AWS CloudWatch Interview Questions

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing service provided by Amazon. You can easily create, test, launch, and maintain your apps and services on Amazon Web Services. Amazon's data centers and associated gear are responsible for all of this. Cloud services from Amazon Web Services (AWS) include IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS options.

Some things to know about AWS CloudWatch:

• AWS CloudWatch is a service that keeps an eye on the AWS resources you use and the AWS apps you run. It can automatically set alarms, track and collect metrics, and respond to changes in your AWS resources.
• Amazon CloudWatch is a management service tool designed for system architects, developers, and administrators to monitor their Amazon web services applications in the cloud in near-real time. Due to the high level of competition, strong technical skills are required.
• AWS CloudWatch is a monitoring service for AWS-hosted applications and AWS cloud resources. When it comes to AWS CloudWatch, it's important to be able to monitor processors, logs, and metrics.

Reading this article, you can learn the solutions to some of the most typical AWS CloudWatch interview questions. We've answered some of the most recently asked questions about AWS Cloud-Watch. It is a comprehensive blog post that will assist you in passing an interview.

We have listed the interview questions based on the following:

• Freshers
• Experienced
• FAQs

Top 10 AWS CloudWatch Interview Questions

1. What is AWS CloudWatch?
2. How does Amazon CloudWatch work?
3. What are Cloudwatch Logs?
4. How long do Cloudwatch Logs store our metadata?
5. How do you integrate CloudWatch with EC2 instances?
6. What is an AWS CloudWatch Alarm?
7. How do you create a dashboard in CloudWatch?
8. What Types Of Cloudwatch Alarms Can Be Created?
9. How do I send metrics to Grafana from CloudWatch?
10. What are three things you can do in CloudWatch?

AWS CloudWatch Interview Questions and Answers For Freshers

If you're going in for an AWS Cloud-Watch interview, studying the common questions and answers can help you do well.

1. What is AWS?

AWS is a cloud computing service. It offers developers the infrastructure, software, and other resources necessary to launch, build, and maintain applications of any size.

2. What is AWS CloudWatch?

AWS CloudWatch collects monitoring and operational data in metrics, logs, and events, which it then visualizes using automated dashboards to provide a unified view of your AWS applications, resources, and services. CloudWatch can collect monitoring and operational data in both AWS and on-premises environments.

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3. What is the difference between CloudWatch and CloudTrail?

• CloudWatch is a tool provided by Amazon Web Services that monitors and reports on the performance of various AWS resources and services.
• CloudTrail, on the other hand, is a log of all actions in your AWS environment since it was first launched.

4. How does Amazon CloudWatch work?

Your applications and infrastructure resources may be monitored and managed using Amazon CloudWatch, which offers a unified solution. It is a web service you can use to gather metrics, understand your application and the infrastructure supporting it, and automatically respond to changes. You can monitor AWS resources with Amazon CloudWatch and adjust the monitoring to your company's requirements.

5. List different types of Cloud Services

Different types of Cloud Services include

• Data as a Service (DaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS).

6. What is Power User Access in AWS?

The owner of the AWS resources will be comparable to an administrator user. It can grant access to other users for the AWS resources that add, delete, change, or inspect the resources. Administrator access is provided with Power User Access but without the ability to control users and permissions. 

In other words, a user who has Power User Access can create, delete, change, or view the resources but cannot allow other users access.

7. What are Cloudwatch Logs?

CloudWatch Logs is a tool that helps us monitor and troubleshoot our systems and applications. It uses our already-established systems, applications, and custom log files. In addition, it allows us to monitor our logs in real-time for particular phrases, values, or patterns.

8. Can you explain a metric in the context of CloudWatch?

A data point in a time series representing a particular measurement that occurs within your AWS environment is referred to as a metric. To monitor your environment and determine any problems, you can use CloudWatch to gather and track metrics generated by AWS resources.

9. What platforms are compatible with CloudWatch Logs Agent?

The agent that collects CloudWatch logs can run on many different systems. Here is a list of a few things that are:

• CentOS
• Windows
• Ubuntu
• Amazon Linux
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

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10. How to get additional lines of context in a CloudWatch Insights query?

fields @timestamp, @message
| filter @message like /ERROR/
| sort @timestamp desc
| limit 20

11. How long do Cloudwatch Logs store our metadata?

We can keep a record of your information for as long as we think is necessary, which gives us the freedom to change the LogGroup retention settings whenever we see fit. It also allows us to keep a record of our metadata indefinitely.

