How to vertically scale an Amazon instance?

Yes.  This is an incredible feature of AWS and cloud virtualization.  Spinup a new larger instance than the one you are currently running.  Pause that instance and detach the root ebs volume from this server and discard.  Then stop your live instance, detach its root volume.  Note the unique device ID and attach that root volume to your new server.   And the start it again.  Voila you have scaled vertically in-place!!

Types of Scaling

What is auto-scaling? How does it work?

Autoscaling is a feature of AWS which allows you to configure and automatically provision and spinup new instances without the need for your intervention.  You do this by setting thresholds and metrics to monitor.  When those thresholds are crossed a new instance of your choosing will be spun up, configured, and rolled into the load balancer pool.  Voila you’ve scaled horizontally without any operator intervention!

With MySQL databases autoscaling can get a little dicey, so we wrote a guide to autoscaling MySQL on amazon EC2.

What automation tools can I use to spinup servers?

The most obvious way is to roll-your-own scripts, and use the AWS API tools.  Such scripts could be written in bash, perl or other language or your choice.  Next option is to use a configuration management and provisioning tool like puppet or better it’s successor Opscode Chef.  You might also look towards a tool like Scalr.  Lastly you can go with a managed solution such as Rightscale.


1. AWS API Tools : https://aws.amazon.com/developertools/351
2. OpsCode Chef : https://www.chef.io/

3. Scalr:  http://www.scalr.com/

4. RightScale:   http://www.rightscale.com/

           

TOP AWS Interview Questions

A must 300+ AWS Questions (objective)

1. Mention what is the relation between an instance and AMI?
2. Explain EC2 Generation Instances in AWS?
3. What are the security best practices for Amazon EC2?
4. Explain how the buffer is used in Amazon web services?
5. Explain Elastic Block Storage?  What type of performance can you expect?  How do you back it up?  How do you improve performance?
6. What is S3?  What is it used for? Should encryption be used?
7.  What is an AMI?  How do I build one?
8. How to vertically scale an Amazon instance?
9. What is auto-scaling? How does it work?
10. What automation tools can I use to spinup servers?
11. What is configuration management?  Why would I want to use it with cloud provisioning of resources?
12. Explain how you would simulate perimeter security using Amazon Web Services model?

What is configuration management? Why would I want to use it with cloud provisioning of resources?

Configuration management has been around for a long time in web operations and systems administration.  Yet the cultural popularity of it has been limited.  Most systems administrators configure machines as software was developed before version control – that is manually making changes on servers.  Each server can then and usually is slightly different.  Troubleshooting though is straightforward as you login to the box and operate on it directly.  Configuration management brings a large automation tool into the picture, managing servers like strings of a puppet.  This forces standardization, best practices, and reproducibility as all configs are versioned and managed.  It also introduces a new way of working which is the biggest hurdle to its adoption.

Enter the cloud, and configuration management becomes even more critical.  That’s because virtual servers such as amazons EC2 instances are much less reliable than physical ones.  You absolutely need a mechanism to rebuild them as-is at any moment.  This pushes best practices like automation, reproducibility and disaster recovery into center stage.

Explain how you would simulate perimeter security using Amazon Web Services model?

Traditional perimeter security that we’re already familiar with using firewalls and so forth is not supported in the Amazon EC2 world.  AWS supports security groups.  One can create a security group for a jump box with ssh access – only port 22 open.  From there a webserver group and database group are created.  The webserver group allows 80 and 443 from the world, but port 22 *only* from the jump box group.  Further the database group allows port 3306 from the webserver group and port 22 from the jump box group.  Add any machines to the webserver group and they can all hit the database.  No one from the world can, and no one can directly ssh to any of your boxes.