AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate - SAA C03

Explore cloud fundamentals and why startups and enterprises migrate from data centers to the cloud, with a step-by-step visual approach and real enterprise examples.

Understand what a server does, from accepting requests to delivering HTML responses. Enterprises need thousands of servers in data centers to avoid a single point of failure.

Data centers host thousands of servers with power, cooling, networking, and security, but high upfront costs, peak load provisioning, overprovisioning, latency, and geographic limitations push firms toward cloud.

Explore how cloud computing replaces owned infrastructure with on-demand, elastic resources rented from providers like AWS, Microsoft, or Google Cloud. Learn pay-as-you-go pricing and how to scale with demand.

Explore cloud computing advantages for startups and enterprises. Pay for use, economies of scale, stop guessing capacity, elastic capacity, faster development, go global in minutes, and avoid undifferentiated heavy lifting.

Review elasticity, agility, and geo distribution to understand scalable resources and deployments. Explain availability and latency considerations, and contrast CapEx versus OpEx, pay as you go, and economies of scale.

Explore cloud concepts through real scenarios highlighting elasticity, pay-as-you-go costs, and agility, then examine high availability, geo distribution, low latency, economies of scale, and avoiding undifferentiated heavy lifting.

Discover how Amazon's on-demand infrastructure evolved into AWS, the cloud platform powering global scaling with services like S3, EC2, and SQS.

Discover the best path to learn cloud through a structured step-by-step learning plan, and unlock practical hands-on practice with a cloud account, global access across regions, and free beginner credits.

Create your AWS root account by entering email, setting a root password, providing billing and contact details, and verifying email and phone to access the management console and free tier.

Create a developers IAM group with administrator access, add an IAM user to it, and log in using the management console instead of the root account.

Understand regions and zones (availability zones) and why multiple regions improve availability and latency. See how cloud providers enable global deployment with data centers in diverse regions.

Assess compliance, data locality, latency, service availability, and pricing to choose a region that keeps data local, minimizes latency, and fits your budget.

Deploy your applications across multiple regions to achieve low latency, expand your global footprint, meet data residency requirements, and improve availability and disaster recovery.

Discover how zones, or availability zones, provide high availability within a single region by deploying across multiple isolated data centers with independent power and networks connected by high-speed links.

Explore regions and availability zones, where regions support disaster recovery and data residency, and zones enable high availability within a region through multi-zone deployments.

Explore how AWS regions and availability zones form global, highly available infrastructure. See US East 1 with six zones, EU West 2 with three, and AP South 1 with three.

Learn to remember things for the long term by practicing active learning, taking notes, and regularly reviewing your notes.

Explore EC2 fundamentals, including instance basics, security groups, and IP addressing, while launching instances, hosting a simple HTTP web server, and using launch templates and Amazon machine images.

Explore EC2 fundamentals by provisioning elastic compute cloud instances, managing their lifecycle, attaching storage, configuring network connectivity with public and private IPs, and enabling load balancing and auto scaling.

Launch your first EC2 instance by selecting a Linux 2 AMI, choosing a t2.micro, and configuring a security group and key pair for secure SSH access.

Explore a wide variety of EC2 instance types, sizes, and naming conventions, and learn to launch, connect with EC2 Instance Connect, and manage instances in Mumbai's ap-south-1a.

Install and run an Apache httpd server on an EC2 instance, update software, start and enable the httpd service, and configure the security group to allow port 80 traffic.

Explore the instance metadata service and the dynamic data service on EC2 to retrieve ami id, instance id, instance type, hostname, ip addresses, and security groups via curl.

extend the http server by updating /var/www/html/index.html to show EC2 dynamic data and metadata fetched via curl, including whoami and hostname.

Install a Chrome JSON viewer plugin to format JSON output in the browser, choosing options like teocci or tulios for clearer results.

Learn how EC2 security groups act as a virtual firewall, enabling defense in depth by controlling inbound and outbound traffic. See how they are stateful and changes take effect immediately.

Understand how EC2 instances use private and public IP addresses, including internet accessibility, public IP changes on restart, and private IP persistence.

Allocate and attach an elastic IP to an EC2 instance to keep a constant public IP; you can reassign it within the same region, and you’re charged when unused.

