Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is a fully managed messaging service for both application-to-application (A2A) and application-to-person (A2P) communication. Here’s how you can configure this in a few steps:
- Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon SNS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/sns/.
- Select ‘Create topic’.
- In the Create new topic dialog box, enter a ‘Topic name’ and a ‘Display name’. Click ‘Create topic’.
- In the Amazon SNS console dashboard, select the ARN for your topic.
- In the Topic details section, choose ‘Create subscription’.
- In the ‘Create subscription’ dialog box, from the ‘Protocol’ drop-down box, select the communication protocol for your subscription.
- In the ‘Endpoint’ box, type the endpoint that you want to receive notifications. For HTTP/HTTPS, this is a URL. For email, this is an email address.
- Choose ‘Create subscription’.
For example, let’s say you want to send AWS Cloudwatch logs to an HTTP endpoint, you’ll choose HTTP/HTTPS as the protocol then type in your target endpoint in the ‘Endpoint’ box.
II. Service Quotas Configuration
AWS Service Quotas is an AWS service that enables you to view and manage your quotas from a central location. Here are the steps:
- Open the Service Quotas console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/.
- In the navigation pane, choose ‘AWS services’.
- On the AWS Services page, choose the service that you want.
- On the Service page, in the Quotas section, choose the quota.
- Choose ‘Request quota increase’.
- In the Request quota increase wizard, confirm the new quota value and choose ‘Request’.
For example, when you need increased RDS instance limits in your AWS account, you will prefer the Amazon RDS service, then request a quota increase for the instance limit.
III. AWS CloudWatch Alarms Configuration
With Amazon CloudWatch, you gain system-wide visibility into resource utilization, application performance, and operational health. Example of how to configure CloudWatch for instance CPU utilization:
- Open the AWS Management Console and navigate to https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.
- In the navigation pane, choose ‘Alarms’, ‘Create alarm’.
- In ‘Create Alarm’, specify the details for the alarm.
- In ‘Conditions’, set the ‘Threshold type’. For instance, ‘Static’.
- In ‘Whenever:’, set the condition for the alarm. For instance, ‘> 70%’
- In ‘Actions’, select the ‘State’ to ‘alarm’. And in ‘Send notification to:’, specify the SNS topic created in step I.
- Choose ‘Create Alarm’.
IV. Configuring AWS Health Events
AWS Health provides ongoing visibility into your resource performance and the availability of your AWS services. To configure Health events notifications:
- Open the Personal Health Dashboard at https://phd.aws.amazon.com/phd/home#/dashboard.
- Choose ‘Event log’.
- Choose an event.
- On the event details page, scroll down to the AWS Health tools section.
- Choose ‘Set up notifications with Amazon SNS’.
- Follow the directions to set up a new Amazon SNS topic or use an existing one.
- Choose ‘Set up notifications’.
In conclusion, understanding these notification setups is crucial for every AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate. These configurations will enable you to monitor issues and respond in real-time to maintain a healthy AWS environment.
Practice Test
True or False: Amazon SNS can be used to send notifications in response to events, such as a new user sign-up or an error.
- Answer: True
Explanation: Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) is a web service that coordinates and manages the delivery or sending of messages to subscribing endpoints or clients.
Which of the following can you do with AWS CloudWatch?
- A. Monitor your applications
- B. Collect and track metrics
- C. Set alarms
- D. All of the above
Answer: D. All of the above
Explanation: AWS CloudWatch enables you to monitor your applications, collect and track metrics, and set alarms.
True or False: AWS Health events provide alerts and remediation suggestions when AWS is experiencing operational issues.
- Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Health provides ongoing visibility into your resource performance and the availability of your AWS environment.
Which AWS service allows you to view and manage your service quotas?
- A. Amazon SNS
- B. Service Quotas
- C. AWS CloudWatch
- D. AWS Lambda
Answer: B. Service Quotas
Explanation: Service Quotas is the AWS service that enables you to view and manage your quotas, also referred to as limits, from a central location.
True or False: Amazon SNS can only publish messages to HTTP endpoints.
