EC2

What is AWS Nucleus, and why Is it poised to replace EC2?

It all started with a coffee and a bill. My usual morning routine. But this particular Tuesday, the AWS bill had an extra kick that my espresso lacked. The cost for a handful of m5.large instances had jumped nearly 40% over the past year. I almost spat out my coffee.

I did what any self-respecting Cloud Architect does: I blamed myself. Did I forget to terminate a dev environment? Did I leave a data transfer running to another continent? But no. After digging through the labyrinth of Cost Explorer, the truth was simpler and far more sinister: EC2 was quietly getting more expensive. Spot instances had become as predictable as a cat on a hot tin plate, and my “burstable” CPUs seemed to run out of breath if they had to do more than jog for a few minutes.

EC2, our old, reliable friend. The bedrock of the cloud. It felt like watching your trusty old car suddenly start demanding premium fuel and imported spare parts just to get to the grocery store. Something was off.

And then, it happened. A slip-up in a public Reddit forum. A senior AWS engineer accidentally posted a file named ec2-phaseout-q4–2027.pdf. It was deleted in minutes, but the internet, as we know, has the memory of an elephant with a grudge.

(Disclaimer for the nervous: This PDF is my narrative device. A ghost in the machine. A convenient plot twist. But the trends it points to? The rising costs, the architectural creaks? Those are very, very real. Now, where were we?)

The document was a bombshell. It laid out a plan to deprecate over 80% of current EC2 instance families by the end of 2027, paving the way for a “next-gen compute platform.” Was this real? I made some calls. The first partner laughed it off. The second went quiet, a little too quiet. The third, after I promised to buy them beers for a month, whispered: “We’re already planning the transition for our enterprise clients.”

Bingo.

Why our beloved EC2 is becoming a museum piece

My lead engineer summed it up beautifully last week. “Running real-time ML on today’s EC2,” he sighed, “feels like asking a 2010 laptop to edit 4K video. It’ll do it, but it’ll scream in agony the whole time, and you’d better have a fire extinguisher handy.”

He’s not wrong. For general-purpose apps, EC2 is still a trusty workhorse. But for the demanding, high-performance workloads that are becoming the norm? You can practically see the gray hairs and hear the joints creaking.

This isn’t just about cost. It’s about architecture. EC2 was built for a different era, an era before serverless was cool, before WebAssembly (WASM) was a thing, and before your toaster needed to run a Kubernetes cluster. The cracks are starting to show.

Meet AWS Nucleus, the secret successor

No press release. No re:Invent keynote. But if you’re connected to AWS insiders, you’ve probably heard whispers of a project internally codenamed “Nucleus.” We got access to this stealth-mode compute platform, and it’s unlike anything we’ve used before.

What does it feel like? Think of it this way: if Lambda and Fargate had a baby, and that baby was raised by a bare-metal server with a PhD in performance, you’d get Nucleus. It has the speed and direct hardware access of a dedicated machine, but with the auto-scaling magic of serverless.

Here are some of the early capabilities we’ve observed:

No more cold starts. Unlike Lambda, which can sometimes feel like it’s waking up from a deep nap.
Direct hardware access. Full control over GPU and SSD resources without the usual virtualization overhead.
Predictive autoscaling. It analyzes traffic patterns and scales before the spike hits, not during.
WASM-native runtime. Support for Node.js, Python, Go, and Rust is baked in from the ground up.

It’s not generally available yet, but internal teams and a select few partners are already building on it.

A 30-day head-to-head test

Yes, we triple checked those cost figures. Even if AWS adjusts the pricing after the preview, the efficiency gap is too massive to ignore.

Your survival guide for the coming shift

Let’s be clear, there’s no need to panic and delete all your EC2 instances. But if this memo is even half-right, you don’t want to be caught flat-footed in a few years. Here’s what we’re doing, and what you might want to start experimenting with.

