BYTE the Cloud

Chris 0:00
All right, hey, everyone. Get ready for a deep dive. Today. We're tackling AWS config.

Kelly 0:04
Yeah, it's a service that can be super useful, especially for, you know, mid level cloud engineers like yourself. That's

Chris 0:13
our audience. Mid level cloud engineers, yeah, you're working in AWS environments every day, and this service, I think, is going to help you get a much clearer picture of your resources,

Kelly 0:23
yeah? Like, what those resources are, how they're set up,

Chris 0:27
you know, and how those configurations have changed over time, right? Because that's important too. It's not just a static snapshot, right?

Kelly 0:32
Like, think about it. You're trying to troubleshoot a problem. Wouldn't it be amazing to just kind of rewind and see exactly what changes happened before that issue, Oh, that'd

Chris 0:41
be amazing, like a time machine for your cloud, yeah, exactly.

Kelly 0:44
And AWS config can give you that kind of power. I

Chris 0:49
love that analogy. A time machine for your cloud. It makes it sound way less intimidating, but okay, that sounds super helpful for troubleshooting. But what about security and compliance?

Kelly 0:56
Well, it's huge for those too. Imagine you need to prove to an auditor that all your s3 buckets are encrypted, right? Yeah, that's always a fun one. Well, with AWS config, you can basically just generate a report that shows exactly that,

Chris 1:08
boom, done. Saves you so much time and hassle, exactly.

Kelly 1:11
Or, let's say you want to make sure that none of your s3 buckets are like, accidentally open to the public. Oh, yeah, that's a big no no, right? With AWS config, you can really quickly identify any buckets that aren't properly secured. So

Chris 1:26
it's kind of like having this automated security guard that's always watching over your shoulder, making sure you don't accidentally leave the door open, so to speak. Yeah,

Kelly 1:34
I like that. It's like having this constant monitoring and making sure everything is, you know, in tip top shape.

Chris 1:40
So we've got troubleshooting, security, compliance, what else? I mean, there's got to be more. Oh, there's

Kelly 1:47
definitely more. I mean, we haven't even talked about cost optimization or enforcing best practices or even automating responses to certain configuration changes. We can get into all that, but I think first we got to make sure everyone understands the basics. So what exactly is AWS config?

Chris 2:03
Yeah, let's define it. Why should we care so much about it? You've thrown out all these cool use cases, but at its core, what is it? Okay,

Kelly 2:11
so at its core, AWS config is all about inventory and change management for your AWS resources. Okay, inventory and

Chris 2:18
change management. So we're talking about keeping track of all the stuff you have in the cloud and how it's all it's all configured

Kelly 2:23
right exactly, and not just what you have right now, but also how those configurations have changed over time. It's like imagine having a complete history of every single change that's ever been made in your AWS environment. That's

Chris 2:36
a lot of data, but I can see how that would be incredibly valuable, especially as your environments get more and more complex, right?

Kelly 2:44
And that's the thing, as cloud environments grow, it gets harder and harder to keep track of everything manually. AWS config takes a lot of that burden off your shoulders. You know? It's like having a personal assistant for your AWS resources,

Chris 2:57
a very detail oriented assistant. It sounds like, Oh, definitely. Okay. I'm intrigued. Let's dive deeper. What are the features that make all this possible? What's under the hood of AWS config that makes it so powerful?

Kelly 3:10
Okay, so one of the coolest features is the use of rules. Think of these rules as like, automated checks that are constantly scanning your environment.

Chris 3:18
Okay, so they're like little robots that are constantly making sure everything is in order

Kelly 3:22
Exactly. And you can use pre built rules that AWS provides these cover common security and compliance best practices, you know, things like checking if your s3 buckets are publicly accessible or if your EC two instances have the latest security updates. So

Chris 3:38
it's like having those foundational security measures in place without having to reinvent the wheel, Right exactly.

Kelly 3:43
And then you can even create your own custom rules to enforce very specific requirements. So it's really flexible, but basically, these rules are constantly running in the background, checking your configurations and then alerting you if anything is out of whack.

Chris 3:56
This is proactive, not reactive. You don't have to wait for something to break to find out there's a problem,

Kelly 4:01
right? It's like having that smoke detector that goes off before the fire starts, right? Exactly. It's

Chris 4:06
like, hey, there's a potential issue here. Take a look before it becomes a big problem.

