The AWS DevOps Engineer Professional certification is an advanced-level exam designed for experienced professionals who work in the field of DevOps and have hands-on experience with AWS services. This certification exam tests your knowledge and skills in various aspects of DevOps on AWS, including provisioning, operating, and managing applications on AWS infrastructure. It also covers topics such as automation, security, compliance, and monitoring.
Achieving success in the AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam might present a formidable challenge, but armed with effective preparation, it’s within reach. Within this blog, we aim to equip you with actionable advice and approaches that will assist you in your journey to prepare for and successfully clear the exam. Additionally, we’ll delve into the crucial subject matter and fundamental concepts that are essential for your triumph in the examination.
Whether you are a seasoned DevOps professional looking to advance your career or a newcomer to the field looking to gain new skills and knowledge, this blog is for you. So, let’s get started!
AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Glossary
Here’s a glossary of some common terms and acronyms in the context of AWS DevOps:
- AWS stands for Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing platform offered by Amazon.
- DevOps represents a software development approach that underscores collaboration and communication between software developers and IT operations professionals.
- CI/CD, or Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment, involves a set of practices and tools designed to automate the software delivery process.
- IaC, or Infrastructure as Code, involves defining and managing infrastructure through code, often employing tools like CloudFormation, Terraform, or AWS CDK.
- Configuration Management pertains to the practice of overseeing software and infrastructure configuration, frequently using tools like Puppet, Chef, or Ansible.
- Orchestration is the automation of software and infrastructure deployment, configuration, and management, often utilizing tools like Kubernetes, ECS, or EKS.
- Serverless is a cloud computing model where the cloud provider manages infrastructure, automatically provisioning resources as required.
- IAM stands for Identity and Access Management, an AWS service that manages user identities and access to AWS resources.
- AWS CLI signifies the AWS Command Line Interface, a tool facilitating interaction with AWS services via the command line.
- AWS SDK denotes the AWS Software Development Kit, an assemblage of libraries and tools for crafting applications that interact with AWS services.
- CloudWatch entails a monitoring service by AWS, responsible for aggregating and monitoring metrics, logs, and events.
- CodePipeline, a service furnished by AWS, automates the software delivery process, covering code building, testing, and deployment.
- CodeDeploy, another AWS service, deals with deploying code to EC2 instances, on-premises servers, and Lambda functions.
- CodeCommit, an AWS-managed source control service, hosts Git repositories.
- CodeBuild, a fully managed AWS build service, compiles source code, executes tests, and produces software packages.
Exam preparation resources for AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Exam
Here are some resources that can help you prepare for the AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam:
- AWS Official Exam Guide: Here is the authoritative AWS Exam Guide tailored for the DevOps Engineer Professional exam. This guide offers an intricate breakdown of the exam subjects and subtopics, along with insights into the exam structure and evaluation criteria. It’s advised that you meticulously review this guide as you initiate your exam readiness journey.
- AWS Training: AWS provides an array of training courses designed to aid your readiness for the DevOps Engineer Professional exam. These courses encompass a broad spectrum of subjects, spanning AWS services, DevOps methodologies, and automation tools.
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/training/path-advanced-devops-engineer/
- AWS Sample Exam Questions: AWS provides sample exam questions that can help you get a sense of the types of questions that may appear on the DevOps Engineer Professional exam.
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certification-prep/?src=aws-devops-eng-pr
- AWS Whitepapers and Documentation: AWS presents an extensive collection of whitepapers and documentation addressing diverse facets of AWS services and DevOps methodologies. These valuable resources can facilitate the enhancement of your comprehension regarding the subject matters encapsulated in the exam.
- AWS Community: AWS Community is an online forum where you can interact with other professionals who have taken the DevOps Engineer Professional exam. You can ask questions, share experiences, and get tips and advice on exam preparation.
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/community/
Exam Course Outline
AWS DevOps Engineer Certification includes 6 domains with focus on, SDLC Automation, Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code, Monitoring and Logging, Policies and Standards Automation, Incident and Event Response an High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and Disaster Recovery. We shall now elaborate each domain specifically with their details
Module 1: Understanding SDLC Automation (22%)
1.1: Implement CI/CD pipelines.
