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Don't just learn the cloud—BYTE it!
Byte the Cloud is your go-to, on-the-go, podcast for mastering AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud certifications and exam prep!
Chris 0:00
All right. Welcome back everyone. Today, we're going deep on AWS certificate manager, ACM, ACM, yeah, this one's uh, especially for our mid level cloud engineers out there. Yeah, you know those folks working hard, studying for those AWS certs,
Kelly 0:13
absolutely, prepping for those exams. Yeah. So ACM,
Chris 0:17
it's like, Okay, imagine your website is this VIP party? Okay? I like it, right? And ACM, it's the bouncer checking IDs,
Kelly 0:27
making sure only the trusted guests get in Exactly, yeah.
Chris 0:31
But instead of velvet ropes, we're talking encryption here. Love the analogy, so we'll break it down. What ACM is, why it matters, even for you know, your non techie friends, right, right. Then we'll get into the real nitty gritty, the features, the limitations, how it all fits in with the other AWS stuff you're probably already using the ecosystem. And then the big one, okay, the exam style questions. Oh, yeah, that's what they're here for, detailed answers, yeah, to show how you know, really knowing ECM can pay off big
Kelly 0:58
time on those exams and in the field. So let's
Chris 1:01
start basic. What is this ACM thing? Anyway? Okay,
Kelly 1:04
so ACM AWS certificate manager. It's basically a service that helps you manage these, uh, these digital certificates, certificates, yeah, and these are super important for, you know, secure communication on websites. Okay, so like HTTPS, exactly HTTPS. It's all about establishing trust. You know, proving a website is the real deal, that the data going back and forth, it's all encrypted, protected. So
Chris 1:30
think like that little lock icon you see in your browser bar precisely.
Kelly 1:34
That's a visual cue tells you the sites using HTTP thefts, and you can feel a little bit safer, right? Because
Chris 1:39
you don't want anyone snooping on your info, especially not when you're doing sensitive stuff online, right? Like online banking, exactly.
Kelly 1:46
Imagine you're logging into your bank and there's no that little lock no HTTPS. Would you trust it with your account details?
Chris 1:54
No way. So ACM, it's kind of like the guardian of those certificates making sure everything's legit and locked down
Kelly 1:59
you got it. It takes the headache out of managing all that, which, as a cloud engineer, you'll appreciate. Oh, I
Chris 2:04
bet I can only imagine the old days messing with certificates manually.
Kelly 2:09
Yeah, that was a different story. Not a fun one.
Chris 2:12
But let's get into how ACM actually works. What makes it so great? So one of
Kelly 2:15
the biggest things with ACM is, well, it's all about automation. Automation always a good thing, right? ACM handles like everything, requesting the certificates, validating them, even renewing them before they expire.
Chris 2:29
No more late night certificate renewal. Oh, nope. ACM has got your back.
Kelly 2:33
Takes care of all that behind the scenes stuff. Okay, that is a huge relief. You can focus on other things, like actually building cool applications right,
Chris 2:41
right now. You mentioned before, it plays well with other AWS services. Oh, yeah, totally like. I've seen it used with CloudFront Route 53 even those ELBs,
Kelly 2:51
all of them super integrated, makes it really easy to build secure and, you know, scalable web apps.
Chris 2:57
So no more duct taping things together. It's all part of the same, like AWS family, exactly. But ACM, it's gotta have some limits, right? Nothing's perfect. Well, yeah, of course, every
Kelly 3:07
tool has its boundaries. So what can't
Chris 3:09
ACM do?
Kelly 3:10
Well, it's really focused on those website certificates. It's not gonna help you with, say, code signing or email encryption.
Chris 3:17
Okay? So it's like a specialist, not a jack of all trades, yeah? A master of one. But that's fine, because it does what it does really well, exactly. All right, but let's get to the part I know everyone's been waiting for. Let's
Kelly 3:27
do it exam prep time. Yes,
Chris 3:30
how can knowing ACM inside and out help someone crush those AWS exams? Okay, so
Kelly 3:36
let's run through some of those exam style questions you might see hit us with them. Let's see what we've learned. All right, first one, imagine you're working on this project, and compliance is everything. Compliance always fun, right? So how does ACM help you meet those tough security standards like, oh, I don't know. PCI DSS, ooh.
