Cloud computing essentials for managers / software engineers Training Course

Virtualization Details

1. Overview of Operating System Concepts: CPU, Memory, Network, and Storage
2. Hypervisor
   1. The concept of a Supervisor of Supervisors
   2. Differentiating between the "Host" machine and the "guest" OS
   3. Type-1 and Type-2 Hypervisors
   4. Platforms such as Citrix XEN, VMware ESX/ESXi, MS Hyper-V, and IBM LPAR.
3. Network Virtualization
   1. Brief introduction to the 7-Layer OSI Model
   2. Emphasis on the Network layer
   3. The TCP/IP Model and Internet Protocol
4. In-Depth Look at Specific Layers
   1. Application Layer: SSL
   2. Network Layer: TCP
   3. Internet Layer: IPv4/IPv6
   4. Link Layer: Ethernet
5. Packet Structure
   1. Addressing mechanisms: IP Addresses and Domain Names
   2. Components like Firewalls, Load Balancers, Routers, and Adapters
   3. Virtualized Networks
   4. Higher-order abstractions: Subnets and Zones.
6. Practical Exercise:
   1. Becoming familiar with ESXi clusters and the vSphere client.
   2. Creating and updating networks within an ESXi Cluster, deploying guests from VMDK packages, and establishing inter-connectivity between guests in the cluster.
   3. Modifying a running VM instance and capturing a snapshot.
   4. Updating firewall rules in ESXi via the vSphere client.

2. Cloud Computing: A Paradigm Shift

1. A rapid and cost-effective pathway to making products and solutions available globally
2. Resource Sharing
   1. Virtualization within virtualized environments
3. Key Benefits:
   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. Security through Layering
   4. Expense Optimization
4. On-premise Clouds and Cloud Providers
5. Cloud as an effective conceptual abstraction for distributed computing

3. Introduction to Cloud Solution Layers:

1. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
   1. Providers: AWS, Azure, Google
   2. Select one provider to focus on for subsequent sections; AWS is recommended.
      1. Introduction to AWS VPC, AWS EC2, and related services.
2. PaaS (Platform as a Service)
   1. Providers and platforms: AWS, Azure, Google, CloudFoundry, Heroku
   2. Introduction to AWS DynamoDB, AWS Kinesis, and other services.
3. SaaS (Software as a Service)
   1. A concise overview
   2. Examples: Microsoft Office, Confluence, SalesForce, Slack
4. The Hierarchy: SaaS builds on PaaS, which builds on IaaS, which relies on Virtualization

4. IaaS Cloud Hands-on Project

1. This project utilizes AWS as the IaaS Cloud Provider
2. CentOS/RHEL will be used as the operating system for the remaining exercises
   1. Ubuntu is an acceptable alternative, though RHEL/CentOS are preferred
3. Obtain individual AWS IAM accounts from your cloud administrator
4. Each participant must complete these steps independently
   1. The capacity to build entire infrastructure on-demand is the strongest demonstration of cloud computing's power
   2. Use AWS Wizards (online consoles) to complete these tasks unless otherwise specified
5. Create a public VPC in the us-east-1 Region
   1. Two Subnets (Subnet-1 and Subnet-2) located in two different Availability Zones
      1. Refer to https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/ for guidance.
   2. Create three distinct Security Groups
      1. SG-Internet
         1. Permits incoming traffic from the Internet on HTTPS 443 and HTTP 80
         2. All other incoming connections are blocked
      2. SG-Service
         1. Allows incoming traffic only from the SG-Internet security group on HTTPS 443 and HTTP 80
         2. Permits ICMP only from SG-Internet
         3. All other incoming connections are blocked
      3. SG-SSH:
         1. Allows SSH:22 incoming connections only from a single IP matching the public IP of the participant's lab machine. If the lab machine is behind a proxy, use the proxy's public IP.
6. Launch an instance using an AMI for your chosen OS (preferably the latest RHEL/CentOS versions available) and place it on Subnet-1. Attach the instance to the SG-Service and SG-SSH groups.
7. Access the instance via SSH from your lab machine.
8. Install an NGINX server on this instance
9. Deploy static content of your choice (such as HTML pages or images) to be served by NGINX on port 80 (HTTP) and define the corresponding URLs.
10. Test the URL directly from the instance machine.
11. Create an AMI image from this running instance.
12. Launch the new AMI and place the instance on Subnet-2. Attach the instance to the SG-Service and SG-SSH groups.
13. Run the NGINX server and verify that the access URL for the static content created in the previous step functions correctly.
14. Create a new "classic" Elastic Load Balancer and associate it with SG-Internet.
    1. Understand the differences between Application Load Balancers and Network Load Balancers.
15. Establish routing rules to forward all HTTP 80 and HTTPS 443 traffic to an instance group containing the two instances created earlier.
16. Using a certificate management tool (such as Java keytool), generate a key-pair and self-signed certificate, then import the certificate into AWS Certificate Manager (ACM).

5. Cloud Monitoring: Introduction and Hands-on Project

1. AWS CloudWatch Metrics
2. Navigate to the AWS CloudWatch dashboard for the instances
   1. Retrieve relevant metrics and analyze their variability over time
      1. Reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/viewing_metrics_with_cloudwatch.html
3. Navigate to the AWS CloudWatch dashboard for the ELB
   1. Monitor ELB metrics and interpret their changes over time
   2. Reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/classic/elb-cloudwatch-metrics.html

6. Advanced Concepts for Further Learning

1. Hybrid Cloud environments -- combining on-premise and public cloud
2. Migration strategies: From on-premise to public cloud
   1. Application code migration
   2. Database migration
3. DevOps Practices
   1. Infrastructure as Code
   2. AWS Cloud Formation Templates
4. Auto-scaling Mechanisms
   1. Utilizing AWS CloudWatch metrics to determine system health