Top  25+ AWS Sysops Interview Questions and Answers

1. What does Amazon Web Services mean?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a proprietary brand of Amazon which provides secure cloud computing services. It offers cloud computing, databases, storage facilities, content deliveries and many other states of art services to business of any scale. Business organizations can concentrate on customer acquisition and retention rather than concentrating on data management. This new system of cloud computing is also known as IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service

2. What is the importance of Buffer in Amazon Web Services?

Buffer synchronizes different components of services and makes necessary arrangements to provide elasticity to serve a sudden outburst in the traffic. Components are generally prone to traffic and become very unstable while receiving and processing requests. Buffer creates a balance within various components to provide services without sluggishness.

3. What is the most efficient method of securing data in the cloud?

The most efficient way of securing data is to monitor it while moving from one point to another. Leakages in security keys within the number of the storeroom in the cloud should be closely monitored. Segregating the information and encrypting them with one of the approved methods in one of the nest method to stop pilferage of data. Amazon Web Services provides a very secure form of data management within the cloud. 

4. What are the different layers of cloud computing?

Following are the list of the layers in cloud computing:
1. PaaS – Platform as a Service
2. IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
3. SaaS – Software as a Service

5. What are the components involved in Amazon Web Services?

Amazon Web Services consists of various Components as stated below:-

 Route 53: It’s a simple DNS based web service.

 Amazon S3: With this component, key information necessary in creating structural designs and generating any other amount of data produced is stored in consequence of the key specified. 

 Amazon EC2: This component runs efficiently on a large distributed system on a Hadoop Cluster. Parallelization is on an automatic mode and scheduling of tasks can be achieved through this component efficiently.

Amazon SQS: Mediator between different controllers. It also acts as a cushion as and when required.

 Amazon Simple DB: Stores the transitional position logs and errors executed by its consumers.

Cloudwatch: Monitors Amazon Web Services resources and allows administrators to view and collect keys.

6. What is the difference between scalability and flexibility?

The capability to enhance the performance to complete the tasks in hand with the available resources is known as Scalability, whereas the capability of the system to work in its full capacity is known as flexibility. Amazon Web Services can scale its services as and when required apart from being flexible by augmenting its supplementary hardware properties.

7. Name the Various Layers in Cloud Architecture.

1. CC – Cluster Controller
2. SC – Storage Controller
3. CLC – Cloud Controller
4. Walrus
5. NIC – Node Controller

8. What do you mean by auto-scaling?

One of the most remarkable features in Amazon Web Services is when it allows you to organize and artificially stipulates on its own and spins up new problem-solving methods without requiring your involvement. It can be achieved by setting the brinks and metrics on a watch.

9. Which automatic gears help us with spinup services?

API tools that are normally used for writing scripts are being used for spinup services. These can be scripted in Perl, bash or any other language preferences. Tools like Scalr are also used other than controlled ones like RightScale.

10. How can an Amazon instance be scaled vertically?

 It is one of the most credible characteristics of Amazon Web Services. Spinup should be the last line of defense. We should increase the instance and separate the root EBS volume and remove it from this server. The distinctive device ID should be noted down and appended to the new server and the machine should be started again. This is the most efficient method to scale up vertically in Amazon Web Services.

11. How does the process start, stop and terminate tasks?

If an instance is closed, it functions as usual power cut and changes over to clogged position. If the instance gets terminated it performs like a total blackout and the attached volumes will be removed except the volumes delete on termination characteristic is set to zero. 

12. What is the Amazon EC2 service?

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a service that provides scalable computing services on the cloud and can be used to launch as many virtual services on need.

13. What are the features of Amazon EC2 Services?

It has the following features:-
1. Virtual Computing Environments
2. Pre Configured Templates for Instances
3. Complete packages needed for server in the form of AMI
4. Secure Login Information for Instances using key pairs
5. Storage volumes for temporary data are deleted when instances are terminated.
6. It provides persistent storage volumes.
7. Firewall enabling you to specify the protocol
8. The static IP address for dynamic cloud computing known as elastic IPs

14. What is the relation between Instance and AMI?

Amazon Web Services provides various methods to access Amazon EC2. Web based interface, Amazon Web Services command line interface and Amazon tools for windows Powershell. For this one has to sign up for an Amazon Web Services account to access the Amazon EC2. From a single AMI, many instances can be launched. An instance typically symbolizes the hardware of the host computer. Each instance type offers different computing and memory capabilities.