Chris 3:54
PCI DSS, the gold standard for anything involving credit
Kelly 3:58
cards, exactly. So how does ACM play into that?
Chris 4:01
I'm sure a lot of our listeners are dealing with PCI DSS every day. So break it down for us. How does ACM make their lives easier?
Kelly 4:09
Okay, so PCI DSS, it's got all these strict rules about protecting cardholder data, makes sense? That's sensitive stuff, right? And one of the big things they require is, well, using HTTPS for every single web transaction. Oh, I
Chris 4:22
see. So you got to have that secure connection. Yep, in ACM.
Kelly 4:24
It makes it easy to meet that requirement. How? So, because it gives you this streamlined way to get and manage those SSL TLS certificates, you know, the ones that actually enable HTTPS.
Chris 4:36
Okay, so it's not just about having any old certificate, it's about having the right one and making sure it's always up to date. You got it, and ACM helps with
Kelly 4:44
that absolutely one way is through that automation we talked about. ACM automatically renews those certificates before they expire.
Chris 4:52
So no more scrambling at the last minute. Nope. No
Kelly 4:55
risk of accidentally letting one lapse and, you know, potentially getting in trouble. With those PCI DSS roles,
Chris 5:01
that's a huge relief, especially when you're dealing with, like, tons of certificates,
Kelly 5:07
right? And it's not just about renewals. ACM also gives you the central place to manage all your certificates.
Chris 5:13
Oh, okay, so it's like a one stop shop for certificates,
Kelly 5:16
exactly, which makes audits and those compliance checks way easier.
Chris 5:21
So ACM is basically like your compliance best friend. Yeah, it's got you covered Exactly.
Kelly 5:25
It helps you check those boxes and sleep a little sounder at night knowing your website is secure and compliant. So
Chris 5:31
we talked about compliance, but what about different types of certificate validation? Like, how does ACM handle that?
Kelly 5:37
Oh, great question. So ACM gives you some flexibility there. You can choose different validation methods depending on your setup. Okay. So what are our options? One popular option is DNS validation. It's basically proving you control the domain you're requesting a certificate for. Okay? How do you prove that? You add a specific DNS record to your domain? Think of it like a little verification code that ACM can check so
Chris 6:00
ACM checks that code and says, okay, this person really owns this domain
Kelly 6:05
Exactly. Now, there might be times when you don't have direct control over the DNS settings, yeah, I can see that happening, right? So for those cases, ACM also supports email validation. So how does that work? ACM sends a verification email to specific addresses linked to the domain.
Chris 6:22
So it's like confirming your identity through your email precisely,
Kelly 6:25
and you just click a link in the email to verify and boom, you're good to go.
Chris 6:30
So whether you're a DNS whiz or an email Pro, ACM has got you covered Exactly.
Kelly 6:34
It's all about providing options that fit different scenarios and make life easier for cloud engineers. Now
Chris 6:41
I'm thinking, what if you've got a website that's spread across like multiple regions?
Kelly 6:45
Oh, multi region deployments? Yeah, that adds another layer of complexity, right?
Chris 6:49
So how do certificates and ACM work in that kind of setup? Okay,
Kelly 6:53
so you can absolutely use ACM with a multi region website, but, yeah, think about a few things like, what? Well, first you'll probably want to use Route 53 our trusty DNS service, exactly. Route 53 can route traffic to the closest region based on where the user is.
Chris 7:10
So it's like a traffic cop directing users to the fastest route Exactly. And then you've got CloudFront, our content delivery network, making sure things load quickly.
Kelly 7:20
Yep, CloudFront can cache and deliver your website content globally.
Chris 7:24
Okay, so you're using Route 53 and CloudFront together to create this seamless experience no matter where the user is,
Kelly 7:31
right? But then you got to think, how do you manage those certificates for each region?
