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AWS Cloud Integrations Purpose of Cloud Integration Multiple applications often need to communicate with each other. AWS provides different integration patterns to enable communication between distributed systems. Communication Patterns A. Synchronous Communication Definition: Applications directly communicate in real-time. Example: A Buying Service directly calls a Shipping Service to start shipment after a purchase. Characteristics: Real-time and direct connection. Immediate response required. If one service is down or overloaded, the other is affected. Disadvantages: Not resilient to failures or traffic spikes. Services are tightly coupled. B. Asynchronous (Event-Based) Communication Definition: Applications communicate indirectly through an intermediate system (like a queue). Example: The Buying Service places an order message in a queue, and the Shipping Service processes it later. Characteristics: Services are decoupled (operate independently). Enables scalability and fault tolerance. Allows buffering during high traffic (prevents overload). ...

AWS Global Infrastructure Why Build a Global Application? Reduced Latency Latency = Time for a network packet to reach a server. Deploying in multiple AWS Regions or Edge Locations reduces lag by placing servers closer to users. Example: Users in India get faster response if an Asia region hosts the app instead of only US. Disaster Recovery (DR) Do not rely on a single Region. In case of disasters (earthquake, storm, power failure, politics), failover to another Region ensures high availability. Security & Attack Resistance ...

Deployments & Managing Infrastructure at Scale CloudFormation Overview What it is: AWS service for Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Declarative way of describing AWS resources (you state what you want, not how to create it). Supports almost all AWS resources. Example use case: Define: Security Group, 2 EC2 instances using that SG, an S3 bucket, a Load Balancer. CloudFormation will automatically create all resources in the correct order with the exact configuration. Benefits of CloudFormation Infrastructure as Code No manual creation of resources. Changes reviewed via code review (improves control and governance). Cost Advantages Resources in a stack are automatically tagged for easier cost tracking. Can estimate costs before deployment. Enables cost-saving automation, e.g., delete stacks at 5 PM, recreate at 8 AM. Productivity Easily destroy and recreate infrastructure. Generates diagrams of resources and their relationships. Declarative programming: CloudFormation figures out dependencies (e.g., DynamoDB before EC2). Reusability Use existing templates from AWS docs or community. Almost everything in AWS is supported. If not, use Custom Resources. Visualization Infrastructure Composer can visualize stacks. Example: WordPress stack diagram shows ALB Listener, DB, Security Groups, Launch Config, etc. Helps understand relations between components. ...

Docker Introduction (Before ECS) What is Docker? Docker = software development platform to deploy applications. Traditional way: install apps directly on Linux → works but not portable. Docker way: package app into containers. Docker Containers Run the same way everywhere (no compatibility issues). Works with any programming language, OS, technology. Easier to maintain, deploy, and scale. Scaling containers = seconds. Powerful and widely used for modern app deployment. Docker on EC2 You can run multiple containers on the same EC2 instance: Example: Java, Node.js, MySQL all on one EC2. Docker Images = blueprint for containers. Stored in Docker Repositories. Docker Repositories Public: Docker Hub (base images for OS, DBs, languages). Private: Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry) for private images. Docker vs Virtual Machines Docker ≠ full virtualization. VM approach: Infrastructure → Host OS → Hypervisor → Guest OS → Apps. Each VM has its own OS → heavier. Docker approach: Infrastructure → Host OS (EC2) → Docker Daemon → Containers. Containers share resources with host. Lightweight, faster, easier to scale. Exam Tip You don’t need deep Docker knowledge for CCP. Just know: Docker = containerization. Images stored in repos (Docker Hub, ECR). Lighter than VMs. ECS = AWS service to run/manage Docker containers. ECS, Fargate, and ECR (AWS CCP) ECS (Elastic Container Service) Used to launch Docker containers on AWS. Requires provisioning & managing EC2 instances yourself. AWS manages container lifecycle (start/stop). Can integrate with Application Load Balancer. ECS decides which EC2 instance will host each container. Exam Tip: “Run Docker containers on AWS → think ECS.” ...

AWS Databases & Analytics – Notes What is a Database? Stores data in a structured way. Allows indexes for efficient querying/searching. Unlike raw storage (EBS, S3, EFS, EC2 Instance Store), databases provide structure and relationships between data. Types of Databases a. Relational Databases (SQL) Oldest and most common type. Data stored in tables (rows & columns) with relationships. Example: Students table linked to Departments table by department_id. Query language: SQL (Structured Query Language). Scaling: Vertical (scale up) is common, horizontal scaling is harder. b. NoSQL Databases (Non-Relational) Stands for Non-SQL (not relational). Modern, built for specific purposes and flexible schema. Benefits: Flexible and schema-less. Scales horizontally (add distributed servers). High performance, optimized for specific models. Examples: Key-value stores. Document stores (JSON). Graph databases. In-memory databases. Search databases. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) commonly used to store data. Supports nested fields, arrays, and evolving schemas. AWS Shared Responsibility Model for Databases Managed Databases (AWS responsibility): Quick provisioning. Built-in High Availability (HA). Easy scaling (vertical + horizontal). Automated backups, restore, patching, upgrades. Integrated monitoring & alerting. AWS handles OS patching & maintenance. Self-Managed Databases (Your responsibility on EC2): You handle resiliency, patching, backups, HA, fault tolerance, scaling. Much more operational overhead. Exam Tip For the CCP exam: Know which AWS managed database fits which use case. Example: RDS (Relational), DynamoDB (NoSQL key-value), Neptune (Graph), ElastiCache (In-memory), OpenSearch (Search). Key takeaway: Use AWS managed databases unless explicitly required to run your own. Managed services simplify ops, scaling, backups, and patching. ...

