Tutorial / Cram Notes
Multi-account event notifications are an essential feature for managing and monitoring AWS environments, particularly for users preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) exam. This certification involves understanding complex scenarios and the AWS services that can be applied to solve problems, which includes managing events across multiple AWS accounts.
AWS offers several services that facilitate multi-account event notifications. Notably, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, and Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) can be used in tandem to create a robust notification system.
Amazon CloudWatch Events
Amazon CloudWatch Events deliver a near real-time stream of system events that describe changes in AWS resources. With CloudWatch Events, you can set up rules to trigger actions in response to changes in your AWS resources.
Using CloudWatch Events in a multi-account setting involves two main steps:
- Setting up the Event Source: Rules are established in individual accounts that match the events of interest.
- Routing Events: Events that match the rules can be routed to targets like AWS Lambda functions, Kinesis streams, or an SNS topic.
Cross-Account Event Delivery
Here’s how to set up cross-account event delivery with Amazon CloudWatch Events:
- Event Rule Creation: Create a rule in the source account.
- Event Bus in Target Account: Set up an event bus in the target account(s) to receive events.
- Permissions: Update the event bus policy to allow the source account to send events to it.
- Target Configuration: Configure the target in the source account to send events to the event bus in the target account.
AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail logs, continuously monitors, and retains account activity related to actions across your AWS infrastructure. CloudTrail allows for event history to look up API calls and for ongoing monitoring of calls to APIs.
In a multi-account environment, AWS CloudTrail can be configured to aggregate logs from multiple accounts into a single S3 bucket. This provides a centralized view of all account activity.
Steps for setting up multi-account logging with CloudTrail:
- Create a Trail: In the master account, create a new trail and set it to apply to all regions.
- S3 Bucket Configuration: Select an S3 bucket that will collect logs from all monitored accounts.
- IAM Role: Create IAM roles in each member account that allows CloudTrail to assume the role and write logs.
- Log File Validation: Optionally, enable log file validation to ensure the integrity of the log files.
Amazon SNS
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is a flexible, fully managed pub/sub messaging and mobile notifications service for coordinating the delivery of messages to subscribing endpoints and clients.
For multi-account notifications, SNS can be configured to accept messages from CloudWatch or CloudTrail in different accounts and then forward these to the subscription endpoints such as email, SMS, HTTP/S, or applications that need to be notified.
Steps for configuring SNS for multi-account notifications:
- Create a Topic: Create an SNS topic in the central account that will receive notifications from other accounts.
- Set Up Permissions: Define a policy that allows other accounts to publish to the SNS topic.
- Subscribe: In the central account, set up subscriptions to the SNS topic. These could be Lambda functions, email addresses, SMS numbers, etc.
Example: Cross-Account SNS Topic Policy
Here’s an example policy allowing a secondary account to publish to an SNS topic in the master account:
{
“Version”: “2012-10-17”,
“Statement”: [{
“Effect”: “Allow”,
“Principal”: {
“AWS”: “arn:aws:iam::
},
“Action”: “SNS:Publish”,
“Resource”: “arn:aws:sns:
}]
}
Comparison: CloudWatch Events vs. CloudTrail
| Feature | CloudWatch Events | CloudTrail |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Event-driven compute management | Account activity logging and monitoring |
| Data Source | AWS service events | API calls made to AWS services |
| Real-Time | Near real-time | Near real-time (delivered within 15 minutes) |
| Custom Application Integration | Lambda, EC2, SNS, etc. | Primarily through S3 analysis or SNS |
| Historically available | Last 90 days of events | As long as logs are stored in S3 |
Conclusion
Setting up multi-account event notifications using a combination of AWS services is a common requirement for Solutions Architects looking to design scalable and secure AWS environments. By using CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and SNS effectively, architects have powerful tools at their disposal to monitor and respond to events across an entire organization’s AWS presence. This is a critical competency covered in the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) exam and one that is highly applicable to real-world scenarios.
Practice Test with Explanation
True or False: AWS Organizations can automatically enroll new accounts in your organization into AWS CloudTrail.
- A) True
- B) False
A) True
Explanation: AWS Organizations helps you centrally manage billing; control access, compliance, and security; and share resources across your AWS accounts.
AWS Config can aggregate data from multiple accounts and regions into a single account for analysis.
