DEV Community: Parth Rewoo

AWS Storage Services

Parth Rewoo — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 15:50:52 +0000

Instance Stores

Instance Stores are block-level storage volumes which behaves like physical hard drives. It provides temporary block-level storage for an Amazon EC2 instance. It is physically attached to the host computer for an EC2 instance. When the instance is terminated, the instance store gets deleted along with the data in the instance store. Instance Store should only be used to store temporary data which is not needed in the long term.

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)

Amazon EBS provides block-level storage volumes which can be used with Amazon EC2 instances. It is not a temporary storage which means if the Amazon EC2 instance is terminated, all the data on the attached Amazon EBS volume remains available.
It is important to backup the data as the data that needs to persist is stored in EBS volumes. Amazon EBS Snapshots can be used to take incremental backups of EBS volumes.

Amazon EBS Snapshots - It is an incremental backup which means that the first backup of the volume copies all the data but subsequent backups only copies the blocks of data that have been changed.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon S3 provides object-level storage. It stores data as objects in buckets. Each object consists of data, metadata, and a key. The data can be any image, video or any type of file. Metadata contains information about what the data is, how it is used, the size of the object, and so on. An object's key is its unique identifier.

Amazon S3 offers unlimited storage space. The maximum file size for an object is 5 TB. Permissions for controlling visibility and access permissions, Amazon S3 versioning feature to track changes in objects over time can be used while uploading a file to Amazon S3.

Amazon S3 Storage Classes

Users pay only for what they use with Amazon S3. Below are the Amazon S3 Storage Classes :

S3 Standard - It is designed for frequently accessed data and it stores data in a minimum of three Availability Zones.
S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) - It is ideal for infrequently accessed data and is similar to S3 Standard but has a lower storage price and higher retrieval price.
S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA) - It stores data in a single Availability Zone and has a lower storage price than S3 Standard-IA.
S3 Intelligent-Tiering - It is ideal for data with unknown or changing access patterns and requires a small monthly monitoring and automation fee per object.
S3 Glacier - It is a low-cost storage designed for data archiving and it can retrieve objects within a few minutes to hours.
S3 Glacier Deep Archive - It is the lowest-cost object storage class ideal for archiving and it can retrieve objects within 12 hours.

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon EFS is a scalable file storage system used with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources. It grows and shrinks automatically as users add or remove files. It can scale on demand to petabytes without disrupting applications.

Please feel free to write @ rewooparth.rp@gmail.com for any queries on AWS Storage Services & stay tuned for next write-up.

Thank you!

AWS Global Infrastructure

Parth Rewoo — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:38:11 +0000

AWS Regions

AWS Region is a physical location around the world which consists of clusters of data centers. Each AWS Region consists of multiple, isolated, and physically separate Availability Zones within a geographic area. AWS Regions meet the highest levels of security, compliance, and data protection.

One should consider the following four business factors while determining the appropriate AWS Region for their services, data and applications :

Compliance with data governance and legal requirements - Depending on the company and location, one might need to run their data out of specific areas. For example, if the company requires all of its data to reside within the boundaries of the India, then one would choose the Mumbai Region.
Proximity to the customers - Selecting a Region that is close to the customers will help the company to get content to their customers faster.
Available services within a Region - Sometimes, the closest Region might not have all the features that the company want to offer to customers. So, the developers would have to run it in one of the Regions that offers the required features.
Pricing - The cost of services can vary from Region to Region depending upon the tax structure of a specific country or region.

Availability Zones

An Availability Zone is a single data center or a group of data centers within a Region. Availability Zones are located 10's of miles apart from each other in order to maintain low latency between Availability Zones and also to reduce the chance that multiple Availability Zones are affected in case a disaster occurs in one part of the region.

It is always a best practice to run applications across at least two Availability Zones in a Region.

Edge Locations

An Edge Location is a site that Amazon CloudFront uses to store cached copies of the content closer to the customers for faster delivery.

AWS Local Zones

AWS Local Zones stores compute, storage, database, and other select AWS services closer to customers in order to provide single digit millisecond latencies while running highly-demanding application.

AWS Wavelength

With AWS Wavelength, developers can build applications that deliver single-digit millisecond latencies to mobile devices and customers by not leaving the mobile provider's network which reduces the extra network hops that can result in higher latencies.

Please feel free to write @ rewooparth.rp@gmail.com for any queries on AWS Global Infrastructure & stay tuned for next write-up.