Required Knowledge
- Software development lifecycle (SDLC) concepts, phases, and models
- Pipeline deployment patterns for single- and multi-account environments
Skills
- Configuring code, image, and artifact repositories
- Using version control to integrate pipelines with application environments
- Setting up build processes (for example, AWS CodeBuild)
- • Managing build and deployment secrets (for example, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store)
- Determining appropriate deployment strategies (for example, AWS CodeDeploy)
1.2: Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
Required Knowledge
- Different types of tests (for example, unit tests, integration tests, acceptance tests, user interface tests, security scans)
- Reasonable use of different types of tests at different stages of the CI/CD pipeline
Skills
- Running builds or tests when generating pull requests or code merges (for example, AWS CodeCommit, CodeBuild)
- Running load/stress tests, performance benchmarking, and application testing at scale
- Measuring application health based on application exit codes
- Automating unit tests and code coverage
- Invoking AWS services in a pipeline for testing
1.3 Build and manage artifacts.
Required Knowledge
- Artifact use cases and secure management
- Methods to create and generate artifacts
- Artifact lifecycle considerations
Skills
- Creating and configuring artifact repositories (for example, AWS CodeArtifact, Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic Container Registry [Amazon ECR])
- Configuring build tools for generating artifacts (for example, CodeBuild, AWS Lambda)
- Automating Amazon EC2 instance and container image build processes (for example, EC2 Image Builder)
1. 4: Implement deployment strategies for instance, container, and serverless environments.
Required Knowledge
- Deployment methodologies for various platforms (for example, Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Container Service [Amazon ECS], Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service [Amazon EKS], Lambda)
- Application storage patterns (for example, Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic Block Store [Amazon EBS])
- Mutable deployment patterns in contrast to immutable deployment patterns
- Tools and services available for distributing code (for example, CodeDeploy, EC2 Image Builder)
Skills
- Configuring security permissions to allow access to artifact repositories (for example, AWS Identity and Access Management [IAM], CodeArtifact)
- Configuring deployment agents (for example, CodeDeploy agent)
- Troubleshooting deployment issues
- Using different deployment methods (for example, blue/green, canary)
Module 2: Understanding Configuration Management and IaC (17%)
2.1 Define cloud infrastructure and reusable components to provision and manage systems throughout their lifecycle.
Required Knowledge
- Infrastructure as code (IaC) options and tools for AWS
- Change management processes for IaC-based platforms
- Configurations management services and strategies
Skills
- Composing and deploying IaC templates (for example, AWS Serverless Application Model [AWS SAM], AWS CloudFormation, AWS Cloud Development Kit [AWS CDK])
- Applying AWS CloudFormation StackSets across multiple accounts and AWS Regions
- Determining optimal configuration management services (for example, AWS OpsWorks, AWS Systems Manager, AWS Config, AWS AppConfig)
- Implementing infrastructure patterns, governance controls, and security standards into reusable IaC templates (for example, AWS Service Catalog, CloudFormation modules, AWS CDK)
2.2 Deploy automation to create, onboard, and secure AWS accounts in a multiaccount/multi-Region environment.
Required Knowledge
- AWS account structures, best practices, and related AWS services
Skills
- Standardizing and automating account provisioning and configuration
- Creating, consolidating, and centrally managing accounts (for example, AWS Organizations, AWS Control Tower)
- Applying IAM solutions for multi-account and complex organization structures (for example, SCPs, assuming roles)
- Implementing and developing governance and security controls at scale (AWS Config, AWS Control Tower, AWS Security Hub, Amazon Detective, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Service Catalog, SCPs)
2. 3: Design and build automated solutions for complex tasks and large-scale environments.
Required Knowledge
- AWS services and solutions to automate tasks and processes
- Methods and strategies to interact with the AWS software-defined infrastructure
Skills
- • Automating system inventory, configuration, and patch management (for example, Systems Manager, AWS Config)
- • Developing Lambda function automations for complex scenarios (for example, AWS SDKs, Lambda, AWS Step Functions)
- Automating the configuration of software applications to the desired state (for example, OpsWorks, Systems Manager State Manager)
- Maintaining software compliance (for example, Systems Manager)
Module 3: Understanding Resilient Cloud Solutions (15%)
