Hands-On Lab: Navigating AWS Technical Resources and Support Options

Welcome to this guided hands-On lab. In this session, you will explore the various technical resources and support options AWS provides to help you build, optimize, and troubleshoot your cloud environments. You will interact with AWS Trusted Advisor, the AWS Health Dashboard, the AWS Support Center, and the AWS Marketplace.

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Prerequisites

Before starting this lab, ensure you have the following:

• AWS Account: An active AWS account. (The free Basic Support plan is sufficient for console navigation, though some CLI commands require a Business or Enterprise plan).
• IAM Permissions: AdministratorAccess or a policy granting support:*, health:*, trustedadvisor:*, and aws-marketplace:* permissions.
• AWS CLI: Installed and configured with your credentials (if following the CLI path).
• Prior Knowledge: Basic understanding of AWS global infrastructure.

[!WARNING] Support Plan API Limitation: The AWS Support API (used in the CLI commands below) is only available to customers on Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, or Enterprise support plans. If you are on the Basic plan, the CLI commands will return a SubscriptionRequiredException. Use the provided Console alternative steps instead.

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Learning Objectives

By completing this lab, you will be able to:

1. Navigate the AWS Support Center and simulate opening a support case.
2. Access AWS Trusted Advisor to identify optimization best practices.
3. View account health events via the AWS Health Dashboard.
4. Search the AWS Marketplace for third-party software solutions.

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Architecture Overview

The following diagram illustrates the different AWS tools you will use to manage your account health, seek support, and discover partner solutions.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Explore AWS Trusted Advisor

AWS Trusted Advisor acts as your customized cloud expert, inspecting your AWS environment to help you reduce costs, increase performance, and improve security.

▶Console alternative (Accessible to Basic Plan)

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console.
2. In the top search bar, type Trusted Advisor and select it.
3. On the Trusted Advisor Dashboard, view the five categories: Cost Optimization, Performance, Security, Fault Tolerance, and Service Limits.
4. Notice that if you are on the Basic support plan, only core Security checks and Service Limits are fully unlocked.

📸 Screenshot: The Trusted Advisor dashboard showing green checkmarks and red alerts for your account.

[!TIP] Trusted Advisor core checks (like checking for public S3 buckets or unrestricted security groups) are completely free and available to all accounts.

Step 2: Check the AWS Health Dashboard

The AWS Health Dashboard provides ongoing visibility into your resource performance and the availability of AWS services and accounts.

▶Console alternative

1. In the console search bar, type Health Dashboard and select it.
2. Click on Open and recent issues in the left navigation pane.
3. Review the Account health tab to see if any specific events are affecting resources in your account.
4. Review the Other active issues tab to view general AWS service outages across regions.

Step 3: Create a Support Case

When documentation isn't enough, the AWS Support Center is where you can interact directly with AWS experts. On the Basic plan, you can only open "Account and billing" or "Service limit increase" cases.

(If successful, this will output a JSON block containing your caseId. Save this ID for the Teardown step.)

▶Console alternative

1. Click the Question Mark icon (?) in the top right corner of the AWS Console and select Support Center.
2. Click the orange Create case button.
3. Select Account and billing.
4. Set Service to Billing and Category to Other.
5. Enter a Subject: Lab Test Case - Please Ignore.
6. Enter a Description: This is a test case generated during a hands-on lab. I will resolve it immediately.
7. Click Submit.

📸 Screenshot: The "Create case" form filled out with the lab test details.

Step 4: Browse the AWS Marketplace

The AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog where you can find, test, buy, and deploy software from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that runs on AWS.

▶Console alternative

1. In the console search bar, type AWS Marketplace Subscriptions and select it.
2. Click Discover products in the left navigation pane.
3. Search for WordPress or OpenVPN to see examples of third-party AMIs provided by AWS Partners.
4. Click on a product to view its pricing model (e.g., Free tier, Hourly, or Bring Your Own License).

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Checkpoints

Verify that you successfully completed the core lab objectives:

Checkpoint 1: Verify your support case was created.

Expected result: You should see the Lab Test Case in the console or CLI output.

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Clean-Up / Teardown

[!WARNING] It is extremely important to close the simulated support case you opened so that AWS Support engineers do not waste time investigating it.

Step 1: Resolve the Support Case

▶Console alternative

1. Return to the AWS Support Center.
2. Click on the Lab Test Case - Please Ignore case in your open cases list.
3. Click the Resolve case button.
4. Confirm that the case status changes to Resolved.

No other resources were provisioned in this lab, so no further teardown is required and no ongoing costs will be incurred.

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Troubleshooting

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Concept Review

AWS provides a tiered support structure to accommodate different business needs, alongside technical resources like AWS Professional Services (consultants) and the AWS Partner Network (APN).

Below is a visual hierarchy comparing the primary AWS Support Plans:

Support Plan Comparison Table