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AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate SAA-C03 Bootcamp

Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Intermediate content levelIntermediate

Get ready for the exam with this deep dive into Amazon's cloud offerings

AWS cloud infrastructure is a secure, extensive, and reliable cloud platform that offers more than 200 fully featured services from data centers around the world. Whether you need to deploy application workloads globally in a single click or are building and deploying specific applications closer to your end users with minimal latency, AWS gives you the cloud infrastructure you need, where and when you need it.

Join expert Mark Wilkins to get ready for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam or simply to learn about the services and capabilities of the AWS cloud. In this six-part series, you'll become conversant with the core services that you need to know, either to successfully complete the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Exam (SAA-C03) or to develop the knowledge and skills to operate securely within the AWS cloud. You’ll be guided through a mix of live demonstrations, presentations, discussions, a focused project, and postcourse labs that reinforce key concepts.

NOTE: With today’s registration, you’ll be signed up for all six sessions. Although you can attend any of the sessions individually, we recommend participating in all six weeks and pursuing the live test scenarios after each session. Student materials to support prepping for the exam include test questions, cheat sheets, flash cards, technical briefs, and labs.

Week 1: Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is hosted in multiple locations worldwide. These locations are composed of Regions, Availability Zones, and edge locations. In this session, you’ll learn how to plan deployments in AWS Regions and Availability Zones and understand edge locations and other associated services.

Week 2: AWS Administration Toolbox

This session focuses on available AWS managed services for performing administrative tasks such as monitoring, troubleshooting, and managing compliance using the AWS management console and the AWS CLI. Topics include CloudWatch, CloudFront, CloudTrail, Trusted Advisor, AWS Config, GuardDuty, CloudFormation, and Service Catalog.

Week 3: AWS Networking Services

In week 3, you’ll increase your understanding of AWS networking components and cover all aspects of creating and deploying a custom virtual private cloud, including designing with Availability Zones and subnets, VPC connectivity, IP addressing, endpoints, NAT services, and more.

Week 4: AWS Virtual Servers (EC2 Instances)

An instance is a virtual server in the AWS cloud. With Amazon EC2, you can set up and configure the operating system and applications that run on your instance. In week 4, you’ll learn how to order and deploy AWS EC2 instances and instance families.

Week 5: AWS Storage Options

With AWS’s wide variety of storage and data transfer and migration services, it can be challenging to know where to start. Dive into AWS cloud storage options and see how to put them to work.

Week 6: Scaling Applications at AWS

Application Auto Scaling is a web service for developers and system administrators who need a solution for scaling their scalable resources for individual AWS services beyond Amazon EC2. In week 6, you’ll learn how to design compute options for reliability and failover—plus the ability to automatically scale based on demand.

What you’ll learn and how you can apply it

Week 1: Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations

  • The concept of AWS Regions
  • How to use Availability Zones to design highly available and reliable applications
  • Edge locations and their purpose
  • AWS services hosted at edge locations
  • How CloudFront, Route 53, and WAF and Shield work
  • The purpose of GovCloud

Week 2: AWS Administration Toolbox

  • AWS management tools to manage your infrastructure and applications
  • How to use CloudFront to cache static and dynamic data
  • How to use CloudWatch to maintain a security baseline
  • How GuardDuty uses machine learning to perform continuous security checks
  • How to automate application stacks with CloudFormation
  • How to create and manage approved IT services using Service Catalog

Week 3: AWS Networking Services

  • How to create and manage AWS networking services
  • Availability Zones, subnets and route tables, and IP addressing options
  • What AWS uses NAT services for
  • VPC connectivity: gateways and VPN connections
  • Endpoints
  • VPC security options, including security groups and network access control lists

Week 4: AWS Virtual Servers

  • EC2 compute instances
  • EC2 instance families and available options
  • EC2 configuration steps
  • Basic EC2 instance monitoring with CloudWatch
  • EC2 instance pricing options

Week 5: AWS Storage Options

  • How to manage your storage options at AWS
  • How encryption services work with storage services
  • Uses for EBS storage
  • S3 bucket storage
  • S3 Glacier storage
  • Shared storage options EFS and FSx