Step 1: Become a cloud whisperer

Start by pinging your AWS Solutions Architect, not directly about “Nucleus,” but something softer:

“Hey, we’re exploring options for more performant, cost-effective compute. Are there any next-gen runtimes or private betas AWS is piloting that we could look into?”

You’ll be surprised what folks share if you ask the right way.

Step 2: test on the shadow platform

Some partners already have early access CLI builds. If you get your hands on one, you’ll notice some familiar patterns.

# Initialize a new service from a template
nucleus init my-api --template=fastapi

# Deploy with a single command
nucleus deploy --env=staging --free-tier

Disclaimer: Not officially available. Use in isolated test environments only. Do not run your production database on this.

Step 3: Run a hybrid setup

If you get preview access, try bridging the old with the new. Here’s a hypothetical Terraform snippet of what that might look like:

# Our legacy EC2 instance for the old monolith
resource "aws_instance" "legacy_worker" {
  ami           = "ami-0b5eea76982371e9" # An old Amazon Linux 2 AMI
  instance_type = "t3.medium"
}

# The new Nucleus service for a microservice
resource "aws_nucleus_service" "new_api" {
  runtime       = "go1.19"
  source_path   = "./app/api"
  
  # This is the magic part: linking to the old world
  vpc_ec2_links = [aws_instance.legacy_worker.id]
}

We ran a few test loads between legacy workers and the new compute, no regressions, and latency even dropped.

Step 4: Estimate the savings yourself

Even with preview pricing, the gap is noticeable. A simple Python script can give you a rough idea.

# Fictional library to estimate costs
import aws_nucleus_estimator

# Your current monthly bill for a specific workload
current_ec2_cost = 4200 

# Estimate based on vCPU hours and memory
# (These numbers are for illustration only)
estimated_nucleus_cost = aws_nucleus_estimator.estimate(
    vcpu_hours=1200, 
    memory_gb_hours=2400
)

print(f"Rough monthly savings: ${current_ec2_cost - estimated_nucleus_cost}")

This is bigger than just EC2

Let’s be honest. This shift isn’t just about cutting costs or shrinking cold start times. It’s about redefining what “compute” even means. EC2 isn’t being deprecated because it’s broken. It’s being phased out because modern workloads have evolved, and the old abstractions are starting to feel like training wheels we forgot to take off.

A broader pattern is emerging across the industry. What AWS is allegedly doing with Nucleus mirrors a larger movement:

Google Cloud is reportedly piloting a Cloud Run variant that uses a WASM-based runtime.
Microsoft Azure is quietly testing a system to blur the line between containers and functions.
Oracle, surprisingly, has been sponsoring development tools optimized for WASM-native environments.

The foundational idea is clear: cloud platforms are moving toward fast-boot, auto-scaling, WASM-capable compute that sits somewhere between Lambda and Kubernetes, but without the overhead of either.

Is EC2 the new legacy?

It’s strange to say, but EC2 is starting to feel like “bare metal” did a decade ago: powerful, essential, but something you try to abstract away.

One of our SREs shared this gem the other day:

“A couple of our junior engineers thought EC2 was some kind of disaster recovery tool for Kubernetes.”

That’s from a Fortune 100 company. When your flagship infrastructure service starts raising eyebrows from fresh grads, you know a generational shift is underway.

The cloud is evolving, again. But this isn’t a gentle, planned succession. It’s a Cambrian explosion in real-time. New, bizarre forms of compute are crawling out of the digital ooze, and the old titans, once thought invincible, are starting to look slow and clumsy. They don’t get a gold watch and a retirement party. They become fossils, their skeletons propping up the new world.

EC2 isn’t dying tomorrow. It’s becoming a geological layer. It’s the bedrock, the sturdy but unglamorous foundation upon which nimbler, more specialized predators will hunt. The future isn’t about killing the virtual machine; it’s about making it an invisible implementation detail. In the same way, most of us stopped thinking about the physical server racks in a data center, we’ll soon stop thinking about the VM. We’ll just care about the work that needs doing.