Learn to streamline EC2 http server setup using user data bootstrapping, automating yum update, httpd installation, and starting the service at launch to serve a custom page.

Discover launch templates for EC2 that preconfigure AMI, instance type, network settings, and user data, enabling quick, reusable launches, including spot instances and spot fleets.

Create a customized AMI from an existing EC2 instance to speed launches, reduce boot time, and standardize patches and software through image hardening and launch templates.

Create a new launch template version using a custom ami, select the ami id ending in 1a8, and launch an instance from template v2, achieving faster startup times.

Explore Amazon machine images (amis) as pre-built os and software images for EC2, including AWS-provided, marketplace, and custom options, plus sharing, copying across regions, and launching in any availability zone.

Explain how key pairs, public and private keys, and SSH enable access to an EC2 instance, using ec2-user and pem file permissions, and contrast EC2 instance connect with standalone SSH.

Connect from Windows to your Linux EC2 instance using PuTTY, convert the pem file to a ppk with PuTTYgen, and use ec2-user and port 22.

Review key pairs, troubleshoot SSH into EC2, and cover private key permissions, Windows admin password, security group rules, and connecting via public DNS or IP.

Explore essential EC2 scenarios, including when to stop versus terminate to avoid storage costs, and how termination protection, launch templates, and tags streamline management.

Select a subnet in the default VPC to place an EC2 instance in a specific availability zone, such as ap-south-1a, ap-south-1b, or ap-south-1c in Mumbai.

Review key EC2 concepts: AMIs with pre-baked security and hardening, region-specific images for disaster recovery, then explore instance types, security groups, key pairs, metadata, userdata, elastic IPs, and launch templates.

Adopt a consistent study routine by committing to a few hours a day and drafting a two-week plan of lecture numbers, kept visibly near your desk.

Control cloud costs by setting billing alerts, daily monitoring, and stopping unused resources, while understanding the AWS free tier and pricing to stay within budget.

Configure AWS billing alerts using CloudWatch and budgets to email you when estimated charges exceed zero or actual costs exceed budget, via SNS notifications in us east north virginia.

Learn how AWS Elastic Load Balancing distributes traffic across multiple EC2 instances in different availability zones, with health checks, auto scaling, and options for public or private access.

Understand how HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, TLS, and UDP operate across the network, transport, and application layers, balancing reliability and performance for web, streaming, and gaming applications.

Explore AWS elastic load balancer types: classic, application, and network. Note that classic is deprecated; application handles layer 7 with advanced routing, and network handles layer 4 for high performance.

Launch two EC2 instances, create a classic load balancer on port 80, set health checks every 20 seconds with a 5-second timeout, and enable cross-zone balancing with 300-second connection draining.

Explore how a classic load balancer distributes traffic between two EC2 instances, monitor health checks and metrics, and manage listeners, security groups, and migrations to an application load balancer.

Discover how the application load balancer, a layer 7, http/https and websockets capable, auto scales and enables cross-zone load balancing for EC2, containers, and lambdas.

Explore load balancer configurations by verifying DNS responses and restricting EC2 access to traffic from load balancer using security groups. Learn about target groups and listeners in a multi-tier architecture.

Understand how elastic load balancer listeners map protocols and ports to target groups, with multiple listeners on ports 80, 443, and 8080, and even fixed responses.

Learn how target groups group EC2 instances—or lambda functions or IP addresses—for an application load balancer, enabling load distribution, deregistration delay, slow start, health checks, stickiness, and CloudWatch monitoring.

Discover how a single application load balancer routes traffic to multiple microservices using separate target groups and ordered path-based listener rules, with a default rule.

Explore listener rules in the application load balancer to route by host, path, headers, methods, query strings, or IP to target groups; an EC2 instance can belong to multiple groups.

Configure an auto scaling group to maintain a desired capacity, automatically replace failed instances, and scale out/in with launch templates and an elastic load balancer distributing traffic to active instances.

Create an auto scaling group using a launch template, attach to a target group behind a load balancer, and configure CPU utilization-based scaling with min one and max three.

Analyze auto scaling group behavior by terminating instances to trigger replacements, adjust desired capacity, and explore the load balancer target group and activity logs.

