stemedb/applications/aphoria/dogfood/cachewrap/docs/sources/aws-elasticache.md

AWS ElastiCache Best Practices - Key Excerpts for Cache Client

Authority Tier: Tier 2 (Vendor) Source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticache/ Relevance: Official AWS guidance on security, performance, monitoring for Redis/Memcached

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Security Best Practices

User fills in: Fetch AWS ElastiCache security documentation

Look for sections on:

• Encryption in transit (TLS)
• Authentication (Redis AUTH)
• Network isolation (VPC)
• Credential management

Key Claims:

• cache/tls_verification :: required = true

  • Consequence: Disabled TLS verification enables MITM attacks - attacker intercepts cache traffic

• cache/credentials :: storage = "environment"

  • Consequence: Hardcoded credentials in code leak via version control

• cache/auth_enabled :: required = true

  • Consequence: No authentication allows unauthorized cache access

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Performance Tuning

User fills in: Fetch AWS ElastiCache performance best practices

Look for:

• Connection pooling recommendations
• Timeout configurations
• Cache hit/miss optimization
• Eviction policy selection

Key Claims:

• cache/connection_pool/max_size :: recommended = 50

  • Consequence: Too small pool causes connection contention, too large exhausts resources

• cache/timeout :: recommended = 5000

  • Consequence: Excessive timeout (e.g., 60s) causes request queuing during failures

• cache/read_timeout :: required = true

  • Consequence: No read timeout causes indefinite blocking on slow responses

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Monitoring and Metrics

User fills in: Fetch AWS ElastiCache monitoring documentation

Look for:

• CloudWatch metrics (CacheHits, CacheMisses, Evictions)
• Recommended alarms
• Performance baseline establishment

Key Claims:

• cache/metrics/hit_rate :: required = true

  • Consequence: No hit/miss tracking prevents debugging cache effectiveness

• cache/metrics/evictions :: required = true

  • Consequence: No eviction metrics hides memory pressure issues

• cache/metrics/latency :: required = true

  • Consequence: No latency tracking prevents SLA violation detection

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High Availability

User fills in: Fetch AWS ElastiCache HA documentation

Look for:

• Multi-AZ deployment
• Automatic failover
• Backup and restore

Key Claims:

• cache/circuit_breaker :: recommended = true

  • Consequence: No circuit breaker causes cascade failures when cache is down

• cache/fallback_strategy :: required = true

  • Consequence: No fallback means cache outage = application outage

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Common Pitfalls (from AWS docs)

User fills in: Search AWS documentation for "common mistakes", "troubleshooting", "gotchas"

Example pitfalls:

• Not using connection pooling
• Oversized keys/values
• Missing TTL causing memory leaks
• No eviction policy

Key Claims:

• cache/value_size :: maximum = 1048576 # 1 MB

  • Consequence: Oversized values degrade performance and waste memory

• cache/key_prefix :: required = true

  • Consequence: No key prefixing causes collisions in shared cache instances

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Extraction Guide

1. Navigate to AWS docs:

   open https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticache/
   

2. Search for key sections:

   • Security: Encryption, authentication
   • Performance: Connection pooling, timeouts
   • Monitoring: CloudWatch metrics, alarms
   • Best practices: Common pitfalls

3. Extract official recommendations:

   • Look for "AWS recommends..." or "Best practice is..."
   • Note consequences from troubleshooting guides
   • Document metric thresholds

4. Map to concept paths:

   • cache/tls_verification
   • cache/metrics/hit_rate
   • cache/circuit_breaker
   • cache/connection_pool/max_size

5. Add to claims with provenance:

   • Provenance: "AWS ElastiCache Best Practices Guide - Security Section"
   • Link to specific AWS doc page