12. How to delete alarms in AWS CloudWatch Console?

If you want to delete the alarms from the AWS CloudWatch Console, use the following command:

Command: aws cloudwatch delete-alarms --region us-east-2 --alarm-names ...

13. How can I monitor my AWS resources in near real-time?

You may gather and keep track of measurements in a timeframe that is close to real-time by using AWS CloudWatch. The information regarding its metrics is kept as time-series data points. In addition, each data point in a time series is accompanied by a timestamp as well as a unit of measurement.  

14. What is Amazon CloudWatch ServiceLens?

The new Amazon CloudWatch ServiceLens feature lets you visualize and evaluate your apps' health, performance, and availability from a single location. It is possible to use Amazon CloudWatch ServiceLens in any of the public AWS Regions equipped with AWS-X-Ray.

15. How do you integrate CloudWatch with EC2 instances?

Installing the CloudWatch agent on AWS EC2 instances allows you to integrate CloudWatch with those instances. You can collect metrics and log files from your EC2 instances using the CloudWatch agent and then submit them to CloudWatch.

[ Related Article: AWS EC2 Instances Types ]

16. How Can I Implement Cloudwatch Access Management Policies?

You can determine which CloudWatch operations a user associated with your AWS Account can carry out using the integration that CloudWatch provides with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Using IAM to restrict who can view the data in CloudWatch for particular resources is impossible. It is impossible to give a single individual access to the CloudWatch data for, for example, just one group of instances or a single LoadBalancer. All cloud resources that CloudWatch uses are subject to the permissions that IAM grants. Furthermore, IAM roles are not supported by the Amazon CloudWatch command line tools.

17. What is Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics?

Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics allows you to build schedule-driven canaries and scriptable checks of your APIs and endpoints. Since canaries navigate your applications the same way humans would, you can verify the quality of the user experience at all times, regardless of whether or not there is any actual human traffic. Using canaries, you can find issues before your consumers do.

18. What are some of the benefits of using AWS CloudWatch?

• You may use AWS CloudWatch to monitor your Amazon DynamoDB tables, Amazon EC2 instances, and Amazon RDS DB instances, among other AWS resources, to gain valuable insights into their efficiency and effectiveness.
• CloudWatch tracks both AWS Lambda operations and Amazon API Gateway APIs. 
• CloudWatch allows you to configure alarms with instantaneous responses to changes in your AWS infrastructure.

19. What's the difference between Google Stackdriver and Amazon CloudWatch?

• Amazon CloudWatch is a service that keeps tabs on everything running on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Meanwhile, Google Stackdriver is a tool for keeping tabs on everything from resources to apps hosted on the Google Cloud.

Both services offer interchangeable functionalities, such as constructing dashboards, creating alarms, and seeing logs. Nevertheless, there are many significant distinctions between the two services. For Instance, in contrast to Google Stackdriver, Amazon CloudWatch incorporates the capability for monitoring Amazon DynamoDB tables. In addition, Google Kubernetes Engine clusters are available through Google Stackdriver. However, it is not available through Amazon CloudWatch.

[ Learn How to Deploy Web Application in AWS? ]

20. Is it possible for CloudWatch to automatically delete old logs?

No, CloudWatch does not automatically clean up old logs in the background. When you no longer require the old logs, you must manually delete them from the system.

AWS CloudWatch Interview Questions For Experienced

You will likely be questioned about CloudWatch if you are applying for a job with AWS. We go over the most frequently asked AWS CloudWatch questions in this article. 

21. How do you delete all log files from a specific group?

Using the AWS CloudWatch control panel, you can remove all logs for a particular group at once. Select the log group you want to remove from the CloudWatch console, then choose "Actions" from the context menu. 

22. What does Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics work?

Canaries are pre-programmed scripts that run on a predetermined schedule. You can use Amazon CloudWatch Synthetics to create canaries to monitor your endpoints and APIs. The canaries travel the same routes as consumers and perform the same tasks, allowing you to validate the quality of the user experience even when no actual customer activity is occurring on your apps. You can detect problems before your clients do by using canaries.

By simulating the queries of potential visitors, a method known as "synthetic monitoring" can be used to evaluate the availability, performance, and functionality of a website or online service.

23. What is an AWS CloudWatch Alarm?

An AWS CloudWatch Alarm is a monitoring and management solution for AWS resources. It enables the configuration of alarms based on individual indicators or as part of a larger monitoring plan.