3.1 Implement highly available solutions to meet resilience and business requirements.
Required Knowledge
- Multi-AZ and multi-Region deployments (for example, compute layer, data layer)
- SLAs
- Replication and failover methods for stateful services
- Techniques to achieve high availability (for example, Multi-AZ, multi-Region)
Skills
- Translating business requirements into technical resiliency needs
- Identifying and remediating single points of failure in existing workloads
- Enabling cross-Region solutions where available (for example, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon RDS, Amazon Route 53, Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront)
- Configuring load balancing to support cross-AZ services
- Configuring applications and related services to support multiple Availability Zones and Regions while minimizing downtime
3.2 Implement solutions that are scalable to meet business requirements.
Required Knowledge
- Appropriate metrics for scaling services
- Loosely coupled and distributed architectures
- Serverless architectures
- Container platforms
Skills
- Identifying and remediating scaling issues
- Identifying and implementing appropriate auto scaling, load balancing, and caching solutions
- Deploying container-based applications (for example, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS)
- Deploying workloads in multiple AWS Regions for global scalability
- Configuring serverless applications (for example, Amazon API Gateway, Lambda, AWS Fargate)
3.3 Implement automated recovery processes to meet RTO/RPO requirements.
Required Knowledge
- Disaster recovery concepts (for example, RTO, RPO)
- Backup and recovery strategies (for example, pilot light, warm standby)
- Recovery procedures
Skills
- Testing failover of Multi-AZ/multi-Region workloads (for example, Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, Route 53, CloudFront)
- Identifying and implementing appropriate cross-Region backup and recovery strategies (for example, AWS Backup, Amazon S3, Systems Manager)
- Configuring a load balancer to recover from backend failure
Module 4: Monitoring and Logging
4.1 Configure the collection, aggregation, and storage of logs and metrics.
Required Knowledge
- How to monitor applications and infrastructure
- Amazon CloudWatch metrics (for example, namespaces, metrics, dimensions, and resolution)
- Real-time log ingestion
- Encryption options for at-rest and in-transit logs and metrics (for example, client-side and server-side, AWS Key Management Service [AWS KMS])
- Security configurations (for example, IAM roles and permissions to allow for log collection)
Skills
- Securely storing and managing logs
- Creating CloudWatch metrics from log events by using metric filters
- Creating CloudWatch metric streams (for example, Amazon S3 or Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose options)
- Collecting custom metrics (for example, using the CloudWatch agent)
- Managing log storage lifecycles (for example, S3 lifecycles, CloudWatch log group retention)
- Processing log data by using CloudWatch log subscriptions (for example, Kinesis, Lambda, Amazon OpenSearch Service)
- Searching log data by using filter and pattern syntax or CloudWatch Logs Insights
- Configuring encryption of log data (for example, AWS KMS)
4.2 Audit, monitor, and analyze logs and metrics to detect issues.
Required Knowledge
- Anomaly detection alarms (for example, CloudWatch anomaly detection)
- Common CloudWatch metrics and logs (for example, CPU utilization with Amazon EC2, queue length with Amazon RDS, 5xx errors with an Application Load Balancer)
- Amazon Inspector and common assessment templates
- AWS Config rules
- AWS CloudTrail log events
Skills
- Building CloudWatch dashboards and Amazon QuickSight visualizations
- Associating CloudWatch alarms with CloudWatch metrics (standard and custom)
- Configuring AWS X-Ray for different services (for example, containers, API Gateway, Lambda)
- Analyzing real-time log streams (for example, using Kinesis Data Streams)
- Analyzing logs with AWS services (for example, Amazon Athena, CloudWatch Logs Insights)
4.3 Automate monitoring and event management of complex environments.
Required Knowledge
- Event-driven, asynchronous design patterns (for example, S3 Event Notifications or Amazon EventBridge events to Amazon Simple Notification Service [Amazon SNS] or Lambda)
- Capabilities of auto scaling a variety of AWS services (for example, EC2 Auto Scaling groups, RDS storage auto scaling, DynamoDB, ECS capacity provider, EKS autoscalers)
- Alert notification and action capabilities (for example, CloudWatch alarms to Amazon SNS, Lambda, EC2 automatic recovery)
- Health check capabilities in AWS services (for example, Application Load Balancer target groups, Route 53)
Skills
- Configuring solutions for auto scaling (for example, DynamoDB, EC2 Auto Scaling groups, RDS storage auto scaling, ECS capacity provider)
- Creating CloudWatch custom metrics and metric filters, alarms, and notifications (for example, Amazon SNS, Lambda)
- Configuring S3 events to process log files (for example, by using Lambda), and deliver log files to another destination (for example, OpenSearch Service, CloudWatch Logs) Configuring EventBridge to send notifications based on a particular event pattern
- Installing and configuring agents on EC2 instances (for example, AWS Systems Manager Agen [SSM Agent], CloudWatch agent)
- Configuring AWS Config rules to remediate issues
- Configuring health checks (for example, Route 53, Application Load Balancer)
