CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide

Todd Montgomery, CompTIA Cloud+, Networking+, Security+, is a senior datacenter networking engineer for a Fortune 500 company, where he is involved with network design and implementation of emerging technologies. A 35-year veteran of the IT industry, Todd works with SDN/software defined networking design plans; cloud design and implementation; Cisco Nexus 9k, 7k, 5k, and 2k; Juniper core routing and firewall security products; and Citrix load balancers.

Introduction xxv Assessment Test li Chapter 1 Cloud Computing Overview, Concepts, and Models 1 Overview of Cloud Computing 3 What Is Cloud Computing? 3 Computing as a Utility Service 3 The Growth of the Cloud 4 Why Do This? 4 Cloud vs. In-House Computing 5 The Past of Computing 5 Present State of Computing 6 The Future of the Cloud 7 Cloud Services Models and Architecture 7 SaaS 7 IaaS 8 PaaS 9 CaaS 10 XaaS 10 DaaS 10 BPaaS 10 Accountability and Responsibility Based on Service Models 10 Cloud Delivery Models 11 Private 11 Public 11 Hybrid 12 Community 12 On-Premise vs. Off-Premise Hosting 13 Security Differences between Models 13 Functionality and Performance Validation Based on Chosen Delivery Model 13 Orchestration Platforms 14 Cloud Characteristics and Terms 14 Elasticity 14 On-Demand 14 Pay-As-You-Grow 15 Chargeback 15 Ubiquitous Access 15 Metering Resource Pooling 15 Multitenancy 15 Cloud Bursting 16 Rapid Deployment 16 Automation 16 Cloud Object Storage Concepts 16 Object ID 16 Metadata 16 Data/BLOB 17 Extended Metadata 17 Policies 17 Replicas 17 Access Control 17 Summary 17 Exam Essentials 18 Written Lab 18 Review Questions 19 Chapter 2 Compute Virtualization in the Cloud 23 Understanding the Hypervisor in a Virtualized Cloud 25 Type 1 and Type 2 Hypervisor Types 25 Proprietary vs. Open Source 26 Consumer vs. Enterprise Use 26 Workstation vs. Infrastructure 27 Setting Up and Managing VMs, Networking, and Storage 27 Creating, Importing, and Exporting Templates and VMs 27 Installing Guest Tools 28 Snapshots and Cloning 28 Image Backups vs. File Backups 29 Virtual NIC 30 Virtual Disks 30 Virtual Switches 30 VLAN 31 VSAN 31 Migrating from Physical Servers to a Virtual Architecture 31 Establish Requirements 31 Maintenance Scheduling 32 Performance Testing 32 Storage Migration 32 Online vs. Offline Migrations 33 Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) 33 Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V) 34 Virtual-to-Physical (V2P) 34 Understanding the Benefits of Virtualization in a Cloud Environment 35 Shared Resources 35 Elasticity 35 The Time to Service/Mean Time to Implement 35 Portability 36 Network and Application Isolation 36 Infrastructure Consolidation 36 Virtual Datacenter Creation 36 Virtual Components in a Cloud Environment 36 Virtual Network Components 36 Shared Memory 37 Virtual CPU 37 Storage Virtualization 37 Summary 37 Exam Essentials 38 Written Lab 38 Review Questions 40 Chapter 3 Cloud Storage and Provisioning 45 Understanding Infrastructure 46 Comparing Storage Technologies 46 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) 46 Direct-Attached Storage (DAS) 47 Storage Area Network (SAN) 48 Working with Storage Protocols 51 FCoE 51 FC 51 Ethernet 52 iSCSI 53 Understanding Protocols and Applications 53 IP 53 FCP 54 iSCSI 54 Management Differences 54 Understanding Storage Configuration Concepts 54 Disk Types 54 SSD vs. Spinning 55 Interfaces Types 55 Access Speed 56 Tiering 56 Performance Levels of Each Tier 57 Policies 57 RAID Levels 57 RAID 0 58 RAID 1 58 RAID 1+0 59 xvi Contents RAID 0+1 59 RAID 5 60 RAID 6 61 Filesystem Types 61 UFS 61 EXT 62 NTFS 62 FAT 62 VMFS 62 ZFS 63 Using Storage Provisioning and Creating LUNs 63 Creating