VPC Monitoring With Flow Logs

Last Saturday was amazing! I had the privilege of attending the AWS Student Community Day. Despite the event starting a bit late, I gained a lot of valuable insights from the program. The Infrastructure and Security experts presenting at the event shared tons of useful information. I must say, our guest speaker, Stephen Howell, is exceptional at public speaking. Also, shout-out to Kevin Tuei — yes, this is me blogging in public, haha! I had a great time.

A big thank you to the organizers! Without you, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet Wadegu, my companion for the event. Sending huge hugs your way!

Fast forward to last night — I worked on a small project to monitor our VPC. I decided to bless you with this step-by-step guide on how to set up monitoring. But before we dive in, let’s clarify a few definitions:

• Log Group — A folder in AWS where you can organize related logs.
• Log — Think of it as a diary for your computer system. It records everything that happens.
• CloudWatch — A service that monitors applications, responds to performance changes, optimizes resource usage, and provides insights into operational health.
• Flow Logs — They capture traffic going to and from the network, noting who’s visiting your VPC and the specific network interface the traffic is directed to.
• Network Interfaces — They connect your resources to your VPC.
• Log Insights — A CloudWatch feature that…