So no, EC2 isn’t dying. It’s becoming a legend. And in the fast-moving world of technology, legends belong in museums, admired from a safe distance.

The case of the missing EC2 public IP

It was a Tuesday. I did what I’ve done a thousand times: I logged into an Amazon EC2 instance using its public IP, a respectable 52.95.110.21. Routine stuff. Once inside, muscle memory took over, and I typed ip addr to see the network configuration.

And then I blinked.

inet 10.0.10.147/24.

I checked my terminal history. Yes, I had connected to 52.95.110.21. So, where did this 10.0.10.147 character come from? And more importantly, where on earth was the public IP I had just used? For a moment, I felt like a detective at a crime scene where the main evidence had vanished into thin air. I questioned my sanity, my career choice, and the very fabric of the TCP/IP stack.

Suppose you’ve ever felt this flicker of confusion, congratulations. You’ve just stumbled upon one of AWS’s most elegant sleights of hand. The truth is, the public IP doesn’t exist inside the instance. It’s a ghost. A label. A brilliant illusion.

Let’s put on our detective hats and solve this mystery.

Meet the real resident

Every EC2 instance, upon its creation, is handed a private IP address. Please think of this as its legal name, the one on its birth certificate. It’s the address it uses to talk to its neighbors within its cozy, gated community, the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This instance, 10.0.10.147, is perfectly happy using this address to get a cup of sugar from the database next door at 10.0.10.200. It’s private, it’s intimate, and frankly, it’s nobody else’s business.

The operating system itself, be it Ubuntu, Amazon Linux, or Windows, is blissfully unaware of any other identity. As far as it’s concerned, its name is 10.0.10.147, and that’s the end of the story. If you check its network configuration, that’s the only IP you’ll see.

# Check the network interface, see only the private IP
$ ip -4 addr show dev eth0 | grep inet
    inet 10.0.10.147/24 brd 10.0.10.255 scope global dynamic eth0

So, if the instance only knows its private name, how does it have a public life on the internet?

The master of disguise

The magic happens outside the instance, at the edge of your VPC. Think of the AWS Internet Gateway as a ridiculously efficient bouncer at an exclusive club. Your instance, wanting to go online, walks up to the bouncer and whispers, “Hey, I’m 10.0.10.147 And I need to fetch a cat picture from the internet.“

The bouncer nods, turns to the vast, chaotic world of the internet, and shouts, “HEY, TRAFFIC FOR 52.95.110.21, COME THIS WAY!”

This translation trick is called 1-to-1 Network Address Translation (NAT). The Internet Gateway maintains a secret map that links the public IP to the private IP. The public IP is just a mask, a public-facing persona. It never actually gets assigned to the instance’s network interface. It’s all handled by AWS behind the scenes, a performance so smooth you never even knew it was happening.

When your instance sends traffic out, the bouncer (Internet Gateway) swaps the private source IP for the public one. When return traffic comes back, the bouncer swaps it back. The instance is none the wiser. It lives its entire life thinking its name is 10.0.10.147, completely oblivious to its international fame as 52.95.110.21.

Interrogating the local gossip

So, the instance is clueless. But what if we, while inside, need to know its public identity? What if we need to confirm our instance’s public IP for a firewall rule somewhere else? We can’t just ask the operating system.

Fortunately, AWS provides a nosy neighbor for just this purpose: the Instance Metadata Service. This is a special, link-local address (169.254.169.254) that an instance can query to learn things about itself, things the operating system doesn’t know. It’s the local gossip line.

To get the public IP, you first have to get a temporary security token (because even gossip has standards these days), and then you can ask your question.

# First, grab a session token. This is good for 6 hours (21600 seconds).
$ TOKEN=$(curl -s -X PUT "http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token" -H "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds: 21600")

# Now, use the token to ask for the public IP
$ curl -s -H "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token: $TOKEN" http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-ipv4
52.95.110.21

And there it is. The ghost in the machine, confirmed.

