Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure

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 xxiiiChapter 1 Understanding Cloud Characteristics 1Basic Terms and Characteristics 2Elasticity 2On-Demand Self-service/JIT 3Templating 4Pay as You Grow 6Pay-as-You-Grow Theory vs. Practice 7Chargeback 8Ubiquitous Access 9Metering Resource Pooling 10Multitenancy 11Cloud Bursting 13Rapid Deployment 14Object Storage Concepts 16File-Based Data Storage 16Object Storage 18Structured vs. Unstructured Data 18REST APIs 19Summary 25Chapter Essentials 26Chapter 2 To Grasp the Cloud—Fundamental Concepts 27The True Nature of the Cloud 28Elastic 29Massive 29On Demand 29Virtualized 30Secure 30Always Available 30Virtualization and Scalability 31The True Definer of Cloud Computing 32Serving the Whole World 32The Cloud Hypervisor 33Type 1 and Type 2 33Use Cases and Examples 34Benefits of Hypervisors 35Hypervisor Security Concerns 35Proprietary vs. Open Source 36Moore’s Law, Increasing Performance, and Decreasing Enterprise Usage 36Xen Cloud Platform (Open Source) 37KVM (Open Source) 38OpenVZ (Open Source) 38VirtualBox (Open Source) 39Citrix XenServer (Proprietary) 39VMware vSphere/ESXi (Proprietary) 39Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 41Consumer vs. Enterprise Use 41Workstation vs. Infrastructure 43Key Benefits of Implementing Hypervisors 46Shared Resources 46Elasticity 46Network and Application Isolation 47Foundations of Cloud Computing 48Infrastructure 48Platform 49Applications 50Enabling Services 50Summary 50Chapter Essentials 51Chapter 3 Within the Cloud: Technical Concepts of Cloud Computing 53Technical Basics of Cloud and Scalable Computing 54Defining a Data Center 55Traditional vs. Cloud Hardware 62Determining Cloud Data Center Hardware and Infrastructure 65Optimization and the Bottom Line 70The Cloud Infrastructure 78Open Source 79Proprietary 84Summary 85Chapter Essentials 86Chapter 4 Cloud Management 87Understanding Cloud Management Platforms 88What It Means for Service Providers 90Planning Your Cloud 90Building Your Cloud 94Running Your Cloud 95What This Means for Customers 95Service-Level Agreements 97Policies and Procedures 97Planning the Documentation of the Network and IP 98Implementing Change Management Best Practices 100Managing the Configuration 105Managing Cloud Workloads 111Managing Workloads Right on the Cloud 111Managing Risk 112Securing Data in the Cloud 113Managing Devices 114Virtualizing the Desktop 115Enterprise Cloud Solution 116Summary 116Chapter Essentials 119Chapter 5 Diagnosis and Performance Monitoring 121Performance Concepts 122Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS) 123Read vs. Write Files 124File System Performance 125Metadata Performance 127Caching 130Bandwidth 131Throughput: Bandwidth Aggregation 132Jumbo Frames 134Network Latency 135Hop Counts 136Quality of Service (QoS) 137Multipathing 137Load Balancing 138Scaling: Vertical vs. Horizontal vs. Diagonal 138Disk Performance 140Access Time 140Data Transfer Rate 142Disk Tuning 143Swap Disk Space 144I/O Tuning 144Performance Management and Monitoring Tools 146Hypervisor Configuration Best Practices 149Impact of Configuration Changes 151Common Issues 152Summary 153Chapter Essentials 154Chapter 6 Cloud Delivery and Hosting Models 157Private 158Full Private Cloud Deployment Model 158Semi-private Cloud Deployment Model 159Public 160Hybrid 160Community 161On-Premises vs. Off-Premises Hosting 161On-Premises Hosting 162Off-Premises Hosting 162Miscellaneous Factors to Consider When Choosing between On- or Off-Premises Hosting 163Comparing Total Cost of Ownership 166Accountability and Responsibility Based on Delivery Models 168Private Cloud Accountability 168Public Cloud Accountability 169Responsibility for Service Impairments 170Accountability Categories 170Security Differences between Models 171Multitenancy Issues 171Data Segregation 173Network Isolation 173Functionality and Performance Validation 174On-Premises Performance 174Off-Premises Performance 174Types of Testing 175Orchestration Platforms 175Summary 177Chapter Essentials 178Chapter 7 Practical Cloud Knowledge: Install, Configure, and Manage 181Setting Up the Cloud 183Creating, Importing, and Exporting Templates and Virtual Machines 183Creating Virtual Machine Templates 184Importing and Exporting Service Templates 186Installing Guest Tools 188Snapshots and Cloning 189Image Backups vs. File Backups 193Virtual Network Interface Card 195Virtual Disks 198Virtual Switches 199Configuring Virtual Machines for Several VLANs 201Virtual Storage Area Network 203Virtual Resource Migration 204Establishing Migration Requirements 204Migrating Storage 206Scheduling Maintenance 208Reasons for Maintenance 208Virtual Components of the Cloud 209Virtual Network Components 209Shared Memory 210Virtual CPU 211Storage Virtualization 211Summary 214Chapter Essentials 215Chapter 8 Hardware Management 221Cloud Hardware