AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate Certification Complete Guide

Introduction

Before 2006, every business was hosting its infrastructure over on-premise servers, which were creating heavy bills, downtime & lack of remote working. 

After the AWS launch, cloud computing became a blessing in disguise for businesses as it helped them scale their server, web without compromising their manpower & outlay related to content delivery, database storage, and major computing power.

Currently, AWS has more than 1 million users, which includes all varieties of startups, private and public entities, Fortune 500 companies like GE, Pfizer, Netflix, etc.

AWS with its market share of 31% in the cloud market ranks number 1 currently, leaving behind tough competitors like Azure (20%) and Google Cloud (7%).

With the rising demand & use of AWS by these 1 million customers, the need for AWS developers emerged as well, who could help these new or notable names to build & deploy the cloud infrastructure for business web apps & servers. While AWS developers weren’t just enough, there emerged the need of  “AWS SysOps Admins”, who could work alongside the developers and help the company in managing the deployed AWS architecture, by keeping it more updated, secure, scalable, and optimized in terms of bills.

That’s how the hierarchy of AWS & its related roles was built. However, to absorb in the title AWS SysOps admin, companies require someone who holds a strong skill set of deploying & managing AWS systems of apps, and most importantly someone who has an AWS SysOps Associate Certification badge.

If you wish to become an AWS Certified SysOps Admin, below we are sharing a complete AWS SysOps certification path, covering complete details about the exam, along with that we also have added what particular skills & knowledge you need to have to clear this exam. And at last, we have also added tips on how to pass the AWS SysOps admin exam? (inspired from the real journey of our former student), don’t leave it unread!

What is AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate Exam?

If you are looking forward to escalating your career trajectory, make sure you do it with the AWS SysOps Certification, an entry-level specialization accredited by the official AWS body, to make your way into the DevOps cloud role.

This associate-level exam will help you not just get a certified stamp from AWS, but will also help in testing & validating your knowledge around using, managing & deploying the operating systems on the AWS platform with skills of cloud networking, automation & management, and monitoring. It will help you gain intellect that may support companies to manage their AWS infrastructure while optimizing their AWS or operational outlays & laborious efforts.

Once you clear the AWS SysOps Certification Examination, you prove that you are vested with the exact skill needed to:

• Deploy, Manage & Scale the operating systems over the AWS platforms.
• Opt the right AWS service based on certain requirements in terms of data, security, cost, scalability, & more.
• Manage the data kinds in & around the opted AWS platform.
• Move the current physical infrastructure to the scalable AWS cloud platform.
• Optimize the AWS & overall operational bills. 

Who is this AWS SysOps Certification Associate Exam Valid for?

This AWS SysOps Associate Certification is intended for candidates:

• Who has like creating & managing systems
• Who loves cloud technology
• Who has interest in programming
• And who got end-to-end training or at least have one year of experience in deploying, managing, scaling, securing systems over AWS 

AWS SysOps Certification Associate Exam Complete Details

Here are the complete details of this exam:

Exam Name	AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
AWS SysOps Certification Cost	$150
Exam Format	MCQ, Multiple response, unscored content to gather statistical information (Every unanswered question will be incorrect, however, there is no negative marking in guessing answers)
Exam Marks	From 100 to 1000.
AWS SysOps certification passing score	720 marks
Questions	65 questions in total
Time Duration	130 minutes total
Languages	English, Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese
Delivery mode	Online or testing center
Prerequisites To take the exam	There are no hard & fast prerequisites required to take the exam. Anyone pursuing this certification needs to have: Proper AWS SysOps Training 1-2 years real-time experience as system admin with AWS knowledge.
Retake Policy	You can reappear for the exams as many times as you want, provided you have a gap of 14 days between the first failed exam & the second one.
Specific Skills Tested in the AWS SysOps Certification	Here are the areas that are tested in the exam, along with their weightage: Storage, data management - 18% Deployment & provisioning - 14% High Availability - 8% Monitoring & Reporting - 22% Networking - 14% Automation & Optimization - 12% Security & Compliance - 18%
Does it Expire?	Yes every AWS certification exam is valid for 3 years from the date they were initially granted. You need to recertify by giving the exams based on latest practices & implementation in AWS.

What Skills to Polish for the AWS SysOps Associate Exam?

To give this exam, you must hold exclusive knowledge or understanding of:

• AWS CLI and SDKs/API tools
• AWS Tenets, architecting on cloud
• Network technologies related to AWS
• Managing Operating Systems over AWS
• Security controls & compliance with AWS
• Virtualization technology
• Networking - IP, DNS, firewalls, DCP, etc
• System experience, monitoring or auditing
• Architectural requirements

What Concepts to Learn for the AWS SysOps Associate Exam?

