Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure: Real World Skills for the Comptia Cloud+ Certification and Beyond: Cv0-001

Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure is an excellent resource for IT professionals seeking to tap into the demand for cloud administrators. This book helps prepare candidates for the CompTIA Cloud+ Certification (CV0-001) cloud computing certification exam. Designed for IT professionals with 2-3 years of networking experience, this certification provides validation of your cloud infrastructure knowledge.

With over 30 years of combined experience in cloud computing, the author team provides the latest expert perspectives on enterprise-level mobile computing, and covers the most essential topics for building and maintaining cloud-based systems, including:

• Understanding basic cloud-related computing concepts, terminology, and characteristics
• Identifying cloud delivery solutions and deploying new infrastructure
• Managing cloud technologies, services, and networks
• Monitoring hardware and software performance

Featuring real-world examples and interactive exercises, Deploying and Managing Cloud Infrastructure delivers practical knowledge you can apply immediately. And, in addition, you also get access to a full set of electronic study tools including:

• Interactive Test Environment
• Electronic Flashcards
• Glossary of Key Terms

Now is the time to learn the cloud computing skills you need to take that next step in your IT career.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Abdul Salam is a senior consultant with Energy Services, and author of numerous blogs, books, white papers, and tutorials on cloud computing. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, followed by an MBA-IT degree and certifications by Cisco and Juniper Networks. He’s a frequent contributor to CloudTweaks.com. Zafar Gilani is an IT specialist at GfK, Nuremberg. He was an Erasmus Mundus scholar at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Kungliga Tekniska högskolan (KTH), with postgraduate studies focused on distributed computing. Salman UI Haq is co-founder and CEO of TunaCode, Inc, which delivers GPU-accelerated computing solutions to time-critical application domains. He’s a frequent CloudTweaks.com contributor, and holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering.

