Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation
SysOps work relies on repeatable provisioning and operational automation. This domain covers CloudFormation, Systems Manager, and managing infrastructure at scale.
Infrastructure as code with CloudFormation
CloudFormation provisions and updates resources from templates, tracking them as a stack. Change sets preview modifications before applying, drift detection reports manual changes, and nested stacks and StackSets manage complexity and multi-account deployments. Templates make environments reproducible and reviewable.
Operational automation with Systems Manager
AWS Systems Manager manages fleets at scale: Session Manager gives shell access without opening SSH ports, Patch Manager applies OS patches on a schedule, Run Command executes actions across instances, and State Manager enforces desired configuration. The SSM Agent must be installed and the instance needs an appropriate role.
Parameters and secrets in operations
Systems Manager Parameter Store keeps configuration and secrets, integrating with CloudFormation and automation runbooks. Use SecureString parameters encrypted with KMS for sensitive values. Referencing parameters keeps templates and scripts free of hard-coded values.
Managing at scale
Tags organize and target resources for automation, cost allocation, and access control. Automation runbooks perform multi-step maintenance such as creating an AMI or remediating findings. Resource groups and consistent tagging let one action apply across many resources safely.