A detective’s field guide

Now that you’re in on the secret, you can avoid getting duped. Here are a few field notes to keep in your detective’s journal.

The clueless security guard. If you’re configuring a firewall inside your instance (like iptables or UFW), remember that it only knows the instance by its private IP. Don’t try to create a rule for your public IP; the firewall will just stare at you blankly. Always use the private IP for internal security configurations.

The persistent twin: What if you need a public IP that doesn’t change every time you stop and start your instance? That’s what an Elastic IP (EIP) is for. But don’t be fooled. An EIP is just a permanent public IP that you own. Behind the scenes, it works the same way: it’s a persistent mask mapped via NAT to your instance’s private IP. The instance remains just as gloriously ignorant as before.

The vanishing act. If you’re not using an Elastic IP, your instance’s public IP is ephemeral. It’s more like a hotel room number than a home address. Stop the instance, and it gives up the IP. Start it again, and it gets a brand new one. This is a classic “gotcha” that has broken countless DNS records and firewall rules.

The case is closed

So, the next time you log into an EC2 instance and see a private IP, don’t panic. You haven’t SSH’d into your smart fridge by mistake. You’re simply seeing the instance for who it truly is. The public IP was never missing; it was just a clever disguise, an elegant illusion managed by AWS so your instance can have a public life without ever having to deal with the paparazzi. The heavy lifting is done for you, leaving your instance to worry about more important things. Like serving those cat pictures.

July 12, 2025 by Fernando SRE Cloud stuff

Secure and simplify EC2 access with AWS Session Manager

Accessing EC2 instances used to be a hassle. Bastion hosts, SSH keys, firewall rules, each piece added another layer of complexity and potential security risks. You had to open ports, distribute keys, and constantly manage access. It felt like setting up an intricate vault just to perform simple administrative tasks.

AWS Session Manager changes the game entirely. No exposed ports, no key distribution nightmares, and a complete audit trail of every session. Think of it as replacing traditional keys and doors with a secure, on-demand teleportation system, one that logs everything.

How AWS Session Manager works

Session Manager is part of AWS Systems Manager, a fully managed service that provides secure, browser-based, and CLI-based access to EC2 instances without needing SSH or RDP. Here’s how it works:

An SSM Agent runs on the instance and communicates outbound to AWS Systems Manager.
When you start a session, AWS verifies your identity and permissions using IAM.
Once authorized, a secure channel is created between your local machine and the instance, without opening any inbound ports.

This approach significantly reduces the attack surface. There is no need to open port 22 (SSH) or 3389 (RDP) for bastion hosts. Moreover, since authentication and authorization are managed by IAM policies, you no longer have to distribute or rotate SSH keys.

Setting up AWS Session Manager

Getting started with Session Manager is straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Ensure the SSM agent is installed

Most modern Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) come with the SSM Agent pre-installed. If yours doesn’t, install it manually using the following command (for Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, or RHEL):

sudo yum install -y amazon-ssm-agent
sudo systemctl enable amazon-ssm-agent
sudo systemctl start amazon-ssm-agent

2. Create an IAM Role for EC2

Your EC2 instance needs an IAM role to communicate with AWS Systems Manager. Attach a policy that grants at least the following permissions:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ssm:StartSession"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:ec2:REGION:ACCOUNT_ID:instance/INSTANCE_ID"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ssm:TerminateSession",
        "ssm:ResumeSession"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:ssm:REGION:ACCOUNT_ID:session/${aws:username}-*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Replace REGION, ACCOUNT_ID, and INSTANCE_ID with your actual values. For best security practices, apply the principle of least privilege by restricting access to specific instances or tags.

3. Connect to your instance

Once the IAM role is attached, you’re ready to connect.

