Cloud Operations Specialist 1

Anonymous

North Carolina (SAA)

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Work Process Schedule

Work Process Content

On the Job Training

Anonymous

159

Skills

CONFIGURATION AND DEPLOYMENT

Appropriate commands, structure, tools and automation/orchestration as needed.
Platforms and Applications
Interaction of cloud components and services: Network components, application components, storage components, compute components, security components
Baselines
Target hosts
Existing systems
Cloud architecture
Cloud elements/target objects
Apply the change management process: Approvals, Scheduling
Refer to documentation and follow standard operating procedures
Execute workflow
Configure automation and orchestration, where appropriate, for the system being deployed
Use commands and tools
Document results.
Underlying environmental considerations included in the testing plan. [ Shared components ( Storage, Compute, Network )], [Production vs. Deployment vs. QA, Sizing, Performance, High availability, Connectivity, Data integrity, Proper function, Replication, Load balancing, Automation/orchestration]
Testing Techniques: Vulnerability testing, penetration testing, load testing.
Consider success factor indicators of the testing environment: Sizing, Performance, Availability, Connectivity, Data integrity, Proper functionality.
Document Results
Baseline Comparisons
SLA comparisons
Cloud performance fluctuation variables.
Cloud deployment models ( Public, Private, Hybrid, Community ).
Network Components
Applicable port and protocol considerations when extending to the cloud.
Determine configuration for the applicable platforms as it applies to the network: VPN, IDS/IPS, DMZ, VXLAN, Address space required, Network segmentation and Micro segmentation.
Available vs. proposed resources: CPU, RAM
Memory technologies: Bursting and ballooning, Overcommitment ratio.
CPU technologies: Hyperthreading, VT-x, Overcommitment ratio.
Effect to HA/DR
Performance considerations
Effect to HA/DR
Cost considerations
Energy Savings
Dedicated compute environment vs. shared compute environment
Requested IOPS and read/write throughput.
Protection capabilities: High availability [Failover zones], Storage replication[Regional, Multiregional, Synchronous and asynchronous], Storage mirroring, Cloning, Redundancy level/factor.
Storage types: NAS, DAS, SAN, Object storage.
Access protocols
Management differences
Provisioning model (Thick provisioned, thin provisioned, encryption requirements, tokenization).
Storage technologies (Deduplication technologies, Compression technologies).
Storage tiers
Overcommitting storage
Security configurations for applicable platforms ( ACLs, Obfuscation, Zoning, User/host authentication and authorization)
Migration types ( P2V, V2V, V2P, P2P, Storage migrations, Online vs. offline migrations )
Source and destination format of the workload ( Virtualization format, Application and data portability ).
Network connections and data transfer methodologies
Standard operating procedures for the workload migration
Environmental constraints ( Bandwidth, Working hour restrictions, Downtime impact, Peak time frames, Legal restrictions, Follow-the-sun constraints/time zones.
Identity management elements ( Identification, Authentication, Authorization [ Approvals, Access policy ], Federation [Single sign-on])
Appropriate protocols given requirements
Element considerations to deploy infrastructure services such as:( DNS, DHCP, Certificate services, Local agents, Antivirus, Load Balancer, Multifactor authentication, Firewall, IPS/IDS).

SECURITY

Company security policies.
Apply security standards for the selected platform
Compliance and audit requirements governing the environment ( Laws and regulations as they apply to the data )
Encryption technologies ( IPSec, SSL/TLS, Other ciphers)
Key and certificate management (PKI)
Tunneling protocols ( L2TP, PPTP, GRE)
Implement automation and orchestration processes as applicable.
Appropriate configuration for the application platform as it applies to compute (Disabling unneeded ports and services, Account management policies, Host-based/software firewalls, Antivirus/anti-malware software, Patching, Deactivating default accounts).
Authorization to objects in the cloud (Processes, Resources [Users, Groups, System - compute, networks, storage - Services)
Effect of cloud service models on security implementations
Effect of cloud deployment models on security implementations
Access control methods (Role-based administration, mandatory access controls, discretionary access controls, nondiscretionary access controls, multifactor authentication, single sign-on)
Data classification
Concepts of segmentation and micro segmentation ( Network, Storage, Compute )
Use encryption as defined.
Use multifactor authentication as defined.
Apply defined audit/compliance requirements.
Tools ( APIs, Vendor applications, CLI, Web GUI, Cloud Portal)
Techniques ( Orchestration, Scripting, Custom programming )
Security services ( Firewall, antivirus/anti-malware, IPS/IDS, HIPS )
Impact of security tools to systems and services ( Scope of impact ).
Impact of security automation techniques as they relate to the criticality of systems.(Scope of impact)