You will be examined based on the following concepts:

Monitoring & Reporting	Create & manage metrics & alarms with AWS monitoring services Identify & differentiate performance & availability metrics Steps to remediate based on performance & availability metrics
High Availability	Implement scalability & elasticity based on use case  Identify & differentiate highly  resilient & available environments over AWS
Deploying & Provisioning	Identify & execute steps required to provision cloud resources Identify and remediate deployment issues
Storage & Data Management	Create & manage data retention Identify & implement data protection, encryption & capacity planning requirement
Security & Compliance	Implement and manage security policies on AWS Implement access controls when using AWS  Find contrast between the responsibility & roles inside the shared responsibility model
Networking	Apply AWS networking features Implement connectivity services of AWS Gather and interpret relevant information for network troubleshooting
Automation & Optimization	Use AWS services & features to manage, assess resource utilization Employ cost-optimization strategies for efficient resource utilization Automation of redundant or manual process to reduce the management costs

Check out These Sample AWS SysOps Associate Exam Questions For Real Exam Flavor

1. As per the shared AWS responsibility AWS model, which out of these 2 EC2 services AWS is held responsible? Patching the hypervisor Patching the guest OS Memory utilization memory Configuring networking ACLs Maintaining network infrastructure The correct answers are “maintaining network infrastructure” and “patching hypervisor”.

2. Suppose a reputed organization wants to migrate its legacy web app from a single server to multiple Amazon EC2 instances behind an ALB (Application Load Balancer). Once the migration is done, it seems the users are losing their web sessions & are being asked to log in again. What do you think should be done to resolve this issue of losing the session? A) They can confirm that their app load balancer is not in a Multi-AZ configuration. B) They can configure an Amazon CloudFront distribution with the ALB as the origin.  C) They can deploy a Network Load Balancer in front of the ALB.  D) They can enable sticky sessions for the target group of EC2 instances.   The correct answer is D), enable sticky sessions for the target group of EC2 instances.

3. Suppose a SysOps Admin sees a huge no. of rogue HTTP requests over an Application Load Balancer. These requests are originating from various IP addresses. Which in turn are causing increased server load & further costs. What do you think the SysOps Admin could do to block such traffic? A) He can install Amazon Inspector over Amazon EC2 instances, this will block traffic. B) Can use Amazon GuardDuty to keep the web servers safe from bots or scrapers. C) Can use AWS Lambda to recognize the web server logs, analyze bot traffic, and block the IP addresses within the security groups. D) Can use an AWS WAF rate-based rule to stop traffic when it increases over its threshold.  (burn your brain cells & share the right response in the comments down below)

How Can You Apply for the AWS SysOps Admin Certification?

Here are the steps you can follow to apply for the AWS SysOps Admin Associate certification:

Step 1 - Visit the official link of AWS - https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-sysops-admin-associate/

Step 2 - There, click on the CTA “Schedule an exam” colored in bright orange.

Step 3 - The CTA will direct you to a separate page of AWS Certification account login. There you can create your personalized login credentials, then search & schedule the AWS SysOps Associate exam.

What’s New in AWS?

What's this AWS SysOps Admin Associate Beta Exam?

AWS beta exams are updates in the existing certification exam. They aim at refreshing the knowledge of individuals around its latest implementation of AWS platforms. Currently, AWS SysOps Admin Associate has undergone a refresh as AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02) beta exam (exams are closed for registration in Q1 2021). Also, The next AWS SysOps SOA-C02 will be available in Q3 2021, for which you can apply from the same login account you created for the Associate exam.

The purpose of these beta exams is to test the knowledge of individuals regarding its new releases & latest practices before they deploy full production release. 

AWS SysOps Admin Associate Beta Exam Details

Exam Cost	75 USD
Duration	220 minutes
Exam Delivery	Through Testing Centres of Pearson VUE & online proctoring

To get the full syllabus details of this Q1 beta version AWS SysOps Certification Associate level, visit here!

How to Prepare for AWS SysOps Certification? Let’s Hear Out From a Real Candidate

We interviewed one of our past students named Jayden who enrolled in our AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Training Course & got more than the passing score, here are the tips he shared with us that really helped him pave his way. 

(Please note the following is the telephonic interview and at some point has been closely or loosely edited for more clear read & understanding.)

Jayden says “When I was giving the exam, I followed certain practices. It was a little mix of everything as training, self-study, group study that helped me clear this AWS SysOps badge. Trust me the exam isn’t really that hard if you are prepared well. What I did to clear my exam was…”

• Gathered all the Best of AWS Study Materials

I started my learning journey by gathering all the resource books & guide books of AWS SysOps that would help me get exposed to the real-time practical knowledge of the AWS SysOps role. 

• Watched AWS How-to Videos & Joined Online Communities

I used to watch free how-to videos & tutorials on Youtube to get an understanding of how to deploy & secure systems over AWS. I watched videos particularly from the official account of AWS, little basic intro videos on AWS, cloud computing & watched a few other videos of popular AWS evangelists to you know get hold of AWS basics & how to get started with it.

To broaden my knowledge curve, I even signed up for the AWS communities online & AWS free tier account to get a hold of these types of questions and even ended up buying the practice exam from Amazon.

