Interview questions on Performance tuning and optimization of AWS resources.
Here are some common AWS certification interview questions and answers on the topic of performance tuning and optimization of AWS resources
1. What is the primary goal of performance tuning in AWS?
The primary goal of performance tuning in AWS is to ensure that resources are being used efficiently and effectively to meet the performance requirements of an application. This can involve optimizing network performance, storage performance, and compute performance, among other things.
2. How can you optimize network performance in AWS?
To optimize network performance in AWS, you can implement several best practices, such as:
- Using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) placement groups for low latency and high bandwidth connectivity between instances
- Enabling Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) optimized instances for improved storage performance
- Using Amazon CloudFront for content delivery, which can significantly improve application performance for global users
- Utilizing Amazon Route 53 for routing traffic to the optimal location based on network latency and performance.
3. What is the difference between provisioned IOPS and general purpose SSD in Amazon RDS?
Provisioned IOPS (input/output operations per second) are designed to deliver high I/O performance, while general purpose SSD (solid-state drive) storage is designed to balance price and performance. Provisioned IOPS provides a specified number of I/O operations per second with low latency, while general purpose SSD provides burstable performance for I/O-intensive workloads.
4. How can you optimize storage performance in AWS?
There are several ways to optimize storage performance in AWS, including:
- Using Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) optimized instances for improved storage performance
- Choosing the appropriate storage type for your workload, such as Provisioned IOPS or general purpose SSD storage
- Implementing an appropriate caching strategy to minimize I/O operations and improve performance
- Using Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster uploads to Amazon S3
- Enabling Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster uploads to Amazon S3.
5. What is the difference between EC2 On-Demand and Reserved instances?
EC2 On-Demand instances allow you to pay for compute capacity by the hour, with no long-term commitments, while Reserved instances provide a significant discount on the hourly charge for an instance compared to On-Demand instances. With Reserved instances, you commit to using a certain instance type for a 1- or 3-year term, in exchange for a lower hourly charge.
6. What is Auto Scaling in AWS and how does it improve performance?
Auto Scaling in AWS is a feature that allows you to automatically scale your Amazon EC2 capacity up or down based on demand. This can help improve performance by ensuring that your application always has the necessary resources to meet demand, and can also help reduce costs by reducing the number of instances that are running when demand is low.
7. How does using Amazon CloudFront improve application performance?
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service that speeds up the delivery of static and dynamic web content, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images. By using CloudFront, you can improve the performance of your application by reducing the latency of content delivery to users and by improving the reliability and availability of your content.
8. What is the Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) and how does it help with performance?
The Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) is a load balancing service that automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses, in one or more Availability Zones. ELB helps to improve the performance and reliability of your application by reducing the risk of failure and distributing incoming traffic across multiple targets.
9. What is Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration and how does it improve performance?
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature of Amazon S3 that enables fast, easy, and secure transfers of large files over long distances between a client and an S3 bucket. Transfer Acceleration uses Amazon CloudFront’s globally distributed edge locations to accelerate uploads to Amazon S3, reducing the time required to upload large files and improving performance.
10. What is Amazon CloudWatch and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring service for AWS resources and the applications you run on the AWS Cloud. CloudWatch enables you to collect, monitor, and analyze metrics and logs to help optimize performance and troubleshoot issues with your AWS resources. With CloudWatch, you can set alarms and take automated actions to resolve issues, such as automatically adding or removing EC2 instances from an Auto Scaling group.
11. What is Amazon RDS Read Replicas and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon RDS Read Replicas are read-only copies of an Amazon RDS database that can be used to scale read-intensive workloads and improve performance. By using Read Replicas, you can offload read traffic from the primary database, reducing the I/O load on the primary database and improving the overall performance of your application.
12. What is Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is a service that automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group based on changes in demand for your application. EC2 Auto Scaling helps to improve performance by automatically scaling capacity up or down based on changes in demand, ensuring that your application always has the necessary resources to meet user demand.