Week 6: Scaling Applications at AWS

  • How the Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) service works
  • The use case for the Network Load Balancer
  • The use case for the Application Load Balancer
  • The features of ELB
  • How Auto Scaling works
  • What other AWS services utilize Auto Scaling
  • CloudWatch

And you’ll be able to:

Week 1: Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge locations

  • Design application stacks using regions and Availability Zones
  • Choose the correct reason for hosting your applications and AWS based on various scenarios
  • Set up CloudFront with S3 buckets as the data origin
  • Create rules using AWS Web Application Firewall

Week 2: AWS Administration Toolbox

  • Select CloudWatch metrics and define alarms, alerts, and rules
  • Plan and enable a CloudFront distribution for static data
  • Add approved AWS resources to Service Catalog
  • Review Trusted Advisor findings
  • Set up GuardDuty to control malicious or unauthorized activities

Week 3: AWS Networking Services

  • Create custom VPCs designed for reliability and failover
  • Create subnets, route tables, gateways, and endpoint connections
  • Order and deploy NAT services
  • Create linked security groups
  • Peer VPCs together

Week 4: AWS Virtual Servers

  • Create custom EC2 instances
  • Create launch templates
  • Create EC2 pricing scenarios
  • Choose the correct EC2 instance based on requirements
  • Set up EC2 auto-recovery
  • Order Lightsail compute options

Week 5: AWS Storage Options

  • Create S3 buckets
  • Enable versioning and lifecycle rules
  • Create S3 Glacier archives and vaults
  • Create EBS volumes and snapshots
  • Order EFS and FSx storage

Week 6: Scaling Applications at AWS

  • Create application and network load balancers
  • Register and deregister resources
  • Create launch configurations/templates
  • Create Auto Scaling groups

This live event is for you because...

  • You’re prepping for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate exam.
  • You’re a system administrator who’s moving to AWS and wants to learn about the security services available at AWS.
  • You’re a cloud architect who’s responsible for AWS design and need to understand how to properly secure your application stacks.
  • You’re a security auditor who wants to fully understand how security is deployed in the AWS cloud.
  • You’re an IT professional who wants to develop AWS technical knowledge and skills for daily operation and migration.

Prerequisites

  • An AWS account (free tier—required to complete postcourse labs)
  • A solid understanding of computing
  • A technical background in networking, system administration, and working with virtualized resources (useful but not required)

Recommended preparation:

Recommended follow-up:

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

Week 1:Regions, Availability Zones, and edge locations (60 minutes)

  • Presentation and dem os: AWS Regions—services, availability, costs; compliance standards supported at AWS; Availability Zones—designing for failover, reliability, and availability; local zones—why they’re useful; regional services—the AWS regional campus and reliability/failover design
  • Hands-on exercise: Review Availability Zones and choose AWS Region for deployment and Availability Zones for several scenarios
  • Break

Storage and edge services (55 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: Regional storage options—RDS, Elastic Block Storage, S3; multiregion storage services and database options—S3 buckets, Aurora, and DynamoDB; edge locations; regional edge caches; edge services—Route 53 (DNS), CloudFront (CDN), and Web Application Firewall (WAF); Lambda at the edge; AWS service endpoints—HTTP, HTTPS, regional and global, and private endpoints

Postcourse labs

  • Review AWS Regions; review Availability Zones, review edge services; order a VPC and select Availability Zones; review EFS, FSx, and RDS deployment options; links to a selection of well-architected labs

Week 2: AWS Administration Toolbox

CloudWatch, CloudFront, CloudTrail, and EC2 (65 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: CloudTrail operation; creating custom CloudTrail trails; EC2 auto-recovery and its use; monitoring with CloudWatch; selecting CloudWatch metrics and alarms; CloudWatch alerts and rules; CloudFront operation and design; creating a CloudFront distribution for S3 objects; performing security and AWS account level checks with Trusted Advisor
  • Hands-on exercise: Select appropriate CloudWatch metrics for provided use case
  • Break

AWS Config, GuardDuty, Service Catalog, and more (55 minutes)

  • Presentation: How AWS Config maintains compliance; AWS Config and managed rules; Lambda functions and custom rules; testing rules against AWS account resources; monitoring threats with GuardDuty; automating resources with CloudFormation; controlling access with Service Catalog and CloudFormation templates