Chris 7:37
Do you need a separate certificate for each region? Ideally, you
Kelly 7:40
want to keep things simple, right? Manage as few certificates
Chris 7:43
as possible. Makes sense. Less is more when it comes to managing this stuff,
Kelly 7:47
right? So one way to do that is using wildcard certificate. Wildcard certificates, yeah, with ACM, you can request a wildcard certificate that covers all the subdomains under a specific domain. Okay. Can
Chris 7:58
you give an example? Sure. Let's
Kelly 7:59
say you have a wild card certificate for.example.com
Chris 8:03
Okay, so that star, that's the wild card part. Exactly
Kelly 8:06
that wild card certificate would cover, like shop.example.com, blog.example.com, basically any sub domain under example.com,
Chris 8:13
oh, that is clever. So instead of having a separate certificate for each little regional endpoint, you have one big wild card that covers them all. Yep, way
Kelly 8:22
more efficient, especially when you've got this big multi region deployment. Makes
Chris 8:27
sense. Okay, so we've talked about compliance multi region deployments, even these cool wild card certificates. Yeah, we're getting deep into it, but let's not forget about one of the most important things, renewals.
Kelly 8:40
Oh, renewals. Yeah, I always got to keep those certificates up to date,
Chris 8:42
right? So what do our listeners need to know about certificate renewals with ACM? Well,
Kelly 8:48
first, remember, ACM handles most renewals automatically, but you do have some control. You can customize the renewal period if you need to.
Chris 8:57
So it's like, set it and forget it most of the time, but you can tweak things if you need to exactly.
Kelly 9:01
But here's a super important point, you gotta make sure the validation method you picked for the initial certificate, it's still good when it's time to renew. Ah,
Chris 9:12
so like, if you used email validation, make sure those email addresses are still active. Got
Kelly 9:17
it? Gotta think ahead, avoid those last minute scrambles. Makes
Chris 9:21
sense. Yeah? Anything else our listeners should be extra careful about? Oh, yeah,
Kelly 9:24
another common mistake, forgetting to update any systems or applications that rely on the certificate. Oh, right.
Chris 9:31
Like, if you're using elastic load balancer, you gotta update its config to use the new renewed certificate Exactly.
Kelly 9:38
It's not just about ACM. It's about thinking about how that certificate fits into your
Chris 9:43
whole infrastructure. So it's like you change the locks. You gotta make sure everyone's got the new keys. Perfect
Kelly 9:47
analogy. And finally, and I can't stress this enough, always test the renewal process first in
Chris 9:54
a safe space, right? Not in production, where things can go both exactly,
Kelly 9:57
test it out in a. Own production environment, avoid any surprises when it's game time, solid advice, always better to be safe than sorry.
Chris 10:07
Okay, we've covered a lot. How ECM makes certificate management easy, how it helps with compliance, how to handle multi region deployments, those wild card certificates renewals. I'm sure our listeners are ready to put this knowledge to the test. I
Kelly 10:20
think so too. But we're just getting started. We've got more to cover. Oh, there's more, definitely. Let's dive into some real world scenarios, some specific, challenging questions that'll really test your understanding of ACM,
Chris 10:32
all right, bring it on. I know our listeners are up for the challenge. They want to level up their cloud game.
Kelly 10:37
Okay, here we go. Imagine you're working on this project with super tight security requirements. Okay, security is paramount, right? You've got an application running on EC2 instances, but they're tucked away in a private subnet, okay? So they're not directly exposed to the public Internet, exactly. And this application, it needs to talk to an RDS database, also in a private subnet. So we're talking
Chris 11:00
about securing communication within a private network, not just over the public Internet, exactly,
Kelly 11:05
and we need to make sure that only authorized applications can even talk to that database. So it's
Chris 11:10
like having a super exclusive club, only certain members allowed. Perfect
Kelly 11:14
analogy. And this is where understanding ACM and how it works with other security services gets really interesting. So
Chris 11:21
how do we approach this? We need more than just a basic certificate, right? You're right.
Kelly 11:24
ACM itself, it doesn't directly secure stuff within a private network. Its main focus is on securing communication over the public Internet, but we can still use certificates from ACM to make things more secure inside that private network. Oh,
Chris 11:40
I see. So we're not using ACM in the traditional way, but we can still benefit from its certificate management capability, exactly. So how do we do that? How do we leverage ACM to enhance security in a private network?
Kelly 11:53
Okay? So first things first, we configure our RDS database to require SSL connections for everything coming in. So
Chris 12:00
every connection the database has to be secure. You got it. Then
Kelly 12:03
we install certificate, one issued by ACM on our EC2 instances. So
Chris 12:08
it's like giving those EC2 instances a special key, a way to prove their identity and access the database securely
Kelly 12:14
Exactly. But we don't stop there. We want to add another layer of security. Multiple layers are always a good idea, right? So we use security groups. Think of them as virtual firewalls for our EC2 instances and our RDS database.
