Van Hoang Kha for AWS Community Builders

Posted on Sep 3, 2022

Auto Scaling Groups

#aws #asg #autoscalinggroups

Applications may encounter different amount of load depending on their usage span
In cloud we can create and get rid of resources (servers) quickly
The goal of an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) is to:
- Scale out (add more EC2 instances) to match the increased load
- Scale in (remote EC2 instances) to match a decreased load
- Ensure we have a minimum and a maximum number of machines running
- Automatically register new instances to a load balancer

It is possible to define "better" auto scaling rules managed directly by EC2 instances, for example:
- Target Average CPU Usage
- Number of requests on teh ELB per instance
- Average Network In/Out
These rules are easier to set up and to reason about then the previous ones

We can scale based on a custom metric (ex: number of connected users to the application)
In order to do this we have to:
1. Send a custom metric request to CloudWatch (PutMetric API)
2. Create a CloudWatch alarm to react to values of the metric
3. Use the CloudWatch alarm as a scaling policy for ASG

Scaling policies can be on CPU, Network, etc. and can even be based on custom metrics or based on a schedule
ASGs can use launch configurations or launch templates (newer version)
- Launch configurations allow to specify one instance type
- Launch templates allow to use a spot fleet of instances
To update an ASG, we must provide a new launch configuration/template. The underlying EC2 instances will be replaced over time
IAM roles attached to an ASG will be assigned to the launched EC2 instances
ASGs are free. We pay for the underlying resources being launched (EC2 instances, attached EBS volumes, etc.)
Having instances under an ASG means that if they get terminated for any reason, the ASG will automatically create new ones as a replacement
ASG can terminate instances marked as unhealthy by a load balancer and obviously replace them
Health checks - we can have 2 types of health checks:
- EC2 health checks - instances is recreated if the EC2 instance fails to respond to health checks
- ELB health checks - instance is recreated if the ELB health checks fail, meaning that the application is down for whatever reason

Target Tracking Scaling
- Most simple and easy to setup
- Example: we want the average ASG CPU to stay around 40%
Simple/Step Scaling
- Example:
  - When a CloudWatch alarm is triggered (example average CPU > 70%), then add 2 units
  - When a CloudWatch alarm is triggered (example average CPU < 30%), then remove 1 unit
Scheduled Actions
- Can be used if we can anticipate scaling based on known usage patterns
- Example: increase the min capacity to 10 at 5 PM on Fridays

The cool-down period helps to ensure that our ASG doesn't launch or terminate additional instances before the previous scaling activity takes effect
In addition to default cool-down for ASG we can create cool-downs that apply to specific simple scaling policy
A scaling-specific cool-down overrides the default cool-down period
Common use case for scaling-specific cool-downs is when a scale-in policy terminates instances based in a criteria or metric. Because this policy terminates instances, an ASG needs less time to determine wether to terminate additional instances
If the default cool-down period of 300 seconds is too long, we can reduce costs by applying a scaling-specific cool-down of 180 seconds for example
If our application is scaling up and down multiple times each hour, we can modify the ASG cool-down timers and the CloudWatch alarm period that triggers the scale

We can suspend and then resume one or more of the scaling processes for our ASG. This can be useful when we want to investigate a configuration problem or other issue with our web application and then make changes to our application, without invoking the scaling processes.
We can manually move an instance from an ASG and put it in the standby state
Instances in standby state are still managed by Auto Scaling, are charged as normal, and do not count towards available EC2 instance for workload/application use. Auto scaling does not perform health checks on instances in the standby state. Standby state can be used for performing updates/changes/troubleshooting etc. without health checks being performed or replacement instances being launched.

ASG Default Termination Policy
1. Find the AZ which has to most number of instances
2. If there are multiple instances to choose from, delete the one with the oldest launch configuration
Lifecycle Hooks
- By default as soon as an instance is launched in an ASG, the instance goes in service
- ASGs provide the ability to perform extra steps before the instance goes in service
- Also, we have he ability to perform some actions before the instance is terminated
- Lifecycle hooks diagram: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/userguide/lifecycle-hooks.html
Launch Templates vs. Launch Configurations
- Both allow to specify the AMI, the instance type, a key par, security groups and the other parameters that we use to launch EC2 instances (tags, user-data, etc.)
- Launch Configurations are considered to be legacy:
  - They must be recreated every time
- Launch Templates:
  - They can have multiple versions
  - They allow parameter subsets used for partial configuration for re-use and inheritance
  - We can provision both On-Demand and Spot instances (or a mix of two)
  - We can use the T2 unlimited burst feature
  - Recommended by AWS

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