Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Question 1

Define virtualization

Answer 1

simulating hardware and software in a virtual environment

Question 2

What are the benefits of virtualization

Answer 2

● Save money on hardware, resources, maintenance
● Portability, easily transferred to another physical machine
● Takes advantage of full computing ability of a machine
● Easily backed up for disaster recovery

Question 3

Define virtual sandbox

Answer 3

secure and isolated environment in which users can safely test software or perform other tasks without risking damage to their computer or network.
○ Can be easily reset to a previous state
○ Useful for testing malware or other malicious software

Question 4

Define application virtualization

Answer 4

the process of running older applications in a virtual environment, rather than on the original hardware or operating system for which they were designed

Question 5

Describe hyper-converged infrastructure

Answer 5

full integration of storage, network, and servers without hardware changes

Question 6

Describe Virtual desktop infrastructure

Answer 6

VDI hosts desktop OSs within a virtualized environment hosted by a centralized server

Question 7

Describe cross-platform virtualization

Answer 7

Allows testing and running software applications for different operating systems.
○ Allows software applications or entire operating systems to be run on a variety of different systems without modification.
○ Popular cross-platform virtualization technologies available: VMware, Parallels, VirtualBox

Question 8

Define Virtual Machine

Answer 8

Software simulations of a computer system. Runs on a host computer installed with a hypervisor (virtualization software) and can provide multiple complete operating system environments to run applications and processes just like a physical computer.

Question 9

How do you create and/or manage VM’s?

Answer 9

A type of program called a hypervisor

Question 10

Describe Type 1 hypervisors

Answer 10

● Type 1, Bare-metal hypervisor - runs directly on the host system’s hardware, without need for an underlying operating system
○ Data centers and enterprise environments where virtualization is a critical part of the infrastructure
○ VMs created on top of this layer, isolated from host system and other VMs running on same hypervisor
○ Known for their efficiency, performance, scalability, and security.
○ Link to other type 1 hypervisors to provide load balancing and high availability.
○ Faster and more efficient than Type 2
○ Example providers: vmWare ESXi, Citrix XenServer, and Microsoft Hyper-V

Question 11

Describe Type 2 hypervisors

Answer 11

Hosted hypervisor - the virtualization layer sits on top of the host OS and creates virtual machines within it
○ Typically used for desktop virtualization, development, testing, and other non-critical applications
○ Less efficient than Type 1, the host OS must manage the resources of the VMs in addition to its own
○ Easier to install and manage than Type 1
○ Can be used on a wider range of hardware and operating system platforms
○ Example providers: Oracle VM VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC, and Parallels Desktop.

Question 12

What are some benefits to using VM’s?

Answer 12

● Resource management - can be configured to use specific amounts of CPU, memory, and storage resources
● Process isolation - isolated environment that can run applications and processes independently from the host operating system
● Security - if a VM is compromised, the attacker will only have access to the VM’s resources, rather than the entire host machine.
● Scalability - can be easily created, cloned, and deleted, which makes it easy to scale up or down the number of computing resources available.
● Compatibility - can run different operating systems, making it possible to run applications that require specific operating systems or software configurations.

Question 13

Define containerization

Answer 13

lightweight virtualization technology used to provision an isolated execution environment for an application. Relies on a common host OS (almost always Linux) as the base for each container. Often used in cloud-native application development

Question 14

Describe some benefits to containerization

Answer 14

● Provides an isolated environment for an application, along with all the necessary dependencies and libraries, process isolation
● Easy to move applications between different environments for development, testing, and production
● container image, includes all the necessary files, libraries, and dependencies required to run the application
● Can be started, stopped, and restarted quickly and easily, making it easy to scale applications up or down as needed
● Infinitely portable by moving one file, the container image
● Can package and deploy individual services independently of one another, making it easier to update, scale, and maintain the application as a whole
● Fewer resources needed than VMs due to sharing same host operating system

Question 15

What are some potential problems with containerization

Answer 15

● Containers cannot interface with each other without a virtual network
● If host OS is compromised, all containers are effected
● If physical server crashes, all containers are effected
● If physical server is compromised, poses security risk to all containers
● Container image must be packaged to work with specific operating

Question 16

What are some potential container providers?

Answer 16

Docker, Kubernetes (open-source), and Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Parallels Virtuozzo, OpenVZ

Question 17

Define cloud computing

Answer 17

the delivery of computing resources, including servers, storage, databases, software, analytics, and intelligence, over the internet (the cloud). Providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Question 18

What are some features of cloud computing?

Answer 18

○ High availability - very little downtime, 99.999% up time
○ Scalability - increase or decrease IT resources as needed to meet changing demand
■ Scaling up / vertical - increase power/size of resources like processors, RAM, storage, bandwidth
■ Scaling out / horizontal - increase the number of resources like servers or VMs. Work together using a load balancer.
○ Rapid elasticity - ability to quickly scale up or down in real time
○ Metered service - pay per use basis, pay for what you use
○ Shared resources - pooling hardware to reduce costs
○ File synchronization - data accessible from multiple locations, streamline transfer

Question 19

Describe the 6 cloud deployment models

Answer 19

● Public Cloud - infrastructure is owned and managed by a third-party cloud service provider and are available to the public over the internet
● Private Cloud - infrastructure is owned and managed by a single organization and the cloud services are only available to the members of the organization
○High up-front costs
● Hybrid Cloud - A hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private cloud infrastructure. An organization can use a combination of on-premises and cloud-based services to meet their specific business needs.
● Community Cloud - A community cloud is a cloud infrastructure shared by several organizations with similar interests, such as a group of healthcare organizations or educational institutions.
● Multitenancy - multiple customer share scalable resources
● Single tenancy - single customer uses scalable resources

Question 20

Name 4 cloud service models

Answer 20

Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a service, Software as a service, and Desktop as a service

Question 21

Describe IaaS

Answer 21

○ Provides virtualized hardware to run a server
○ Can include operating system, but not infrastructure software. Example: AWS EC2
○ Provider is responsible for maintaining the physical hardware and infrastructure
○ User is responsible for managing the software, applications, and data that run on the virtualized infrastructure
○ Allows users to easily scale up or down computing resources based on needs without having to invest in hardware or maintenance and upgrades

Question 22

Describe PaaS

Answer 22

○ Provides a platform on which developers can build and deploy web applications without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure
○ Provides a development and deployment environment that includes the OS, web server, and database
○ Scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solution for application development and deployment

Question 23

Describe SaaS

Answer 23

○ Provides a complete software application that is accessed and used over the internet, without the need for any installation or maintenance on the user’s end
○ Software vendors host and maintain the software
○ Users only pay for the services they use on a subscription basis

Question 24

Describe DaaS

Answer 24

○ Provider takes care of maintenance, backup, updates, and data storage
○ Providers may also handle security and applications for the desktop

Question 25

What are the two types of DaaS?

Answer 25

■ Persistent desktop - Users have the ability to customize and save a desktop so it will look the same way each time a particular user logs on
●Require more storage than non-persistent desktops, which can make them more expensive.
■ Non-persistent desktop - Desktops are wiped each time the user logs out
●simply access shared cloud services