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Instrumenting your Application with AWS X-Ray Instrumenting your Node.js application The AWS X-Ray SDK for Node.js provides middleware that you can use to instrument incoming HTTP requests. You need to add the SDK to your application’s dependencies, usually via package.json. Initialize the SDK client and add it to your application prior to declaring routes. var AWSXRay = require('aws-xray-sdk'); AWSXRay.setDaemonAddress('host:port'); app.use(AWSXRay.express.openSegment('MyApp'));       3. Lastly, use the SDK exceptions after declaring routes. app.get('/', function (req, res) {   res.render('index'); }); app.use(AWSXRay.express.closeSegment()); Instrumenting your Java application The AWS X-Ray SDK for Java provides a servlet filter that you can add to your [...]

Calculating the Required Read and Write Capacity Unit for your DynamoDB Table Read Capacity Unit On-Demand Mode When you choose on-demand mode, DynamoDB instantly accommodates your workloads as they ramp up or down to any previously reached traffic level. If a workload’s traffic level hits a new peak, DynamoDB adapts rapidly to accommodate the workload. The request rate is only limited by the DynamoDB throughput default table limits, but it can be raised upon request. For on-demand mode tables, you don't need to specify how much read throughput you expect your application to perform. DynamoDB charges you for the reads [...]

AWS Lambda Integration with Amazon DynamoDB Streams Amazon DynamoDB is integrated with AWS Lambda so that you can create triggers, which are pieces of code that automatically respond to events in DynamoDB Streams. With triggers, you can build applications that react to data modifications in DynamoDB tables. After you enable DynamoDB Streams on a table, associate the DynamoDB table with a Lambda function. AWS Lambda polls the stream and invokes your Lambda function synchronously when it detects new stream records.  Configure the StreamSpecification you want for your DynamoDB Streams: StreamEnabled (Boolean) - indicates whether DynamoDB Streams is enabled (true) or [...]

Kinesis Scaling, Resharding and Parallel Processing Kinesis Resharding enables you to increase or decrease the number of shards in a stream in order to adapt to changes in the rate of data flowing through the stream. Resharding is always pairwise. You cannot split into more than two shards in a single operation, and you cannot merge more than two shards in a single operation. The Kinesis Client Library (KCL) tracks the shards in the stream using an Amazon DynamoDB table, and adapts to changes in the number of shards that result from resharding. When new shards are created as a [...]

DynamoDB Scan vs Query Scan The Scan operation returns one or more items and item attributes by accessing every item in a table or a secondary index. The total number of scanned items has a maximum size limit of 1 MB. Scan operations proceed sequentially; however, for faster performance on a large table or secondary index, applications can request a parallel Scan operation. Scan uses eventually consistent reads when accessing the data in a table; therefore, the result set might not include the changes to data in the table immediately before the operation began. If you need a consistent copy [...]

ECS Task Placement Strategies A task placement strategy is an algorithm for selecting instances for task placement or tasks for termination. When a task that uses the EC2 launch type is launched, Amazon ECS must determine where to place the task based on the requirements specified in the task definition, such as CPU and memory. Similarly, when you scale down the task count, Amazon ECS must determine which tasks to terminate.  A task placement constraint is a rule that is considered during task placement. You can use constraints to place tasks based on Availability Zone or instance type.  You can [...]

AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) An open-source framework for building serverless applications. It provides shorthand syntax to express functions, APIs, databases, and event source mappings.  You create a JSON or YAML configuration template to model your applications.  During deployment, SAM transforms and expands the SAM syntax into AWS CloudFormation syntax. Any resource that you can declare in an AWS CloudFormation template you can also declare in an AWS SAM template. The SAM CLI provides a Lambda-like execution environment that lets you locally build, test, and debug applications defined by SAM templates. You can also use the SAM CLI to deploy [...]

Amazon MQ AWS offering for a managed message broker service for Apache ActiveMQ. Message brokers allow different software systems–often using different programming languages, and on different platforms–to communicate and exchange information. Features Amazon MQ uses industry-standard APIs and protocols for messaging, including Java Message Service (JMS), .NET Message Service (NMS), AMQP, STOMP, MQTT, OpenWire, and WebSocket. Amazon MQ manages administrative tasks such as hardware provisioning, broker setup, software upgrades, and failure detection and recovery. Amazon MQ stores your messages redundantly across multiple Availability Zones (AZs). Amazon MQ supports both single-instance brokers, suitable for evaluation and testing, and active/standby brokers for [...]

AWS Migration Strategies - The 6 R's The 6 R’s Rehost (“lift and shift”) Move applications to AWS without changes. In large-scale, legacy migrations, organizations are looking to move quickly to meet business objectives. Applications may become easier to re-architect once they are already running in the cloud. This happens because the hard part, which is migrating the application, data, and traffic, has already been accomplished. Replatform (“lift, tinker and shift”) You are making a few cloud optimizations in order to achieve some tangible benefit without changing the core architecture of the application. Replatforming Tools Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) [...]

AWS Directory Service For Microsoft Active Directory Also known as AWS Managed Microsoft AD, the service enables your directory-aware workloads and AWS resources to use managed Active Directory in the AWS Cloud. The service is built on actual Microsoft Active Directory and powered by Windows Server 2012 R2. AWS Managed Microsoft AD is your best choice if you need actual Active Directory features to support AWS applications or Windows workloads, including Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server. It's also best if you want a standalone AD in the Cloud that supports Office 365 or you need an LDAP directory to [...]