Chaos Engineering from Coursera

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, system resilience is vital for businesses of all sizes. "Chaos Engineering" is a comprehensive and hands-on course designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to ensure your systems withstand and recover from failures. From foundational concepts to advanced applications on various AWS services, including EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS, as well as strategies to ensure availability across multiple Availability Zones.

What You’ll Learn:

Chaos Engineering Fundamentals:

Understand core principles and the philosophy behind Chaos Engineering.

Learn why identifying and addressing system weaknesses through controlled chaos experiments is vital.

Explore essential tools and methodologies for implementing Chaos Engineering.

Building a Basic Fault Injection Simulation (FIS) Experiment:

Gain a step-by-step understanding of constructing and executing your first Fault Injection Simulation (FIS) experiment.

Understand how to design experiments targeting different failure modes in a controlled setting.

Learn to interpret experiment results and refine your simulations for better accuracy.

Introduction to Real-Life Application:

Discover how to apply Chaos Engineering experiments to real-world applications.

Learn best practices for monitoring, capturing metrics, and analyzing results to continually improve system resilience.

Chaos Engineering on Compute - EC2:

Conduct chaos experiments on EC2 instances to evaluate and improve system robustness.

Simulate failures, such as instance termination or network latency, and observe impacts.

Chaos Engineering on Database - Aurora:

Learn to apply Chaos Engineering principles to Amazon Aurora databases.

Simulate failures like cluster instability or node outages and develop strategies for seamless recovery.

Chaos Engineering on Serverless - Fargate:

Conduct chaos experiments on AWS Fargate to test the resilience of your serverless applications.

Simulate events like task failures or service downtime to ensure robust serverless architectures.

Chaos Engineering on Kubernetes - EKS:

Implement Chaos Engineering on Amazon EKS to stress-test Kubernetes clusters.

Simulate pod failures, node crashes, and other disruptions to validate recovery mechanisms.

Chaos Engineering on Availability Zone:

Conduct chaos experiments across different AWS Availability Zones.

Test the impact of zone failures and ensure your systems are prepared for multi-availability zone disasters.

Target Audience:

- Developers interested in enhancing their systems’ resilience.

- Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) focused on improving system reliability.

- Cloud Engineers managing AWS environments.

- Technical Support Engineers specializing in fault-tolerant systems.

- Technical Leads overseeing cloud-native application projects.

This course, with its combination of theory, demonstrations, and real-world scenarios, will enable you to build resilient systems capable of withstanding and recovering from unexpected failures efficiently. Join us to master Chaos Engineering and innovate with confidence.

What's inside

Syllabus

Chaos Engineering Fundamentals

The Chaos Engineering Fundamentals module introduces learners to the concept and importance of chaos engineering for building resilient systems. This module covers the basics of chaos engineering, an overview of AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS), and examples of experiments. It concludes with a quiz to reinforce the key concepts.

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Provides hands-on experience with AWS services like EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS, which are widely used in cloud-native application development and deployment

Focuses on using Fault Injection Simulator (FIS) experiments, which allows learners to safely simulate real-world failures and improve system resilience

Explores chaos engineering across different AWS Availability Zones, which is crucial for building highly available and fault-tolerant systems

Requires familiarity with AWS services and cloud-native architectures, which may necessitate additional learning for those new to the AWS ecosystem

Teaches how to set up steady-state metrics using CloudWatch RUM and X-Ray, which are essential for monitoring and analyzing system behavior during chaos experiments

Requires learners to create IAM roles, which may pose a challenge for those unfamiliar with AWS security best practices and identity management

Reviews summary

Hands-on aws chaos engineering fundamentals

According to learners, this course provides a largely positive introduction to Chaos Engineering principles and their practical application, particularly within AWS environments. Students highlight the useful hands-on labs that utilize the AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS) across various services including EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS. Many find the explanations clear and easy to follow, appreciating the practical demonstrations. Some reviewers note that having a basic familiarity with AWS services is helpful, but overall, the course is seen as providing a solid foundation for building resilient systems.

Beneficial to have prior AWS experience.

"While not strictly required, having some prior AWS knowledge definitely helps with lab setup."

"Assumes a basic familiarity with services like EC2 and IAM."

"Some parts of the lab setup were easier if you knew your way around the AWS console already."

Covers experiments on multiple AWS services.

"Loved how it covered running experiments on EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS."

"Provides useful examples tailored to different AWS infrastructure types."

"Experiments designed for various AWS services like EC2 and EKS were very relevant."

Provides a good introduction to the topic.

"Provides a solid foundation in Chaos Engineering principles."

"A great starting point for anyone wanting to learn about this field."

"Gave me a comprehensive overview of key concepts and practical implementation."

Instructor explains complex topics clearly.

"The instructor did a great job explaining potentially complex topics in a simple manner."

