CODEWITHSUNDEEP
hadoopamazon-web-servicesautoscalingamazon-cloudwatch
Shekhar
Shekhar

Reputation: 11788

How to use AWS auto scaling?

I am new to AWS world and I am trying to auto scale up/down my Hadoop cluster. I am confused because of too many new things and auto scaling, CloudWatch services are looking almost same to me.

Can anyone please help me understanding following things.

  1. Both the APIs empower us to monitor the cluster but what is the difference between these two things?

  2. We can do monitor cluster using Ganglia like tool, use AWS commands to spawn or shutdown instances. So why use auto scaling, cloud watch? What is the advantage of using them?

  3. To use auto scaling or cloud watch we have to download and install Java/Python SDK. Where to install those SDKs? On my desktop which is outside AWS or on one of the instance of AWS?

  4. I read one example on Amazon site in which they have written few perl scripts to gather metrics and send it to CloudWatch. If we have to write scripts for reading data then what is the use of CloudWatch?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 892

Answers (1)

Julio Faerman
Julio Faerman

Reputation: 13501

Both the APIs empower us to monitor the cluster but what is the difference between these two things?

CloudWatch is responsible for monitoring (metrics and alarms), AutoScaling is responsible for scaling (policies, groups and launch configurations).

We can do monitor cluster using Ganglia like tool, use AWS commands to spawn or shutdown instances. So why use auto scaling, cloud watch? What is the advantage of using them?

AutoScaling provides several features to make scaling easy. Beyond starting and terminating instances, auto-scaling will enforce group sizes, balance across AZs, register with Elastic Load Balancers, bid on Spot instances, and much more. But you can use your own software and scripts too.

To use auto scaling or cloud watch we have to download and install Java/Python SDK. Where to install those SDKs? On my desktop which is outside AWS or on one of the instance of AWS?

Not necessarily. You can create the AutoScaling Group, Launch Configurations, Metrics and Alarms from the Management Console. If you'd rather do this from the SDK or CLI, that can be inside or outside, does not matter much.

I read one example on Amazon site in which they have written few perl scripts to gather metrics and send it to CloudWatch. If we have to write scripts for reading data then what is the use of CloudWatch?

You are probably referring to the Monitoring Scripts for EC2 Instances, that sends metrics such as Memory, Swap and Disk to CloudWatch, that are not available by default. You do not need to write scripts or code unless you want to send custom metrics to CloudWatch.

Upvotes: 2

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