- Answer: False
Explanation: Amazon SNS can publish messages to a variety of endpoints types, including HTTP, email, AWS Lambda, and even SMS text messages.
Which service would you use to configure alarms for your Amazon EC2 instances?
- A. AWS CloudWatch
- B. Amazon SNS
- C. Service Quotas
- D. AWS Health
Answer: A. AWS CloudWatch
Explanation: AWS CloudWatch allows you to create alarms that notify you when certain thresholds are breached.
True or False: You can use AWS Health events to alert you to potential issues with your AWS resources.
- Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Health gives you visibility into service availability, providing relevant and timely information to help you manage events in progress.
Which AWS service can send you a notification when a certain threshold is reached or an unusual activity is detected?
- A. Amazon SNS
- B. AWS CloudWatch
- C. Both A and B
- D. None of the above
Answer: C. Both A and B
Explanation: Both Amazon SNS and AWS CloudWatch can send notifications based on specific thresholds or unusual activity.
True or False: AWS Service Quotas is used to send notifications about AWS services.
- Answer: False
Explanation: AWS Service Quotas is an AWS service that enables you to manage your AWS service quotas. Amazon SNS can be used to send notifications about AWS services.
Where can you find a centralized view of your AWS service health?
- A. AWS Service Quotas
- B. AWS Health Dashboard
- C. AWS CloudWatch
- D. Amazon SNS
Answer: B. AWS Health Dashboard
Explanation: AWS Health Dashboard provides a personalized view of the status of your AWS services, and alerts you when your resources are impacted.
Interview Questions
What is Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS)?
Amazon SNS is a fully managed notification service provided by Amazon. It provides a powerful, flexible, and convenient mechanism for organizing and designing scalable and robust messaging scenarios.
What are the main features of Amazon SNS?
Amazon SNS provides topics for high-throughput, push-based, many-to-many messaging. Using Amazon SNS topics, your publisher systems can distribute messages to a large number of subscriber systems, which include Amazon SQS queues, AWS Lambda functions, and HTTP/S webhooks.
What is the purpose of Service Quotas in AWS?
AWS Service Quotas allow you to view and manage your quotas (formerly known as limits) from a central location, for a wide range of AWS services.
How can you change an AWS Service Quota?
AWS Service Quotas allows you to request quota increases for adjustable quotas for various AWS services.
What is an AWS CloudWatch alarm?
Amazon CloudWatch alarms automatically send notifications or changes your resources status, based upon the specified metric.
How does AWS CloudWatch alarm work?
AWS CloudWatch alarms work by comparing a specific metrics with a defined threshold over a specific period. An alarm can be set for one or more periods.
Can you provide an example of using AWS CloudWatch alarms?
AWS CloudWatch alarms can be used to monitor an Amazon EC2 instance and automatically stop or terminate it if it’s idle for too long or if it surpasses a certain threshold of CPU utilization.
What are AWS Health events?
AWS Health provides ongoing visibility into your resource performance and the availability of your AWS services and accounts. Events are created by services for operational changes, like AWS Region issues or maintenance updates that require your attention.
How AWS Health events are categorized?
AWS Health events are categorized into issues, scheduled changes, and account notifications.
Can you configure notifications for AWS Health events?
Yes, you can configure notifications for AWS Health events to be delivered via AWS Personal Health Dashboard, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS Health API, or AWS CLI.
How can you view your current CloudWatch alarm configuration?
You can view your current Amazon CloudWatch alarm configuration in the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or using the CloudWatch API.
Can Amazon SNS send notifications to mobile devices?
Yes, Amazon SNS can send notifications to mobile devices using platform-specific protocols such as Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) and Google Cloud Messaging (GCM).
What are the steps to configure notifications for Amazon RDS using Amazon SNS?
To configure notifications for Amazon RDS, you would need to create an Amazon RDS event subscription with an SNS topic. The topic should have policies that allow Amazon RDS to post messages to it.
What happens when an AWS Service Quota is exceeded?
Exceeding an AWS Service Quota typically results in an error from that service, indicating that your quota has been exceeded. Some quotas trigger warnings rather than errors.
extutorials.com