From the AWS Console: Navigate to EC2 > Instances, select your instance, click Connect, and choose Session Manager.

From the AWS CLI: Run:

aws ssm start-session --target i-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That’s it, no SSH keys, no VPNs, no open ports.

Built-in security and auditing

Session Manager doesn’t just improve security, it also enhances compliance and auditing. Every session can be logged to Amazon S3 or CloudWatch Logs, capturing a full record of all executed commands. This ensures complete visibility into who accessed which instance and what actions were taken.

To enable logging, navigate to AWS Systems Manager > Session Manager, configure Session Preferences, and enable logging to an S3 bucket or CloudWatch Log Group.

Why Session Manager is better than traditional methods

Let’s compare Session Manager with traditional access methods:

Feature	Bastion Host & SSH	AWS Session Manager
Open inbound ports	Yes (22, 3389)	No
Requires SSH keys	Yes	No
Key rotation required	Yes	No
Logs session activity	Manual setup	Built-in
Works for on-premises	No	Yes

Session Manager removes unnecessary complexity. No more juggling bastion hosts, no more worrying about expired SSH keys, and no more open ports that expose your infrastructure to unnecessary risks.

Real-World applications and operational Benefits

Session Manager is not just a theoretical improvement, it delivers real-world value in multiple scenarios:

Developers can quickly access production or staging instances without security concerns.
System administrators can perform routine maintenance without managing SSH key distribution.
Security teams gain complete visibility into instance access and command history.
Hybrid cloud environments benefit from unified access across AWS and on-premises infrastructure.

With these advantages, Session Manager aligns perfectly with modern cloud-native security principles, helping teams focus on operations rather than infrastructure headaches.

In summary

AWS Session Manager isn’t just another tool, it’s a fundamental shift in how we access EC2 instances securely. If you’re still relying on bastion hosts and SSH keys, it’s time to rethink your approach.Try it out, configure logging, and experience a simpler, more secure way to manage your instances. You might never go back to the old ways.

February 14, 2025 by Fernando SRE Cloud stuff SRE stuff

Boost Performance and Resilience with AWS EC2 Placement Groups

There’s a hidden art to placing your EC2 instances in AWS. It’s not just about spinning up machines and hoping for the best, where they land in AWS’s vast infrastructure can make all the difference in performance, resilience, and cost. This is where Placement Groups come in.

You might have deployed instances before without worrying about placement, and for many workloads, that’s perfectly fine. But when your application needs lightning-fast communication, fault tolerance, or optimized performance, Placement Groups become a critical tool in your AWS arsenal.

Let’s break it down.

What are Placement Groups?

AWS Placement Groups give you control over how your EC2 instances are positioned within AWS’s data centers. Instead of leaving it to chance, you can specify how close, or how far apart, your instances should be placed. This helps optimize either latency, fault tolerance, or a balance of both.

There are three types of Placement Groups: Cluster, Spread, and Partition. Each serves a different purpose, and choosing the right one depends on your application’s needs.

Types of Placement Groups and when to use them

Cluster Placement Groups for speed over everything

Think of Cluster Placement Groups like a Formula 1 pit crew. Every millisecond counts, and your instances need to communicate at breakneck speeds. AWS achieves this by placing them on the same physical hardware, minimizing latency, and maximizing network throughput.

This is perfect for:
✅ High-performance computing (HPC) clusters
✅ Real-time financial trading systems
✅ Large-scale data processing (big data, AI, and ML workloads)

⚠️ The Trade-off: While these instances talk to each other at lightning speed, they’re all packed together on the same hardware. If that hardware fails, everything inside the Cluster Placement Group goes down with it.

Spread Placement Groups for maximum resilience

Now, imagine you’re managing a set of VIP guests at a high-profile event. Instead of seating them all at the same table (risking one bad spill ruining their night), you spread them out across different areas. That’s what Spread Placement Groups do, they distribute instances across separate physical machines to reduce the impact of hardware failure.

