Tutorial / Cram Notes
AWS Systems Manager enables visibility and control of your AWS infrastructure. It offers the following capabilities:
- Resource Groups: Organize resources by applications, allowing you to manage and automate tasks on a collective basis.
- Insights: Track the operational health of resources and receive alerts based on specified criteria.
- Automate: Create automated workflows to make managing your AWS resources simpler and more predictable.
- Secure: Manage compliance of your AWS resources based on predefined policies or custom requirements.
Key Features
Inventory Management
Systems Manager automatically collects software inventory from your EC2 instances. This includes installed software, network configurations, and Windows updates.
Compliance Enforcement
With Systems Manager, you can ensure your resources stay in alignment with compliance policies. The tool allows you to detect violations and remediate them.
Patch Management
Patch Manager helps you automate the patching process for both Windows and Linux systems. You can schedule patches based on a specific window or during off-peak hours.
Automation and Document Creation
Use Systems Manager to create runbooks (in the form of documents) that detail common operational procedures to automate tasks.
Parameter Store
Securely store configuration data and passwords, which can be programmatically retrieved by your systems and applications.
State Manager
Ensure that your instances maintain a specified state. State Manager can enforce the desired state and help with version control.
Integrations with Other AWS Services
AWS Systems Manager seamlessly integrates with other AWS services to bolster its capabilities, such as:
- Amazon CloudWatch: For comprehensive monitoring and alarms.
- AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): For granular access controls.
- AWS Lambda: For running scripts (based on Systems Manager documents) as functions in a serverless environment.
- Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS): For notifications related to Systems Manager operations.
Comparative Overview Table
Here’s a quick comparison of AWS Systems Manager’s features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Resource Groups | Organize and aggregate resources based on criteria like application ID. |
| Insights | Proactively monitor the health and performance of your AWS environment. |
| Automate | Automate regular maintenance and deployment tasks across AWS resources. |
| Secure | Manage instances compliance and security standards. |
| Inventory | Automatically collect detailed inventory from Amazon EC2 and on-premises servers. |
| Patch Management | Simplify patching automation for enhanced security. |
| State Manager | Define and maintain consistent configuration of your instances. |
| Parameter Store | Manage configuration data and sensitive information securely. |
Example Usage
Consider a scenario where you need to automate the process of patching Amazon EC2 instances. Using Systems Manager, you would:
- Use Patch Manager to define a patching baseline.
- Create a maintenance window.
- Define tasks and assign targets for the patches.
- Execute the task during the maintenance window to apply patches.
Best Practices and Considerations
- Keep your Systems Manager Agents (SSM Agent) updated for the best performance and security.
- Use IAM roles to strictly control access to Systems Manager capabilities and resources.
- Organize resources with Resource Groups and tags for efficient bulk operations.
- Regularly monitor and audit Systems Manager activities with AWS CloudTrail.
Conclusion
For AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional candidates, mastering AWS Systems Manager is a gateway to managing AWS infrastructure effectively. Its comprehensive suite of tools automates many operational tasks and aligns with the architectural best practices that are core to the AWS certification’s learning objectives. Understanding how to leverage Systems Manager will not only aid in exam preparation but also equip you with valuable skills for managing real-world AWS environments.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: AWS Systems Manager allows you to automate software deployments to EC2 instances as well as on-premises servers.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager allows the automation of software deployments not only to EC2 instances but also to on-premises servers, provided they have the Systems Manager agent installed and are properly configured.
Which AWS configuration management tool helps to audit and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources?
- AWS Config
- Amazon Inspector
- AWS Systems Manager
- AWS CloudTrail
Answer: AWS Config
Explanation: AWS Config is the service specifically designed to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources.
In AWS Systems Manager, what is the name of the feature that allows for secure and remote access to EC2 instances without using SSH?
- Session Manager
- Instance Manager
- Automation
- Run Command
Answer: Session Manager
Explanation: Session Manager is a Systems Manager capability that lets you manage your EC2 instances through an interactive one-click browser-based shell or through the AWS CLI without using SSH.
True or False: AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store does not offer the ability to store secrets, like database passwords and API keys.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store provides secure, hierarchical storage for configuration data management and secrets management, which can include passwords and API keys.
Which feature within AWS Systems Manager would you use to group resources, like EC2 instances or Lambda functions, based on criteria for bulk operations?
- Resource Groups
- Automation
- Parameter Store
- Patch Manager
Answer: Resource Groups
Explanation: Resource groups in AWS Systems Manager allow you to organize your resources based on criteria, such as tags, for management and automation tasks at scale.
Which AWS service or feature allows you to define and track system configurations, pre-define configurations for new resources, and remediate non-compliant resources?
- AWS Trusted Advisor
- AWS Config Rules
- AWS Systems Manager State Manager
- AWS CloudFormation
Answer: AWS Systems Manager State Manager
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager State Manager helps you define and maintain consistent configuration of your resources. It can be used to configure and ensure that your resources remain in their desired state.
True or False: AWS Systems Manager Run Command provides a simple way of automating common administrative tasks like executing shell scripts across an AWS resource fleet.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager Run Command lets you remotely and securely manage the configuration of your managed instances at scale, making it simpler to automate various administrative tasks, such as executing scripts.
For which activities can you use AWS Systems Manager? (Select TWO)
- To deploy and manage applications in container-based environments
- To manage the infrastructure as code using AWS CloudFormation
- To monitor the health of your resources and automate recovery from failures
- To patch, configure, and run commands on your EC2 and on-premises servers
- To automatically archive data to Amazon Glacier
Answer: To monitor the health of your resources and automate recovery from failures
To patch, configure, and run commands on your EC2 and on-premises servers
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager provides visibility into your AWS resources’ health and allows you to automate recovery from failures. It also enables you to patch, configure, and execute commands across EC2 and on-premises servers.