Chris 12:25
Okay? So they control what traffic is allowed in and out exactly, and
Kelly 12:29
we configure those security groups to only allow traffic on the specific ports used for, you know, secure database communication. So
Chris 12:37
it's like, not only do the EC2 instances need the right certificate, but they also need to be on the approved list of visitors, so to speak.
Kelly 12:45
Precisely by combining ACM with security groups, you've got this multi layered approach, right? It ensures only authorized applications can talk to the database and that all that communication is encrypted and protected. Love it multiple
Chris 12:58
layers of security. That's how you really lock things down?
Kelly 13:01
You got it. Now, let's throw in another twist. What if you're using a load balancer?
Chris 13:05
Load balancers, those are essential for handling traffic, exactly. So
Kelly 13:09
how do certificates fit into that picture? Do you need a separate one for the load balancer itself? You're on fire with these questions. And yeah, you're right. When you bring in a load balancer, you typically need a separate certificate just for it. Okay? Why is that? Because the load balancer, that's what terminates the initial SSL connection from the client, you know, right?
Chris 13:29
So it's like the first point of contact, exactly,
Kelly 13:31
and then it forwards that traffic to the back end, to those EC2 instances, ah.
Chris 13:37
So it's like having a security checkpoint at the main entrance. You need your ID check there, but then to get into specific areas within the building, you might need additional credentials,
Kelly 13:47
perfect analogy. So you need that certificate on the load balancer to handle that initial SSL handshake.
Chris 13:54
Okay, makes sense. But managing all these certificates can't that get messy? Well, the
Kelly 13:59
good news is ACM integrates really nicely with load balancers, so it's all streamlined. When you create a load balancer in AWS, you can just pick a certificate from ACM, and it's all set up for SSL termination.
Chris 14:10
Okay? So less manual work, less chance for errors, exactly. That's the beauty of ACM. Now I know our listeners are always thinking about cost optimization, always important. So let's talk about the cost implications of ACM. How does it impact the overall cost of managing certificates? That's
Kelly 14:26
a common question, even on those AWS exams. And here's the best part, ACM itself is free. Wait, free. You're kidding, right? No, totally free. You only pay for the other resources you use, like your load balancers or those EC2 instances, so
Chris 14:42
you get all this powerful certificate management for free,
Kelly 14:45
exactly, and compared to buying certificates from third party vendors the traditional way, ACM can save you a ton of money, especially
Chris 14:53
if you're dealing with lots of certificates Exactly.
Kelly 14:56
It's a huge win for your budget and your peace of mind. Okay?
Chris 14:59
So we've covered a ton of ground here, from the basics to some pretty advanced stuff. But before we wrap up this part of our deep dive, are there any gotchas or limitations with ACM that our listeners should know about? Of course,
Kelly 15:12
it's important to know the boundaries of any tool. So one thing to remember, ACM is primarily designed for those website certificates, right? It's not going to handle like code signing certificates or those used for email encryption. Okay? So
Chris 15:26
it's a specialist, but as we've seen, it's really good at what it does,
Kelly 15:30
exactly. And another point ACM, it's deeply integrated with AWS. So if you're working in a multi cloud environment or have infrastructure outside of AWS, you might need other certificate management solutions,
Chris 15:44
right? It's all about choosing the right tool for the job,
Kelly 15:47
absolutely. But overall, ACM is a super valuable tool for any cloud engineer working with AWS. Well, I
Chris 15:54
think we've given our listeners a lot to think about, from how ACM simplifies certificate management to those security best practices and even how to tackle multi region deployments. Yeah,
Kelly 16:03
we covered a lot, but we're not done yet. There's still more to explore. Well, there's more definitely. In our next segment, we'll dive even deeper into some real world scenarios, those tricky exam style questions and some even more advanced security considerations.
Chris 16:18
Awesome. I can't wait to see what challenges await me, neither.