15. Explain storage for Amazon EC2 instances.

Amazon EC2 provides four options for data storage depending upon its performances and durability.
1. Amazon EBS – data storage volume is independent of the running life of the instance. It’s just like accessing an external hard disk drive on the cloud.
2. Amazon EC2 Instance store – Storage volume that is attached to the host computer. The data on the instance store is available only till the life of the instance and if you terminate it, the data is lost forever.
3. Amazon S3 – the most reliable and inexpensive option for accessing and modifying data from anywhere anytime.
4. Adding storage – Evert time we launch an instance a root storage device is created for that instance.

16. What are the best security practices exercised in Amazon EC2?

>> Using Amazon Web Services we can achieve identity and the access
>> We use Management control to access your resources
>> Restricted accesses from trusted networks are allowed to access the ports on your instance.

17. What do you understand by elastic block storage?

EBS is a virtual storage area network (SAN) which means it is RAID storage and is redundant free and fault tolerant. If the disk is corrupt, then data is not lost as it has been virtualized. It can be managed on own and no need to call storage experts for services. The data can be recovered and reinstalled as & when necessary.

18. What do you know about S3 and what are the uses of it?

 It’s just like FTP services, where you can move files to and fro but cannot mount them. S3 can be used for storing and retrieving data from anywhere and anytime using the web. Most of the organization’s stores data like documents and other images here. We can pay for the S3 service as we required.

19. Should Encryption be done in S3?

 Simple Storage Service is a proprietary service of Amazon and a security point of view is yet to be proven. Sensitive data can be encrypted as per the need of the organization.

20. How can I build an AMI?

Building an AMI can be initiated by spinning up an instance on a trusted AMI. Then we can add up the packages and components as required. For instance, the access credentials have to be put into a database after launching the instance. On screen guidance are also available after each and every step through dialogue boxes.

21. What is Configuration Management?

In earlier days when the server was just started to be found necessary for cooperates, many system administrators prefer manually configuration of the servers as the software was made prior to the era of version control. That’s why each and every server is slightly different than the other. This technique of manual configuration of servers is being practiced for long but somehow it wasn’t popular.

22. Should Configuration Management be provisioned in Clod Services?

Configuration Management was applicable to physical servers for hosting their websites locally and was needed to upgrade as per the requirement of the software version. It was a cumbersome activity and cost huge. As in the cloud, it’s not preferable as a wide range of services vary on the configuration of the AMIs. If given the option in the cloud, chances of disasters will be on the rise leading to data recovery more often.

23. Explain how to simulate perimeter security using Amazon Web Services Model?

As we all know traditional perimeter security is the using of firewalls which was used as the first line of defense, ever since we felt the need for security systems. Traditional methods have become obsolete and are not supported in Amazon Web services or Amazon EC2. Amazon prefers and supports security groups. A security group can be created for a jump box with ssh access. From that point, a webserver and database group can be created. We can then add the end number of machines to the webserver group and they all take care of the database. No one can directly ssh to any of the machines.

24. How to use Amazon SQS?

Amazon Simple Queue service is a message passing system used for communication between different connectors interconnected with each other. It also communicates between all the components of the Amazon web services, keeping all different functional components together.

25. Explain IAM services in Amazon web Services.

Amazon Web Services identity and Access Management is a web service that helps us to access Amazon Web Services resources in a secured manner. It a higher grade of authentication and authorization process used for the users of the application.

26. What is an Amazon Web Services Certificate Manager?

Amazon Web Services security manager handles the complex responsibility of providing; deploying and managing certificates produced for Amazon Web Services based websites and applications. ACM certificates are available for use with Elastic load Balancing and Amazon Cloudfront. ACM can be requested to manage the certificates and then use AW Services to provide the ACM certificate for your website or application. ACM certificates cannot be used outside the Amazon Web Services Platform.

27. What is Redshift?

 Redshift is a rapid, fully managed petabyte scale data warehouse services that make simple and very cost effective way to analyze all data with existing business intelligence tools. It is one of the states of art facilities provided to corporate. 

28. What is the number of buckets are created in AMAZON WEB SERVICES by default?

100 buckets can be created in each and every Amazon Web Services accounts. Each and every account needs a separate email identity and relevant data to be unique.

29. What is DynamoDB?

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that provides speedy and reliable performance with the facility to upscale as and when needed. DynamoDB is a place to generate any number of data that can be stored and retrieved and serve any level of traffic, maintaining its speedy and consistent performances.