24. What are CloudWatch Metric Streams?

As a new kind of metric stream, CloudWatch Metric Streams allow you to track and collect information from Amazon CloudWatch. They allow for the aggregation, visualization, and analysis of all information gathered by CloudWatch.

25. Which service in AWS is used for real-time monitoring?

CloudTrail is the tool used for continuous monitoring. The API calls your apps can be tracked with CloudTrail. The logs also include details about each API request performed by AWS services.

[ Related Article: Top 30 AWS Services ]

26. What is an AWS CloudWatch dashboard?

An AWS CloudWatch dashboard can visually show metrics and alarms for tracking your AWS applications and resources. Data from AWS CloudWatch, Amazon EC2, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon RDS, and other AWS services can be shown in dashboards.

27. How do you create a dashboard in CloudWatch?

By selecting "Create Dashboard" from the "Dashboards" menu on the left-sidebar of CloudWatch, you may create a dashboard. The name and description of your dashboard will then be requested from you. Then you may start including widgets.

28. How Do I Retrieve My Log Data on Amazon CloudWatch?

The Logs API on Amazon CloudWatch is where you can obtain your logged information. Since it is an HTTP-based API, your logs are accessible from almost any computer, anywhere globally. You can find the Logs section of the Amazon CloudWatch dashboard. All your logs set up to be tracked and retrieved will be displayed here.

29. How Long Do Cloudwatch Logs Store My Data?

Your information will be kept in Cloudwatch Logs for up to 7 days. After that point, only the most current logs will be kept, with older ones automatically deleted to save space.

30. What Types Of Cloudwatch Alarms Can Be Created?

Four types of Cloudwatch alarms can be created:

• A warning about a specific resource (e.g., a virtual machine).
• A regular notification for a specific metric (e.g., CPU usage).
• A user-defined alarm (for example, if your application runs slowly, the alarm will trigger when the CPU reaches 80% and notify you immediately).
• A personalized alarm based on user-defined rules.

31. What Actions Can We Take From a Cloudwatch Alarm?

The following actions are possible in response to a cloud watch alarm:

• Share an email with the team.
• Schedule a Cron task to run.
• Share on Slack or HipChat.
• Run a script on this machine, such as one that imports data into a spreadsheet.

[ Check out How to Install Command Line Tools in AWS? ]

32. What Thresholds Can I Set To Trigger A Cloudwatch Alarm?

If you have access to the AWS Management Console, you can also use it to create Thresholds that will cause a Cloudwatch alarm to go off.

• Step 1: Find the alarm you'd like to set.
• Step 2: Select the threshold you want to add, then click Edit next to Thresholds.
• Step 3: Third, select the AWS region where your data is stored so that Amazon can gauge the volume of data that satisfies this requirement.

33. What Are Amazon Cloudwatch Logs?

Amazon CloudWatch Logs uses your existing machine, application, and custom log files to reveal and troubleshoot your systems and programs. With CloudWatch Logs, you can search your logs in near real-time for specific phrases, values, or patterns. For example, you can set the alarm for the number of errors in your machine logs or view graphs of net request latency from your utility logs. You can then examine the distinct log records to determine the source of the problem. Log statistics can be stored and accessed indefinitely in a long-lasting, low-cost garage, so you don't have to worry about filling up difficult drives.

34. What Log Monitoring Does Cloudwatch Provide?

CloudWatch Logs helps you display and troubleshoot your systems and applications using your existing machine, software, and custom log files. CloudWatch Logs allows you to monitor your logs in real-time for specific phrases, values, or styles.

35. What Types Of Cloudwatch Alarms Can Be Created?

Any CloudWatch measure can be displayed via an alarm you set up. You can also set off an alert based on metrics specific to your application or system.

36. What Kinds Of Things Can I Do With Cloudwatch Logs?

Cloudwatch logs might help you determine why your program isn't functioning as intended. You can also use them to diagnose performance issues in your system. Furthermore, Cloudwatch logs can be used to keep an eye on the status of your infrastructure and spot problems before they affect performance.

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37. Does The Cloudwatch Logs Agent Support Team Roles?

Yes, IAM roles are supported by the Cloudwatch Logs Agent.

Your company's log data can be available via the AWS IAM service and the Cloudwatch Logs Agent. The AWS IAM service allows you to manage who can view which log events and what permissions they have given you.

