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Auto Scaling Group

·441 words·3 mins

Auto Scaling Group contains a collection of EC2 instances that are treated as a logical grouping for the purposes of automatic scaling and management.

Auto Scaling Group uses Auto Scaling features such as health check replacements and scaling policies.


AWS EC2 Auto Scaling : Step By Step Tutorial


The purpose of Auto Scaling Group #

  • Scale out (add EC2 instances) to match an increased load
  • Scale in (remove EC2 instances) to match a decreased load
  • Ensure we have a minimum and maximum number of instances running
  • Automatically register new instances to the Load Balancer
  • Replace unhealthy instances
  • Cost Saving (only run at optimal capacity)

Creating an Auto Scaling Group #

  • Create Launch Template
  • Create Auto Scaling Group
    • Select Availability Zones
    • Select Availability Zone distribution
    • Attach to an existing Load Balancer
    • Turn on Elastic Load Balancing health checks
    • Define the desired capacity
    • Set up Automatic Scaling (optional)
    • Select Instance maintenance policy
    • Additional capacity settings
    • Additional settings

Auto Scaling Groups - Strategies #

  • Manual Scaling - update the size of an ASG manually
  • Dynamic Scaling - respond to changing demand
    • Simple / Step Scaling
      • When a CloudWatch alarm is triggered (i.e. CPU > 70%) then add 2 instances
      • When a CloudWatch alarm is triggered (i.e. CPU < 30%) then remove 1 instance
    • Target Tracking Scaling
      • Example: Average ASG CPU to stay around 40%
    • Scheduled Scaling
      • Anticipate a scaling based on known usage patterns
        • Example: increase the min. capacity to 10 at 5pm on Fridays
    • Predictive Scaling
      • Uses Machine Learning to predict the load

» Sources « #

Full YouTube Rahul’s AWS Course: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7iMyoQPMtAN4xl6oWzafqJebfay7K8KP

» References « #

» Table of contents (CLF-C02) « #

1. What is Cloud Computing2. IAM3. Budget
4. EC25. Security Groups6. Storage
7. AMI8. Scalability & High Availability9. Elastic Load Balancing
10. Auto Scaling Group11. S312. Databases
13. Other Compute Services14. Deployments15. AWS Global Infrastructure
16. Cloud Integrations17. Cloud Monitoring18. VPC
19. Security and Compliance20. Machine Learning21. Account Management and Billing
22. Advanced Identity23. Other Services24. AWS Architecting & Ecosystem
25. Preparing for AWS Practitioner exam

» Disclaimer « #

Disclaimer: Content for educational purposes only, no rights reserved.

Most of the content in this series is coming from Stephane Maarek’s Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 2025 course on Udemy.

I highly encourage you to take the Stephane’s courses as they are awesome and really help understanding the subject.

More about Stephane Maarek:

This article is just a summary and has been published to help me learning and passing the practitioner exam.