AWS Monitoring & Analytics

AWS CloudWatch

Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service provided by AWS. It allows you to collect, analyze, and visualize metrics, logs, and events from AWS resources, on-premises servers, and applications. CloudWatch helps in understanding system performance, optimizing resource utilization, and resolving operational issues faster.

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Key Features

CloudWatch Alarms

• Purpose: CloudWatch Alarms monitor metrics and perform automated actions based on defined thresholds.

• Capabilities:

  • Trigger alerts when a metric crosses a predefined threshold.

  • Automate actions like scaling EC2 instances, shutting down systems, or invoking AWS Lambda functions.

  • Notify teams using Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS).

• Example Use Case: Notify an administrator if CPU utilization of an EC2 instance exceeds 80% for 5 minutes.

CloudWatch Dashboards

• Purpose: CloudWatch Dashboards provide customizable visualizations for metrics across AWS services in a single view.

• Capabilities:

  • Create dashboards with metrics from various AWS services (EC2, RDS, Lambda, etc.).

  • Enable quick identification of trends, bottlenecks, or issues.

  • Share dashboards across teams for collaborative monitoring.

• Example Use Case: A dashboard displaying CPU usage, network latency, and database query performance for a web application.

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Central Monitoring and Visibility Using CloudWatch

• Centralized Monitoring: CloudWatch aggregates metrics, logs, and events from multiple AWS resources, applications, and even hybrid or on-premises environments. This centralization reduces complexity and enhances operational visibility.

• Better Total Cost of Ownership (TCO):

  • Proactively monitoring resources helps avoid over-provisioning and under-utilization.

  • Early detection of issues reduces downtime and cost of incidents.

• Improved Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR):

  • Real-time alarms and event-driven insights speed up issue identification and troubleshooting.

  • Centralized logs and metrics streamline root-cause analysis, reducing the time to resolve issues.

By integrating CloudWatch effectively into your AWS environment, organizations can achieve efficient, cost-effective, and proactive system management.

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Cloud Trail

AWS CloudTrail is an API-based auditing service that records all actions taken on AWS resources. It provides detailed logs of every API request and response, helping organizations monitor and secure their AWS environment.

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Key Features:

1. Comprehensive Logging:

   • Logs all API calls (via AWS Console, SDKs, CLI, and third-party services).

   • Includes details like who performed the action, when it occurred, where it originated, what action was taken, and the response (allowed, blocked, failed, passed).

2. Security & Compliance:

   • Helps track unauthorized or suspicious activities.

   • Ensures compliance with auditing standards by retaining logs for analysis.

3. Integration with Monitoring Tools:

   • Works with CloudWatch to trigger alarms for specific events.

   • Can send events to AWS Lambda for real-time threat detection.

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Benefits:

• Enhanced Security: Detect unusual activities and analyze incidents.

• Accountability: Provides a clear record of actions for audits.

• Troubleshooting: Speeds up root-cause analysis with detailed logs.

AWS CloudTrail ensures transparency and accountability in your AWS operations.

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Trusted Advisor

AWS Trusted Advisor Overview

AWS Trusted Advisor is a management tool that provides real-time guidance to help you optimize your AWS environment. It offers recommendations across key categories to enhance security, performance, fault tolerance, and cost-efficiency while ensuring service limits are not exceeded.

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Key Features:

1. Insights and Recommendations:

   • Cost Optimization: Identifies underutilized or idle resources to reduce costs.

   • Performance: Recommends configurations to improve application efficiency.

   • Security: Flags potential security risks, such as open access permissions or unencrypted data.

   • Fault Tolerance: Suggests actions to enhance system reliability.

   • Service Limits: Monitors resource usage against AWS service limits to prevent disruptions.

2. Customizable Dashboard:

   • Provides an overview of checks and recommendations.

   • Allows you to prioritize and take action on critical issues.

3. Integration with AWS Services:

   • Works with AWS Organizations to provide a consolidated view for multiple accounts.

   • Can generate automated alerts for critical findings.