AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Practice Exam
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification assists organizations in identifying and nurturing individuals with crucial skills essential for the successful implementation of cloud initiatives. Furthermore, the examination evaluates a candidate's proficiency in accomplishing the following tasks:
- Providing support and maintaining AWS workloads in alignment with the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
- Executing operations using both the AWS Management Console and the AWS CLI.
- Implementing security measures to meet compliance standards.
- Monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting systems efficiently.
- Applying networking principles such as DNS, TCP/IP, and firewalls.
- Fulfilling architectural prerequisites including high availability and performance.
- Executing procedures for business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Identifying, categorizing, and resolving incidents promptly.
Who should take this exam?
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate serves as an excellent entry point into the AWS Certification journey for individuals possessing any of the following qualifications:
- Background in a systems administrator role
- Experience with AWS technology
- Proficiency in on-premises IT operations and adeptness in transitioning from on-premises systems to cloud environments
- Familiarity with other cloud service platforms
Furthermore, it is recommended that candidates to possess the following general IT knowledge and experience:
- 1–2 years of operational experience as a system administrator
- Proficiency in monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting systems
- Understanding of networking concepts such as DNS, TCP/IP, and firewalls
- Capability to implement architectural necessities like high availability, performance, and capacity
In terms of AWS-specific knowledge and experience, candidates should ideally have:
- At least 1 year of practical experience with AWS technology
- Hands-on experience in deploying, managing, and operating workloads within AWS
- Familiarity with the AWS Well-Architected Framework
- Practical proficiency in utilizing the AWS Management Console and the AWS CLI
- Understanding of AWS networking and security services
- Practical experience in implementing security controls and fulfilling compliance requirements
What you will learn in the exam?
Achieving this certification will demonstrate:
- Your proficiency in deploying, managing, and operating workloads on AWS, including implementing security controls and meeting compliance requirements.
- Your familiarity with utilizing both the AWS Management Console and the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI).
- Your comprehension of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, as well as AWS networking and security services.
Exam Details
- Exam Name: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate
- Exam Code: SOA-C02
- Exam Duration: 130 minutes
- Exam Language: English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese
- Type of Questions: 65 Multiple Choice and Multiple Responses
- Passing Score: 720
Course Outline
The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Exam covers the following topics -
Domain 1: Understand Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation (20%)
Implementing metrics, alarms, and filters by using AWS monitoring and logging services
- Learn Identifying, collecting, analyzing, and exporting logs (for example, Amazon CloudWatch Logs, CloudWatch Logs Insights, AWS CloudTrail logs)
- Learn to use the CloudWatch agent for collecting metrics and logs
- Learn creating CloudWatch alarms
- Learn creating metric filters
- Building CloudWatch dashboards
- Learn about Configuring notifications
Remediating issues based on monitoring and availability metrics
- Learn to troubleshoot and perform corrective actions as per the notifications and alarms
- Learn configuring Amazon EventBridge rules to trigger actions
- Learn using AWS Systems Manager Automation documents for taking action based on AWS Config rules
Domain 2: Learn Reliability and Business Continuity (16%)
Implement scalability and elasticity
- Learn the concept of creating and maintaining AWS Auto Scaling plans
- Learn the concept of implementing caching
- Learn the concept of implementing Amazon RDS replicas and Amazon Aurora Replicas
- Learn the concept of implementing loosely coupled architectures
- Learn the concept of differentiating between horizontal scaling and vertical scaling
Implementing high availability and resilient environments
- Learn the concept of configuring Elastic Load Balancer and Amazon Route 53 health checks
- Learn the concept of differentiating between the use of a single Availability Zone and Multi-AZ deployments
- Learn the concept of Implementing fault-tolerant workloads (for example, Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Elastic IP addresses)
- Learn the concept of Implementing Route 53 routing policies (for example, failover, weighted, latency based)
Implementing backup and restore strategies
- Learn the concept of automating snapshots and backups depending on use cases
- Learn the concept of Restoring databases (for example, point-in-time restore, promote read replica)
- Learn the concept of Implementing versioning and lifecycle rules
- Learn the concept of Configuring Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication
- Learn the concept of Executing disaster recovery procedures
Domain 3: Learn about Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation (18%)
Provisioning and maintaining cloud resources
- Learn the concept of Creating and controlling AMIs (for example, EC2 Image Builder)
- Learn the concept of Creating, managing, and troubleshooting AWS CloudFormation
- Learn the concept of Provisioning resources over multiple AWS Regions and accounts
- Learn the concept of Selecting deployment scenarios and services
- Learn the concept of Identifying and remediating deployment issues
Automating manual or repeatable processes
- Learn the concept of using AWS services (for example, OpsWorks, Systems Manager, CloudFormation) for automating deployment processes
- Learn the concept of implementing automated patch management
- Learn the concept of scheduling automated tasks by using AWS services (for example, EventBridge, AWS Config)
Domain 4: Understand Security and Compliance (16%)
Implementing and managing security and compliance policies
- Learn the concept of implementing IAM features
- Learn the concept of troubleshooting and auditing access issues by using AWS services
- Learn the concept of validating service control policies and permission boundaries
- Learn the concept of reviewing AWS Trusted Advisor security checks
- Learn the concept of validating AWS Region and service selections based on compliance requirements
- Learn the concept of implementing secure multi-account strategies
Implementing data and infrastructure protection strategies
- Learn the concept of enforcing a data classification scheme
- Learn the concept of creating, managing, and protecting encryption keys
- Learn the concept of implement encryption at rest
- Learn the concept of implementing encryption in transit
- Learn the concept of securely storing secrets by using AWS services
- Learn the concept of reviewing reports or findings
Domain 5: Learn Networking and Content Delivery (18%)
Implementing networking features and connectivity
- Learn the concept of configuring a VPC
- Learn the concept of configuring private connectivity
- Learn the concept of configuring AWS network protection services
Configuring domains, DNS services, and content delivery
- Learn the concept of configuring Route 53 hosted zones and records
- Learn the concept of implement Route 53 routing policies
- Learn the concept of configuring DNS
- Learn the concept of configuring Amazon CloudFront and S3 origin access identity (OAI)
- Learn the concept of configuring S3 static website hosting
Troubleshooting network connectivity issues
- Learn the concept of interpreting VPC configurations
- Learn the concept of collecting and interpreting logs
- Learn the concept of identifying and remediating CloudFront caching issues
- Learn the concept of troubleshooting hybrid and private connectivity issues
Domain 6: Understand Cost and Performance Optimization (12%)
Implementing cost optimization strategies
- Learn the concept of implementing cost allocation tags
- Learn the concept of identifying and remediating underutilized or unused resources by using AWS services and tools
- Learn the concept of configuring AWS Budgets and billing alarms
- Learn the concept of assessing resource usage patterns for qualifying workloads for EC2 Spot Instances
- Learn the concept of identifying opportunities to use managed services
Implementing performance optimization strategies
- Learn the concept of computing resources depending on performance metrics
- Learn the concept of monitoring Amazon EBS metrics
- Learn the concept of modifying the configuration to increase performance efficiency
- Learn the concept of implementing S3 performance features
- Learn the concept of monitoring RDS metrics and modifying the configuration for increasing performance efficiency
- Learn the concept of enabling enhanced EC2 capabilities