Kelly 16:21
So stay tuned, everyone, because things are about to get even more interesting. Yeah. So it's like you change the locks. You gotta make sure everyone's got the new
Chris 16:29
keys Exactly. And lastly, I can't stress this enough, always, always test that renewal process first. Yes. Always test in a safe environment, right? Not in production, not where things can go boom, exactly. Test it out in a non production environment, avoid those nasty surprises. Solid advice, always better to be safe than sorry. Okay,
Kelly 16:49
we've covered so much. How ACM makes certificate management easy, how it helps with compliance, multi region deployments, those wild card certificates, renewals.
Chris 16:59
Phew, yeah, we've
Kelly 17:00
been busy. Our listeners are ready to put all this knowledge to the test. I'm sure. I
Chris 17:04
think so too, yeah, but we're not quite done yet. There's more to explore. Oh, there's more. Definitely, we're going to dive even deeper now into some real world scenarios, those tricky exam style questions, some even more advanced security considerations. All
Kelly 17:19
right, bring it on. I know our listeners are up for the challenge. They want to level up their cloud game.
Chris 17:23
Okay, here we go. Imagine this. You're working on a project. Security is super tight. Okay, security is top priority. You've got an application running on these EC2 instances tucked away in a private subnet,
Kelly 17:36
okay, so they're not directly exposed to the public Internet, right? Exactly, and this application needs to talk to an RDS database, which is also in a private subnet.
Chris 17:46
So we're talking about securing communication inside a private network now, not just over the public internet.
Kelly 17:52
You got it, and we need to make sure that only authorized applications can even talk to that database. So it's
Chris 17:58
like a super exclusive club, only certain members are allowed in perfect
Kelly 18:01
analogy. And this is where understanding ACM and how it works with other security services, this is where it gets really interesting.
Chris 18:09
So how do we approach this? It feels like we need more than just a basic certificate. Here.
Kelly 18:14
You're absolutely right. ACM itself, it doesn't directly secure things within a private network. Its main job is securing communication over the public Internet, but we can still use certificates from ACM to make things more secure inside that private network. Oh, okay,
Chris 18:29
I see. So we're not using ACM in the like traditional way, but we can still take advantage of its certificate management features Exactly. So how do we do that? How do we actually leverage ACM to enhance security within a private
Kelly 18:41
network, all right. So first things first, we configure the RDS database to require SSL connections for all incoming traffic, so
Chris 18:50
every connection to that database, it has to be secure. You got it.
Kelly 18:53
Then we install a certificate, one issued by ACM on our EC2 instances. Okay,
Chris 18:59
so it's like giving those EC2 instances a special key so they can prove their identity and access the database securely, exactly.
Kelly 19:06
But we don't stop there. We want to add another layer of security. Multiple
Chris 19:11
layers always a good strategy, absolutely.
Kelly 19:12
So we bring in security groups. Think of those as like virtual firewalls for our EC2 instances and the RDS database,
Chris 19:21
okay? So they control what traffic is allowed in and out exactly, and we
Kelly 19:25
configure those security groups to only allow traffic on the specific ports used for secure database communication.
Chris 19:31
So it's like, not only do the EC2 instances need the right certificate, but they also have to be on the approved list of visitors
Kelly 19:38
precisely. By combining ACM with those security groups, you get this multi layered approach. It makes your only authorized applications can talk to the database and all that communication. It's encrypted. It's protected. Love
Chris 19:49
it multiple layers of security. That's how you really lock things down. You got
Kelly 19:53
it. Now, let's throw in another twist. What if you're using a load balancer in this setup?
Chris 19:57
Load balancers, those are crucial. For handling traffic, you're telling
Kelly 20:01
me. So where do certificates fit into that picture? Do you need a separate certificate just for the load balancer itself? You are on fire with these questions. And yeah, you're right. When you introduce a load balancer, typically you need a separate certificate just for it. Why is that? Because of the load balancer, that's what terminates the initial SSL connection from the client, you know, right? It's like that first point of contact exactly, and then it forwards that traffic to the back end to those EC2 instances. Okay,
Chris 20:31
so it's kind of like having that security checkpoint at the main entrance, so you need your ID check there, right? Yeah. But then to get into specific areas within the building you might need additional credentials.
Kelly 20:42
Perfect analogy, you need that certificate on the load balancer to handle that initial SSL handshake. Okay,
Chris 20:48
makes sense. But managing all these certificates, it feels like that could get pretty complicated.