Best suited for:
✅ Mission-critical applications that need high availability
✅ Databases requiring redundancy across multiple nodes
✅ Low-latency, fault-tolerant applications

⚠️ The Limitation: AWS allows only seven instances per Availability Zone in a Spread Placement Group. If your application needs more, you may need to rethink your architecture.

Partition Placement Groups, the best of both worlds approach

Partition Placement Groups work like a warehouse with multiple sections, each with its power supply. If one section loses power, the others keep running. AWS follows the same principle, grouping instances into multiple partitions spread across different racks of hardware. This provides both high performance and resilience, a sweet spot between Cluster and Spread Placement Groups.

Best for:
✅ Distributed databases like Cassandra, HDFS, or Hadoop
✅ Large-scale analytics workloads
✅ Applications needing both performance and fault tolerance

⚠️ AWS’s Partitioning Rule: The number of partitions you can use depends on the AWS Region, and you must carefully plan how instances are distributed.

How to Configure Placement Groups

Setting up a Placement Group is straightforward, and you can do it using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or an SDK.

Example using AWS CLI

Let’s create a Cluster Placement Group:

aws ec2 create-placement-group --group-name my-cluster-group --strategy cluster

Now, launch an instance into the group:

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-12345678 --count 1 --instance-type c5.large --placement GroupName=my-cluster-group

For Spread and Partition Placement Groups, simply change the strategy:

aws ec2 create-placement-group --group-name my-spread-group --strategy spread
aws ec2 create-placement-group --group-name my-partition-group --strategy partition

Best practices for using Placement Groups

🚀 Combine with Multi-AZ Deployments: Placement Groups work within a single Availability Zone, so consider spanning multiple AZs for maximum resilience.

📊 Monitor Network Performance: AWS doesn’t guarantee placement if your instance type isn’t supported or there’s insufficient capacity. Always benchmark your performance after deployment.

💰 Balance Cost and Performance: Cluster Placement Groups give the fastest network speeds, but they also increase failure risk. If high availability is critical, Spread or Partition Groups might be a better fit.

Final thoughts

AWS Placement Groups are a powerful but often overlooked feature. They allow you to maximize performance, minimize downtime, and optimize costs, but only if you choose the right type.

The next time you deploy EC2 instances, don’t just launch them randomly, placement matters. Choose wisely, and your infrastructure will thank you for it.

February 11, 2025 by Fernando SRE Cloud stuff DevOps stuff SRE stuff

Understanding and using AWS EC2 status checks

Picture yourself running a restaurant. Every morning before opening, you would check different things: Are the refrigerators working? Is there power in the building? Does the kitchen equipment function properly? These checks ensure your restaurant can serve customers effectively. Similarly, Amazon Web Services (AWS) performs various checks on your EC2 instances to ensure they’re running smoothly. Let’s break this down in simple terms.

What are EC2 status checks?

Think of EC2 status checks as your instance’s health monitoring system. Just like a doctor checks your heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature, AWS continuously monitors different aspects of your EC2 instances. These checks happen automatically every minute, and best of all, they are free!

The three types of status checks

1. System status checks as the building inspector

System status checks are like a building inspector. They focus on the infrastructure rather than what is happening in your instance. These checks monitor:

The physical server’s power supply
Network connectivity
System software
Hardware components

When a system status check fails, it is usually an issue outside your control. It is akin to when your apartment building loses power – there’s not much you can do personally to fix it. In these cases, AWS is responsible for the repairs.

What can you do if it fails?

Wait for AWS to fix the underlying problem (similar to waiting for the power company to restore electricity).
You can move your instance to a new “building” by stopping and starting it (note: this is different from simply rebooting).