Postcourse labs

  • Create a CloudFront distribution; review CloudWatch metrics for EC2 instances; enable GuardDuty; create a custom CloudTrail trail

Week 3: AWS Networking Services

Virtual private clouds (65 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: What’s a virtual private cloud (VPC)?; multiple VPCs; CIDR notation; creating a custom VPC; DNS resolution; subnets (private and public); route tables; VPC gateways—IGW, VGW, egress-only internet gateways; VPC connectivity (internet gateways, virtual private gateways); IP addresses (private, public, Elastic IP); ordering an Elastic IP address
  • Hands-on exercise: Review proposed VPC design, list the faults, and suggest improvements
  • Break

Endpoints, NAT gateways, and more (55 minutes)

  • Presentation: Endpoints: NAT gateways; ordering NAT gateway service; peering and sharing; VPC security options; security groups; NACLs; VPC flow logs; virtual private networks; transit gateways; traffic mirroring

Postcourse labs

  • Create a VPC; create subnets; create and add an internet gateway; create and add a custom route table for public subnets; launch an EC2 instance into a public subnet and log on

Week 4: AWS Virtual Servers (EC2 Instances)

EC2 instances (65 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: EC2 instance types—virtual, dedicated, single tenant, and bare metal; EC2 instance families; T instances; Amazon Machine Images (AMIs); using the EC2 image builder; EC2 instance configuration steps—user data, tags, security groups, and key pairs; launch templates; EC2 instance pricing—on-demand, reserved instances, and spot instance requests; AWS Batch
  • Hands-on exercise: Review use case for pricing strategy and make recommendations
  • Break

EC2 instances continued (55 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: Capacity reservations; Spot Fleet; AWS service limits—hard and soft limits; additional network interfaces; EC2 instance storage options—local storage, EBS storage volumes; EC2 instance basic monitoring metrics; EC2 auto-recovery; Lightsail; AWS Outposts; Lambda

Postcourse labs

  • Create an EC2 instance; authenticate to an EC2 instance; create a launch template

Week 5: AWS Storage Options

Storage options (65 minutes)

  • Presentation: EC2 instance stores; Elastic Block Storage; volume types and features; snapshots; EFS storage; FSx storage; RDS databases; S3 storage; durability and consistency definitions; S3 storage classes; versioning
  • Hands-on exercise: Review RDS design requirements and make recommendations
  • Break

Storage options continued (55 minutes)

  • Presentation: Lifecycle management; S3 notifications; S3 Glacier storage; archives and vaults; WORM policies; Storage Gateway; AWS Backup

Postcourse labs

  • Create an EBS volume; create a snapshot; create an S3 bucket; enable and test versioning; create a lifecycle policy

Week 6: Scaling Applications at AWS

Scaling applications (65 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: The Elastic Load Balancer service; Application Load Balancer; Network Load Balancer; target groups; ELB features; health checks; deregistration; attributes; ELB pricing
  • Hands-on exercise: Review reliability design requirements and make recommendations
  • Break

Scaling applications continued (55 minutes)

  • Presentation and demos: Scaling concepts; EC2 Auto Scaling; AWS Auto Scaling; launch configurations; Auto Scaling groups; scaling policy; EC2 Auto Scaling options; using CloudWatch alarms; database scaling options (DynamoDB, RDS, and Aurora)

Postcourse labs

  • Create an application load balancer; register and deregister compute targets; create a launch configuration; create an Auto Scaling group

Your Instructor

  • Mark Wilkins

    Mark Wilkins has more than 20 years’ experience designing, deploying, and supporting software and hardware technology in the corporate and small business world. Currently, Mark provides training and consulting services to corporate customers throughout North America. Previously, as course director for Global Knowledge, Mark developed and taught technical seminars and developed courseware for the 2008 Microsoft official curriculum stream.

    Since 2010, Mark has focused on cloud services, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and IBM SoftLayer. Among Mark’s many certifications are Amazon Web Services Architect - Associate and AWS Sys-Ops - Associate. He is the author of Learning AWS, published in 2019 by Addison-Wesley.