Monitoring / Operations

7 AWS Monitoring / Operations terms and services covered in certification exams, with exam-focused explanations.

Amazon CloudWatch

A monitoring service that collects, visualizes, and acts on metrics, logs, and events from AWS resources and applications. Sets alarms that trigger notifications, Auto Scaling, or automated actions. The foundation for monitoring, alerting, and log aggregation (CloudWatch Logs).

AWS CloudTrail

A service recording API call history (audit logs) — who called which API at what time. Tracks account activity for security investigations and compliance. The key distinction: CloudWatch = performance/state monitoring; CloudTrail = API operation auditing.

AWS Config

A service that continuously records AWS resource configurations and tracks change history. Define rules for desired states and detect non-compliant resources. The answer for compliance requirements, drift detection, and tracking resource configuration over time.

AWS Systems Manager

A suite of services for operating and managing EC2 and on-premises servers at scale. Includes Session Manager (shell access without SSH), Parameter Store (configuration values), and automated patch application. Tested for server operation automation and secure management without long-lived credentials.

AWS CloudFormation

An IaC (Infrastructure as Code) service that defines infrastructure in JSON or YAML templates and automatically provisions it. Enables reproducible, consistent deployments managed as stacks. Tested in contexts of automation, environment consistency, and eliminating manual build errors.

AWS CDK

An IaC framework for defining infrastructure using general-purpose programming languages like TypeScript or Python. Code is compiled to CloudFormation templates internally. Allows higher-abstraction, more efficient infrastructure definition compared to writing raw templates.

AWS Trusted Advisor

A service that inspects your account across cost optimization, security, fault tolerance, performance, and service limits, then recommends improvements. Automatically checks for best-practice compliance. Appears in exam questions about obtaining cost reduction or security improvement guidance.

Last updated: 2026-06-24

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