AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate HOL — Ahmed Abdelwahed

AWS Cloud Architecture Hands-On Labs · HOL

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate HOL

A comprehensive hands-on lab guide covering the full AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate track — from IAM and S3 to EC2, VPC, EBS, and Elastic Load Balancing. Built for real-world practice in your own AWS environment.

✦ Ahmed Abdelwahed ✦ Version 24.06 ✦ AWS Cloud ✦ SAA-C03

About This Guide

The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate HOL guide walks you through every core AWS service domain required for the exam and real-world cloud deployment. Each section includes step-by-step console walkthroughs with annotated screenshots, CLI commands, and production-relevant configurations. From setting up your first IAM account and S3 bucket to launching EC2 instances, building VPCs, and configuring Classic Load Balancers — this guide is designed to give you the hands-on confidence that makes the difference on exam day and beyond.

What’s Covered

🔐

Identity & Access Management

IAM users, groups, roles, policies, MFA setup, cost alerts, and access monitoring via Access Advisor and Credential Reports.

🪣

S3 Storage & Policies

Bucket creation, object uploads, versioning, encryption (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C), bucket policies, static website hosting, and pre-signed URLs.

💾

Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Volume types (gp2, gp3, io1, io2, sc1, st1), volume resizing, snapshots, cross-region replication, and automated lifecycle policies.

🖥

Amazon EC2

On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Dedicated instances, AMI creation and replication, SSM Session Manager, CloudWatch monitoring, and detailed metrics.

⚖️

Load Balancing

Classic Load Balancer (CLB) setup with health checks, security group chaining, SSM-based Apache deployment, and traffic isolation patterns.

🌐

VPC & Networking

Custom VPC creation, subnet design, Elastic IPs, Internet Gateways, NAT Gateways, route tables, Security Groups, and Network ACLs.

Lab Index

01Creating an AWS Account & Global Infrastructure OverviewFoundations

02Shared Responsibility Model Deep DiveFoundations

03IAM — Users, Groups, Roles, Policies & MFASecurity

04AWS Cost Alerts & Budget ManagementManagement

05S3 Buckets — Creation, Uploads & FoldersStorage

06S3 Versioning — Version IDs, Delete Markers & RestoresStorage

07S3 Encryption — SSE-S3, SSE-KMS & Client-SideSecurity

08S3 Bucket Policies — Policy Generator & JSON RulesSecurity

09S3 Static Website HostingStorage

10EBS — Volume Types, Creation & AttachmentCompute

11EBS — Volume Resizing & Live ModificationCompute

12EBS — Snapshots, Cross-Region Copy & Lifecycle ManagerCompute

13EC2 — Linux Instance Launch & SSH AccessEC2

14Amazon Machine Images (AMI) — Create, Launch & ReplicateEC2

15CloudWatch Metrics & Detailed Monitoring for EC2Monitoring

16Classic Load Balancer (CLB) — Setup, Health Checks & SG IsolationNetworking

17Elastic IP Addresses — Allocation, Association & FailoverNetworking

18VPC — Custom Networks, Subnets & Route TablesNetworking

Who Is This For

🎓

SAA-C03 Candidates

Preparing for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam with practical, console-based lab exercises.

☁️

Cloud Engineers

Professionals building or migrating workloads to AWS who need structured, reference-quality guidance.

🏗

Infrastructure Architects

On-premises engineers expanding expertise into AWS cloud networking, compute, and storage design.

Guide Details

Version24.06

ExamSAA-C03

PlatformAWS Console + CLI

TypeHands-On Labs (HOL)

AuthorAhmed Abdelwahed

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A hands-on labs guide covering the full AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate curriculum — free to download.

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AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate – HOL