Module 5: Incident and Event Response
5.1 Manage event sources to process, notify, and take action in response to events.
Required Knowledge
- AWS services that generate, capture, and process events (for example, AWS Health, EventBridge, CloudTrail, CloudWatch Events)
- Event-driven architectures (for example, fan out, event streaming, queuing)
Skills
- Integrating AWS event sources (for example, AWS Health, EventBridge, CloudTrail, CloudWatch Events)
- Building event processing workflows (for example, Amazon Simple Queue Service [Amazon SQS], Kinesis, Amazon SNS, Lambda, Step Functions)
5.2 Implement configuration changes in response to events.
Required Knowledge
- Fleet management services (for example, Systems Manager, AWS Auto Scaling)
- Configuration management services (for example, AWS Config)
Skills
- Applying configuration changes to systems
- Modifying infrastructure configurations in response to events
- Remediating a non-desired system state
5.3 Troubleshoot system and application failures.
Required Knowledge
- AWS metrics and logging services (for example, CloudWatch, X-Ray)
- AWS service health services (for example, AWS Health, CloudWatch, Systems Manager OpsCenter)
- Root cause analysis
Skills
- Analyzing failed deployments (for example, AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CloudFormation, CloudWatch synthetic monitoring)
- Analyzing incidents regarding failed processes (for example, auto scaling, Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS)
Module 6: Security and Compliance
6.1 Implement techniques for identity and access management at scale.
Required Knowledge
- Appropriate usage of different IAM entities for human and machine access (for example, users, groups, roles, identity providers, identity-based policies, resource-based policies, session policies)
- Identity federation techniques (for example, using IAM identity providers and AWS Single Sign-On)
- Permission management delegation by using IAM permissions boundaries
- Organizational SCPs
Skills
- Designing policies to enforce least privilege access
- Implementing role-based and attribute-based access control patterns
- Automating credential rotation for machine identities (for example, Secrets Manager)
- Managing permissions to control access to human and machine identities (for example, enabling multi-factor authentication [MFA], AWS Security Token Service [AWS STS], IAM profiles)
6.2 Apply automation for security controls and data protection.
Required Knowledge
- Network security components (for example, security groups, network ACLs, routing, AWS Network Firewall, AWS WAF, AWS Shield)
- Certificates and public key infrastructure (PKI)
- Data management (for example, data classification, encryption, key management, access controls)
Skills
- Automating the application of security controls in multi-account and multi-Region environments (for example, Security Hub, Organizations, AWS Control Tower, Systems Manager)
- Combining security controls to apply defense in depth (for example, AWS Certificate Manager [ACM], AWS WAF, AWS Config, AWS Config rules, Security Hub, GuardDuty, security groups, network ACLs, Amazon Detective, Network Firewall)
- Automating the discovery of sensitive data at scale (for example, Amazon Macie)
- Encrypting data in transit and data at rest (for example, AWS KMS, AWS CloudHSM, ACM)
6.3 Implement security monitoring and auditing solutions.
Required Knowledge
- Security auditing services and features (for example, CloudTrail, AWS Config, VPC Flow Logs, CloudFormation drift detection)
- AWS services for identifying security vulnerabilities and events (for example, GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, IAM Access Analyzer, AWS Config)
- Common cloud security threats (for example, insecure web traffic, exposed AWS access keys, S3 buckets with public access enabled or encryption disabled)
Skills
- Implementing robust security auditing
- Configuring alerting based on unexpected or anomalous security events
- Configuring service and application logging (for example, CloudTrail, CloudWatch Logs)
- Analyzing logs, metrics, and security findings
“Get the Best AWS DevOps Engineer Tutorials with better assistance and pass the examination with expert guidance.”
Prerequisites for AWS DevOps Engineer Exam:
In order to become AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam following are some pre-requisites/ requirements –
- A prerequisite for this certification entails a minimum of two years’ experience in overseeing, provisioning, and supervising AWS environments.