"Concepts were broken down effectively, making them easy to grasp."

"Explanations were clear and easy to follow throughout the modules."

Hands-on FIS experiments on AWS services.

"The labs using FIS were fantastic and really helped solidify the concepts."

"Gave me practical experience running chaos experiments on EC2 and EKS."

"The hands-on experiments provided the best way to apply what was learned."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Chaos Engineering with these activities:

Review AWS Fundamentals

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Reviewing AWS fundamentals will provide a solid foundation for understanding the AWS services used in chaos engineering experiments.

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Review AWS core services like EC2, S3, IAM, and VPC.
Familiarize yourself with AWS management console and CLI.
Complete a basic AWS tutorial or lab.

Read 'Chaos Engineering' by Casey Rosenthal and Nora Jones

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Reading this book will provide a deeper understanding of the principles and methodologies behind chaos engineering.

View Chaos Engineering: System Resiliency in Practice on Amazon

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Read the book cover to cover.
Take notes on key concepts and examples.
Reflect on how the concepts apply to your own systems.

Set up a simple FIS experiment

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Setting up a simple FIS experiment will provide hands-on experience with the tools and techniques used in chaos engineering.

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Create a basic EC2 instance or Fargate task.
Configure AWS FIS to inject a simple fault, like CPU stress.
Monitor the system's behavior during the experiment.
Analyze the results and identify areas for improvement.

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Practice Fault Injection Scenarios

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Practicing fault injection scenarios will reinforce your ability to design and execute effective chaos engineering experiments.

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Choose a specific AWS service (e.g., EC2, Aurora, Fargate).
Identify potential failure modes for that service.
Design and execute FIS experiments to simulate those failures.
Analyze the results and document your findings.

Document your FIS experiment

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Documenting your FIS experiment will help you solidify your understanding of the process and share your findings with others.

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Describe the experiment setup and configuration.
Explain the fault injection strategy.
Present the results and analysis.
Share your documentation on a blog or forum.

Read 'Resilience Engineering' by Erik Hollnagel

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Reading this book will provide a deeper understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of resilience and how it relates to chaos engineering.

View Safety-II in Practice on Amazon

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Read the book cover to cover.
Take notes on key concepts and examples.
Reflect on how the concepts apply to your own systems.

Contribute to a Chaos Engineering Tool

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Contributing to an open-source chaos engineering tool will provide valuable experience with real-world applications and collaboration.

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Identify an open-source chaos engineering tool (e.g., LitmusChaos, Chaos Toolkit).
Explore the codebase and identify areas for contribution.
Contribute bug fixes, new features, or documentation.
Participate in the community and collaborate with other developers.

Career center

Learners who complete Chaos Engineering will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Site Reliability Engineer

A Site Reliability Engineer focuses on ensuring the reliability and performance of systems. This role involves a deep understanding of system design, monitoring, and incident response, making Chaos Engineering a key part of the skillset. Site Reliability Engineers use techniques learned in this course to proactively identify weaknesses in the system by simulating real-world failure scenarios in a controlled environment. This course helps Site Reliability Engineers build a foundation for resilience by creating fault injection simulations targeting failure modes. Knowledge from the modules on EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS will be directly applicable to improving system robustness across various AWS services. Site Reliability Engineers may find the module on Availability Zones useful when seeking to harden their multi-zone architecture.

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Cloud Engineer

The Cloud Engineer is responsible for building, maintaining, and scaling cloud infrastructure. Chaos Engineering is directly applicable to a Cloud Engineer's work on ensuring systems can withstand unexpected issues. This course may be useful to cloud engineers because it allows them to design experiments for different failure modes in a controlled setting. The Cloud Engineer applies chaos engineering experiments to real-world applications. The modules on EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS provide targeted training for assessing and improving the robustness of cloud environments. A Cloud Engineer can use the experimentation techniques in the Availability Zone module to improve data-center-based system architecture.

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DevOps Engineer

A DevOps Engineer works to streamline the software development lifecycle, and Chaos Engineering fits neatly into the DevOps philosophy of continuous improvement. This course enables DevOps Engineers to identify system weaknesses through controlled experiments, contributing to more robust and reliable deployments. Modules on fault injection and real-world applications provide practical experience in improving system resilience. A DevOps Engineer can apply the lessons from the database and Kubernetes modules to improve application stability and performance. Embracing chaos engineering helps DevOps Engineers build systems that can withstand unexpected failures, making software deployments more reliable.

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System Architect

The System Architect designs the structure of IT systems, ensuring they meet business requirements for performance and reliability. This course may be useful, imparting skills needed to design systems that are robust and fault-tolerant. System Architects can use the principles of chaos engineering to identify potential weaknesses in their designs and validate recovery mechanisms. The specific modules on cloud services like EC2, Aurora, and Kubernetes help System Architects design resilient architectures for cloud-native applications. System architects will find the module on availability zones helpful in designing data center architectures.