True or False: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling cannot be used in conjunction with AWS Systems Manager for instance management.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can be used with AWS Systems Manager for comprehensive instance management. AWS Systems Manager can manage instances created by EC2 Auto Scaling.
AWS Systems Manager Inventory gathers metadata from your managed instances to help you with which tasks? (Select TWO)
- To analyze system inventory
- To collect telemetry data for predictive scaling
- To configure Windows Firewall on EC2 instances
- To track software license compliance
- To automate snapshot creation for EBS volumes
Answer: To analyze system inventory and To track software license compliance
Explanation: AWS Systems Manager Inventory allows you to collect and analyze metadata from your managed instances, which can assist with system inventory analysis and tracking software license compliance.
In AWS Systems Manager, what is the Automation feature primarily used for?
- To automatically respond to state changes in your AWS resources
- To manually patch instances on a scheduled basis
- To enforce consistent resource tagging
- To simplify common maintenance and deployment tasks
Answer: To simplify common maintenance and deployment tasks
Explanation: The Automation feature within AWS Systems Manager helps you to simplify complex tasks and workflows for maintenance and deployment of AWS resources.
Interview Questions
What is AWS Systems Manager and how does it fit into configuration management for AWS infrastructure?
AWS Systems Manager is a management service that helps you automatically collect software inventory, apply OS patches, create system images, and configure across your Windows and Linux operating systems. It fits into configuration management by providing a unified user interface that allows you to view operational data from multiple AWS services and automate operational tasks across your AWS resources.
Can you describe an AWS Systems Manager feature that can automate the application of OS patches?
Yes, the AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager automates the process of patching managed instances with both security-related and other types of updates. You can define patch baselines, maintain patch compliance, and schedule patching windows to update instances as necessary.
How does AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store assist with managing configuration data?
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store provides a centralized store to manage your configuration data, whether plain-text data like database strings or secrets like passwords. It provides hierarchical storage for managing configuration data and can also integrate with AWS KMS for encrypting sensitive information.
Describe how you would use AWS Systems Manager to maintain compliance across your infrastructure.
AWS Systems Manager includes a feature called State Manager, which ensures your instances are in a specified state and remain compliant with your defined configuration policies. By creating and applying state policies, you can enforce compliance at scale by automatically addressing configuration drift and maintaining the desired state as specified in your policies.
Explain how the Automation feature in AWS Systems Manager helps manage AWS resources.
The Automation feature in AWS Systems Manager allows you to create workflows that automate common and repetitive IT operational tasks. This helps to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and standardize the deployment and management of instances and other AWS resources, through predefined or custom build automation documents called runbooks.
What are AWS Systems Manager Inventory and its benefits for Solutions Architects?
AWS Systems Manager Inventory provides visibility into your AWS EC2 and on-premises computing environment. It collects metadata like installed applications, other AWS services in use, instance details, and system performance. For Solutions Architects, this provides valuable insight into the environment for planning, monitoring, and compliance reporting.
How would you use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to execute operational tasks?
AWS Systems Manager Run Command allows you to remotely and securely manage the configuration of your managed instances at scale. You can use pre-defined commands or scripts to perform operational tasks like updating applications or running Linux shell scripts, across a fleet of instances, thus reducing the need for manual SSH/RDP access.
Can AWS Systems Manager be used with on-premises servers or in a hybrid environment? If so, how?
Yes, AWS Systems Manager can be used with on-premises servers or hybrid environments. To do this, you need to install the Systems Manager agent on your on-premises servers, which will then communicate with the Systems Manager service in the AWS Cloud. This enables you to manage your hybrid environment using the same systems and processes you use for AWS resources.
Describe how you would use AWS Systems Manager Session Manager and the advantages it offers.
AWS Systems Manager Session Manager allows you to manage your EC2 instances, along with virtual machines or servers, without the need to open inbound ports, manage SSH keys, or use Bastion hosts. It provides secure instance management and logging capabilities, improving your security posture by reducing the surface area of attacks.
How does AWS Systems Manager help manage the lifecycle of an EC2 instance?
AWS Systems Manager helps manage the lifecycle of an EC2 instance by providing tools for automated provisioning, configuration, and maintenance. For example, you can use Systems Manager Automation to safely perform common maintenance tasks like AMI updates, and Systems Manager State Manager to ensure the instance remains in a compliant state throughout its lifecycle.
Can you integrate AWS Systems Manager with other AWS security services, and if so, what benefits are gained by doing so?
Yes, AWS Systems Manager can be integrated with AWS security services like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for granular access control, AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for parameter encryption, and AWS CloudTrail for audit logging. Integration with these services enhances security and compliance of the managed instances and automation workflows.
How does AWS Systems Manager contribute to cost optimization?
AWS Systems Manager contributes to cost optimization by providing insights and automated workflows that can help manage and monitor the usage and performance of resources. With features like Systems Manager Maintenance Windows, Patch Manager, and Automation, you can streamline administrative tasks and ensure that resources are efficiently utilized, which can lead to reduced overall costs.
Thanks for the informative post on Systems Manager.
In my experience, AWS Systems Manager is a fantastic tool for centralized management.
Great overview! Can anyone share their thoughts on how Ansible compares to Systems Manager?
Nice article! Does Systems Manager have any limitations in cross-region management?
What about the cost considerations for Systems Manager?
Appreciate the post!
Anyone encountered issues with compliance scans using Systems Manager?
Very useful blog. What are the security best practices for using Systems Manager?