- Additionally, a mastery of an advanced-level programming language is deemed necessary.
- Moreover, a grasp of operational methodologies, contemporary development practices, and the construction of extensively automated infrastructure is essential.
How to prepare for AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam?
AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam preparation can be done using free resources available both online and offline. This will help you in understanding the topics better and also provide an expert assistance to solve your queries.
Learning Resource 1 – Reference Books
There are reference books which are available for AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam and some of them are,
- AWS Automation Cookbook by Nikit swaraj
- Continuous Delivery and DevOps – Quickstart by paul swartout
- Implementing DevOps on AWS by Veselin kantsev
- Effective DevOps with AWS by Nathenial Felson
Learning Resource 2 – Exam Course Provider
You can search for the exam resources which are available online for getting DevOps Engineer training material and its structure. And there are many websites available which provide online training for the exam with a full assistance to the course such as – Simplilearn, Testprep Training, Pluralsight and Udemy.
Learning Resource 3 – Exam Q&A
Many websites provide good information and topic details related to the certification such as Answers.com, Quora and Stackoverflow
Learning Resource 4 – Exam Practice sets
In preparation for the exam, utilizing sets of practice questions can significantly enhance your readiness. Online platforms offering Practice Tests can effectively assess your expertise and understanding of the AWS DevOps Engineer domain. While Amazon provides some practice sets, it’s important to note that they might not cover all the required topics comprehensively.
For an inclusive set of practice questions specifically tailored for the AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam, Testprep Training offers two distinct avenues:
- Free practice questions for AWS DevOps Engineer Professional exam
- More than 300+ practice questions for AWS DevOps Engineer professional exam with detailed analysis.
Learning Resource 5 – Amazon Web Services (AWS) Training
There are many free training that is provided by AWS for DevOps Engineer Professional exam at https://aws.amazon.com/training/. These training required registration and are available at zero cost. AWS also gives access to various Learning libraries to get to know more about the AWS services. It also includes AWS APN partner which helps you to accelerate your business on AWS.
AWS DevOps Engineer Learning Path
AWS has designed DevOps learning path for those individuals who want to learn how to use common DevOps pattern to develop deploy and maintain application in the cloud.
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No need to worry! Here are some expert’s tips-tricks and Free Practice Test for AWS DevOps Engineer exam.
Preparing for AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Certification Exam
When embarking on the journey of preparing for this certification exam, it’s essential to approach it with a clear and refreshed mindset. Craft a study plan that aligns with your preferred learning style and comfort. Strive to maintain a stress-free mindset and refrain from excessive overthinking about the exam. Your primary focus should be on achieving this certification while ensuring you gain practical experience in the AWS environment, which can provide you with a competitive edge.
Successfully attaining this certification will not only unlock new opportunities but also broaden your prospects for a promising future. To assist you on this path, we’ve outlined a few key points that can prove beneficial in your quest to pass the certification exam.
1. Create a Blue Print
Before preparing for the exam try to do some research on DevOps Engineer exam concepts and its pattern. This will let you know exactly what you should know to move forward in this certification. Then arrange the topics according to their weightage in their exam to first focus on important part.
2. Understanding the AWS Concepts
You need to examine your skills and knowledge by your own to have a better understanding of the concepts instead of cramming it. This is very important to understand the concepts and increase your experience in that.
Get hands on experience in AWS based services and applications to get better knowledge on the topics.
3. Search for Online AWS Training Programs
There are many websites which are providing certification and training to pass the AWS certification exam with practice sets of questions. There are some websites which are providing free practice sets of questions. Furthermore, they provide the option of a complimentary trial period prior to committing to the complete training materials. For those inclined towards independent study, there’s the possibility to acquire AWS reference books that serve as valuable resources for exam preparation.
4. Practice and more Practice!
Engaging in daily practice will facilitate a deeper comprehension of the concepts. This consistent practice routine will enable you to pinpoint your areas of strength and weakness. Upon completing a specific topic, ensure to revisit it and conduct a self-assessment. Formulate a structured study plan that incorporates dedicated time for studying and practicing questions. This approach not only ensures comprehensive coverage of topics but also allocates adequate time for focused practice.
5. Appear for the Exam
On completion of the syllabus, take as many mock tests and practice it till the day of the exam. Learn, understand and give the exam.