Network Shares 63 Zoning and LUN Masking 63 Multipathing 64 Implications of Adding Capacity to a NAS and SAN 64 Impact to Operations 65 Downtime 65 Best Practices 65 Summary 65 Exam Essentials 66 Written Lab 67 Review Questions 69 Chapter 4 Cloud Networking Concepts and Implementation 73 Implementing Appropriate Network Configurations 75 NAT 75 PAT 76 Subnetting/Supernetting 77 VLAN and VLAN Tagging 77 Network Port Configurations 78 Switching and Routing in Physical and Virtual Environments 79 The Importance of Network Optimization 80 WAN 80 LAN 81 MAN 82 QoS 82 Bandwidth 83 Latency 83 Compression 83 Caching 84 Load Balancing 84 Devices on the Same Subnet 85 Troubleshooting Basic Network Connectivity Issues 85 Tools 85 Review Documentation and Device Configuration Settings 92 Review System Logs 92 Common Network Protocols, Ports, and Topologies 93 Trunk Ports 93 Port Binding/Aggregation 93 Common Ports 94 Common Protocols 95 Types of Networks 96 Summary 97 Exam Essentials 97 Written Lab 98 Review Questions 99 Chapter 5 Cloud Compute Resources, Concepts, and Implementation 103 Understanding the Hardware Computing Resources in the Cloud 104 BIOS/Firmware Configurations 104 Minimum Memory Capacity and Configuration 106 Number of CPUs 107 Number of Cores 108 NICs Quantity, Speeds, and Configurations 109 Internal Hardware Compatibility 110 Computing Storage Systems 110 HBAs 110 Storage Media 111 Summary 115 Exam Essentials 115 Written Lab 116 Review Questions 117 Chapter 6 Cloud Management Concepts 121 Managing Your Cloud Deployment 122 What Do We Mean by Managing Your Cloud? 122 Who Has Responsibility? 124 Management Models 125 Cloud Provider Management Services 125 What Does the Provider Manage? 126 What Do They Not Manage? 126 Responsibility for Management in the Cloud 127 Management as a Service 127 What Is Management as a service? 127 Cloud Management Providers 128 Outsourcing Your Management Responsibilities or Keeping It in House 128 Remote Access Tools for Managing Your Cloud 128 What Are the Tools Used for Remote Management? 128 VPN Access 129 SNMP 129 Firewalls 130 Summary 130 Exam Essentials 131 Written Lab 131 Review Questions 133 Chapter 7 Cloud Operations 137 Implementing and Using Cloud Resource Monitoring 139 Protocols 139 Alert Methods 142 Establish Baselines and Thresholds 143 Automated Responses to Specific Events 144 Examine Processes Usage and Resource Usage 144 Understanding and Allocating Physical Host Resources 144 Memory 145 CPU 146 Storage and Network Allocation 146 Entitlement/Quotas (Shares) 146 Reservations 147 Licensing 148 Resource Pooling 148 Understanding and Allocating Virtual Host Resources 148 Virtual CPU 149 Memory 149 Storage and Network Allocation 150 Entitlement/Quotas (Shares) 151 Hard Limit, Soft Limit 151 Reservations and Licensing 151 Dynamic Resource Allocation 152 Resource Pooling 152 CPU Affinity 152 Physical Resource Redirection and Mapping to Virtual Resources 153 Accessing Cloud Resources Remotely 153 Remote Hypervisor Access 153 RDP 155 SSH 155 Console Port 156 HTTP 156 Summary 157 Exam Essentials 158 Written Lab 159 Review Questions 160 Chapter 8 Understanding and Maintaining Cloud Security 165 Understanding Network Security Concepts, Tools, and Best Practices 167 ACLs 167 VPNs 168 IDS/IPS 168 Hardware- and Software-Based Firewalls 170 DMZ 170 Review/Audit Logs 171 Attacks 172 Understanding Storage Security Concepts, Methods, and Best Practices 175 Obfuscation 175 Access Control Lists 175 Zoning 176 LUN Masking 176 User and Host Authentication 177 Review/Audit Logs 178 Cloud Encryption Technologies and Methods 178 PKI 178 IPsec 180 SSL/TLS 181 Ciphers 181 Encryption for Data in Transit and Encryption for Data at Rest 183 Understanding User Access