Introduction xxiii

Chapter 1 Understanding Cloud Characteristics 1

Basic Terms and Characteristics 2

Elasticity 2

On-Demand Self-service/JIT 3

Templating 4

Pay as You Grow 6

Pay-as-You-Grow Theory vs. Practice 7

Chargeback 8

Ubiquitous Access 9

Metering Resource Pooling 10

Multitenancy 11

Cloud Bursting 13

Rapid Deployment 14

Object Storage Concepts 16

File-Based Data Storage 16

Object Storage 18

Structured vs. Unstructured Data 18

REST APIs 19

Summary 25

Chapter Essentials 26

Chapter 2 To Grasp the Cloud—Fundamental Concepts 27

The True Nature of the Cloud 28

Elastic 29

Massive 29

On Demand 29

Virtualized 30

Secure 30

Always Available 30

Virtualization and Scalability 31

The True Definer of Cloud Computing 32

Serving the Whole World 32

The Cloud Hypervisor 33

Type 1 and Type 2 33

Use Cases and Examples 34

Benefits of Hypervisors 35

Hypervisor Security Concerns 35

Proprietary vs. Open Source 36

Moore’s Law, Increasing Performance, and Decreasing Enterprise Usage 36

Xen Cloud Platform (Open Source) 37

KVM (Open Source) 38

OpenVZ (Open Source) 38

VirtualBox (Open Source) 39

Citrix XenServer (Proprietary) 39

VMware vSphere/ESXi (Proprietary) 39

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 41

Consumer vs. Enterprise Use 41

Workstation vs. Infrastructure 43

Key Benefits of Implementing Hypervisors 46

Shared Resources 46

Elasticity 46

Network and Application Isolation 47

Foundations of Cloud Computing 48

Infrastructure 48

Platform 49

Applications 50

Enabling Services 50

Summary 50

Chapter Essentials 51

Chapter 3 Within the Cloud: Technical Concepts of Cloud Computing 53

Technical Basics of Cloud and Scalable Computing 54

Defining a Data Center 55

Traditional vs. Cloud Hardware 62

Determining Cloud Data Center Hardware and Infrastructure 65

Optimization and the Bottom Line 70

The Cloud Infrastructure 78

Open Source 79

Proprietary 84

Summary 85

Chapter Essentials 86

Chapter 4 Cloud Management 87

Understanding Cloud Management Platforms 88

What It Means for Service Providers 90

Planning Your Cloud 90

Building Your Cloud 94

Running Your Cloud 95

What This Means for Customers 95

Service-Level Agreements 97

Policies and Procedures 97

Planning the Documentation of the Network and IP 98

Implementing Change Management Best Practices 100

Managing the Configuration 105

Managing Cloud Workloads 111

Managing Workloads Right on the Cloud 111

Managing Risk 112

Securing Data in the Cloud 113

Managing Devices 114

Virtualizing the Desktop 115

Enterprise Cloud Solution 116

Summary 116

Chapter Essentials 119

Chapter 5 Diagnosis and Performance Monitoring 121

Performance Concepts 122

Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS) 123

Read vs. Write Files 124

File System Performance 125

Metadata Performance 127

Caching 130

Bandwidth 131

Throughput: Bandwidth Aggregation 132

Jumbo Frames 134

Network Latency 135

Hop Counts 136

Quality of Service (QoS) 137

Multipathing 137

Load Balancing 138

Scaling: Vertical vs. Horizontal vs. Diagonal 138

Disk Performance 140

Access Time 140

Data Transfer Rate 142

Disk Tuning 143

Swap Disk Space 144

I/O Tuning 144

Performance Management and Monitoring Tools 146

Hypervisor Configuration Best Practices 149

Impact of Configuration Changes 151

Common Issues 152

Summary 153

Chapter Essentials 154

Chapter 6 Cloud Delivery and Hosting Models 157

Private 158

Full Private Cloud Deployment Model 158

Semi-private Cloud Deployment Model 159

Public 160

Hybrid 160

Community 161

On-Premises vs. Off-Premises Hosting 161

On-Premises Hosting 162

Off-Premises Hosting 162

Miscellaneous Factors to Consider When Choosing between On- or Off-Premises Hosting 163

Comparing Total Cost of Ownership 166

Accountability and Responsibility Based on Delivery Models 168

Private Cloud Accountability 168

Public Cloud Accountability 169

Responsibility for Service Impairments 170

Accountability Categories 170

Security Differences between Models 171

Multitenancy Issues 171

Data Segregation 173

Network Isolation 173

Functionality and Performance Validation 174

On-Premises Performance 174

Off-Premises Performance 174

Types of Testing 175

Orchestration Platforms 175

Summary 177

Chapter Essentials 178

Chapter 7 Practical Cloud Knowledge: Install, Configure, and Manage 181

Setting Up the Cloud 183

Creating, Importing, and Exporting Templates and Virtual Machines 183

Creating Virtual Machine Templates 184

Importing and Exporting Service Templates 186

Installing Guest Tools 188

Snapshots and Cloning 189

Image Backups vs. File Backups 193

Virtual Network Interface Card 195

Virtual Disks 198

Virtual Switches 199

Configuring Virtual Machines for Several VLANs 201

Virtual Storage Area Network 203

Virtual Resource Migration 204

Establishing Migration Requirements 204

Migrating Storage 206

Scheduling Maintenance 208

Reasons for Maintenance 208

Virtual Components of the Cloud 209

Virtual Network Components 209

Shared Memory 210

Virtual CPU 211

Storage Virtualization 211

Summary 214

Chapter Essentials 215

Chapter 8 Hardware Management 221

Cloud Hardware Resources 222

BIOS/Firmware Configurations 222

Minimum Memory Capacity and Configuration 223

Number of CPUs 223

Number of Cores 224

NIC Quantity, Speeds, and Configurations 225

Internal Hardware Compatibility 225

Storage Media 226

Proper Allocation of Hardware Resources (Host) 227

Proper Virtual Resource Allocation (Tenant/Client) 232

Management Differences between Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds 234

