How to Pass AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate SOA-C02 - Study Question List

2021/03/018 min read
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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. CloudWatch Logs
  3. CloudTrail
  4. CloudWatch Agent
  5. CloudWatch Alarm
  6. AWS EventBridge
  7. AWS System Manager
  8. AWS AutoScaling
  9. AWS RDS
  10. Caching
  11. Elastic Load Balancer
  12. Route 53
  13. AWS S3
  14. EC2
  15. Deployment and Operations
  16. Security
  17. Networking
  18. Logs
  19. Conclusion

Introduction

Starting from July 27, 2021, the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate exam was updated from SOA-C01 to SOA-C02. This blog helps you prepare for the exam based on the exam guide. Below is a list of questions compiled during the review of the exam guide. These questions won't guarantee you'll pass the exam, but they will help you better prepare.

CloudWatch Logs

  • How much does CloudWatch Logs cost?

  • How to send application logs from EC2 to CloudWatch Logs? Specify the log group, set retention, and analyze the log data.

  • How to use CloudWatch Insights to interactively search and analyze logs?

  • How to send notifications when CloudWatch logs exceed a threshold?

  • How to use CloudWatch Filter to filter the logs?

  • What other AWS services can send logs to CloudWatch Logs?

  • CloudWatch Logs alternatives?

  • How to archive old log data to S3 archive storage?

CloudTrail

  • What is a list of fields CloudTrail shows?

  • How to query and analyze CloudTrail log data?

  • How to use S3 lifecycle policies to transfer logs to a cheaper tier?

CloudWatch Agent

  • How to collect custom metrics, memory, and disk usage by using the CloudWatch agent?

  • How to install the CloudWatch Agent on an EC2 instance by using Systems Manager?

  • How to use CloudWatch Agent with OpenTelemetry?

  • What list of AWS services can use the CloudWatch Agent to send custom metrics?

  • How to use the CloudWatch Agent on an on-premises server?

  • CloudWatch alternatives?

CloudWatch Alarm

  • How to set a billing alarm?

  • How to create a CPU utilization CloudWatch alarm when CPU is over a certain threshold?

  • How to create an EC2 instance status CloudWatch alarm to watch when the site is down?

  • Why does DynamoDB create a basic alarm?

  • How much does the CloudWatch alarm cost?

  • CloudWatch alternatives?

AWS EventBridge

  • What is the list of use cases for EventBridge?

  • How to use EventBridge as a scheduler to trigger Lambda?

AWS System Manager

  • What list of features can AWS Systems Manager provide?

AWS AutoScaling

  • How to use Auto Scaling based on EC2 CPU usage?

  • What is the list of AWS services that can use Auto Scaling?

  • What are the different ways to handle Auto Scaling?

  • AWS Auto Scaling alternatives?

AWS RDS

  • How to use RDS to create different RDS databases?

  • How to create RDS replicas?

  • How to create Aurora?

  • How to create Aurora replicas?

  • How to set up Multi-AZ for RDS?

Caching

  • What is the list of AWS services that can use caching?

  • How to set up ElastiCache, and which services can use ElastiCache?

  • How to set up an ElastiCache cluster?

  • What is eviction, and how do you handle eviction for Redis or Memcached?

  • What list of metrics should you watch for ElastiCache, and how to react?

Elastic Load Balancer

  • How to set up a Classic Load Balancer?

  • How to set up an Application Load Balancer?

  • How to set up a Network Load Balancer?

  • How to set up a Gateway Load Balancer?

  • Price?

  • Elastic Load Balancer alternatives?

Route 53

  • How to set up Route 53 health checks?

  • What are Route 53 health check alternatives?

  • What are DNS logs, and what are they for?

  • What is the difference between geolocation and geoproximity?

  • What is the Route 53 DNS Resolver, and what are its use cases?

  • Amazon FSx

AWS S3

  • How to configure AWS S3 cross-region replication, and why? Latency?

  • How to create a static website?

  • How to use CloudFront with OAI for an S3 static site?

  • AWS Fargate

  • How to set up a simple app with AWS Fargate?

  • Price?

EC2

  • How to use AWS Image Builder?

Deployment and Operations

  • OpsWorks: How to use OpsWorks? Basic usage. Price?

  • AWS CodeDeploy: How to use CodeDeploy to deploy code?

  • How to deploy a simple Express.js app using CodeDeploy?

  • Any other ways to deploy?

  • List of deployment policies: rolling, immutable, and more?

  • Service Quotas: Good to watch what AWS limitations exist so you can send quota requests.

  • Elastic Beanstalk: How to create an Express.js app with Elastic Beanstalk including deployment?

  • CloudFormation: CloudFormation vs. Terraform? Which is better?

Security

  • IAM Access Analyzer: How to use IAM Access Analyzer?

  • IAM Policy Simulator: How to use IAM Policy Simulator?

  • AWS Control Tower: How to use AWS Control Tower to create a sample best-practice environment?

  • AWS Encryption: How to use AWS KMS? What if you don't use AWS KMS?

  • How to use Cloud HSM?

  • What list of services uses encryption at rest in AWS?

  • What list of services uses encryption in transit in AWS?

  • AWS Secrets Manager: How to store secrets?

  • AWS Parameter Store: How to use Parameter Store?

  • AWS GuardDuty: How to use GuardDuty? What can it do?

  • AWS WAF: How to use WAF, and when to use WAF?

  • What is the list of AWS WAF managed rules?

  • AWS Shield: What is AWS Shield, and how to use it?

  • AWS Config: How to use AWS Config?

  • What is the list of common best-practice AWS Config rules to use?

  • AWS Inspector: How to set up AWS Inspector to analyze security issues on EC2?

  • What is the list of AWS services that can use AWS Inspector to analyze security issues?

  • AWS Macie: How to use AWS Macie to discover sensitive data (PII)?

  • What data sources does it support? Does it only support AWS or on-premises?

  • Security Groups

  • Network ACLs

  • Systems Manager Session Manager: How to use Session Manager to access instances?

  • What list of AWS services does Session Manager support?

  • Session Manager alternatives?

Networking

  • VPC Endpoints

  • VPC Peering: How to set up VPC peering? Case study?

  • AWS VPN: What is AWS VPN, and what is it for?

  • AWS Transit Gateway

  • AWS BGP Connections

  • AWS Customer Network

  • Others: How to build fault-tolerant workloads with AWS?

Logs

  • VPC Flow Logs

  • Load Balancer Access Logs

  • AWS WAF Web ACL Logs

  • CloudFront Logs

  • Any other logs?

  • Backup: How to back up a list of services?

Conclusion

This study question list covers the key topics from the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate SOA-C02 exam guide. Use these questions as a starting point for your study plan, and make sure to dive deep into each topic to build a solid understanding before taking the exam.

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