Thank you!

Network Security In AWS - Basics

Parth Rewoo — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 15:39:04 +0000

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC)

Amazon VPC is a networking service that users can use to establish boundaries around their AWS resources.

Consider millions of users who use AWS. Imagine the millions of resources that these users have created such as Amazon EC2 instances. Without boundaries across all these resources, there would be an unrestricted network traffic flowing between these resources.

By using Amazon VPC, users can provision an isolated section in the AWS Cloud so that they can launch resources in a virtual network that they define.

Subnets

Subnet is a section of a VPC in which users can group resources based on security or operational needs.

Subnets are of two types as follows:

Public Subnet - These contain resources that need to be accessible by the public.
Private Subnet - These contain resources that should be accessible only through user's private network.

In a VPC, subnets can communicate with one other. It means that Public subnet can send or receive data from Private subnet and vice versa.

Internet Gateway

An Internet Gateway is a connection between a VPC and the internet. To allow public traffic from the internet to access VPC, users attach an Internet Gateway to the VPC. Without an Internet Gateway, no one can access the resources within your VPC.

Virtual Private Gateway

What if users have a VPC that includes only private resources?
To access private resources in a VPC, users can use a Virtual Private Gateway.

Virtual Private Gateway only allows protected internet traffic (data coming from an approved network) to enter into the VPC. It establishes a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection between VPC and a private network, such as an on-premises data center.

AWS Direct Connect

AWS Direct Connect is a service that establishes a dedicated private connection between on-premises data center and a VPC. It helps to reduce network costs and increase the amount of bandwidth that can travel through the private network.

Network Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Network Access Control List (ACL) is a virtual firewall that controls inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level.

Every AWS account includes a default Network ACL. By default, AWS account’s default Network ACL allows all inbound and outbound traffic, but it can be modified by adding own rules. For custom Network ACLs, all inbound and outbound traffic is denied until rules are added to specify which traffic to allow. Additionally, all Network ACLs have an explicit deny rule. This rule ensures that if a packet doesn’t match any of the other rules on the list, the packet is denied.

Network ACLs perform stateless packet filtering. They don't remember anything and check packets that cross the subnet each way: inbound and outbound.

Example - In the airport, travelers are trying to enter into a different country. Think of the travelers as packets and the passport officer as a Network ACL. The passport officer checks travelers ID proof when they are both entering and exiting out of the country. If a traveler is on an approved list, they are able to get through. However, if they are not on the approved list, they cannot come in.

Similarly, consider a request is send out from an Amazon EC2 instance to the internet. When a response for that request comes back to the subnet, the Network ACL does not remember the previous request. The network ACL checks the response against its list of rules to determine whether to allow or deny.

Security Groups

Security Group is a virtual firewall that controls inbound and outbound traffic for an Amazon EC2 instance.

By default, a Security Group denies all inbound traffic and allows all outbound traffic. Users can add custom rules to configure which traffic to allow or deny. If there are multiple instances within a subnet, they can be associated with the same Security Group or use different Security Groups for each instance.

Security Groups perform stateful packet filtering. They remember previous decisions made for incoming packets.

Example - Consider a building with a door attendant who greets the incoming guests. Think of the guests as packets and the door attendant as a Security Group. As guests arrive, the door attendant checks a list to confirm they can enter the building. However, the door attendant does not check the list again when guests are exiting the building.

Similarly, consider a request is send out from an Amazon EC2 instance to the internet. When a response for that request returns back to the instance, the Security Group remembers your previous request. The security group allows the response to proceed, without checking the inbound security group rules.

Please feel free to write @ rewooparth.rp@gmail.com for any queries on Network Security in AWS - Basics & stay tuned for next write-up.

Thank you!

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Parth Rewoo — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 11:38:49 +0000

Scalability refers to starting with only the resources you need and designing your architecture to automatically respond to changing demand by scaling out or in. As a result you don’t have to worry about a lack of computing capacity to meet your customers’ needs.

The AWS service that provides this functionality for Amazon EC2 instances is Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Consider a scenario in which you’ve tried to access a website that wouldn’t load and frequently timed out, the website might have received more requests than it was able to handle.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling enables you to automatically add or remove Amazon EC2 instances in response to changing application demand. By automatically scaling your instances in and out as needed, you are able to maintain a high application availability as well as you pay for only the resources you use.