Kelly 4:10
And that can be a huge life saver, especially as your environment grows. But you know, gotta be honest, it's not perfect. Oh, there

Chris 4:17
are limitations. Every tool has its limitations, right? Yeah,

Kelly 4:20
for sure. I mean, it's awesome for monitoring and alerting you to issues, but it doesn't actually fix those issues for you,

Chris 4:27
right? Right? It's not like a magic wand that you wave and everything's perfect. You still need to take action based on what AWS config tells you. Exactly.

Kelly 4:34
Think of it as like a smoke detector. You know, it alerts you to the problem, but you still have to grab the fire extinguisher and put out the fire yourself, right?

Chris 4:44
It gives you the information, but it's up to you to act on it. Okay, that makes sense. Now. How does AWS config fit into the whole AWS ecosystem? Does it play well with other services?

Kelly 4:55
Oh, absolutely. It integrates with a bunch of other services like it works really. Closely with cloudtrail. Cloudtrail,

Chris 5:01
yeah, that's all about tracking API calls, right? So we can see who made changes to AWS config itself. Yeah,

Kelly 5:08
exactly. So you have this really detailed audit trail, and then you can use CloudWatch to monitor the evaluations of your AWS config rules.

Chris 5:16
So we can set up alarms to notify us if, say, a particular rule is failing repeatedly,

Kelly 5:22
exactly that can help you spot patterns and maybe identify like a systemic issue or something. And then, if you want to automate responses to configuration changes, AWS config can even work with lambda. Oh,

Chris 5:34
lambda, our automation hero, so we could trigger lambda functions to do things automatically based on what AWS config detects, right? Like,

Kelly 5:42
let's say you want to automatically enable encryption on an EBS volume that was created without encryption. You can set up a rule for that and then use lambda to automatically remediate that issue.

Chris 5:51
So AWS config is like the brains of the operation, constantly monitoring and analyzing, and then lambda is the muscle that jumps in and fixes things. That's a powerful combination. It is. It's

Kelly 6:02
like this whole orchestrated system working behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. Now

Chris 6:07
I'm guessing all of this is super relevant for folks who are preparing for AWS certification exams.

Kelly 6:12
Oh yeah, definitely. AWS config is a favorite topic on those exams because it really tests your understanding of how to build and manage secure and compliant cloud environments. Well,

Chris 6:23
then let's jump right into some Exam Prep, because I know the exam can be tricky, and there are always those curveball questions that throw you off. So are you ready to put our knowledge to the test? Absolutely.

Kelly 6:33
Let's do it all right. Let's start with a question you might see on the exam. What are the two main types of AWS config rules.

Chris 6:43
Okay, this is about like the foundation of AWS config, right? We've got managed rules and custom rules, if I'm remembering correctly,

Kelly 6:50
yeah, you got it. Managed rules are like those pre built security systems you can get for your house. You know, AWS provides them. They're pretty easy to set up. They cover those common security and compliance practices. So

Chris 7:01
like checking if your s3 buckets are public, or making sure those EBS volumes are encrypted, those kinds of things exactly.

Kelly 7:07
And then you've got custom rules, which are more like building your own custom security system. You know, from scratch. You define the logic, specify what you want to monitor, what actions to take if the rule gets triggered. It's pretty flexible.

Chris 7:19
So it's like, Manage Rules for the basics, the out of the box stuff, and then custom rules when you need that extra level of control, that specific thing that maybe AWS doesn't have a pre built rule

Kelly 7:30
for, right? Exactly. And the exam might give you a scenario and ask you which type of rule would be best for that situation.

Chris 7:38
Okay? So like, imagine a company has this policy that all their EC two instances have to be tagged with a specific cost center ID. Which type of rule would they use to enforce that? That'd

Kelly 7:50
be a custom rule for sure, because there's probably not a pre built, managed rule for that exact tagging requirement.

Chris 7:56
So they'd create a custom rule that checks for the presence of that tag on every EC two instance, yeah, and maybe even make sure the value is correct,

Kelly 8:03
right? And they could even set it up so that if an instance doesn't have that tag, maybe it sends a notification to the security team, or even, like, automatically terminates the instance. Oh,

Chris 8:14
okay, that's getting pretty serious, but it shows how powerful those custom rules can be. Definitely.

