AWS for System Administrators, 2nd Edition: Build, automate, and operate scalable cloud infrastructure on AWS

Master AWS infrastructure management by leveraging automation to build scalable, efficient, and resilient cloud solutions with this practical guide

Key Features

• Learn to set up, scale, and automate AWS infrastructure using best practices
• Automate AWS deployment and maintenance using Terraform, AWS CLI, Boto3, and the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)
• Work through real-world scenarios to optimize scalability, performance, and cost efficiency
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

System administrators adopting AWS often struggle with automation, scalability, and multi-account management. Originally authored by Prashant Lakhera and now thoroughly updated by Senior Solutions Architect Marcel Neidinger, this second edition is your scenario-driven, hands-on guide to efficiently deploying and managing cloud infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

This updated edition features new topics like chaos engineering with AWS Fault Injection Simulator, multi-account CI/CD deployments, reusable IaC patterns, and cloud compliance using AWS Config and service control policies—all to help you build modern cloud architectures.

You’ll set up AWS CLI, Terraform, and CDK to automate deployments, as well as explore cloud networking with VPCs, EC2, and Transit Gateway, followed by auto-scaling and load balancing strategies. The chapters highlight AWS Secrets Manager for securely storing and accessing your secrets, along with CloudWatch for monitoring and observability in the cloud. You’ll implement centralized logging and develop backup and disaster recovery strategies. The book guides you through the processes and best practices for setting up a multi-account environment, with real-world scenarios for optimizing costs and ensuring high availability.

By the end of this book, you’ll have the skills to efficiently deploy, manage, and optimize AWS infrastructure at scale.

What you will learn

• Design and deploy networks in the cloud with VPCs and deploy instances with EC2
• Implement auto-scaling and load balancing to optimize application performance
• Deploy relational databases with Amazon RDS
• Secure credentials using AWS Secrets Manager
• Monitor AWS resources using CloudWatch and SNS
• Test infrastructure resiliency using AWS Fault Injection Simulator
• Automate backups and implement disaster recovery strategies
• Set up and manage multiple AWS accounts using AWS Organizations

Who this book is for

This book is designed for system administrators, DevOps engineers, and IT professionals who want to effectively manage and automate AWS environments. A basic understanding of cloud computing, the Linux operating system, and networking concepts is recommended.

Table of Contents

1. Setting Up the AWS Environment
2. Protecting Your AWS Account Using IAM
3. Creating a Data Center in the Cloud Using a VPC
4. Scalable Compute Capacity in the Cloud via EC2
5. Increasing Application Fault Tolerance and Efficiency with Elastic Load Balancing
6. Increasing Application Performance Using AWS Auto Scaling
7. Scaling a Relational Database in the Cloud Using Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
8. Managing Secrets and Encryption Keys with AWS Secrets Manager and KMS
9. Centralized Logging and Monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch
10. Centralizing Cloud Backup Solutions
11. Disaster Recovery Options with AWS
12. Testing the Resilience of Your Infrastructure and Architecture with AWS Fault Injection Service
13. Deploying Infrastructure Using CI/CD Pipelines