Resources 222BIOS/Firmware Configurations 222Minimum Memory Capacity and Configuration 223Number of CPUs 223Number of Cores 224NIC Quantity, Speeds, and Configurations 225Internal Hardware Compatibility 225Storage Media 226Proper Allocation of Hardware Resources (Host) 227Proper Virtual Resource Allocation (Tenant/Client) 232Management Differences between Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds 234Public Cloud Management 234Private Cloud Management 235Hybrid Cloud Management 236Tiering 236Performance Levels of Each Tier 237Policies 238RAID Levels 238File Systems 239Summary 241Chapter Essentials 242Chapter 9 Storage Provisioning and Networking 245Cloud Storage Concepts 246Object Storage 246Metadata 247Data/Blob 248Extended Metadata 248Replicas 248Policies and Access Control 248Understanding SAN and NAS 249Cloud vs. SAN Storage 250Cloud Storage 251Advantages of Cloud Storage 252Cloud Provisioning 252Migrating Software Infrastructure to the Cloud 253Cloud Provisioning Security Concerns 253Storage Provisioning 255Network Configurations 256Network Optimization 259Cloud Storage Technology 260Data Replication 261Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) 262Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) 264OpenStack Swift 266Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) 266Choosing from among These Technologies 277Cloud Storage Gateway 278Cloud Security and Privacy 280Security, Privacy, and Attack Surface Area 280Legal Issues (Jurisdiction and Data) 282Supplier Lifetime (Vendor Lock-In) 283Summary 284Chapter Essentials 284Chapter 10 Testing and Deployment: Quality Is King 287Overview of Deployment Models 288Private Cloud 288Community Cloud 289Public Cloud 289Hybrid Cloud 290Cloud Management Strategies 290Private Cloud Strategies 291Community Cloud Strategies 291Public Cloud Strategies 292Hybrid Cloud Strategies 292Management Tools 293Cloud Architecture 294The Need for Cloud Architectures 294Technical Benefits 295Business Benefits 295Cloud Deployment Options 296Environment Provisioning 296Deploying a Service to the Cloud 298Deployment Testing and Monitoring 301Creating and Deploying Cloud Services 304Creating and Deploying a Cloud Service Using Windows Azure 305Deploying and Managing a Scalable Web Service with Flume on Amazon EC2 309Summary 321Chapter Essentials 322Chapter 11 Cloud Computing Standards and Security 323Cloud Computing Standards 324Why Do Standards Matter? 324Current Ad Hoc Standards 325Security Concepts and Tools 326Security Threats and Attacks 326Obfuscation 329Access Control List 329Virtual Private Network 330Firewalls 330Demilitarized Zone 333Encryption Techniques 334Public Key Infrastructure 335Internet Protocol Security 336Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security 336Ciphers 337Access Control Methods 338Role-Based Access Control 338Mandatory Access Control 338Discretionary Access Control 339Rule-Based Access Controls 339Multifactor Authentication 339Single Sign-On 339Federation 340Implementing Guest and Host Hardening Techniques 340Disabling Unneeded Ports and Services 340Secure User Credentials 343Antivirus Software 344Software Security Patching 344Summary 345Chapter Essentials 345Chapter 12 The Cloud Makes It Rain Money: The Business in Cloud Computing 347The Nature of Cloud Business 348The Service Nature of the Cloud 348Making Money with Open-Source Software 349White Label Branding 350Cloud Service Business Models 351Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 351Platform as a Service (PaaS) 352Software as a Service (SaaS) 353Data as a Service (DaaS) 354Communication as a Service (CaaS) 355Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) 355Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) 355Anything as a Service (XaaS) 356Service Model Accountability and Responsibility 356The Enterprise Cloud 359Enterprise Applications 359Cloud Collaboration 360Collaborating with Telepresence 361Disaster Recovery 364Preparing for Failure: Disaster Recovery Plan 365Backup Sites and Geographical Diversity 366Change-Over Mechanism: Failover and Failback 369Business Continuity and Cloud Computing 369Business Continuity in the Cloud 370Workshifting in the Cloud 371Bring Your Own Device 371Summary 372Chapter Essentials 373Chapter 13 Planning for Cloud Integration: Pitfalls and Advantages 375Work Optimization 376Optimizing Usage, Capacity, and Cost 376Which Service Model Is Best for You? 379The Right Cloud Model 381Private Cloud 381Public Cloud 383Hybrid Cloud 384Adapting Organizational Culture for the Cloud 385Finding Out the Current Culture 385Mapping Out an Adaption Plan 386Culture Adaption, Propagation, and Maintenance 387Potholes on the Cloud Road 389Roadblocks to Planning 389Convincing the Board 391Summary 394Chapter Essentials 394Appendix The CompTIA Cloud+ Certification Exam 397Preparing for the Exam 398Taking the Exam 399Reviewing the Exam Objectives 400Index 417