38. What Can I Measure With Amazon Cloudwatch Metrics?

With Amazon Cloudwatch Metrics, you may monitor the following:

• Utilization of Central Processing Units (how many CPU resources are used).
• Making Use of Memory (how much memory is being used).
• Disk I/O speed (the rate data passes through your discs in a second).

39. How do I send metrics to Grafana from CloudWatch?

Install Grafana: Follow the steps to Install Grafana.

1. Go to AWS -> IAM -> Policies.
2. Add the below JSON in policy -> Create Policy:

40. What are three things you can do in CloudWatch?

• Real-time monitoring is available for AWS resources and apps.
• Create alerts that will respond automatically to changes in your AWS resources.
• AWS CloudWatch Logs allows you to see and search log data.

Most Common AWS CloudWatch FAQs

41. What is the AWS CloudWatch Agent?

The AWS CloudWatch Agent is software that can be deployed to any server, whether hosted on Amazon EC2, Amazon ECS, or on-premises. Using the AWS CloudWatch Agent, you can quickly gather and send system-level performance information from specific AWS resources.

42. If I disable monitoring for an Ec2 instance, will I lose the metrics data?

No, the metrics data will not be lost.

If you disable monitoring for an EC2 instance, the metrics you've collected are still safely preserved in a SQL database as part of the AWS CloudTrail logs.

43. Can I Retrieve Data from a Deleted ELB or Ec2 Instance?

Metrics data for deleted ELBs and decommissioned EC2 instances are still available. MetricsData associated with a terminated instance will be removed when the Instance is shut down. In contrast, MetricsData associated with your account will remain on the MetricInfraService until you delete it. This information can be used for diagnosing problems with your ECS cluster or ELB.

44. What Statistics Can I View And Graph In Cloudwatch?

CloudWatch lets you see and visualize numerous statistics. A few examples are as follows:

• Disk I/O Activity
• Memory Share 
• CPU Usage
• Memory Usage
• Network Interface Usage.

45. How do I make use of my Cloudwatch logs?

Some of the many uses for CloudWatch logs include the following.

• Notify you of any SLA or quota breaches
• Maintain a close eye on crucial application and resource indicators.
• Check the status of your AWS infrastructure in one convenient location.
• Determine where your applications and services may have security holes and patch them before the public discovers them.

46. What are the Applications of AWS?

• SaaS Hosting
• Website Hosting
• Search Engines
• Media Sharing
• Social Networking
• Academic Computing
• Social and Mobile Applications.

47. What is AWS EC2?

When it comes to cloud-based computing power, nothing beats the flexibility and scalability of AWS Elastic Compute Cloud. With EC2, users only need to wait a few minutes to obtain and restart the most recent user instances instead of the days it used to take. Getting a new server requires placing a purchase order and doing cabling, which might take a lot of time.

48. What is CloudWatch in AWS?

An on-premises, hybrid, and AWS application or resource can be monitored and managed with Amazon CloudWatch, which offers data and valuable insights.

49. Is CloudWatch free to use?

Yes, Amazon CloudWatch is available for free to use. Metrics for the majority of AWS Services (EC2, S3, Kinesis, etc.) are sent directly and for free to CloudWatch. These constraints on the free tier should be sufficient for many apps.

50. How do I use CloudWatch?

Create IAM users or roles that give the agent access to the server's metrics and, optionally, AWS Systems Manager integration. Get the agent bundle now. Specify the metrics you wish to gather in the CloudWatch agent configuration file. Install the agent on your servers, then launch it.

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51. Is Amazon CloudWatch a SIEM?

Whereas a SIEM is primarily a security solution, AWS Cloudwatch is primarily a monitoring and log analytics tool.

52. What is AWS SIEM called?

Organizations need comprehensive insight into their infrastructure and apps to quickly make data-driven choices. For the AWS Control Tower, SIEM systems monitor workloads in real-time, spot security concerns, and speed up the root-cause investigation.

53. What is the AWS CloudWatch metric data retention period?

The time that AWS CloudWatch will keep your metric data once it has been collected for you is known as the AWS CloudWatch metric data retention period. The user can customize this duration.

Conclusion

AWS Cloud-Watch collects and reports metrics on various resources within your AWS account. These data can be used to determine how your applications use resources. Based on the AWS Cloudwatch real-world experience, this article will help you know the most commonly asked AWS CloudWatch interview questions for your upcoming interview. Once you read all these questions, there are high chances of getting selected for this AWS job.