AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is AWS Trusted Advisor?

AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that helps you optimize your AWS environment by providing real-time recommendations to improve security, reduce costs, increase performance, and monitor service limits.

beginner

Name the five categories of AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations.

The five categories are: Cost Optimization, Security, Fault Tolerance, Performance, and Service Limits.

intermediate

How does AWS Trusted Advisor help with cost optimization?

It identifies idle or underutilized resources, recommends reserved instance purchases, and highlights opportunities to reduce spending.

intermediate

What type of security issues does AWS Trusted Advisor check for?

It checks for open access permissions, MFA on root accounts, exposed security groups, and other common security risks.

beginner

Why is monitoring service limits important in AWS Trusted Advisor?

Monitoring service limits helps prevent resource exhaustion and service disruptions by alerting you before you reach AWS service quotas.

Which AWS Trusted Advisor category helps identify unused resources to save money?

A Security

B Cost Optimization

C Fault Tolerance

D Performance

Cost Optimization focuses on reducing unnecessary spending by identifying idle or underused resources.

What does AWS Trusted Advisor check to improve security?

A Open access permissions and MFA on root accounts

B CPU usage of instances

C Network latency

D Billing alerts

Trusted Advisor checks for security risks like open permissions and missing multi-factor authentication on root accounts.

Which category of AWS Trusted Advisor helps ensure your system can recover from failures?

A Fault Tolerance

B Cost Optimization

C Performance

D Service Limits

Fault Tolerance recommendations help improve system resilience and recovery capabilities.

Why should you monitor AWS service limits with Trusted Advisor?

A To increase storage capacity automatically

B To reduce costs by shutting down services

C To improve network speed

D To avoid exceeding quotas and causing service interruptions

Monitoring service limits helps prevent hitting AWS quotas that could disrupt your services.

Which AWS Trusted Advisor category focuses on improving system speed and responsiveness?

A Security

B Cost Optimization

C Performance

D Fault Tolerance

Performance recommendations help optimize your AWS resources for better speed and efficiency.

Explain the main benefits of using AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations.

Think about how Trusted Advisor helps with money, safety, reliability, speed, and limits.

Describe how AWS Trusted Advisor helps you manage AWS service limits.

Consider why knowing your limits early is important.

Practice

1. What is the primary purpose of AWS Trusted Advisor?

easy

A. To monitor real-time application logs

B. To deploy new AWS services automatically

C. To provide recommendations for cost savings, security, and performance improvements

D. To create backups of AWS resources

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand Trusted Advisor's role

   AWS Trusted Advisor analyzes your AWS environment and suggests improvements in cost, security, fault tolerance, and performance.

2. Step 2: Compare options with Trusted Advisor's functions

   Only To provide recommendations for cost savings, security, and performance improvements matches Trusted Advisor's purpose; others describe different AWS services.

3. Final Answer:

   To provide recommendations for cost savings, security, and performance improvements -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Trusted Advisor = Recommendations [OK]

Hint: Trusted Advisor gives advice, not deploys or monitors [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing Trusted Advisor with AWS CloudWatch
• Thinking it deploys services automatically
• Assuming it manages backups

2. Which AWS Trusted Advisor category checks for unused or idle resources to help reduce costs?

easy

A. Cost Optimization

B. Fault Tolerance

C. Security

D. Performance

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the category related to cost savings

   The Cost Optimization category focuses on reducing unnecessary expenses by identifying idle or underused resources.

2. Step 2: Match categories to their functions

   Security checks protect resources, Fault Tolerance improves availability, Performance enhances speed; only Cost Optimization targets unused resources.

3. Final Answer:

   Cost Optimization -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Idle resources = Cost Optimization [OK]

Hint: Cost Optimization finds idle resources to save money [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Choosing Security for cost-related checks
• Confusing Fault Tolerance with cost savings
• Selecting Performance instead of Cost Optimization

3. You run AWS Trusted Advisor and see a recommendation to "Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on root account." What will happen if you follow this advice?

medium

A. Your root account will have an extra security layer requiring a second verification step

B. Your AWS resources will automatically back up daily

C. Your billing alerts will be disabled

D. Your EC2 instances will be stopped automatically

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand MFA's function on root account

   Enabling MFA adds a second step to login, improving security by requiring a code from a device.

2. Step 2: Evaluate the effects of enabling MFA

   It does not affect backups, billing alerts, or EC2 instance states; it only secures the root user login.

3. Final Answer:

   Your root account will have an extra security layer requiring a second verification step -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   MFA = Extra login security [OK]

Hint: MFA means extra login step for security [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking MFA triggers backups
• Assuming it disables billing alerts
• Believing it controls EC2 instance state

4. You receive a Trusted Advisor alert about "Security Groups with unrestricted access." What is the best way to fix this issue?

medium

A. Disable Trusted Advisor alerts

B. Remove rules that allow inbound traffic from 0.0.0.0/0 unless necessary

C. Open all ports to all IP addresses

D. Delete all security groups immediately

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the risk of unrestricted access

   Allowing inbound traffic from 0.0.0.0/0 means anyone on the internet can access your resources, which is risky.

2. Step 2: Apply the best security practice

   Remove or restrict such rules to only trusted IPs or ranges; deleting all security groups or opening all ports is unsafe, and disabling alerts ignores the problem.

3. Final Answer:

   Remove rules that allow inbound traffic from 0.0.0.0/0 unless necessary -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Restrict open access = Fix security groups [OK]

Hint: Close open access, keep only needed IPs [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Deleting all security groups blindly
• Opening all ports to everyone
• Ignoring alerts by disabling them

5. Your company wants to improve fault tolerance using AWS Trusted Advisor. Which recommendation should you prioritize to achieve this?

hard

A. Use AWS Trusted Advisor to identify underutilized EC2 instances

B. Disable CloudTrail logging to reduce costs

C. Open all security group ports to increase accessibility

D. Enable Amazon S3 versioning to protect data from accidental deletion

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand fault tolerance goals

   Fault tolerance means systems keep working despite failures, often by protecting data and resources.

2. Step 2: Evaluate recommendations for fault tolerance

   Enabling S3 versioning protects data by keeping copies, improving fault tolerance. Identifying underutilized instances helps cost but not fault tolerance. Opening all ports reduces security. Disabling CloudTrail removes audit logs, harming security and fault tolerance.

3. Final Answer:

   Enable Amazon S3 versioning to protect data from accidental deletion -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Fault tolerance = Data protection with versioning [OK]

Hint: Versioning protects data, boosting fault tolerance [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing cost savings with fault tolerance
• Opening all ports thinking it helps availability
• Disabling logging to save money