INTRODUCTION – Configuration management and monitoring

PRACTICE QUIZ: AUTOMATION AT SCALE

1. What is IaC (Infrastructure as Code)?

2. What is the principle called when you think of networked machines as interchangeable resources instead of individual machines?

3. What benefits can we gain by using automation to manage our configuration? (Check all that apply)

4. Puppet is a commonly used configuration management system. Which of the following applications are also used for configuration management?

5. A network administrator is accustomed to manually configuring the 5 nodes on the network he manages. However, the company he works for is quickly growing, and there are plans to expand the network to 200 nodes. What is the most reasonable course of action for the network administrator?

PRACTICE QUIZ: INTRODUCTION TO PUPPET

1. A Puppet agent inspects /etc/conf.d, determines the OS to be Gentoo Linux, then activates the Portage package manager. What is the provider in this scenario? 

2. Which of the following examples show proper Puppet syntax? 

class AutoConfig {
  package { 'Executable':
    ensure => latest,
  }
  file { 'executable.cfg':
    source => 'puppet:///modules/executable/Autoconfig/executable.cfg'
    replace => true,
  }
  service { 'executable.exe':
    enable  => true,
    ensure  => running,
  }
} 
(CORRECT)

class AutoConfig :
  package ''Executable':
    ensure => latest,
  
  file  'executable.cfg':
    source => 'puppet:///modules/executable/Autoconfig/executable.cfg'
    replace => true,
  
  service  'executable.exe':
    enable  => true,
    ensure  => running,

class AutoConfig {
  package { 'Executable':
    ensure == latest,
  }
  file { 'executable.cfg':
    source == 'puppet:///modules/executable/Autoconfig/executable.cfg'
    replace == yes,
  }
  service { 'executable.exe':
    enable  == yes,
    ensure  == true,
  }
}

class AutoConfig {
  package { 'Executable':
    assure=> latest,
  }
  file { 'executable.cfg':
    origin=> 'puppet:///modules/executable/Autoconfig/executable.cfg'
    substitute=> true,
  }
  program{ 'executable.exe':
    activate => true,
    assure => running,
  }
}

3. What is the benefit of grouping resources into classes when using Puppet?

4. What defines which provider will be used for a particular resource?

5. In Puppet’s file resource type, which attribute overwrites content that already exists?

6. What is the most basic unit for modeling in Puppet?

7. What is the advantage of grouping related resources into a single class?

PRACTICE QUIZ: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

1. How is a declarative language different from a procedural language?

2. Puppet facts are stored in hashes. If we wanted to use a conditional statement to perform a specific action based on a fact value, what symbol must precede the facts variable for the Puppet DSL to recognize it?

3. What does it mean when we say that Puppet is stateless?

4. What does the “test and repair” paradigm mean in practice?

5. Where, in Puppet syntax, are the attributes of a resource found?

6. What is a fact in Puppet?

7. What does idempotent mean?

PRACTICE QUIZ: DEPLOYING PUPPET LOCALLY

1. Puppet evaluates all functions, conditionals, and variables for each individual system, and generates a list of rules for that specific system. What are these individual lists of rules called? 

2. After we install new modules that were made and shared by others, which folder in the module’s directory will contain the new functions and facts? 

3. What file extension do manifest files use?

4. What is contained in the metadata.json file of a Puppet module?

5. What does Puppet syntax dictate we do when referring to another resource attribute?

6. Which of the following file extensions does the manifest file need to end with in Puppet?

7. When we declare a resource type, how do we differentiate between the original resource type and the name of a resource relationship being referenced in another resource?

8. What do we call a collection of manifests, and folders containing associated data?

PRACTICE QUIZ: DEPLOYING PUPPET TO CLIENTS

1. When defining nodes, how do we identify a specific node that we want to set rules for? 

2. When a Puppet agent evaluates the state of each component in the manifest, it uses gathered facts about the system to decide which rules to apply. What tool can these facts be “plugged into” in order to simplify management of the content of our Puppet configuration files? 

3. What is the first thing that happens after a node connects to the Puppet master for the first time?

4. What does FQDN stand for, and what is it?

5. What type of cryptographic security framework does Puppet use to authenticate individual nodes?

6. In Puppet, what can we use to categorize in order to apply different rules to different systems?

7. What is the purpose of the Certificate Authority (CA)?

8. What kind of security encryption is used when the Puppet Certificate Authority validates the identity of a node?

PRACTICE QUIZ: UPDATING DEPLOYMENTS

1. What is a production environment in Puppet?

2. What is the –noop parameter used for?

3. What do rspec tests do?

4. How are canary environments used in testing?

5. What are efficient ways to check the syntax of the manifest? (Check all that apply)

6. What does the puppet parser validate command do?

7. What is the purpose of using multiple environments?

PRACTICE QUIZ: MONITORING & ALERTING

1. What is a Service Level Agreement?

2. What is the most important aspect of an alert?

3. Which part of an HTTP message from a web server is useful for tracking the overall status of the response and can be  monitored and logged?

4. To set up a new alert, we have to configure the _____ that triggers the alert.

5. When we collect metrics from inside a system, this is known as ______ monitoring.

6. Which of the following monitoring models is being used if our monitoring system requires our service to actively send metrics?

7. What do we call an alert that requires immediate attention?

8. If our service has a Service Level Objective (SLO) of four-nines, what is our error budget measured in downtime percentage?

9. What type of policy requires us to set up a condition which notifies us when it’s triggered?

PRACTICE QUIZ: TROUBLESHOOTING & DEBUGGING

1. Which of the following are valid strategies for recovery after encountering service failure? (Select all that apply.)

2. Which of the following concepts provide redundancy? (Select all that apply.)

3. If you operate a service that stores any kind of data, what are some critical steps to ensure disaster recovery? (Select all that apply)

4. What is the correct term for packaged applications that are shipped with all needed libraries and dependencies, and allows the application to run in isolation?

5. Using a large variety of containerized applications can get complicated and messy. What are some important tips for solving problems when using containers? (Select all that apply)

6. Which of the following is a valid method of troubleshooting a cloud service? (Select all that apply)

7. When troubleshooting, what is it called when an error or failure occurs, and the service is downgraded to a previous working version?

8. Which of the following are important aspects of disaster recovery? (Select all that apply)

CONCLUSION – Configuration management and monitoring