- A) True
- B) False
A) True
Explanation: AWS Config supports multi-account, multi-region data aggregation, which gives you the ability to aggregate AWS Config data from multiple accounts and regions into a single account.
Amazon CloudWatch Events can respond to state changes in your AWS resources across multiple accounts.
- A) True
- B) False
A) True
Explanation: Amazon CloudWatch Events (now part of Amazon EventBridge) enables you to react to state changes in your AWS resources with automated actions, and it supports multi-account events.
Which AWS service allows you to monitor and receive notifications about AWS resource changes across multiple accounts?
- A) AWS SNS
- B) AWS Config
- C) AWS CloudTrail
- D) AWS CloudWatch
B) AWS Config
Explanation: AWS Config enables you to see the history of configuration changes and relationships between AWS resources, and it supports the ability to monitor resources across multiple accounts.
Amazon SNS is a suitable service for broadcasting notifications about AWS resource events to multiple subscribers.
- A) True
- B) False
A) True
Explanation: Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) is a managed service that provides message delivery from publishers to subscribers (also known as producers and consumers). SNS can be used for broadcasting notifications from one AWS service to multiple subscribers.
Which AWS service or feature can be used to centralize logging and manage events in multiple AWS accounts?
- A) AWS CloudTrail
- B) Amazon EventBridge
- C) AWS Organizations
- D) Both A and B
D) Both A and B
Explanation: AWS CloudTrail can be used to track user activity and API usage across multiple AWS accounts. Amazon EventBridge allows the ingestion of events from AWS services, and it natively supports multi-account event collection.
AWS Organizations does not support sending all member account CloudWatch Events to the master account.
- A) True
- B) False
B) False
Explanation: AWS Organizations can be used to set up CloudWatch Events in such a way that events from all member accounts are sent to the master account for centralized visibility.
Which service can be used to automate responses to state changes across multiple AWS accounts?
- A) AWS Lambda
- B) AWS Step Functions
- C) Amazon EventBridge
- D) All of the above
D) All of the above
Explanation: AWS Lambda allows you to execute functions in response to events. AWS Step Functions enables you to orchestrate microservices into workflows. Amazon EventBridge facilitates automated event-driven computing across multiple AWS accounts.
Centralized logging across multiple AWS accounts requires all logs to be manually transferred from each account to a central account.
- A) True
- B) False
B) False
Explanation: Centralized logging can be configured using AWS services such as AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch logs which support automatic log collection and aggregation across multiple accounts.
To manage multi-account event notifications, you must use third-party tools as AWS does not have any native capabilities for this purpose.
- A) True
- B) False
B) False
Explanation: AWS provides native capabilities for multi-account event notifications, such as Amazon CloudWatch Events and AWS Config rules, which allow you to standardize infrastructure compliance and security monitoring across accounts and regions.
Which feature must be enabled to aggregate AWS Config data across multiple accounts and regions?
- A) AWS Config rules
- B) AWS Config multi-account multi-region data aggregation
- C) AWS Config continuous monitoring
- D) AWS Organizations service control policies
B) AWS Config multi-account multi-region data aggregation
Explanation: AWS Config multi-account multi-region data aggregation is the feature that needs to be enabled in order to collect and aggregate configuration and compliance data across multiple accounts and regions into a central account.
In a multi-account AWS environment, all CloudTrail logs can be delivered to a single Amazon S3 bucket.
- A) True
- B) False
A) True
Explanation: AWS CloudTrail supports delivering log files from multiple accounts to a single Amazon S3 bucket for centralized storage and analysis. This requires proper configuration and bucket policies.
Interview Questions
How would you use AWS services to implement a centralized logging solution for multi-account event notifications?
You would use Amazon CloudWatch Events to collect and route events from different AWS accounts to a central account. Then, you could use Amazon EventBridge to create rules that filter and direct these events to AWS Lambda functions, Amazon SNS topics, Amazon SQS queues, or other targets for processing and storage. This setup allows for a unified view of events across all accounts.
Can you explain the concept of event buses in Amazon EventBridge and how they relate to multi-account event notifications?
An event bus in Amazon EventBridge receives events from various sources and allows rules to match and route them to targets. In a multi-account scenario, you can create a central event bus in one account and allow other accounts to send events to it using cross-account event delivery. This central event bus acts as the hub for all event notifications, making it easier to manage and monitor events from multiple accounts.
What AWS service would you use to ensure the structured and secure relaying of event notifications from multiple AWS accounts to a centralized monitoring system?