There are three approaches for using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling -

Dynamic Scaling - Responds to changing demand.
Predictive Scaling - Automatically adds or removes the right number of Amazon EC2 instances based on predicted demand.
Scheduled Scaling - Allows you to scale your application prior to known load changes.

When you create an Auto Scaling group, you can set three types of capacities for number of Amazon EC2 instances.

Minimum Capacity - It is the number of Amazon EC2 instances that launch immediately after you have created the Auto Scaling group.
Desired Capacity - It is the number of Amazon EC2 instances that you desire to have in your architecture. If you do not specify the desired number of Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group, the desired capacity defaults to your minimum capacity.
Maximum Capacity - It is the maximum number of Amazon EC2 instances that the Auto Scaling group can scale out in response to increased demand.

Benefits of using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

It can detect when an instance is unhealthy, terminate it, and replace it with a new one, improving the fault tolerance of application.
It ensures that your application always has the right amount of compute capacity.
It adds instances only if needed, and may scale across purchase options to optimize performance and price.

Please feel free to write @ rewooparth.rp@gmail.com for any queries on Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling & stay tuned for next write-up.

Thank you!

Amazon EC2 ( Elastic Compute Cloud )

Parth Rewoo — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 15:02:59 +0000

Amazon EC2 is a compute service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud as Amazon EC2 instances.

Consider a scenario in which you have to design architecture for your resources for your newly created website. With the traditional on-premises resources, you have to do the following stuff:

Spend money to purchase hardware for data centers.
Wait for the servers to be delivered to you.
Install the servers in your data centers.
Do all the required configurations.

On the other hand, with an Amazon EC2 instance you can use a virtual server to run applications in the AWS Cloud without worrying about the underlying hardware and its configurations. With Amazon EC2, you can do the following:

Configure and launch an Amazon EC2 instance within minutes and stop using it when you have finished your work.
Pay just for the compute time you utilize when an instance is running, not when it's stopped or terminated.
Save costs by paying just for server capacity that you simply need or want.

Amazon EC2 Instance Types

Amazon EC2 instance types are optimized for different tasks considering the specific requirements like compute, storage or memory capabilities.

General Purpose Instances - These provide a balance of compute, memory, and networking resources. They are used for a variety of workloads, such as application servers, gaming servers, backend servers for enterprise applications, small and medium databases and many more.
Compute Optimized Instances - These are used for compute-bound applications that benefit from high-performance processors. They are used for high-performance web servers, compute-intensive applications servers, and dedicated gaming servers.
Memory Optimized Instances - These are designed to deliver fast performance for workloads that process large datasets in memory. They enable you to run workloads with high memory needs and receive great performance.
Accelerated Computing Instances - These use hardware accelerators, or coprocessors, to perform some functions more efficiently than is possible in software running on CPUs. They are ideal for workloads such as graphics applications, game streaming, and application streaming.
Storage Optimized Instances - These are designed for workloads that require high, sequential read and write access to large datasets on local storage. They are designed to deliver tens of thousands of low-latency, random Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) to applications.

Amazon EC2 Pricing

With Amazon EC2, you pay only for the compute time that you use. Amazon EC2 offers a variety of pricing options for different use cases.

On-Demand Instances - These are ideal for short-term, irregular workloads that cannot be interrupted. The instances run continuously until you stop them, and you pay for only the compute time you utilize. There aren't any upfront costs or minimum contracts.
Amazon EC2 Savings Plan - These enable you to reduce your compute costs by committing to a consistent amount of compute usage for a 1-year or 3-year term. This term commitment results in savings of up to 66% over On-Demand costs. Any usage beyond the commitment is charged at regular On-Demand rates.
Reserved Instances - These are a billing discount applied to the use of On-Demand Instances. You can purchase Standard Reserved and Convertible Reserved Instances for a 1-year or 3-year term, and Scheduled Reserved Instances for a 1-year term. You get greater cost savings with the 3-year term.
Spot Instances - These are ideal for workloads with flexible start and end times, or that can withstand interruptions. Spot Instances use unused Amazon EC2 computing capacity and offer you cost savings at up to 90% off of On-Demand prices.
Dedicated Hosts - These are physical servers with Amazon EC2 instance capacity that is fully dedicated to your use. Dedicated Hosts are the most expensive.

Please feel free to write @ rewooparth.rp@gmail.com for any queries on Amazon EC2 & stay tuned for next write-up.

Thank you!