Amazon Simple Storage Service - S3 Amazon S3 = Simple Storage Service. One of the main building blocks of AWS. Marketed as infinitely scaling storage. Backbone of many websites and integrated by many AWS services. Use Cases of Amazon S3 Backup & Storage (files, disks, etc.). Disaster Recovery (replicate data to another region for failover). Archival (cheap storage with Glacier). Hybrid Cloud Storage (extend on-premises storage to the cloud). Hosting applications/media (e.g., videos, images). Data Lake (store massive datasets for big data analytics). Delivering Software Updates. Hosting Static Websites. Examples: ...

Scalability & High Availability Scalability Definition: Ability of a system to handle greater loads by adapting. Vertical Scalability (Scaling Up/Down) Increase size of instance (t2.micro → t2.large). Example: upgrading a junior operator to senior operator in a call center. Common in non-distributed systems (like databases). Limited by hardware capacity. Horizontal Scalability (Scaling Out/In, Elasticity) Add more instances instead of increasing size. Example: adding more operators in a call center. Requires distributed systems. Very common for web applications on AWS. AWS makes this easy with EC2 + Auto Scaling Groups (ASG). High Availability (HA) Definition: Running application in multiple Availability Zones (AZs). ...

EC2 Storage – EBS Volumes EBS = Elastic Block Store A network drive you can attach to EC2 instances. Persists data even after the instance is terminated (unlike instance store). Think of it like a network USB stick. Key Properties AZ-bound: An EBS volume is created in a specific Availability Zone (e.g., us-east-1a) and can only be attached to EC2 instances in the same AZ. One instance at a time (at CCP level): A single EBS volume cannot be attached to multiple EC2s simultaneously. Attach/detach flexibility: Can detach from one EC2 and attach to another in the same AZ. Capacity must be provisioned in advance: Specify storage size (GB) and IOPS (I/O operations per second). You pay for provisioned capacity. Performance can be increased later by resizing or changing volume type. Free Tier 30 GB of free EBS storage per month (General Purpose SSD or Magnetic). Network Latency Since EBS communicates over the network, expect slight latency compared to local storage. Snapshots EBS Snapshots allow moving volumes across AZs (and even regions). Multiple Volumes An EC2 instance can have multiple EBS volumes attached (like multiple USB sticks). Each EC2 instance usually has its own root volume, but you can add more. Unattached Volumes EBS volumes can exist unattached (not linked to any EC2) until needed. Delete on Termination Attribute controlling EBS lifecycle when instance is terminated: Root volume: By default, deleted when EC2 instance terminates. Additional volumes: By default, not deleted. Can manually enable/disable this behavior. Use case: Keep root volume to preserve logs/data after instance termination. ...

Amazon EC2 EC2 = Elastic Compute Cloud AWS Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering Lets you rent virtual servers (instances) on-demand EC2 Components Instances → Virtual machines (VMs) EBS Volumes → Virtual drives for storage Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) → Distributes traffic across instances Auto Scaling Group (ASG) → Scales instances automatically Instance Configuration Options OS Choices: Linux (most popular), Windows, MacOS Compute: Number of vCPUs (cores) Memory (RAM): Customizable Storage: EBS/EFS (network-attached) Instance Store (hardware-attached) Networking: Network card speed Public IP options Security Groups: Firewall rules for instance Bootstrap (User Data): Script executed at first launch Installs software, updates, downloads files, etc. Runs as root (sudo rights) Instance Types Examples Instance vCPU Mem (GiB) Storage Network Performance EBS Bandwidth (Mbps) t2.micro 1 1 EBS-Only Low to Moderate - t2.xlarge 4 16 EBS-Only Moderate 4,750 c5d.4xlarge 16 32 1 x 400 NVMe SSD Up to 10 Gbps 4,750 r5.16xlarge 64 512 EBS Only 20 Gbps 13,600 m5.8xlarge 32 128 EBS Only 10 Gbps 6,800 Free Tier t2.micro: Up to 750 hours per month free (~1 instance running continuously for a month) EC2 Instance Types Different workloads need different optimizations: compute, memory, storage, or networking. AWS provides several categories of instances to match use cases. Detail of Each Instance ->: https://instances.vantage.sh Each Category Details ->: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types ...

IAM (Identity and Access Management) What is IAM? IAM = Identity and Access Management. A global service in AWS (not region-specific). Used to manage users, groups, and permissions. Root User Created by default when you make an AWS account. Has full access to everything. Should only be used for initial setup, not daily tasks. Best practice: never share or use root account for normal work. Users and Groups User = one person in your organization. Groups = logical collection of users. Groups can only contain users (not other groups). A user can: Belong to no group (not recommended). Belong to multiple groups. Example: Developers group: Alice, Bob, Charles. Operations group: David, Edward. Charles + David also in Audit group. ...