging, testing and deploying serverless applications

Disaster Recovery (DR)

  • DR approaches
    • Backup and restore = lowest cost, just create backups
    • Pilot Light = small part of core services that is running and syncing data or documents
    • Warm Standby = scaled down version of a fully functional environment that is actively running
    • Multi-site = on-prem and in AWS in an active-active configuration
  • For disaster recovery in a different region, create a AMI from your EC2 instance and copy it into a 2nd region. 

OTHERS

  • AWS App Mesh = for application networking for microservices applications
  • AWS Resource Access Manager = share a Transit Gateway connection (only?) with other AWS accounts
  • AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) is for migrating virtual machines
  • AWS Step Functions coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows so you can build and update apps quickly. Includes long-running executions not supported within Lambda execution limits.
  • AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a PaaS service for describing and provisioning resources. Can be used to quickly deploy and manage applications in AWS. Developers upload applications and Beanstalk handles the deployment details. Note that it’s not serverless, it relies on EC2 instances.
  • AWS Simple Workflow Service (SWF) is for executing tasks. Helps developers build, run, and scale background jobs
  • AWS CodeStar quickly develop, build and deploy applications on AWS
  • AWS Config manage the config of AWS resources
  • AWS Batch batch processing of computing jobs
  • Amazon Lex builds conversational interfaces into an application using voice and text
  • AWS X-Ray analyze, debug and improve performance of serverless applications
  • Amazon EMR allows researchers, scientists, businesses, etc. to process vast amounts of data using hosted Hadoop running on EC2 and S3
  • AWS Import/Export send HDDs with data to AWS and they import the data into S3
  • Amazon Connect: call centre
  • Amazon SES: Simple E-mail Service for sending marketing e-mails (like a Marketo or ConstantContact)
  • Amazon QuickSight: BI
  • Amazon Elasticsearch Service: “operational analytics” that you visualize
  • Amazon Neptune: interactive graphs of DBs
  • AWS Config: tracks resource inventory, config history and config change notifications for the purpose of security and compliance. Assess, audit and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources.
  • Amazon AppStream: streaming service
  • Amazon Kinesis: collect and process streaming data
  • Amazon Elastic Transcoder: convert video and audio files into versions that play on phones, tablets and PCs
  • CloudSearch: search engine for your site
  • CLI: command-line interface. To use, it requires an IAM access key ID & secret access key
  • AWS LightSail: easy alternative to setting up a VPC. Product set includes virtual servers (instances), MySQL DBs, HA storage and load balance 
  • Amazon MSK
  • AWS IoT Core: connected devices interact securely with cloud applications
  • Amazon Cognito = authentication for mobile devices. Use identity pools to provide temp AWS credentials to guest users. User pools are user directories. Compatible with SAML identity providers.