Kelly 8:20
Okay, so let's say you've got your rules in place, both managed and custom. How does AWS config actually help you prove that you're compliant during an audit?

Chris 8:30
This is where that whole record keeping thing comes in, right? AWS config is keeping track of all the configurations and changes over time.

Kelly 8:37
Exactly. Remember that time machine analogy? Oh, this is where it really pays off. When the auditor comes knocking, you don't have to scramble to gather all the information. You've got it all right there in AWS config,

Chris 8:49
so no more last minute panic trying to pull everything together. That's a huge relief. And not

Kelly 8:54
only that, AWS config can actually generate those compliance reports that auditors love.

Chris 8:58
Oh, nice. So you can just hand the report that shows you're meeting all the requirements. Easy peasy.

Kelly 9:04
Speaking of making things easier, let's talk about how AWS config works with other AWS services. Yeah, it doesn't just exist in a silo, like we talked about cloudtrail for auditing configuration changes within AWS config. But what about if you want to be notified, like right away whenever someone changes a security group, what would

Chris 9:22
you use for that? Okay, so we want something that's gonna trigger an action based on an event in AWS config. I'm thinking cloud watch events here, right?

Kelly 9:31
Yeah, you got it, yeah. You could set up a cloud watch event that triggers whenever AWS config detects a change to a security group, and then that event can do all sorts of things like send you an email or trigger a lambda function or even update a dashboard.

Chris 9:45
So we're leveraging the power of CloudWatch events to make AWS config even more responsive and proactive. That's pretty cool. And

Kelly 9:52
remember how we talked about how AWS config doesn't actually fix problems for you? Well, that's where lambda comes

Chris 9:57
in. Yes, lambda, yeah, our automation. Friend. So how do we connect the dots between AWS config and lambda? How do we make those two work together,

Kelly 10:07
right? So imagine you're really, really serious about security, right? And you want to automatically terminate any EC two instance that doesn't meet your security standards,

Chris 10:15
okay, yeah, I can see that being a requirement for some organizations super high security.

Kelly 10:20
So first you'd set up an AWS config rule to detect those non compliant instances. Whatever those standards are, the rule will flag any instances that don't meet them. So

Chris 10:31
AWS config is like our security guard walking around, checking everyone's ID Exactly.

Kelly 10:36
And then you configure that rule to trigger a lambda function whenever it finds a non compliant instance, and that lambda function that's where you put the code to actually terminate the instance. Oh, wow.

Chris 10:48
So it's a two step process, AWS config identifies the problem, and lambda swoops in and takes care of it automatically, exactly.

Kelly 10:55
Now, of course, you need to make sure your lambda function has the right permissions to actually terminate EC two instances, but that's a whole other conversation, right, right?

Chris 11:03
IAM permissions. Gotta love those. Okay, last one before we move on. Let's say a company is deploying all their AWS resources using cloud formation. They want to make sure everything they deploy is automatically monitored by AWS config. How do they do that most efficiently? Well,

Kelly 11:18
this is where AWS configs integration with cloud formation comes in handy. You don't have to set up AWS config separately. You can actually define AWS config configurations right inside your cloud formation templates.

Chris 11:30
Oh, cool. So we're basically baking in AWS config from the start as part of our infrastructure as code. I love it exactly,

Kelly 11:35
and it just makes things so much easier. Everything gets deployed with AWS config already in place, no extra steps required. That's

Chris 11:43
awesome. So we've seen how AWS config can detect issues, trigger actions, and even be integrated right into our deployment process. It's really starting to feel like the central nervous system of a well managed cloud environment.

Kelly 11:56
I like that. The central nervous system, it's always monitoring, analyzing and responding to keep everything running smoothly. And

Chris 12:03
I'm sure we've only scratched the surface of what AWS config can do, but I think this gives our listeners a really solid foundation for understanding the service, both for real world use and for those AWS exams. All right, welcome back, everyone. We're going to wrap up our AWS config deep dive by tackling some of those trickier exam scenarios, you know, the ones that really make you think, yeah, those

Kelly 12:25
are the ones that really test your understanding. You know, not just whether you can memorize facts, but whether you can actually apply those concepts to, like, solve real world

Chris 12:34
problems. Okay, so hit me with a challenging one. Let's see what we

Kelly 12:37
got. All right. So imagine a company is using AWS config to monitor their environment, they get this alert that in AWS config rule, it's evaluating s3 bucket encryption settings, and it's like consistently failing. What are some of the first things you check to troubleshoot this?

