Chapter 11: Operational Excellence – Monitoring, Optimization, and Troubleshooting

In this chapter, we will focus on operational excellence. Operational excellence in this chapter has three components: monitoring Athena to ensure it is healthy and running normally, optimizing our usage of the system for cost and performance, and, lastly, how to troubleshoot issues when they occur.

When monitoring systems, it is essential to know what to monitor and what steps to take when something goes wrong. This information is valuable because when the system is not operating correctly, the data will give you clues on possible issues, which reduces investigation time. You can also act before problems occur, preventing calls from users on why things are not working. We will look into processes that can be put in place to ensure that Athena and our usage of it are normal and efficient. When there are issues, we will know how to fix common problems.

We also want to get the most out of...