Kelly 20:54
Well, here's the good news. ACM, it integrates really well with load balancers. Ah, so it's all streamlined and easy. Exactly, when you create a load balancer in AWS, you can just pick a certificate from ACM and it's all set up for SSL termination, okay,
Chris 21:10
so less manual work, less chance for errors. Exactly,
Kelly 21:13
that's the beauty of ACM. It simplifies things. Now, I
Chris 21:17
know our listeners are always thinking about cost optimization. Always important. Got to keep those costs down. So let's talk about the cost implications of using ACM. How does it affect the overall cost of managing certificates? That's
Kelly 21:29
a really common question, even on those AWS exams. And here's the best part. Ready for this, ACM itself is free. Wait, free. You're kidding. Nope. Totally free. You only pay for the other resources you use, like those load balancers or those EC2 instances, so
Chris 21:44
you get all this powerful certificate management absolutely free,
Kelly 21:48
exactly. And compared to, you know, the traditional way buying certificates from those third party vendors, ACM, can save you a ton of money, especially
Chris 21:57
if you're dealing with lots and lots of certificates, exactly.
Kelly 22:00
Big win for your budget, big win for your peace of mind. Okay,
Chris 22:04
so we've covered so much ground here, from the basics to some pretty advanced scenarios. But before we wrap up this part of our deep dive, are there any gotchas, any limitations with ACM that our listeners should be aware of?
Kelly 22:17
Of course, important to know the boundaries of any tool. So one thing to remember, ACM, it's mainly designed for those website certificates, right for securing websites Exactly. It won't handle other types of certificates, like, you know, those used for code signing or email encryption. Okay,
Chris 22:33
so it's a specialist, but as we've seen, it's really good at what it does exactly.
Kelly 22:37
It's a master of its domain. And another point to consider, ACM is tightly integrated with AWS, so if you're working in a multi cloud environment, or you have infrastructure outside of AWS, well you might need other certificate management options in those cases,
Chris 22:52
right? It's all about choosing the best tool for the job. Couldn't agree more. Well, I think we've given our listeners a lot to think about how ACM makes certificate management simpler, all those security best practices, even how to tackle multi region deployments. Yeah,
Kelly 23:06
a lot of great info, but there's still more to explore. In our next segment, we'll go even deeper. We'll look at more real world scenarios, those challenging exam style questions. Okay, also, I
Chris 23:18
can't wait. Me neither.
Kelly 23:19
So stay tuned, everyone, things are about to get even more interesting.
Chris 23:24
Yeah, lots to cover, more real world scenarios, those tough exam questions. We'll even look at some more advanced security stuff. Okay, awesome. I can't wait, me neither. So stay tuned, everyone, because things are gonna get even more interesting.
Kelly 23:35
All right, so we're back ready to dive even deeper into ACM, ready to go. So last time we were talking about using ACM for securing communication, not just on the public Internet, but also within a private network,
Chris 23:49
right, like between those EC2 instances and an RDS database, both tucked away in a private subnet, exactly. So can you walk us through how we'd actually do that? How do we leverage ACM to make that communication more secure. Okay?
Kelly 24:02
So first things first, we gotta configure that RDS database make it require SSL connections for everything coming in.
Chris 24:08
So any connection to the database has to be secure. You
Kelly 24:11
got it. Then we install a certificate when issued by ACM on those EC2 instances. So it's
Chris 24:18
like we're giving those EC2 instances a special key, a way to prove their identity, so they can access the database securely, exactly.
Kelly 24:25
But we don't want to stop there. We want to add another layer of protection, another layer of security, multiple layers always a good idea, absolutely. So we're going to use security groups. Think of them like virtual firewalls for our EC2 instances and for our RDS database,
Chris 24:42
okay, they control what traffic can get in, what traffic can go out, exactly. We configure
Kelly 24:47
those security groups to only allow traffic on specific ports, the ones used for that secure database communication. So not
Chris 24:54
only do those EC2 instances need that right certificate, but they also got to be on like. The approved list of visitors, precisely
Kelly 25:01
so by combining ACM with those security groups, you get this multi layered security approach. You ensure that only authorized applications can actually talk to the database and that all the communication Well, it's encrypted. It's protected. Love
Chris 25:17
it multiple layers of security. That's how you really lock things down.