Explore auto scaling components such as launch templates and auto scaling groups, health checks, and scaling policies; compare constant, scheduled, and dynamic scaling, emphasizing target tracking for simplicity.

Learn how CloudWatch alarms monitor CPU utilization and trigger auto scaling to adjust EC2 instances. Master target tracking, simple scaling, and step scaling for dynamic scaling.

Explore auto scaling scenarios like updating launch templates and rolling out new AMIs, while safely terminating instances in small groups to avoid downtime. Apply lifecycle hooks, termination policies, and cooldowns.

Delete the application load balancer, then remove the auto scaling group (waiting for EC2 instances to terminate), and finally delete the target groups.

Learn how the network load balancer operates at transport layer 4 for workloads, supporting TCP, TLS, UDP, and elastic IPs, and load balancing across EC2, containerized apps, and web apps.

Create a network load balancer in an internet-facing setup, not in free tier, using TCP on port 80 with a network-load-balancer target group that registers instances and configures health checks.

Configure a network load balancer and fix health checks by allowing HTTP traffic in EC2 security groups. Enable cross-zone load balancing, delete protection, and access logs to S3 and CloudWatch.

Delete the network load balancer and the created target group using the delete action, and skip if you have not created them.

Review elastic load balancers: classic, application, and network, and learn how listeners and target groups route traffic across EC2 with auto scaling and CloudWatch alarms.

Meet the primary instructor, Ranga Khanum, founder of in 28 minutes, with two decades of programming experience and cloud certifications on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Learn how architects use EC2 and ELB to achieve high availability and scalability, optimize performance and resource use, strengthen security, and minimize costs.

Discover how to achieve high availability for EC2 and ELB by distributing instances across multiple availability zones and regions, enabling cross-zone load balancing, and configuring robust health checks.

Explore scalability in AWS with vertical and horizontal scaling for EC2 and elastic load balancers, using auto scaling groups and Route53 for cross-region load balancing.

Explore how EC2 instance families dictate compute, memory, and storage, from burstable t and general-purpose m to memory-optimized r and machine-learning inf.

Explore tenancy options in EC2, comparing shared tenancy with dedicated instances and dedicated hosts, including billing, placement control, and hardware access for regulatory and server-bound software needs.

Learn how to create and assign dedicated hosts in EC2, explore tenancy options including shared, dedicated instance, and dedicated host, and launch instances with tenancy selection.

Explore AWS EC2 placement groups: cluster for low-latency, spread for high-availability, and partition for partitioned workloads, with best practices to avoid insufficient capacity by launching a single instance type together.

Learn to create placement groups in the AWS Management Console and assign EC2 instances to them during launch, including cluster, spread, and partition groups with up to seven partitions.

Elastic network interfaces provide a virtual network card that connects EC2 instances to the network, offering primary eth0 and optional secondary eth1, IPv4/IPv6 addresses, a public IP, and elastic IPs.

Launch an EC2 instance and explore elastic network interfaces, including eth0 and a secondary eth1. Attach second interface in the same availability zone to add a private IP, then terminate.

Learn how to monitor EC2 instances using CloudWatch, including default metrics, basic vs. detailed monitoring, and sending OS metrics via CloudWatch agent or collectd plug-in.

Explore AWS EC2 pricing models to cut costs, including on-demand, spot instances, reserved instances, and savings plans, with notes on Fargate and Lambda for flexible options.

Learn how EC2 on-demand instances provide simple, flexible resource provisioning by requesting when needed and terminating when not, despite the highest cost, ideal for spiky traffic and unpredictable batch runtimes.

Understand EC2 spot instances and the maximum price model, how prices vary by region and availability zones, and how spot block and spot fleet support fault-tolerant, non time-critical workloads.

Learn how to launch spot instances, set a maximum price, enable persistent requests, and manage interruptions by stopping or hibernating, plus configuring spot blocks and fleets.

Understand EC2 spot instances pricing: zero charge if AWS terminates within the first hour, then per-second billing; learn to cancel, terminate, and the option to hibernate.

Explore EC2 reserved instances by comparing standard, convertible, and scheduled types, with no, partial, or all upfront payments, to tailor cost and flexibility for batch programs.

