AWS Global Accelerator is a networking service that improves the availability and performance of applications by directing traffic through AWS's global network infrastructure. It provides static IP addresses that serve as fixed entry points to your applications, routing traffic to optimal endpoints…AWS Global Accelerator is a networking service that improves the availability and performance of applications by directing traffic through AWS's global network infrastructure. It provides static IP addresses that serve as fixed entry points to your applications, routing traffic to optimal endpoints across multiple AWS Regions.
Key Components:
1. **Static IP Addresses**: Global Accelerator provides two static anycast IP addresses that remain constant, simplifying DNS management and firewall rules. These IPs are announced from multiple AWS edge locations worldwide.
2. **Accelerators**: The main resource that directs traffic to endpoints. Each accelerator includes listeners that process inbound connections based on port and protocol configurations.
3. **Listeners**: Process inbound connections from clients using TCP or UDP protocols on specified ports, then route traffic to endpoint groups.
4. **Endpoint Groups**: Associated with specific AWS Regions and contain endpoints like Application Load Balancers, Network Load Balancers, EC2 instances, or Elastic IP addresses.
5. **Endpoints**: The actual resources receiving traffic within each endpoint group.
Key Benefits:
- **Improved Performance**: Traffic enters the AWS network at the nearest edge location, reducing internet latency by up to 60%.
- **Health Checking**: Continuously monitors endpoint health and automatically reroutes traffic away from unhealthy endpoints.
- **Traffic Dials**: Allow percentage-based traffic distribution across endpoint groups for blue-green deployments.
- **Client Affinity**: Ensures requests from the same client are routed to the same endpoint.
- **DDoS Protection**: Integrates with AWS Shield for protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Use Cases:
- Multi-Region applications requiring high availability
- Gaming and media streaming applications needing low latency
- Applications requiring static IP addresses for whitelisting
- Disaster recovery scenarios with automatic failover
Global Accelerator differs from CloudFront as it optimizes TCP/UDP traffic rather than caching content, making it ideal for non-HTTP use cases and applications requiring consistent IP addresses.
AWS Global Accelerator - Complete Guide for AWS SysOps Administrator Associate
What is AWS Global Accelerator?
AWS Global Accelerator is a networking service that improves the availability and performance of your applications for global users. It provides static IP addresses that act as a fixed entry point to your application endpoints in multiple AWS Regions, such as Application Load Balancers, Network Load Balancers, EC2 instances, and Elastic IPs.
Why is AWS Global Accelerator Important?
• Improved Performance: Routes traffic through the AWS global network rather than the public internet, reducing latency by up to 60% • High Availability: Provides automatic failover between healthy endpoints across multiple regions • Static IP Addresses: Offers two static anycast IP addresses that remain constant, simplifying DNS management and firewall rules • Health Checks: Continuously monitors endpoint health and routes traffic only to healthy endpoints • DDoS Protection: Integrated with AWS Shield for protection against distributed denial of service attacks
How AWS Global Accelerator Works
1. Anycast IP Addresses: Users connect to the nearest AWS edge location using static anycast IPs 2. AWS Global Network: Traffic enters the AWS backbone network at the edge location closest to the user 3. Endpoint Groups: Traffic is routed to endpoint groups in one or more AWS Regions based on configuration 4. Traffic Dials: Control the percentage of traffic sent to each endpoint group (0-100%) 5. Endpoint Weights: Distribute traffic among endpoints within an endpoint group
Key Components
• Accelerator: The main resource that directs traffic to optimal endpoints • Listener: Processes inbound connections based on port and protocol (TCP or UDP) • Endpoint Group: Contains endpoints in a specific AWS Region • Endpoints: The actual resources receiving traffic (ALB, NLB, EC2, Elastic IP)
Global Accelerator vs CloudFront
• Global Accelerator: Best for non-HTTP use cases like gaming (UDP), IoT (MQTT), VoIP, or HTTP cases requiring static IPs or fast regional failover • CloudFront: Best for cacheable HTTP content, dynamic HTTP content, and API acceleration
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on AWS Global Accelerator
1. Static IP Requirements: When a question mentions needing static IP addresses for a global application or whitelisting IPs in firewalls, think Global Accelerator
2. Blue/Green Deployments: Traffic dials (0-100%) enable gradual traffic shifting between regions - perfect for blue/green deployment scenarios
3. TCP/UDP Traffic: Global Accelerator supports both TCP and UDP protocols, making it ideal for gaming, media streaming, and IoT applications
4. Health Check Scenarios: Questions about automatic failover between regions with continuous health monitoring point to Global Accelerator
5. Latency Reduction: When questions describe reducing latency for global users accessing applications in specific regions, Global Accelerator is often the answer
6. Endpoint Weights: Remember that weights (0-255) control traffic distribution within an endpoint group, while traffic dials control traffic between endpoint groups
7. Client Affinity: Global Accelerator can maintain client affinity (sticky sessions) by source IP address - useful for stateful applications
8. Pricing Awareness: Charges are based on fixed hourly fee plus data transfer premium over standard rates
9. Integration Points: Know that Global Accelerator works with ALB, NLB, EC2 instances, and Elastic IPs as endpoints
10. Monitoring: Use CloudWatch metrics and Flow Logs for monitoring and troubleshooting Global Accelerator traffic patterns