CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ben Piper, is an IT consultant who has created more than 30 educational courses covering cloud technologies, networking, and automation. Learn more about Ben from his website at www.benpiper.com.

Introduction xxiii

Assessment Test Ivi

Answers to Assessment Test lxxvii

Chapter 1 Introducing Cloud Computing Configurations and Deployments 1

Introducing Cloud Computing 4

Virtualization 7

Cloud Service Models 10

Cloud Reference Designs and Delivery Models 14

Introducing Cloud Concepts and Components 16

Connecting the Cloud to the Outside World 18

Deciding Whether to Move to the Cloud 18

Selecting Cloud Compute Resources 18

Hypervisor Affinity Rules 19

Validating and Preparing for the Move to the Cloud 19

Choosing Elements and Objects in the Cloud 20

Internet of Things 21

Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (AI) 21

Creating and Validating a Cloud Deployment 22

The Cloud Shared Resource Pooling Model 23

Organizational Uses of the Cloud 27

Scaling and Architecting Cloud Systems Based on Requirements 29

Understanding Cloud Performance 29

Delivering High Availability Operations 30

Managing and Connecting to Your Cloud Resources 30

Is My Data Safe? (Replication and Synchronization) 32

Understanding Load Balancers 34

Cloud Testing 35

Verifying System Requirements 36

Correct Scaling for Your Requirements 36

Making Sure the Cloud Is Always Available 37

Remote Management of VMs 39

Monitoring Your Cloud Resources 41

Writing It All Down (Documentation) 41

Creating Baselines 41

Shared Responsibility Model 42

Summary 43

Exam Essentials 43

Written Lab 45

Review Questions 46

Chapter 2 Cloud Deployments 51

Executing a Cloud Deployment 58

Understanding Deployment and Change Management 59

Cloud Deployment Models 65

Network Deployment Considerations 67

Service Level Agreements 77

Matching Data Center Resources to Cloud Resources 78

What Are Available and Proposed Hardware Resources? 78

Templates and Images 81

Physical Resource High Availability 82

Introducing Disaster Recovery 82

Physical Hardware Performance Benchmarks 83

Cost Savings When Using the Cloud 83

Energy Savings in the Cloud 84

Shared vs. Dedicated Hardware Resources in a Cloud Data Center 84

Microservices 84

Configuring and Deploying Storage 86

Identifying Storage Configurations 86

Storage Provisioning 90

Storage Priorities: Understanding Storage Tiers 94

Managing and Protecting Your Stored Data 95

Storage Security Considerations 102

Accessing Your Storage in the Cloud 105

Performing a Server Migration 105

Different Types of Server Migrations 106

Addressing Application Portability 109

Workload Migration Common Procedures 110

Examining Infrastructure Capable of Supporting a Migration 110

Managing User Identities and Roles 111

RBAC: Identifying Users and What Their Roles Are 112

What Happens When You Authenticate? 113

Understanding Federation 113

Single Sign-On Systems 113

Understanding Infrastructure Services 114

Summary 117

Exam Essentials 118

Written Lab 119

Review Questions 120

Chapter 3 Security in the Cloud 125

Cloud Security Compliance and Configurations 128

Establishing Your Company’s Security Policies 130

Selecting and Applying the Security Policies to Your Cloud Operations 130

Some Common Regulatory Requirements 130

Encrypting Your Data 134

Remote Access Protocols 139

Automating Cloud Security 140

Security Best Practices 141

Access Control 144

Accessing Cloud-Based Objects 144

Cloud Service Models and Security 146

Cloud Deployment Models and Security 147

Role-Based Access Control 148

Mandatory Access Control 148

Discretionary Access Control 148

Multifactor Authentication 149

Single Sign-On 149

Summary 149

Exam Essentials 150

Written Lab 151

Review Questions 153

Chapter 4 Implementing Cloud Security 157

Implementing Security in the Cloud 159

Data Classification 159

Segmenting Your Deployment 160

Implementing Encryption 162

Applying Multifactor Authentication 163

Regulatory and Compliance Issues During Implementation 164