Chris 12:55
Okay? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is, are the s3 buckets actually encrypted? Maybe they just forgot to turn encryption on, right?

Kelly 13:01
Always start with the simplest explanation, right? But let's say they are encrypted. What else could be going on? Why is that rule still failing? Okay,

Chris 13:09
so maybe the buckets are encrypted, but the method of encryption doesn't match what the AWS config rule is looking for. Like, maybe they're using server side encryption with s3 managed keys, but the rule is configured to require encryption with KMS managed keys. Excellent

Kelly 13:26
point. Those little details, they can trip you up on the exam. Gotta pay attention to the specifics of the question and how they relate to the actual configuration. But let's say even the encryption method is correct. What else could it be? Okay?

Chris 13:38
Now I'm thinking maybe it's the AWS config rule itself that's messed up. Maybe it's misconfigured. Somehow you're

Kelly 13:44
on the right track. Maybe the rule is targeting the wrong s3 buckets, or there's an error in the logic of the rule itself. You'd want to double check all that make sure the rule is scoped correctly and that the logic actually makes sense. So

Chris 13:56
it's like debugging, but for AWS config rules, and I think AWS config actually has like a rule evaluation history, right? That could give you more insights into why it's failing. Exactly

Kelly 14:08
that can be super helpful for troubleshooting. Okay, let's try another one. Imagine a company. They're super security conscious, and they want to automatically terminate any EC two instances that don't meet their really strict security standards. How could they set that up using AWS config, right? So

Chris 14:25
this sounds like a job for automation, which means we're probably gonna be talking about lambda, right? But how do we connect AWS config and lambda to make this happen?

Kelly 14:34
So first you'd set up an AWS config rule to detect those non compliant instances whatever those security standards are, the rule will flag any instance that doesn't meet them.

Chris 14:45
So AWS config is like the security guard constantly patrolling, making sure everyone is following the rules right.

Kelly 14:50
And then you configure that rule to trigger a lambda function whenever it finds one of those non compliant instances. And in that lambda function, you write the code to actually. Terminate the instance. So

Chris 15:01
like a two step process, AWS config is the detective, it finds the bad guy, and then lambda is the Enforcer. It takes care of the problem

Kelly 15:09
exactly. And of course, you need to make sure your lambda function has the right permissions to terminate instances, but that's a whole other topic. IAM

Chris 15:16
permissions always got to remember those. Okay, one last challenge. Let's say a company is using cloud formation for all their deployments, infrastructure as code. They want to make sure that everything they deploy is automatically monitored by AWS config. What's the best way to do that?

Kelly 15:32
Well, AWS config integrates really well with cloud formation. You can actually define AWS config configurations directly within your cloud formation templates, there's a specific resource type for it, so it's pretty straightforward. Oh,

Chris 15:45
that's smart. So you're basically building in AWS config from the get go. It's just part of your infrastructure code, right?

Kelly 15:51
Everything gets deployed with AWS config already in place. It's super efficient. I

Chris 15:56
love it. It's like, don't even worry about it. We've got you covered from the start. Okay, I think we've covered a lot of ground here. We've seen how AWS config can detect issues, trigger actions, be integrated into our deployments, and even help us troubleshoot those tricky situations that we might encounter on the exam or in the real world. Any final words of wisdom for our listeners before we sign off?

Kelly 16:19
Yeah, I think the most important thing is to not just memorize the facts, but to really try to understand why things work the way they do. And don't be afraid to get hands on. You know, actually set up AWS config in your own environment. Play around with it, break things, fix them. That's how you really learn

Chris 16:34
absolutely. Getting your hands dirty is the best way to solidify those concepts. Well, thanks for joining us on this deep dive into AWS config. I hope you all learned something new and feel a little more confident about tackling this service, both in your work and on those AWS certification exams. We'll see you next time for another exciting journey into the cloud.