Amazon ECR Interface VPC Endpoints

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Amazon ECR Interface VPC Endpoints enable you to improve the security of your VPC by allowing you to privately access Amazon ECR container images from within your VPC. This is done without having to traverse the public internet. By using Interface VPC Endpoints, you are better able to adhere to com…

Guide for Amazon ECR Interface VPC Endpoints

Amazon ECR Interface VPC Endpoints (also known as private link) is an important tool in AWS services.
Why is it important? Basically, it allows you to securely access your ECR repository within your VPC without requiring your traffic to route through the internet. It is crucial in situations where you want to avoid possible security threats from outside internet traffic.
What is it? ECR Interface VPC Endpoints are horizontally scalable, redundant, and highly available VPC components that allow communication between instances in your VPC and services without introducing the availability risks or bandwidth constraints of an internet gateway.

How does it work? It works via AWS PrivateLink, making sure your data is not exposed to the public Internet. It provides reliable and scalable connectivity to Amazon ECR without requiring an Internet gateway, NAT device, VPN connection, or AWS Direct Connect connection.
It achieves this by providing native AWS service accessibility within your Amazon VPC using efficient AWS private network connectivity.
How to answer questions on this topic in an exam? Be sure to remember key features of ECR Interface VPC Endpoints. Always highlight the security and privacy benefits it offers as this is a major selling point of the service. Identify the scenarios where this service would be beneficial such as when one needs to avoid public internet traffic for security or privacy concerns.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Amazon ECR Interface VPC Endpoints can be tricky. Ensure that you understand the major components of ECR Interface VPC Endpoints such as AWS PrivateLink, VPC, and how it provides secure and private connectivity. Questions may require you to apply this feature in real-world scenarios so try to familiarize with different use cases. It's recommended to use the AWS well-architected framework to understand how ECR Interface VPC Endpoint fits into the security pillar.

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Question 1

Your containers run in private subnets inside an AWS VPC and must pull images from Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) without using public IP addresses or traversing the Internet. Which AWS service should you configure to provide private connectivity from the VPC to ECR?

AWS PrivateLink (Interface VPC endpoints for Amazon ECR) AWS VPN AWS Direct Connect Amazon Virtual Private Gateway

Correct Answer: AWS PrivateLink (Interface VPC endpoints for Amazon ECR)

AWS PrivateLink provides interface VPC endpoints that let resources in a VPC privately connect to supported AWS services without using public IPs or traversing the Internet. For Amazon ECR, you create interface endpoints for the ECR API and ECR DKR (registry) endpoints, enabling private image push/pull from within the VPC. In highly regulated environments this ensures traffic stays on the AWS network. By contrast, AWS Direct Connect and AWS VPN are for connecting on-premises networks to AWS, not for private access from a VPC to an AWS service. A Virtual Private Gateway is the AWS-side attachment for VPN or Direct Connect and does not provide service access by itself. Note: To keep all traffic private when pulling images, also add a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3, as ECR stores image layers in S3.

Question 2

You created interface VPC endpoints for Amazon ECR (both ecr.api and ecr.dkr) in each of several VPCs and enabled Private DNS on the endpoints. The client wants applications to keep using the standard Amazon ECR domain names while ensuring traffic goes through the VPC endpoints. Which type of DNS name should the applications use to reach ECR through the endpoints?

Regional DNS hostname Zonal DNS hostname VPCE specific DNS hostname Private DNS hostname

Correct Answer: Private DNS hostname

When Private DNS is enabled on an interface VPC endpoint for an AWS service, the standard public service hostnames resolve to the endpoint's private IP addresses inside that VPC. For Amazon ECR, this means names like api.ecr..amazonaws.com and .dkr.ecr..amazonaws.com resolve to the endpoint ENIs, keeping traffic within the VPC. VPCE-specific regional or zonal DNS hostnames are only necessary when Private DNS is disabled or when you must explicitly target a particular endpoint name; they also require changing application URLs. Using Private DNS satisfies the requirement to route traffic through the endpoint while allowing applications to keep using the standard ECR domain names.

Question 3

You are assisting a company in setting up Amazon ECR with VPC endpoints. They want to create a VPC endpoint policy that only allows image pushes and pulls from specific repositories. What should the 'Resource' element in the endpoint policy contain?

Any Wildcard (*) ARNs of the specific repositories VPC IDs

Correct Answer: ARNs of the specific repositories

The 'Resource' element in the endpoint policy should contain the ARNs of the specific repositories. This will allow image pushes and pulls only from those specified repositories.

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