2. Instance status checks as your personal space monitor

Instance status checks are like having a smart home system that monitors what is happening inside your apartment. These checks look at:

Your instance’s operating system
Network configuration
Software settings
Memory usage
File system status
Kernel compatibility

When these checks fail, it typically means there’s an issue you need to address. It is similar to accidentally tripping a circuit breaker in your apartment – the infrastructure is fine, but the problem is within your own space.

How to fix instance status check failures:

Restart your instance (like resetting that tripped circuit breaker).
Review and modify your instance configuration.
Make sure your instance has enough memory.
Check for corrupted file systems and repair them if needed.

3. EBS status checks as your storage guardian

EBS status checks are like monitoring your external storage unit. They monitor the health of your attached storage volumes and can detect issues like:

Hardware problems with the storage system
Connectivity problems between your instance and its storage
Physical host issues affecting storage access

What to do if EBS checks fail:

Restart your instance to try to restore connectivity.
Replace problematic EBS volumes.
Check and fix any connectivity issues.

How to monitor these checks

Monitoring status checks is straightforward, and you have several options:

Using the AWS management console
- Open the EC2 console.
- Select your instance.
- Look at the “Status Checks” tab.

It’s that simple! You’ll see either a green check (passing) or a red X (failing) for each type of check.

Setting up automated monitoring

Now, here’s where things get interesting. You can set up Amazon CloudWatch to alert you if something goes wrong. It is like having a security system that notifies you if there is an issue.

Here’s a simple example:

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \
  --alarm-name "Instance-Health-Check" \
  --namespace "AWS/EC2" \
  --metric-name "StatusCheckFailed" \
  --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --period 300 \
  --evaluation-periods 2 \
  --threshold 1 \
  --comparison-operator GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold \
  --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:region:account-id:topic-name

Each parameter here has its purpose:

–alarm-name: The name of your alarm.
–namespace and –metric-name: These identify the CloudWatch metric you are interested in.
–dimensions: Specifies the instance ID being monitored.
–period and –evaluation-periods: Define how often to check and for how long.
–threshold and –comparison-operator: Set the condition for triggering an alarm.
–alarm-actions: The action to take if the alarm state is triggered, like notifying you via SNS.

You could also set up these alarms through the AWS Management Console, which offers an intuitive UI for configuring CloudWatch.

Best practices for status checks

1. Don’t wait for problems

Set up CloudWatch alarms for all critical instances.
Monitor trends in status check results.
Document common issues and their solutions to improve response times.

2. Automate recovery

Configure automatic recovery actions for system status check failures.
Create automated backup systems and recovery procedures.
Test recovery processes regularly to ensure they work when needed.

3. Keep records

Log all status check failures.
Document steps taken to resolve issues.
Track recurring problems and implement solutions to prevent future failures.

Cost considerations

The good news? Status checks themselves are free! However, some recovery actions might incur costs, such as:

Starting and stopping instances (which might change your public IP).
Data transfer costs during recovery.
Additional EBS volumes if replacements are needed.

Real-World example

Imagine you receive an alert at 3 AM about a failed system status check. Here is how you might handle it:

Check the AWS status page: See if there is a broader AWS issue.
If it is isolated to your instance:
- Stop and start the instance (not just reboot).
- Check if the issue persists once the instance moves to new hardware.
If the problem continues:
- Review instance logs for more clues.
- Contact AWS Support if the issue is beyond your expertise or remains unresolved.

Final thoughts

EC2 status checks are your early warning system for potential problems. They are simple to understand but incredibly powerful for keeping your applications running smoothly. By monitoring these checks and setting up appropriate alerts, you can catch and address problems before they impact your users.

Remember: the best problems are the ones you prevent, not the ones you fix. Regular monitoring and proper setup of status checks will help you sleep better at night, knowing your instances are being watched over.

Next time you log into your AWS console, take a moment to check your status checks. They’re like a 24/7 health monitoring system for your cloud infrastructure, ensuring you maintain a healthy, reliable system.