Public Cloud Management 234

Private Cloud Management 235

Hybrid Cloud Management 236

Tiering 236

Performance Levels of Each Tier 237

Policies 238

RAID Levels 238

File Systems 239

Summary 241

Chapter Essentials 242

Chapter 9 Storage Provisioning and Networking 245

Cloud Storage Concepts 246

Object Storage 246

Metadata 247

Data/Blob 248

Extended Metadata 248

Replicas 248

Policies and Access Control 248

Understanding SAN and NAS 249

Cloud vs. SAN Storage 250

Cloud Storage 251

Advantages of Cloud Storage 252

Cloud Provisioning 252

Migrating Software Infrastructure to the Cloud 253

Cloud Provisioning Security Concerns 253

Storage Provisioning 255

Network Configurations 256

Network Optimization 259

Cloud Storage Technology 260

Data Replication 261

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) 262

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) 264

OpenStack Swift 266

Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) 266

Choosing from among These Technologies 277

Cloud Storage Gateway 278

Cloud Security and Privacy 280

Security, Privacy, and Attack Surface Area 280

Legal Issues (Jurisdiction and Data) 282

Supplier Lifetime (Vendor Lock-In) 283

Summary 284

Chapter Essentials 284

Chapter 10 Testing and Deployment: Quality Is King 287

Overview of Deployment Models 288

Private Cloud 288

Community Cloud 289

Public Cloud 289

Hybrid Cloud 290

Cloud Management Strategies 290

Private Cloud Strategies 291

Community Cloud Strategies 291

Public Cloud Strategies 292

Hybrid Cloud Strategies 292

Management Tools 293

Cloud Architecture 294

The Need for Cloud Architectures 294

Technical Benefits 295

Business Benefits 295

Cloud Deployment Options 296

Environment Provisioning 296

Deploying a Service to the Cloud 298

Deployment Testing and Monitoring 301

Creating and Deploying Cloud Services 304

Creating and Deploying a Cloud Service Using Windows Azure 305

Deploying and Managing a Scalable Web Service with Flume on Amazon EC2 309

Summary 321

Chapter Essentials 322

Chapter 11 Cloud Computing Standards and Security 323

Cloud Computing Standards 324

Why Do Standards Matter? 324

Current Ad Hoc Standards 325

Security Concepts and Tools 326

Security Threats and Attacks 326

Obfuscation 329

Access Control List 329

Virtual Private Network 330

Firewalls 330

Demilitarized Zone 333

Encryption Techniques 334

Public Key Infrastructure 335

Internet Protocol Security 336

Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security 336

Ciphers 337

Access Control Methods 338

Role-Based Access Control 338

Mandatory Access Control 338

Discretionary Access Control 339

Rule-Based Access Controls 339

Multifactor Authentication 339

Single Sign-On 339

Federation 340

Implementing Guest and Host Hardening Techniques 340

Disabling Unneeded Ports and Services 340

Secure User Credentials 343

Antivirus Software 344

Software Security Patching 344

Summary 345

Chapter Essentials 345

Chapter 12 The Cloud Makes It Rain Money: The Business in Cloud Computing 347

The Nature of Cloud Business 348

The Service Nature of the Cloud 348

Making Money with Open-Source Software 349

White Label Branding 350

Cloud Service Business Models 351

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 351

Platform as a Service (PaaS) 352

Software as a Service (SaaS) 353

Data as a Service (DaaS) 354

Communication as a Service (CaaS) 355

Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) 355

Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) 355

Anything as a Service (XaaS) 356

Service Model Accountability and Responsibility 356

The Enterprise Cloud 359

Enterprise Applications 359

Cloud Collaboration 360

Collaborating with Telepresence 361

Disaster Recovery 364

Preparing for Failure: Disaster Recovery Plan 365

Backup Sites and Geographical Diversity 366

Change-Over Mechanism: Failover and Failback 369

Business Continuity and Cloud Computing 369

Business Continuity in the Cloud 370

Workshifting in the Cloud 371

Bring Your Own Device 371

Summary 372

Chapter Essentials 373

Chapter 13 Planning for Cloud Integration: Pitfalls and Advantages 375

Work Optimization 376

Optimizing Usage, Capacity, and Cost 376

Which Service Model Is Best for You? 379

The Right Cloud Model 381

Private Cloud 381

Public Cloud 383

Hybrid Cloud 384

Adapting Organizational Culture for the Cloud 385

Finding Out the Current Culture 385

Mapping Out an Adaption Plan 386

Culture Adaption, Propagation, and Maintenance 387

Potholes on the Cloud Road 389

Roadblocks to Planning 389

Convincing the Board 391

Summary 394

Chapter Essentials 394

Appendix The CompTIA Cloud+ Certification Exam 397

Preparing for the Exam 398

Taking the Exam 399

Reviewing the Exam Objectives 400

Index 417

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