Auto Scaling on SQS Queue Depth

Build a complete event-driven scaling pipeline on AWS. A Lambda function produces messages into an SQS queue, EC2 workers in an Auto Scaling Group consume them, and CloudWatch alarms drive step scaling policies to add or remove instances based on queue depth.

You'll learn to:

• Create an SQS standard queue and inspect its metrics
• Package and deploy a Python Lambda function with an IAM execution role
• Build a VPC with a public subnet for an Auto Scaling Group
• Write a launch template with user-data that installs an SQS consumer
• Configure CloudWatch alarms on ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible
• Create step scaling policies for scale-out and scale-in
• Observe the full cycle: queue flood, alarm, scale-out, drain, scale-in

Key Resources:

• SQS Developer Guide
• Auto Scaling step scaling policies
• CloudWatch Alarms