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Software Developer

A Software Developer writes and tests code. This course may provide a new framework for improving the reliability of that code in production. Software Developers can use chaos engineering techniques to validate their code's resilience. Through chaos engineering exercises, a Software Developer gains practical experience in identifying and mitigating potential failure points. The real-world application module in particular will deepen a Software Developer's understanding of how to better handle unexpected issues, leading to more robust software.

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Technical Support Engineer

A Technical Support Engineer troubleshoots and resolves technical issues. This course gives them a new perspective on proactively identifying and addressing system weaknesses. Chaos engineering techniques provide Technical Support Engineers with the skills to simulate failures, observe system behavior, and develop effective troubleshooting strategies. The modules focused on specific AWS services like EC2, Aurora, and Fargate help Technical Support Engineers better understand how these systems respond to failures. By understanding how to inject faults and analyze the results, Technical Support Engineers can improve their ability to diagnose and resolve incidents efficiently, making them more effective in ensuring system stability.

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Cloud Security Engineer

A Cloud Security Engineer specializes in protecting cloud-based systems and data. Understanding how systems behave under stress is critical for identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities. This course may be useful because it provides a hands-on approach to testing system resilience, which can uncover potential security weaknesses. The modules on AWS services and availability zones can help Cloud Security Engineers design more secure cloud architectures. By understanding how failures propagate through a system, a Cloud Security Engineer can implement better security controls and incident response plans.

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Database Administrator

Database Administrators are responsible for maintaining and optimizing databases. This course may be useful as they seek to ensure databases are available and responsive. This course helps Database Administrators to simulate database failures and validate recovery strategies. The Aurora-specific module provides targeted training for improving database resilience in AWS environments. Database Administrators can use the chaos engineering techniques to proactively identify and address potential issues before they impact users.

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Network Engineer

Network Engineers design, implement, and manage network infrastructure. Understanding how network failures impact applications is crucial for building resilient networks. This course may enable Network Engineers to simulate network disruptions and assess the impact on applications. By learning how to create fault injection simulations, Network Engineers can identify weaknesses in the network architecture and improve its robustness. The modules on availability zones and AWS services can help Network Engineers design networks that are resilient to regional outages and service disruptions.

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Performance Engineer

Performance Engineers analyze and optimize system performance. Understanding how failures impact performance is crucial for building systems that can maintain acceptable performance under stress. This course may be helpful, providing a new set of tools for assessing and improving system performance. Performance Engineers can use the chaos engineering techniques to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize system configurations. The modules on EC2, Fargate, and Kubernetes can help Performance Engineers improve the performance of cloud-native applications.

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Release Manager

Release Managers oversee the software release process. This course may improve a release manager's grasp of resilience. The chaos engineering techniques discussed here can help Release Managers identify potential risks and improve the reliability of releases. The modules on real-world applications and AWS services enables Release Managers to better manage the deployment of software to production environments. This helps ensure that releases are smooth and that applications are resilient to unexpected failures.

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Technical Lead

Technical Leads oversee technical projects and provide guidance to development teams. This course may be useful in teaching them how to foster a culture of resilience within their teams. This approach is achieved by creating experiments targeting failure modes. The modules on EC2, Aurora, Fargate, and EKS may help Technical Leads guide their teams in building more reliable cloud-native applications. Because better system up-time and performance are correlated with higher customer satisfaction, chaos engineering may play an important role in the long run.

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Quality Assurance Tester

Quality Assurance Testers ensure software meets quality standards. The chaos engineering techniques discussed in the course helps Quality Assurance Testers identify weaknesses and improve software reliability. This course may provide Quality Assurance Testers with new tools for testing the resilience of software. The modules on fault injection and real-world applications help Quality Assurance Testers design more effective tests and improve their ability to identify potential issues before they impact users.

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Data Scientist

Data Scientists analyze and interpret complex data. This course may provide insights into how system failures can impact data quality and availability. By understanding the chaos engineering principles, Data Scientists can better assess the reliability of their data pipelines and develop strategies for mitigating potential issues. A Data Scientist may use the skills from this course to learn to proactively prevent data corruption. While this course may not be directly related to data science, it can provide valuable context for understanding the systems that generate and process data.

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Project Manager

Project Managers plan, execute, and close projects. This course may provide Project Managers with a broader understanding of the importance of system resilience. While not directly related, the information discussed in this course may allow Project Managers to better manage risks associated with system failures and ensure projects are completed on time and within budget. The modules on real-world applications and AWS services may help Project Managers ensure they understand the impact of technology choices on project outcomes.

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Chaos Engineering

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Hands-on aws chaos engineering fundamentals

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