November 15, 2024 by Fernando SRE Cloud stuff DevOps stuff

Exploring Containerization on AWS: Insights into ECS, EKS, Fargate, and ECR

Imagine exploring a vast universe, not of stars and galaxies, but of containers and cloud services. In AWS, this universe is populated by stellar services like ECS, EKS, Fargate, and ECR. Each, with its unique characteristics, serves different purposes, like stars in the constellation of cloud computing.

ECS: The Versatile Heart of AWS, ECS is like an experienced team of astronauts, managing entire fleets of containers efficiently. Picture a global logistics company using ECS to coordinate real-time shipping operations. Each container is a digital package, precisely transported to its destination. The scalability and security of ECS ensure that, even on the busiest days, like Black Friday, everything flows smoothly.

EKS: Kubernetes Orchestration in AWS, Think of EKS as a galactic explorer, harnessing the power of Kubernetes within the AWS cosmos. A university hospital uses EKS to manage electronic medical records. Like an advanced navigation system, EKS directs information through complex routes, maintaining the integrity and security of critical data, even as it expands into new territories of research and treatment.

Fargate: Containers without Server Chains, Fargate is like the anti-gravity of container services: it removes the weight of managing servers. Imagine a TV network using Fargate to broadcast live events. Like a spaceship that automatically adjusts to space conditions, Fargate scales resources to handle millions of viewers without the network having to worry about technical details.

ECR: The Image Warehouse in AWS Space, Finally, ECR can be seen as a digital archive in space, where container images are securely stored. A gaming startup stores versions of its software in ECR, ready to be deployed at any time. Like a well-organized archive, ECR allows this company to quickly retrieve what it needs, ensuring the latest games hit the market faster.

The Elegant Transition: From Complex Orchestration to Streamlined Efficiency

ECS: When Precision and Control Matter, Use ECS when you need fine-grained control over your container orchestration. It’s like choosing a manual transmission over automatic; you get to decide exactly how your containers run, network, and scale. It’s perfect for customized workflows and specific performance needs, much like a tailor-made suit.

EKS: For the Kubernetes Enthusiasts, Opt for EKS when you’re already invested in Kubernetes or when you need its specific features and community-driven plugins. It’s like using a Swiss Army knife; it offers flexibility and a range of tools, ideal for complex applications that require Kubernetes’ extensibility.

Fargate: Simplicity and Efficiency First, Choose Fargate when you want to focus on your application rather than infrastructure. It’s akin to flying autopilot; you define your destination (application), and Fargate handles the journey (server and cluster management). It’s best for straightforward applications where efficiency and ease of use are paramount.

ECR: Enhanced Container Registry for Docker and OCI Images

Leverage ECR for a secure, scalable environment to store and manage not just your Docker images but also OCI (Open Container Initiative) images. Envision ECR as a high-security vault that caters to the most utilized image format in the industry while also embracing the versatility of OCI standards. This dual compatibility ensures seamless integration with ECS and EKS and positions ECR as a comprehensive solution for modern container image management—crucial for organizations committed to security and forward compatibility.

Synthesizing Our Cosmic AWS Voyage

In this expedition through AWS’s container services, we’ve not only explored the distinct capabilities of ECS, EKS, Fargate, and ECR but also illuminated the scenarios where each shines brightest. Like celestial guides in the vast expanse of cloud computing, these services offer tailored paths to stellar solutions.

Choosing between them is less about picking the ‘best’ and more about aligning with your specific mission needs. Whether it’s the tailored precision of ECS, the expansive toolkit of EKS, the streamlined simplicity of Fargate, or the secure repository of ECR, each service is a specialized instrument in our technological odyssey.

Remember, understanding these services is not just about comprehending their technicalities but about appreciating their place in the grand scheme of cloud innovation. They are not just tools; they are the building blocks of modern digital architectures, each playing a pivotal role in scripting the future of technology.

December 9, 2023 by Fernando SRE Cloud stuff DevOps stuff Kubernetes