13. What is Amazon RDS Multi-AZ and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon RDS Multi-AZ is a feature of Amazon RDS that provides high availability and failover support for DB instances. With Multi-AZ, Amazon RDS automatically replicates data to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone, providing automatic failover in the event of an infrastructure failure. Multi-AZ helps to improve performance by providing high availability and failover support, reducing the risk of downtime and improving the overall reliability of your application.
14. What is Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is a fully managed, in-memory cache for DynamoDB that provides ultra-fast performance for read-intensive workloads. DAX helps to improve performance by caching frequently accessed data in-memory, reducing the need to retrieve data from disk and improving response times.
15. What is Amazon SQS and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) is a fully managed message queuing service that enables decoupled communication between applications. SQS helps to improve performance by providing a reliable and scalable message queuing service, reducing the risk of data loss and ensuring the delivery of messages even in the event of a failure.
16. What is Amazon CloudFront and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service that speeds up the delivery of static and dynamic web content, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images. CloudFront helps to improve performance by caching content at edge locations around the world and delivering it to users from the nearest edge location, reducing latency and improving download times.
17. What is Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is a storage class that automatically moves data between two access tiers (frequent and infrequent access) based on changing access patterns. S3 Intelligent-Tiering helps to optimize performance by automatically tiering data to the most cost-effective storage tier, reducing the cost of storage while still providing the performance required for your workloads.
18. What is Amazon ElastiCache and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon ElastiCache is a web service that makes it easy to deploy, operate, and scale an in-memory cache in the cloud. ElastiCache helps to improve performance by providing fast, managed, and highly scalable in-memory caching, reducing the need to retrieve data from slower disk-based databases and improving response times.
19. What is Amazon Kinesis and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon Kinesis is a fully managed, real-time data streaming service that enables you to collect, process, and analyze real-time, streaming data. Kinesis helps to improve performance by enabling you to process and analyze streaming data in real-time, providing real-time insights into your business and enabling you to make informed decisions quickly.
20. What is Amazon EBS I/O Performance and how does it impact performance optimization?
Amazon EBS I/O Performance refers to the performance of the input/output (I/O) operations performed by an Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume. The I/O performance of an EBS volume can have a significant impact on the performance of your applications and workloads, and it is important to choose the appropriate EBS volume type and configuration to meet the I/O performance requirements of your use case.
21. What is the AWS Trusted Advisor and how does it help with performance optimization?
The AWS Trusted Advisor is a performance optimization tool that provides recommendations for improving the security, performance, and reliability of your AWS resources. Trusted Advisor helps to optimize performance by providing actionable recommendations for improving the performance, security, and reliability of your AWS environment, reducing the risk of issues and helping to ensure that your applications run smoothly.
22. What is Amazon S3 Transfer Manager and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon S3 Transfer Manager is a Java library that enables you to upload and download files to and from Amazon S3, using parallel and multithreaded operations to optimize performance. S3 Transfer Manager helps to optimize performance by taking advantage of parallel and multithreaded operations to upload and download large files quickly and efficiently, reducing the time required to transfer files and improving the overall performance of your application.
23. What is Amazon S3 Inventory and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon S3 Inventory is a feature of Amazon S3 that provides a scheduled report of your S3 objects and metadata, including object size, creation date, and storage class, in CSV or Apache Parquet format. S3 Inventory helps to optimize performance by providing a comprehensive view of your S3 objects and metadata, enabling you to easily identify stale objects and implement lifecycle policies to transition or archive data to lower-cost storage tiers, improving the cost-effectiveness of your S3 storage and optimizing overall performance.
24. What is Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature of Amazon S3 that enables you to transfer large files over the Amazon CloudFront content delivery network (CDN), using the AWS Edge Network to accelerate uploads to S3. S3 Transfer Acceleration helps to optimize performance by enabling faster uploads of large files, reducing the time required to transfer files and improving the overall performance of your application.
25. What is Amazon CloudWatch and how does it help with performance optimization?
Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and logging service that provides operational insights and actionable recommendations to optimize the performance and availability of your AWS resources. CloudWatch helps to optimize performance by providing real-time performance metrics and logs, enabling you to quickly identify and resolve performance issues, and improving the overall performance of your AWS environment.
