TASK 1: Configure Amazon SNS 📧
Objective
Create an Amazon SNS topic and subscribe to email notifications for alerts.
What is Amazon SNS?
Full Name: Amazon Simple Notification Service
Type: Fully managed messaging service
Use Case: Application-to-Application (A2A) and Application-to-Person (A2P) communication
Purpose: Send real-time notifications via email, SMS, HTTP, SQS, Lambda, etc.
Lab tasks content summary · MD
AWS CloudWatch Monitoring Lab - Complete Task Content 📋
Overview
This lab teaches how to set up a complete monitoring solution on AWS that detects CPU spikes and sends automatic email alerts.
TASK 1: Configure Amazon SNS 📧
Objective
Create an Amazon SNS topic and subscribe to email notifications for alerts.
What is Amazon SNS?
Full Name: Amazon Simple Notification Service
Type: Fully managed messaging service
Use Case: Application-to-Application (A2A) and Application-to-Person (A2P) communication
Purpose: Send real-time notifications via email, SMS, HTTP, SQS, Lambda, etc.
Steps Completed:
Step 1: Navigate to SNS
AWS Console → Search Bar → Type "SNS" → Click "Simple Notification Service"
Step 2: Create SNS Topic
Location: Simple Notification Service Console
Action: Left Menu (☰) → Topics → Create topic
Configuration:
├─ Type: Standard (selected)
├─ Name: MyCwAlarm
└─ Create topic (button clicked)
Result: Topic "MyCwAlarm" successfully created
Step 3: Create Email Subscription
Location: MyCwAlarm Topic Details Page
Action: Subscriptions Tab → Create subscription
Configuration:
├─ Topic ARN: arn:aws:sns:us-west-2:xxx:MyCwAlarm (auto-filled)
├─ Protocol: Email (selected from dropdown)
├─ Endpoint: [Your Email Address]
└─ Create subscription (button clicked)
Status: "Pending confirmation"
Step 4: Confirm Email Subscription
Email Received: AWS Notification - Subscription Confirmation
Action:
- Check email inbox
- Open AWS notification email
- Click "Confirm subscription" link
Result: Status changed to "Confirmed"
Backend: SNS topic now linked to email address
What This Accomplished:
✅ Created messaging topic
✅ Linked email address to topic
✅ Verified email subscription
✅ Ready to send email alerts
Key Takeaway:
SNS acts as a bridge between AWS services (CloudWatch) and end users (your email). When alarms trigger, SNS automatically sends notifications to subscribers.
**
TASK 2: Create CloudWatch Alarm 🚨
Objective
**
Configure a CloudWatch alarm to monitor EC2 CPU utilization and trigger when threshold is exceeded.
What is CloudWatch?
Full Name: Amazon CloudWatch
Type: Monitoring and observability service
Purpose: Monitor applications, systems, and AWS resources
Data Types: Logs, Metrics, Events
Users: DevOps Engineers, SREs, IT Managers, Developers
TASK 3: Stress Test EC2 Instance ⚡
Objective
Run CPU stress test to simulate high load and verify alarm triggers correctly.
Why Stress Test?
Simulates malware/attack scenarios
Tests alarm responsiveness
Validates monitoring system
Ensures notifications deliver
Security testing practice
TASK 4: Create CloudWatch Dashboard 📊
Objective
Create a customizable dashboard to visualize CPU utilization metrics in one place.
What is a CloudWatch Dashboard?
Purpose: Centralized monitoring interface
Customizable: Add/remove widgets
Multi-region: Monitor resources across regions
Real-time: Live metric updates
Widgets: Graphs, numbers, alarms, logs
Use Case: Quick overview for team monitoring
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ AWS Monitoring System │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ EC2 Instance (Stress Test) │ │
│ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ Application/CPU Process │ │ │
│ │ │ Stress Tool: 100% CPU Load │ │ │
│ │ └──────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ └────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │ (Emits metrics) │
│ ↓ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ CloudWatch │ │
│ │ (Monitoring)│ │
│ └──────┬───────┘ │
│ │ (Metric: CPUUtilization) │
│ │ (Comparison: 95.2% > 60%) │
│ ↓ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ Alarm │ │
│ │ (Triggered) │ │
│ └──────┬───────┘ │
│ │ (IN ALARM state) │
│ ↓ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ SNS Topic │ │
│ │ (MyCwAlarm) │ │
│ └──────┬───────┘ │
│ │ (Message routing) │
│ ↓ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ Email Alert │ │
│ │ Subscriber │ │
│ └──────┬───────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ↓ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ Your Email │ │
│ │ Inbox │ ✉️ Notification │
│ └──────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Dashboard Display: │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ LabEC2Dashboard │ │
│ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ CPUUtilization Graph │ │ │
│ │ │ ╱╲ │ │ │
│ │ │ ╱ ╲ │ │ │
│ │ │ ╱ ╲ │ │ │
│ │ │ ╱────────────╲─────── │ │ │
│ │ └──────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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