Cloud Access Security Broker 165

Automating Cloud Security 165

Automation Tools 166

Techniques for Implementing Cloud Security 168

Security Services 170

Summary 173

Exam Essentials 174

Written Lab 175

Review Questions 177

Chapter 5 Maintaining Cloud Operations 183

Applying Security Patches 187

Patching Cloud Resources 187

Patching Methodologies 189

Patching Order of Operations and Dependencies 193

Updating Cloud Elements 193

Hotfix 193

Patch 194

Version Update 194

Rollback 195

Workflow Automation 195

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment 196

Virtualization Automation Tools and Activities 197

Storage Operations 199

Types of Backups 199

Backup Targets 203

Backup and Restore Operations 205

Summary 206

Exam Essentials 207

Written Lab 209

Review Questions 210

Chapter 6 Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, and Ongoing Maintenance 215

Implementing a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan 216

Service Provider Responsibilities and Capabilities 217

Disaster Recovery Models and Techniques 219

Business Continuity 225

Establishing a Business Continuity Plan 225

Establishing Service Level Agreements 227

Cloud Maintenance 228

Establishing Maintenance Windows 228

Maintenance Interruptions to Operations 229

Maintenance Automation Impact and Scope 229

Common Maintenance Automation Tasks 229

Summary 233

Exam Essentials 234

Written Lab 235

Review Questions 236

Chapter 7 Cloud Management 241

Cloud Metrics 244

Monitoring Your Deployment 246

Cloud Support Agreements 250

Standard Cloud Maintenance Responsibilities 250

Configuration Management Applications and Tools 251

Change Management Processes 251

Adding and Removing Cloud Resources 252

Determining Usage Patterns 252

Bursting 252

Migrating Between Cloud Providers 252

Scaling Resources to Meet Requirements 253

Extending the Scope of the Cloud 256

Understanding Application Life Cycles 256

Organizational Changes 257

Managing Account Provisioning 258

Account Identification 258

Authentication 259

Authorization 259

Lockout Policies 259

Password Complexity 259

Account Automation and Orchestration 260

Summary 261

Exam Essentials 262

Written Lab 263

Review Questions 264

Chapter 8 Cloud Management Baselines, Performance, and SLAs 269

Measuring Your Deployment Against the Baseline 272

Object Tracking for Baseline Validation 273

Applying Changes to the Cloud to Meet Baseline Requirements 277

Changing Operations to Meet Expected Performance/Capacity Requirements 280

Cloud Accounting, Chargeback, and Reporting 281

Summary 284

Exam Essentials 285

Written Lab 286

Review Questions 287

Chapter 9 Troubleshooting 291

Incident Management 294

Incident Types 294

Logging Incidents 298

Prioritizing Incidents 298

Preparation 299

Templates 300

Time Synchronization 301

Workflow 301

Troubleshooting Cloud Capacity Issues 301

Capacity Boundaries in the Cloud 301

Troubleshooting Automation and Orchestration 304

Process and Workflow Issues 305

Summary 307

Exam Essentials 308

Written Lab 309

Review Questions 310

Chapter 10 Troubleshooting Networking and Security Issues and Understanding Methodologies 315

Troubleshooting Cloud Networking Issues 317

Identifying the Common Networking Issues in the Cloud 318

Network Troubleshooting and Connectivity Tools 324

Remote Access Tools 333

Troubleshooting Security Issues 336

Account Privilege Escalation 336

Network Access Issues 337

Authentication 337

Authorization 337

Federations 338

Certificate Configuration Issues 338

Device- Hardening Settings 338

External Attacks 339

Internal Attacks 339

Maintain Sufficient Security Controls and Processes 339

Network Access Tunneling and Encryption 340

Troubleshooting Methodology 340

Identifying the Problem 341

Establishing a Theory 341

Testing the Theory 343

Creating and Implementing a Plan of Action 344

Verifying the Resolution 344

Documenting the Ordeal 344

Summary 344

Exam Essentials 345

Written Lab 346

Review Questions 347


Index 375