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Logging has saved me so much time and effort over the years. And if you want to get AWS certified, you need to be familiar with logging on AWS.
Centralized logging is a critical aspect of any modern application infrastructure, as it provides insights into application performance and security. AWS offers a suite of pre-built tools to help organizations implement effective logging solutions.
I‘d like to give you an overview of how to create a robust logging solution in AWS using CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and Simple Notification Service (SNS).
If your organization is not already implementing some sort of monitoring solution, then they are absolutely behind the curve. Or if they are logging, perhaps you can make it a little more efficient with the framework provided here.
Some assumptions that will be made:
You have the proper IAM permissions to do the following steps in each service
The resources you are monitoring (EC2 instances for example) have the necessary roles to interact with other AWS services like CloudWatch and CloudTrail
Setting up AWS CloudWatch
AWS CloudWatch is a monitoring service that allows you to collect, track, and analyze metrics and logs from your AWS resources. Think of CloudWatch as keeping track of what is happening with your architecture.
To create a logging solution with CloudWatch, follow these steps:
Enable CloudWatch Logs: First, create a new CloudWatch log group and log stream. Log groups define a set of log streams with the same retention, monitoring, and access control settings.
Configure your applications and services to send logs to CloudWatch: Modify your applications or AWS services to send logs to the created log group. For example, configure Amazon EC2 instances to send logs using the CloudWatch Logs Agent, or set up AWS Lambda to send logs automatically.
Define metrics and alarms: Create custom metrics to monitor specific log events, and set up alarms to notify you when critical thresholds are breached.
Integrating AWS CloudTrail
AWS CloudTrail is a service that records AWS API calls, delivering log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. These logs provide valuable insights into user activity and can be used for security analysis, compliance auditing, and operational troubleshooting. Think of CloudTrail as tracking who is doing something to your architecture.
Enable CloudTrail: To begin using CloudTrail, create a new trail from the CloudTrail console. Configure the trail to deliver log files to an S3 bucket.
Send CloudTrail logs to CloudWatch: Configure CloudTrail to send events to CloudWatch Logs. This enables you to monitor and analyze API activity in real-time, and leverage CloudWatch features like custom metrics and alarms.
Set up monitoring and alerts: Define custom metrics to track specific API events, and create alarms to notify you of potential security or operational issues.
Implementing AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS)
AWS SNS is a messaging service that allows you to send notifications to multiple subscribers using various protocols like email, SMS, or HTTP(S) endpoints. It is the core service you would use when you want to automatically be notified of events that happen with your architecture.
Create an SNS topic: From the SNS console, create a new topic that will be used to send notifications.
Subscribe to the SNS topic: Add subscribers to the created topic by providing their email addresses, phone numbers, or HTTP(S) endpoints.
Integrate SNS with CloudWatch and CloudTrail: Update your CloudWatch alarms and CloudTrail events to send notifications to the SNS topic. This ensures that you receive alerts when critical events occur or when specific thresholds are crossed.
By integrating AWS CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and SNS, you can create a comprehensive logging solution that provides real-time monitoring, analysis, and alerting capabilities for your AWS resources. This solution not only helps you maintain application performance and security but also ensures compliance with industry standards and regulations.
Depending on your use case, you can set your trails and CloudWatch log groups to monitor any metric within your architecture.
Additionally, having an automated messaging system that alerts you to specific events or thresholds is extremely helpful and contributes to a much higher level of operational efficiency in your architecture.
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