AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C01)

AWS SysOps Administrator (SOA-C01) tutorial

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C01) exam has a new version – AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02). Stay updated with the latest changes to earn this certification.

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C01) is intended for individuals who have technical expertise in deployment, management, and operations on AWS. Amazon Web Service (AWS) holds a high reputation in the cloud industry with several renowned rivals like Azure and Google cloud. But what makes AWS a best of them all, is that it can host dynamic websites to run various web and application servers.

The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification will enhance your skills and knowledge to strengthen your career opportunities. The certification will help you gain expertise in the concepts of AWS services.

Skills Validated by the Certification

Deploy, manage, and operate scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant systems on AWS
Implement and control the flow of data to and from AWS
Select the appropriate AWS service based on compute, data, or security requirements
Identify appropriate use of AWS operational best practices
Estimate AWS usage costs and identify operational cost control mechanisms
Migrate on-premises workloads to AWS

Recommended AWS Knowledge

Minimum of 1 year of hands-on experience with AWS
Experience managing/operating systems on AWS
Understanding of the AWS tenets – architecting for the cloud
Hands-on experience with the AWS CLI and SDKs/API tools
Understanding of network technologies as they relate to AWS
Understanding of security concepts with hands-on experience in implementing security controls and compliance requirements

Recommended General IT Knowledge

1–2 years of experience as a systems administrator in a systems operations role
Understanding of virtualization technology
Monitoring and auditing systems experience
Knowledge of networking concepts (e.g., DNS, TCP/IP, and firewalls)
Ability to translate architectural requirements

Exam Overview

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate (SAO-C01) exam is labeled as one of the most important exams when it comes to any associate-level certification. So if you are a system administrator, then this AWS certification will serve as an icing on the cake.

Becoming an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (SOA-C01) will showcase your proficiency, and knowledge in managing, deploying, and operating the AWS systems. The course is primarily focussed on the ones having professional knowledge in the technical field. This AWS SysOps certification will demonstrate your expertise in handling the various concepts and tactics of the AWS platform.

The perspective of this certification course is to explore advanced aspects in the AWS field. So, it is advised that candidates should do this course after completing the following fundamental course –

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Course
AWS Certified Developer Course

Exam Details

Course Outline

This AWS certification course aims to test the expertise of the candidates across 7 domains, along with a firm command on the AWS cloud operations. With these domains, AWS certification will affirm the candidates’ efficiency in fulfilling the following tasks

Deploying, managing, and operating systems on AWS
Implementing, and controlling data to and from AWS
Selecting suitable AWS service based on computer, data, and security requirements
Applying AWS operational practices
Estimating AWS usage costs, and identifying operational cost control mechanisms
Migrating on-premises workloads to AWS

Domain 1: Monitoring and Reporting

1.1 Create and maintain metrics and alarms utilizing AWS monitoring services (AWS Documentation: Create a CloudWatch Alarm Based on a Static Threshold, Using Amazon CloudWatch Alarms)

1.2 Recognize and differentiate performance and availability metrics (AWS Documentation: Viewing Available Metrics, Listing the available CloudWatch metrics, Using Amazon CloudWatch Metrics)

1.3 Perform the steps necessary to remediate based on performance and availability metrics

Domain 2: High Availability

2.1 Implement scalability and elasticity based on the use case (AWS Documentation: Elasticity, Scale Your Web Application)

2.2 Recognize and differentiate highly available and resilient environments on AWS (AWS Documentation: Elastic Beanstalk concepts, AWS Direct Connect Resiliency Recommendations)

Domain 3: Deployment and Provisioning

3.1 Identify and execute the steps required to provision cloud resources (AWS Documentation: Enabling self-service provisioning of AWS resources, Provision Desktops in the Cloud)

3.2 Identify and remediate deployment issues (AWS Documentation: Detect and remediate issues faster with AWS Systems Manager, Remediating Noncompliant AWS Resources by AWS Config Rules, Automated Response and Remediation with AWS Security Hub)

Domain 4: Storage and Data Management

4.1 Create and manage data retention (AWS Documentation: Building data lakes and implementing data retention policies with Amazon RDS, Changing the Data Retention Period)

4.2 Identify and implement data protection, encryption, and capacity planning needs (AWS Documentation: Overview of Security Processes)

Domain 5: Security and Compliance

5.1 Implement and manage security policies on AWS (AWS Documentation: AWS Cloud Security, Security and Compliance)

5.2 Implement access controls when using AWS (AWS Documentation: Using Tags for Attribute-Based Access Control in AWS, ABAC for AWS)

5.3 Differentiate between the roles and responsibility within the shared responsibility model (AWS Documentation: Shared Responsibility Model)

Domain 6: Networking

6.1 Apply AWS networking features (AWS Documentation: Networking and Content Delivery, Networking Solutions)

6.2 Implement connectivity services of AWS (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect, Networking and Content Delivery)

6.3 Gather and interpret relevant information for network troubleshooting (AWS Documentation: Debugging tool for network connectivity from Amazon VPC)

Domain 7: Automation and Optimization

7.1 Use AWS services and features to manage and assess resource utilization (AWS Documentation: AWS Config, Evaluating Resources with AWS Config Rules)

7.2 Employ cost-optimization strategies for efficient resource utilization (AWS Documentation: AWS Cost Management Solutions, Cost Optimization)

7.3 Automate the manual or repeatable process to minimize management overhead (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager Automation)

AWS Services

Preparation Guide For The AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (SOA-C01) Exam

AWS Technical Essentials

The AWS Technical Essentials introductory course will help you gain an understanding of the AWS products, services, and common solutions. Moreover, you will also gain hands-on expertise on the fundamentals of identifying AWS service. This will make you efficient in making informed decisions about IT solutions based on the requirements of your business.