Control 183 Role-Based Administration 183 Mandatory Access Controls 184 Discretionary Access Controls 185 Multifactor Authentication 185 Single Sign-On 185 Federation 186 Hardening the Guest OS and Compute Resources 186 Disabling Unneeded Ports and Services 187 User Credentials 187 Host-Based/Software Firewalls 187 Antivirus Software 188 Patching 188 Deactivating Default Accounts 188 Summary 188 Exam Essentials 189 Written Lab 190 Review Questions 191 Chapter 9 Systems Management in the Cloud 195 Understanding Policies and Procedures in the Cloud Environment 197 Network and IP Planning, Documentation 197 Configuration Standardization and Documentation 198 Change Management Best Practices 199 Configuration Management 201 Capacity Management 202 Systems Life-Cycle Management 203 Maintenance Windows 204 Diagnosing, Remediating, and Optimizing Physical Host Performance 205 Disk Performance 205 Disk Tuning 205 Disk Latency 206 Swap Disk Space 206 I/O Tuning 206 Performance Management and Monitoring Tools 207 Establish Baseline and Create Documentation with Appropriate Tools 207 Hypervisor Configuration Best Practices 208 Impact of Configuration Changes to the Virtual Environment 209 Common Issues 209 Understanding Cloud Performance Concepts 212 IOPS 212 Read vs. Write Files 212 Filesystem Performance 213 Metadata Performance 213 Caching 213 Bandwidth 214 Throughput (Bonding/Teaming) 214 Jumbo Frames 215 Network Latency 216 Hop Counts 216 QoS 217 Multipathing 217 Load Balancing 218 Scaling 218 Testing Your Cloud Services Deployment 220 Replication Testing 220 Latency Testing 221 Bandwidth Testing 221 Load Balancing Testing 221 Application Server Testing 221 Storage Testing 222 Application Delivery Testing 222 Service Performance Testing and Application Performance Testing 222 Penetration Testing 222 Vulnerability Assessment 223 Separation of Duties 224 Summary 224 Exam Essentials 225 Written Lab 225 Review Questions 227 Chapter 10 Understanding Business Continuity in the Cloud 231 Disaster Recovery Methods and Concepts 232 Redundancy 233 Failover 234 Failback 234 Geographical Diversity 235 Replication 236 Site Mirroring 236 Hot Site 236 Warm Site 237 Cold Site 238 Backup and Recovery 239 Archiving and Offsite Storage 240 Replication Types 241 Recovery Time Objective 242 Recovery Point Objective 242 Mean Time Between Failures 243 Mean Time to Repair 243 Mission-Critical Requirements 243 High Availability and Fault Tolerance in the Cloud 244 Fault Tolerance 244 Multipathing 246 Load Balancing 246 Summary 247 Exam Essentials 248 Written Lab 248 Review Questions 250 Appendix A Answers to Written Labs 255 Chapter 1: Cloud Computing Overview, Concepts, and Models 256 Chapter 2: Compute Virtualization in the Cloud 256 Chapter 3: Cloud Storage and Provisioning 256 Chapter 4: Cloud Networking Concepts and Implementation 257 Chapter 5: Cloud Compute Resources, Concepts, and Implementation 257 Chapter 6: Cloud Management Concepts 258 Chapter 7: Cloud Operations 258 Chapter 8: Understanding and Maintaining Cloud Security 259 Chapter 9: Systems Management in the Cloud 259 Chapter 10: Understanding Business Continuity in the Cloud 260 Appendix B Answers to Review Questions 261 Chapter 1: Cloud Computing Overview, Concepts, and Models 262 Chapter 2: Compute Virtualization in the Cloud 263 Chapter 3: Cloud Storage and Provisioning 264 Chapter 4: Cloud Networking Concepts and Implementation 266 Chapter 5: Cloud Compute Resources, Concepts, and Implementation 267 Chapter 6: Cloud Management Concepts 268 Chapter 7: Cloud Operations 269 Chapter 8: Understanding and Maintaining Cloud Security 271 Chapter 9: Systems Management in the Cloud 272 Chapter 10: Understanding Business Continuity in the Cloud 273 Index 275