A SysOps administrator needs to troubleshoot an intermittent issue with an application running on an EC2 instance. The issue occurs randomly and is difficult to reproduce. The administrator wants to capture a full memory dump of the EC2 instance when the issue occurs, without manual intervention. Which AWS service can facilitate this?
- AAWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent) built-in capability for memory dumps.
- BAWS Systems Manager Run Command with a custom script to initiate a memory dump.
- CAmazon CloudWatch Alarms to trigger a Lambda function to perform a memory dump.
- DAWS Fault Injection Service (FIS) to simulate a memory failure and capture the dump.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. AWS Systems Manager Run Command with a custom script to initiate a memory dump.
Systems Manager Run Command allows you to remotely and securely manage the configuration of your instances. A custom document (script) can be created to call the appropriate operating system command (e.g., 'crash' or 'kdump' for Linux, 'notmyfault' for Windows with specific tools) to initiate a memory dump. This can then be executed on demand or triggered by an automation, without direct SSH access, making it suitable for intermittent issues.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. While SSM Agent is installed on EC2 instances, it does not have a native, built-in capability or specific document for initiating a full memory dump. It primarily enables other Systems Manager features like Run Command.
- C. CloudWatch Alarms can trigger Lambda, but Lambda cannot directly perform a memory dump on an EC2 instance. It would need to invoke Systems Manager or another service that can interact with the OS.
- D. FIS is for chaos engineering and simulating failures, not for capturing memory dumps during an actual intermittent issue. While it can cause failures, it doesn't inherently capture dumps.
Remote Memory Dump with SSM Run Command
Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to remotely execute operating system commands or scripts on an EC2 instance to capture a full memory dump for troubleshooting intermittent issues.
- Run Command executes scripts on EC2 instances.
- Requires OS-specific tools for memory dumping (e.g., 'kdump').
- Enables automated, non-interactive troubleshooting.
Memory trick: Run Command's script can dump memory, even when trouble's fleeting.