To ensure structured and secure relaying of event notifications, I would use AWS Organizations in conjunction with Amazon EventBridge. AWS Organizations helps set up and manage multiple AWS accounts, while EventBridge allows the creation of cross-account event delivery rules. This enables secure and organized transmission of event data to a centralized monitoring system.
How do you ensure security and compliance when dealing with event notifications across multiple AWS accounts?
Security and compliance can be ensured by implementing least privilege access control using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies. This includes creating roles with only the necessary permissions for publishing and subscribing to events. Additionally, it’s important to use AWS resource policies for Amazon SNS topics and Amazon SQS queues to restrict access and AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for event data encryption.
What best practices would you follow when designing a system for handling event notifications for multiple AWS accounts?
When designing a system for multi-account event notifications, follow these best practices: Use Amazon EventBridge for scalable event routing, leverage AWS Organizations for efficient account management, implement a consistent naming convention for resources, apply strict IAM policies for security, and monitor and log activities using Amazon CloudWatch Logs and AWS CloudTrail.
How does Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) fit into a multi-account event notification architecture?
Amazon SNS facilitates multi-account event notification by allowing topics to be subscribed to by endpoints such as AWS Lambda functions, email addresses, or HTTP endpoints in different AWS accounts. SNS serves as a highly available, durable, and secure pub/sub messaging service that can integrate with Amazon EventBridge for event-driven architectures.
What role does AWS CloudTrail play in multi-account event notification tracking?
AWS CloudTrail plays a critical role by logging all events related to API calls across AWS accounts. These logs can be centrally monitored and analyzed for auditing and troubleshooting purposes. CloudTrail ensures that all event notifications, as well as the actions taken in response to these events, are recorded for compliance and forensics.
How can you automate the response to specific event notifications across multiple AWS accounts?
You can automate responses to specific events by using Amazon EventBridge to create rules that trigger AWS Lambda functions or step functions in response to matched events. By doing so, you can implement automated, coordinated actions across multiple accounts without manual intervention.
When managing event notifications across numerous AWS accounts, what challenges could you encounter, and how would you overcome them?
Challenges include ensuring consistent security postures, maintaining clear visibility into events, and managing the complexity of multiple accounts. To overcome these, use centralized identity management with AWS Single Sign-On (SSO), aggregate logs in a central account with Amazon CloudWatch Logs or AWS Security Hub, and employ automation and standardization best practices using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like AWS CloudFormation or Terraform.
Describe how you would utilize Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon EventBridge together to handle a multi-account event notification system.
Amazon CloudWatch can be utilized to collect and monitor logs and metrics across AWS accounts. By creating CloudWatch alarms, specific events can be detected. These alarms can then publish to Amazon SNS topics or directly to Amazon EventBridge, where they can be routed to the central event bus for further processing. EventBridge allows sophisticated rule definitions to filter and direct the notifications to the appropriate targets, such as Lambda functions or external systems.
What strategies would you recommend for efficiently managing permissions for event notification services across multiple AWS accounts?
Implement centralized management of permissions using AWS Organizations and Service Control Policies (SCPs). SCPs can restrict or allow actions across all accounts in the organization. In addition, use IAM roles with cross-account access policies for services that need to interact with resources in other accounts. This ensures that permissions are consistently applied and easier to manage at scale.
Is it possible to leverage AWS services to create a real-time dashboard for multi-account event notifications? If so, how?
Yes, it’s possible to leverage AWS services like Amazon EventBridge for event ingestion, AWS Lambda for processing, Amazon DynamoDB for storage, and Amazon CloudWatch for metrics and alarms. You can integrate these with Amazon QuickSight or a third-party dashboarding tool to visualize the event data in real-time. This setup can provide an operational overview of the multi-account environment, enabling users to quickly respond to critical notifications.
Great post! I’ve been looking for a guide on multi-account event notifications for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional.
Thanks for sharing. This made my prep so much easier.
Can someone explain how multi-account event notifications work in a real-world scenario?
Is it possible to integrate these notifications with other monitoring tools?
Appreciate the detailed explanation on setting up EventBridge for multi-account notifications.
I noticed that the documentation provided by AWS is pretty comprehensive, but this blog post simplifies things a lot.
Does anyone have experience with the costs associated with setting up multi-account event notifications?
Great read! This will definitely help me prepare for the SAP-C02 exam.