Key AWS Services Included

Foundational services: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), and Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Database services: Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
Management services: AWS Auto Scaling, Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), and AWS Trusted Advisor

Systems Operations on AWS

The Systems Operations on AWS course is primarily for training system administrators or the ones in the Development Operations (DevOps) role. This course aims to make you efficient in creating automatable and repeatable deployments of networks and systems on the AWS platform. It covers the specific AWS features and also the tools related to configuration and deployment.

Exam Readiness

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate Course

Amazon Web Service offers Exam Readiness training in both, classroom, and digital training formats. This will help you get a deeper insight into the objectives and skill requirements of the AWS SysOps Examination. The course is prepared by certified instructors with an aim to guide you with the various AWS tactics. The study material is up-to-date with the latest practices. Here, candidates will receive training in interpreting the conceptual knowledge of the AWS system. One reasonable advantage that you get here is that you’ll be getting to schedule your classes at your convenience. This way, you will not be under pressure to missing any class, as the material will be available to you, as and when you desire.

AWS Operations Learning Path

Review The Official Study Guide For AWS SysOps Administrator Exam

AWS provides a well-elaborate study guide, which is prepared by AWS experts. This guide trains you to showcase your skills in networking in an examination setting. It covers all the exam objectives and enables you to receive hands-on exercises based on the situations you are likely to encounter as an AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (SOA-C01). This Study Guide will assist you in internalizing the AWS processes and the best practices associated with AWS. It aims to let you achieve expertise in the deployment, management, operations, migration, data flow, cost control, and beyond.

AWS Whitepapers

AWS team offers several whitepapers, in order to enhance your technical knowledge. These whitepapers are produced exclusively by the AWS team, analysts, and other AWS partners.

Here is a list of some highly recommended whitepapers by AWS

AWS FAQs

AWS team also provides many FAQs, to help you familiarize yourself with the common queries of other candidates, and professionals. Here is a list of some FAQs by AWS

To Know More Details See – AWS Certified SysOps Administrator FAQs

Refer AWS Recommended Books

AWS recommends some verified books for the ones seeking to take its certification exam. These books are designed to help you grasp a firm proficiency in AWS administration.

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (SOA-C01) Official Study Guide: Associate Exam by Stephen Cole, Gareth, Chris Fitch, Jerry Rhoads, Michael Roth, Blain Sundrud
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate Guide by Packt

Join Online Forums

A healthy discussion is always beneficial, no matter where it is done. The same goes for online discussion forums. This is a nice way for the students to discuss their issues and get insights into how their competitors are going for the exams. One thing which is an advantage for anything that comes online is the scope of people joining it. An offline discussion is restricted to a small number of people, whereas online platforms can reach a wider range.

The prospects of getting resolutions to an issue increase steeply when a greater number of people are involved. Also, multiple viewpoints make the stuff more dynamic. These discussions make the studies more comprehensive. Introverts get a chance to express themselves, who might otherwise prefer staying out of discussions. Forums work really well to build a community that is essential for understanding others.

Solve Practice Tests

Mistakes are inevitable, but surely, they can be limited. When it comes to exams, practice papers help a lot in limiting the mistakes. Because mistakes made in practice paper can be easily avoided in the exam. Training the brain is very essential. Practice papers give that simulation in which the brain needs to get used to the actual exam. Other than knowledge, many factors can affect your performance in the exam. These include confidence, speed, understanding the marking scheme, physical and mental alertness and concentration, and more.

Practice paper helps in all these aspects. The more answers you get right in a practice paper, the more confident you’ll feel for the examination. Also, you will know exactly how much time and effort needs to be invested in a different section of the question paper. Your brain will get trained to be at its highest potential for the duration of the exam. All of these factors can make a huge difference. Remember, your result does not reflect how much you know, but how much you wrote. Talent can only be judged if it translates well in performance.

Get Free Practice Tests Here

Start preparing for the new version: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate (SOA-C02) Now!

See Official Sample Question Paper

Unit 1 – SYSOPS and AWS

Unit 2 – Storage and Data Management

Unit 3 – AWS Databases

Unit 4 – Compute

Unit 5 – Networking & Route53

Unit 6 – VPCs

Unit 7 – Security

Unit 8 – Deployment & Provisioning

Unit 9 – High Availability

Unit 10 – Monitoring & Reporting

Unit 11 – Automation