Kelly 25:20
You got it. Now, let's add another wrinkle, another layer of complexity here. Okay,
Chris 25:25
I'm intrigued. Hit me with it.
Kelly 25:27
What if you're using a load balancer in this setup?
Chris 25:29
Load balancers, yeah, essential for handling all that traffic, exactly.
Kelly 25:33
So, how do certificates work with a load balancer? Would you need a separate certificate for the load balancer itself? Hmm, I'm not sure. Would you you're right to question that. And, yeah, typically, when you bring a load balancer into the mix, you do need a separate certificate just for
Chris 25:48
it. Okay, can you explain why that is? Sure, because the load balancer,
Kelly 25:52
that's what terminates the initial SSL connection from the client. You know the first point of contact exactly, and then the load balancer forwards that traffic onto the back end to those EC2 instances.
Chris 26:04
Ah, okay, so it's kind of like having a security checkpoint at the main entrance, yeah. You need your ID check there, yeah. But then to get into specific areas within the building, you might need additional credentials. Perfect
Kelly 26:16
analogy. You hit the nail on the head. So you need that certificate on the load balancer to handle that initial SSO handshake.
Chris 26:24
Makes sense. But with all these certificates, it seems like it could get kind of hard to manage. Well, here's
Kelly 26:28
where things get even better, ACM. It plays really nicely with load balancers. Oh, good. So it's all streamlined exactly when you're setting up a load balancer in AWS, you can just pick a certificate from ACM, easy peasy, and it's all set up for SSL termination,
Chris 26:43
so less manual work, less chance for errors. You
Kelly 26:46
got it. That's what ACM is all about, simplifying things. Now
Chris 26:50
I'm sure our listeners are thinking about cost optimization.
Kelly 26:53
Always important. Got to keep those costs under control, right?
Chris 26:56
So how does ACM impact the overall cost of managing certificates. This
Kelly 27:01
is a super common question. Even pops up on those AWS exams. And here's the best part, are you ready ACM itself? It's free. Free. You're kidding, right? Nope, totally free. You only pay for the other resources you use, like those load balancers or those EC2 instances, so
Chris 27:18
you get all this powerful certificate management, all that functionality for
Kelly 27:21
free, exactly, and compared to, you know, the old way of doing things, buying certificates from those third party vendors, well, ACM can save you
Chris 27:30
a ton of money, especially when you're working with, like, a whole bunch of certificates. Absolutely
Kelly 27:34
big win for your budget and for your peace of mind.
Chris 27:38
Okay, so we've covered so much ground, from the basic stuff to some really advanced scenarios. But before we wrap up our deep dive into ACM, any gotchas, our listeners should know about any limitations.
Kelly 27:50
Of course, always important to know the limitations of any tool. So one thing to keep in mind ACM, it's mainly designed for those website certificates, right, right for securing websites, exactly. It's not going to handle other types of certificates, like those used for code signing or email encryption. Okay,
Chris 28:07
so it's a specialist, but as we've seen, it's really, really good at what it does. You got
Kelly 28:12
it a master of one another point to remember, ACM. It's really tightly integrated with AWS. So if you're working in a multi cloud world, or have infrastructure outside of AWS, you might need to look at other options for managing those certificates,
Chris 28:26
right, different tools for different jobs, exactly.
Kelly 28:28
But overall, ACM is a super valuable tool for any cloud engineer working with AWS. Well, I think we've given
Chris 28:36
our listeners a lot to think about how ACM makes certificate management so much easier, all those security best practices, how to handle those multi region deployments, and even how to keep costs down while doing it. Yeah, it's been a great deep dive. So as we wrap up, any final thoughts for our listeners, yeah, remember,
Kelly 28:53
even though ACM makes managing certificates way easier, it's still important to really understand the underlying concepts, you know ssltls, how those certificates actually work, that deeper understanding that's what's going to make you a true cloud expert. Great
Chris 29:07
advice. Keep learning, keep experimenting, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. There's always more to learn in the cloud world. Thanks for joining us for this deep dive into AWS certificate manager. Yeah, thanks
Kelly 29:19
for listening, everyone until next time. Happy clouding.