AWS Solution Architect Cheat Sheet

Here’s a cheat sheet for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate exam:

Compute Services

  • EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud):
    • Virtual servers in the cloud.
    • Various instance types (e.g., t2.micro, m5.large).
    • Here is a dedicated AWS EC2 Cheat Sheet.
  • Elastic Load Balancer (ELB):
    • Distributes incoming application traffic across multiple EC2 instances.
  • Auto Scaling:
    • Automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances based on demand.

Storage Services

  • Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service):
    • Object storage with buckets and objects.
    • Supports static website hosting.
    • Here is a dedicated AWS S3 Cheat Sheet.
  • Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store):
    • Persistent block-level storage for EC2 instances.
  • Amazon Glacier:
    • Low-cost storage for archival data.

Databases

  • Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service):
  • Amazon DynamoDB:
    • Fully managed NoSQL database.

Networking

  • Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud):
    • Isolated virtual network within AWS.
  • Route 53:
    • AWS’s scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service.
  • CloudFront:
    • Content delivery network (CDN) for fast content delivery.

Security

  • IAM (Identity and Access Management):
    • Manage user access to AWS resources.
  • Key Management Service (KMS):
    • Manages encryption keys.
  • Security Groups and NACLs:
    • Control inbound and outbound traffic to instances.

Serverless

  • AWS Lambda:
    • Run code without provisioning or managing servers.
  • API Gateway:
    • Create, publish, and secure APIs.

Monitoring and Logging

  • Amazon CloudWatch:
    • Monitoring service for AWS resources.
  • CloudTrail:
    • Record AWS API calls for your account.

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

  • Elastic Load Balancer (ELB):
    • Distributes traffic across multiple EC2 instances.
  • Auto Scaling:
    • Ensures availability by adjusting the number of instances.

AWS Well-Architected Framework

  • Security:
    • Implement strong access controls and data encryption.
  • Reliability:
    • Design for fault tolerance and high availability.
  • Performance Efficiency:
    • Optimize resource utilization and performance.
  • Cost Optimization:
    • Match resources to requirements and control spending.
  • Operational Excellence:
    • Automate tasks, monitor performance, and continuously improve.

Integration Services

  • Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS):
    • Managed message queues.
  • Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS):
    • Publish/subscribe messaging service.

AWS Solutions Architectural Patterns

  • Three-Tier Architecture:
    • Web server, application server, and database server.
  • Microservices Architecture:
    • Decompose applications into small, independently deployable services.

AWS Pricing Models

  • On-Demand Instances:
    • Pay per compute capacity with no upfront costs.
  • Reserved Instances:
    • Reserved capacity for one or three years at a lower cost.
  • Spot Instances:
    • Bid for unused EC2 capacity at potentially lower costs.

AWS Global Accelerator

  • Global Accelerator:
    • Improve the availability and performance of applications.

AWS Organizations

  • Organizational Units (OUs):
    • Group accounts for billing and management.

AWS Exam Tips

  • Read the Questions Carefully:
    • Understand the scenario before answering.
  • Eliminate Wrong Answers:
    • Rule out options that are obviously incorrect.
  • Time Management:
    • Allocate time wisely and move on if a question is time-consuming.

Remember to use this cheat sheet as a supplement to thorough study and hands-on experience with AWS services. The AWS documentation and whitepapers are valuable resources for a deeper understanding.