Documentation
AWS provides a lot of documentation resources. By “a lot” we mean there’s so much of it that you’ll probably never have enough time to read through the whole thing. Instead, you’ll be better off learning how to navigate to the page containing the information you’re really after and then to the section within that page that answers your specific question.
While the precise layout and organization will change over time, as of this writing the main AWS documentation page can be found at Here. There you’ll find links to more than 100 AWS services along with tutorials and projects, software development kits (SDKs), toolkits, and general resources.
The AWS documentation team does a pretty good job keeping their content organized and updated. One important trick—especially if you’ve landed on a page based on the results of an internet search engine—is to look for the word latest in the web page’s URL. This tells you that you’re on the page that accurately reflects the most recent version of the software. Here’s an example of a page that includes the latest identifier:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/user-guide/what-is-s3.html
Knowledge Centre
The AWS Knowledge Center is basically a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page that accidentally swallowed a family pack–sized box of steroids and then walked through the radioactive core of a nuclear power plant wearing wet pajamas. Or, in simpler terms, there’s a lot of information collected here.
The Knowledge Center page contains links to nearly 1,000 questions arranged by service,each representing a fairly common problem encountered by real AWS customers. You’ll find questions like, “How can I install the AWS CloudFormation helper scripts on Ubuntu or Red Hat Enterprise Linux?” and “What happens when my reserved instance expires?” Choosing a question will take you to a page with a proposed resolution and more links to related information. If you’re ever stuck, it’s probably worth taking a quick look to see whether there’s a solution in the Knowledge Center.
Security Resources
AWS makes it perfectly clear that it wants your deployments to be as secure as possible. One way it makes this easier to accomplish is by maintaining a dedicated documentation page with links to useful and practical security-related resources. The page, found at AWS Security Resources, points to AWS blogs, white papers, articles, and tutorials covering topics such as security best practices and encrypting your data in transit and at rest.
Discussion Forms
When things don’t work the way you expected, it’s generally safe to assume you’re not the first person to hit this particular brick wall. Even if this is something only a couple dozen people have experienced, there’s a good chance that at least one of them asked about it on some online forum. While many of those questions were probably asked on Stack Overflow or another public site, the AWS discussion forums have also addressed their share of problems.
The site divided into categories including Amazon Web Services (which is further divided into individual services), AWS Startups (focused on newcomers to the platform), AWS Web Site and Resources (topics like Java Development and High Performance Computing), and a number of areas serving non- English speakers using languages like Japanese and German. You can search the entire site or individual forums to see whether your question might already have been answered. To post on the forum, you’ll need to be signed into your AWS account and have a forum nickname and email.
Trusted Advisor
You use Trusted Advisor to visually confirm whether your account resource configurations are sound and are compliant with best practices. Trusted Advisor organizes its compliance alerts across five categories,
- Cost Optimization
- Performance
- Security
- Fault Tolerance
- Service Limits
The AWS Trusted Advisor alerts users to the best-practice compliance of their running account resources. Basic Support and Developer Support plan users get service limit and some security information, while Business and Enterprise customers get access to all alerts.