• I Joined the formal AWS SysOps Certification Training

Whatever I did so far wasn’t enough. These were just helping to carve my basics & I needed specific knowledge to absorb in the role of AWS SysOps Admin, so I joined JanBask’s AWS SysOps course. They helped me wonderfully in the learning process, faculty were experienced, the resources were current, I had good study resources, eBooks, materials & industry assignments to solve. 

Apart from just learning for the certification, I was actually practically learning & applying my knowledge like real system admin. They even helped me create my resume & help prepare for the relevant aws sysops associate exam questions asked for job interviews as well.

Other than classes, I used to…

• Read AWS Website’s FAQs

Many of you may have misunderstood this, but actually, FAQs are also a great way to add to your learning curve. I used to get a lot of handy answers to questions regarding EC2 instances, provisioning, and more.

• Consulted the AWS SysOps Whitepapers

I even got my hands on a few of the AWS SysOps whitepapers like AWS security, AWS pricing, backup & recovery with AWS, Development & test on AWS & more such from Amazon’s official site, which really helped in adding to my knowledge base.

• At Last, I Did Solve a lot of AWS SysOps Admin Practice Exams

I solved a lot of practice tests offered me during the training, even collected some from the AWS official web, and through some external sources. I solved previous dumps to consolidate my knowledge, and I feel this is the reason why I was able to remember the concepts so well.

It was the combination of my personal efforts & the team’s contribution that helped me score more than 800 marks in my first attempt of AWS SysOps Admin Associate Exam.

Well, Jayden shared his part of success with his complete AWS SysOps certification study guide that he followed.  We believe one must also muster great confidence & keep great health in check as well to clear the examination. It is the combination of great preparation, health, the confidence level that can make you move mountains.

Few AWS SysOps Certification Tips to Ace this Exam!

Here are a few AWS SysOps Certification tips we feel that could really make a difference in clearing your certification. 

• Since this is an MCQ & multiple response exams, try to use the elimination method. Keep on eliminating the wrong choice before selecting the right one.
• All you have got is 130 minutes, so better save some time to review the questions for later. Don’t haste in submitting the paper, without any review.
• In case you feel doubtful about a certain answer, don’t freeze it yet, flag it & come back later to give it more attention & considerable thought.

Final Thoughts On AWS SysOps Certification Guide!

Businesses are moving to the cloud with the number one cloud vendor AWS and are needing professionals who could help deploy & oversee their workload over AWS solutions. Now is the best time to start a career around AWS as the job opportunities & pay are simply more than desired. 

If you love cloud computing and wish to deploy & scale solutions over AWS cloud, AWS SysOps admin is a perfect title for you to pursue. But to hatch the quick & effective job opportunities, make sure to bag the AWS SysOps Certification online. 

We just shared all the possible details of the AWS Certified Sysops Associate Exam, the exam details, the prerequisites, skills measured, the syllabus, and even shared a few tips to pass the AWS SysOps Certification exam from a real student’s point of view.

Companies are moving their infrastructure to AWS cloud rapidly, move your career to the cloud too by taking the quick accredited AWS SysOps Certification Training with us and get prepared for the certification exam for real.

In case if you want to pursue other career options around AWS, just get here!

Frequently Asked Questions on AWS SysOpS Admin Associate Exam

Q 1. What is the AWS SysOps certification cost?

Ans:- The cost of AWS SysOps Associate certification exam is 150 USD.

Q 2. What is the exam pattern of AWS SysOps certification associate exam?

Ans:- The exam consists of 65 questions in MCQ & multiple response questions format and has a duration of 130 minutes.

Q 3. What is the AWS SysOps certification passing score?

Ans:- To pass the exam, you need to score at least 720 marks out of 1000.

Q 4. How hard is AWS SysOps certification?

Ans:- AWS SysOps certification is suited for individuals who enjoy building & maintaining systems & can do programming as well. If you are from a non-technical background, this exam may seem a little tough nut to crack, but once you take formal AWS certified SysOps Administrator training and get hands-on updated study material or question dumps, you can ace this technology & its certification very well. Nothing is hard unless you try & put in your best efforts.

Q 5. How to prepare for AWS SysOps certification?

Ans:-To prepare the AWS SysOps Certification Associate-level exam:

• Take the AWS SysOps Certification Training
• Consult the study materials, AWS whitepapers, FAQs, communities online
• Watch AWS tutorial videos

Q 6. What is the AWS SysOps certification syllabus?

Ans:- To clear the exam, you would require to know:

• Storage, data management - 18%
• Deployment & provisioning - 14%
• High Availability - 8%
• Monitoring & Reporting - 22%
• Networking - 14%
• Automation & Optimization - 12%
• Security & Compliance - 18%

This was your complete AWS SysOps certification path, hope it helps you navigate your queries. In case we missed answering any of your doubts, feel free to nudge us in the comments section down below!

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