MAINTENANCE

Scope of cloud elements to be patched ( Hypervisors, virtual machines, virtual appliances, networking components, applications, storage components, clusters)
Patching methodologies and standard operating procedures ( Production vs. development vs. QA ,Rolling update, Bluegreen deployment, failover cluster)
Use order of operations as it pertains to elements that will be patched.
Dependency considerations
Types of updates (Hotfix, Patch, Version update, Rollback)
Automation workflow ( Runbook management - Single node, Orchestration - multiple nodes, multiple runbooks )
Activities to be performed by automation tools ( snapshot, cloning, patching, restarting, shut down, maintenance mode, enable/disable alerts.
Backup types ( Snapshot/redirect-on-write, clone, full, differential, incremental, change block/delta tracking )
Backup targets ( Replicas, local, remote )
Other considerations ( SLAs, Backup schedule, configurations, objects, dependencies, online/offline )
DR capabilities of a cloud service provider
Other considerations ( SLAs for DR, RPO, RTO, Corporate guidelines, cloud service provider guidelines, bandwidth or ISP limitations, Techniques, site mirroring, replication, file transfer, archiving, third-party sites )
Business continuity plan ( alternate sites, continuity of operations, connectivity, edge sites, equipment, availability, partners/third parties )
SLAs for BCP and HA
Maintenance schedules
Impact and scope of maintenance tasks.
Impact and scope of maintenance automation techniques.
Include orchestration as appropriate.
Maintenance automation tasks ( clearing logs, archiving logs, compressing drives, removing inactive accounts, removing stale DNS entries, removing orphaned resources, removing outdated rules from firewall, removing outdated rules from security, resource reclamation, maintain ACLs for the target object ).

MANAGEMENT

Monitoring ( Target object baselines, target object anomalies, common alert methods/messaging, alerting based on deviation from baseline, event collection ).
Event correlation
Forecasting resource capacity (upsize/increase, downsize/decrease)
Policies in support of event collection
Policies to communicate alerts appropriately
Resources needed based on cloud deployment models (Hybrid, Community, Public, Private).
Capacity/elasticity of cloud environment,
Support agreements ( Cloud service model maintenance responsibility )
Configuration management tool.
Resource balancing techniques
Change management ( advisory board, approval process, document actions taken - CMDB, Spreadsheets )
Usage patterns
Cloud bursting ( auto-scaling technology )
Cloud provider migrations
Extending cloud scope
Application lifecycle (application deployment, application upgrade, application retirement, application replacement, application migration, application feature use - Increase/Decrease
Business need change (Mergers/acquisitions/divestitures, cloud service requirement changes, impact of regulation and law changes)
Identification
Authentication methods ( Federation - single sign-on )
Authorization methods ( ACLs, Permissions)
Account lifecycle
Account management policy ( lockout, passworkd complexity rules )
Automation and orchestration activities ( user account creation, permission settings resource access, user account removal, user account disablement )
Procedures to confirm results ( CPU usage, RAM usage, Storage utilization, patch versions, network utilization, application version, auditing enable, management tool compliance )
Analyze performance trends
Refer to baselines
Refer to SLAs
Tuning of cloud target objects ( compute, network, storage, service/application resources )
Recommend changes to meet expected performance/capacity ( scale up/down (vertically), Scale in/out (horizontally)
Chargeback/showback models ( Reporting based on company policies, reporting based on SLAs )
Dashboard and reporting ( elasticity usage, connectivity, latency, capacity, overall utilization, cost, incidents, health, system availability - uptime/downtime )

TROUBLESHOOTING

Common issues in the deployments ( breakdowns in the workflow, integration issues related to different cloud platforms, resource contention, connectivity issues, cloud service provider outage, licensing outages, template misconfiguration, time synchronization issues, language support, automation issues ).
Exceeded cloud capacity boundaries ( Compute, storage, networking - IP address limitations | Bandwidth limitations, Licensing, variance in number of users, API request limit, batch job scheduling issues )
Deviation from original baseline
Unplanned expansions
Breakdowns in workflow ( account mismatch issues, change management failure, server name changes, IP address changes, location changes, version/feature mismatch, automation tool incompatibility, job validation issue ).
Common networking issues * Incorrect subnet, incorrect IP address, incorrect gateway, incorrect routing, DNS errors, QoS issues, misconfigured VLAN or VXLAN, misconfigured firewall rule, insufficient bandwidth, latency, misconfigured MTU/MSS, misconfigured proxy ).
Network tool outputs,
Network connectivity tools ( ping, tracert/traceroute, telnet, netstat, nslookup/dig, ipconfig/ifconfig, route, arp, ssh, tcpdump ).
Remote access tools for troubleshooting.
Authentication issues ( account lockout/expiration )
Authorization issues
Federation and single sign-on issues
Certificate expiration
Certification misconfiguration
External attacks
Internal attacks
Privilege escalation
Internal role change
External role change,
Security device failure
Incorrect hardening settings
Unencrypted communication
Unauthorized physical access
Unencrypted data
Weak or obsolete security technologies
Weak or obsolete security technologies
Insufficient security controls and processes
Tunneling or encryption issues
Always consider corporate policies, procedures, and impacts before implementing changes.
Identify the problem ( Question the user and identify user changes to computer and perform backups before making changes. )
Establish a theory of probable cause ( question the obvious ) ((If necessary, conduct internal or external research based on symptoms))
Test the theory to determine cause ( Once a theory is confirmed, determine the next steps to resolve the problem(, ( If the theory is not confirmed, reestablish a new theory or escalate ).
Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution.
Verify full system functionality, and if applicable, implement preventive measures.
Document findings, actions, and outcomes.

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