Cloud computing essentials for managers / software engineers Training Course

Virtualization Insights

1. Overview of Operating System Concepts: CPU, Memory, Network, Storage
2. Hypervisors
   1. The Hypervisor as a Supervisor of Supervisors
   2. Distinguishing between the "Host" machine and "Guest" OS
   3. Understanding Type-1 vs. Type-2 Hypervisors
   4. Examples: Citrix XEN, VMware ESX/ESXi, MS Hyper-V, IBM LPAR.
3. Network Virtualization
   1. A brief introduction to the 7-Layer OSI Model
   2. Specific focus on the Network Layer
   3. The TCP/IP Model or Internet Protocol
4. Deep Dive into Specific Verticals
   1. Application Layer: SSL
   2. Network Layer: TCP
   3. Internet Layer: IPv4/IPv6
   4. Link Layer: Ethernet
5. Packet Structure
   1. Addressing: IP Addresses and Domain Names
   2. Components: Firewalls, Load Balancers, Routers, and Adapters
   3. Virtualized Networks
   4. Higher-level Abstractions: Subnets and Zones.
6. Practical Exercise:
   1. Gaining familiarity with ESXi clusters and the vSphere client.
   2. Creating/updating networks within an ESXi Cluster, deploying guests from VMDK packages, and enabling inter-guest connectivity.
   3. Modifying a running VM instance and taking a snapshot.
   4. Updating firewall rules in ESXi via the vSphere client.

2. Cloud Computing: A Paradigm Shift

1. A rapid, cost-effective pathway to making products or solutions globally available
2. Resource Sharing
   1. Virtualizing the virtualized environment
3. Key Advantages:
   1. On-demand Resource Elasticity
      1. Ideate -> Code -> Deploy without the need for dedicated infrastructure
      2. Accelerated CI/CD pipelines
   2. Environment Isolation and Vertical Autonomy
   3. Enhanced Security through Layering
   4. Optimization of Expenses
4. On-Premise Clouds versus Cloud Providers
5. Cloud as a powerful conceptual abstraction for distributed computing

3. Introduction to Cloud Solution Layers:

1. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
   1. Providers: AWS, Azure, Google
   2. Selecting one provider for continued study; AWS is recommended.
      1. Introduction to AWS VPC, AWS EC2, and more.
2. PaaS (Platform as a Service)
   1. Providers: AWS, Azure, Google, CloudFoundry, Heroku
   2. Introduction to AWS DynamoDB, AWS Kinesis, and similar services.
3. SaaS (Software as a Service)
   1. A concise overview
   2. Examples: Microsoft Office, Confluence, SalesForce, Slack
4. Understanding the Stack: SaaS builds on PaaS, which builds on IaaS, which builds on Virtualization.

4. IaaS Cloud Hands-on Project

1. This project utilizes AWS as the IaaS Cloud Provider
2. Utilizing CentOS/RHEL as the operating system for the remaining exercises
   1. Alternative: Ubuntu is acceptable, though RHEL/CentOS are preferred.
3. Obtaining individual AWS IAM accounts from your cloud administrator
4. Each student must complete these steps independently
   1. Provisioning entire infrastructure on-demand independently is the ultimate demonstration of cloud computing’s power.
   2. Use AWS Wizards -- specifically the AWS online consoles -- to perform these tasks unless otherwise specified.
5. Creating a public VPC in the us-east-1 Region
   1. Establishing Two Subnets (Subnet-1 and Subnet-2) across two different Availability Zones
      1. Refer to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/ for guidance.
   2. Creating three distinct Security Groups
      1. SG-Internet
         1. Permits incoming traffic from the Internet on HTTPS (443) and HTTP (80)
         2. Blocks all other incoming connections
      2. SG-Service
         1. Allows incoming traffic solely from the SG-Internet security group on HTTPS (443) and HTTP (80)
         2. Permits ICMP only from SG-Internet
         3. Blocks all other incoming connections
      3. SG-SSH:
         1. Permits SSH:22 incoming connections only from a specific IP matching the student’s lab machine’s public IP. If behind a proxy, use the proxy’s public IP.
6. Deploying an instance using an AMI for your chosen OS -- preferably the latest RHEL/CentOS versions available -- and hosting it on Subnet-1. Attach the instance to SG-Service and SG-SSH groups.
7. Accessing the instance via SSH from your lab machine.
8. Installing an NGINX server on this instance
9. Placing static content of your choice -- such as html pages or images -- to be served by NGINX (on port 80 via HTTP) and defining their URLs.
10. Testing the URL from the machine itself.
11. Creating an AMI image from this running instance.
12. Deploying the new AMI and hosting the instance on Subnet-2. Attach the instance to SG-Service and SG-SSH groups.
13. Running the NGINX server and verifying that the access URL for the static content created in step (i) functions correctly.
14. Creating a new “classic” Elastic Load Balancer and attaching it to SG-Internet.
    1. Note the distinctions between Application Load Balancers and Network Load Balancers.
15. Establishing a routing rule that directs all HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) traffic to an instance group comprising the two instances created above.
16. Using any certificate management tool -- such as Java keytool -- to generate a key-pair and self-signed certificate, then importing the certificate into AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).

5. Cloud Monitoring: Introduction and Hands-on Project

1. AWS CloudWatch metrics
2. Accessing the AWS CloudWatch dashboard for the instances
   1. Retrieving relevant metrics and explaining their variability over time
      1. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/viewing_metrics_with_cloudwatch.html
3. Accessing the AWS CloudWatch dashboard for the ELB
   1. Observing ELB metrics and explaining their fluctuations over time
   2. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/classic/elb-cloudwatch-metrics.html

6. Advanced Concepts for Further Learning

1. Hybrid Cloud -- Combining on-premise and public cloud
2. Migration: Moving from on-premise to public cloud
   1. Migrating application code
   2. Migrating databases
3. DevOps
   1. Infrastructure as Code
   2. AWS CloudFormation Templates
4. Auto-scaling
   1. Using AWS CloudWatch metrics to determine health