Learn how to create and manage reserved and scheduled instances in AWS, comparing standard and convertible options, terms, payment options, and region availability, and how reservations affect on-demand usage.

Compare compute savings plans, offering up to 66% off with flexible use across EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, and instance savings plans targeting EC2 by region and family, with OS changes.

Explore AWS EC2 pricing models—on demand, spot, reserved, and saving plans—and their use cases, with ec2instances.info as a tool to compare regional hourly costs.

Explore securing elastic load balancers with HTTPS, SSL/TLS termination, and certificate management using AWS Certificate Manager across application, classic, and network load balancers.

Associate multiple SSL certificates with a listener on the elastic load balancer to enable server name indication, letting the ELB select the correct certificate for www.app1.com and www.app2.com.

Enable access logs on elastic load balancers to capture requests and details in s3. Compare IP visibility and X-forwarded headers between network and application load balancers; monitor metrics with cloudwatch.

Compare ALB, NLB, and CLB, noting ALB and NLB handle modern web apps and high-volume traffic, with features like cross-zone load balancing, connection draining, and dynamic host port mapping.

Explore load balancer scenarios, including sticky sessions with AWSELB cookies, health checks for healthy targets, cross-zone balancing, connection draining, and WAF/DDoS protections via application load balancer.

Assess key architecture considerations for EC2 and elastic load balancers, including security groups, private subnets, dedicated hosts, instance families, placement groups, AMIs, load balancer types, auto scaling, and resiliency strategies.

Discover how cloud native approaches differ from traditional data center models by mastering IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS and exploring managed services.

Explore the differences between infrastructure as a service and platform as a service through app and database setups, detailing manual provisioning, auto scaling, backups, high availability, and data queries.

Explore iaas and paas responsibilities, comparing who manages hardware and virtualization versus platform, runtime, and data; see how managed services like s3, bigquery, and redshift let developers focus on logic.

Explore software as a service (SaaS) models, where providers handle infrastructure, hardware, and deployment in the cloud, while users focus on data and configuration.

Explore IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS through practical scenarios, from deploying a database in a virtual machine to using prebuilt SaaS for productivity.

explore public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud models, detailing pay-as-you-go opex, capex, control, scalability, security, connectivity, and vendor lock-in considerations.

Explore cloud deployment models with practical scenarios, selecting public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud to balance cost, on-prem data residency, redundancy, and burst capacity.

Explore AWS Elastic Beanstalk as a managed service to deploy and scale web apps with automatic load balancing, auto scaling, and health monitoring, paying for the underlying AWS resources.

Create a web application with Elastic Beanstalk by selecting Python, deploying a sample app, and configuring a load balancer and deployment options with X-Ray, S3, and CloudWatch logs.

Learn how Elastic Beanstalk deploys a Python application to EC2 with a load balancer and target group. Manage environments and application versions via the Elastic Beanstalk console.

Explore Elastic Beanstalk basics: create applications, manage versions in S3, deploy to web server or worker environments, view logs and metrics in CloudWatch, and enable managed updates and SNS alerts.

Learn how microservices and containers enable independent deployment, build Docker images with runtime and dependencies, run and isolate containers anywhere, and manage many services with container orchestration on AWS.

Explore container orchestration, its goals, and how orchestrators manage clusters, auto scaling, service discovery, load balancing, self healing, and zero downtime deployments across Kubernetes, ECS, and Fargate.

Use a serverless ECS Fargate cluster to run containers with tasks and services, and set container image, memory, and CPU in a task definition, then enable an application load balancer.

Deploy and manage an ECS Fargate cluster, observe two running tasks behind a load balancer, and see how the service maintains the desired task count.

Review ECS concepts: container definitions with images, resources, ports, and task roles; cover task execution IAM roles, CloudWatch logging, services, clusters, and dynamic port mapping with path-based routing.

Review AWS container services, including Elastic Beanstalk, ECS, Fargate, EKS, and ECR, and how they store and deploy Docker images for microservices.

Explore how Amazon ECS Anywhere and Amazon EKS Anywhere run containers on customer managed infrastructure, offering centralized management across on-premises and cloud deployments with Amazon EKS distro and extended support.