Question 1

Fictional Corp has decided that it wants to automate as much of the infrastructure as possible. As well, it has decided to outsource some of the monitoring capabilities. Which of the following might they outsource some of these tasks to?

Accepted Answer

MSP stands for Managed Service Provider, which is a company that remotely manages a customer's IT infrastructure and/or end-user systems, typically on a proactive basis and under a subscription model. This makes MSPs a suitable choice for outsourcing monitoring capabilities and potentially some aspects of infrastructure automation.

Question 2

Fictional Corp has recently changed its server naming convention. Halfway through the renaming, the automation stops working. Which of the following should have been done as part of the process?

Accepted Answer

Updating the automation configuration as each server name is changed ensures that the automation system can continue to recognize and interact with the servers throughout the renaming process. Failure to do so can lead to the automation system losing track of servers, causing the process to stop working.

Question 3

Strom works on a team that manages a number of nodes to provide commercial e-mail list services for companies. With their current infrastructure and volume, it is sometimes necessary to change the configuration of various nodes very quickly to be able to handle other functions. Which of the following would result in the quickest configuration changes being applied to the nodes?

Accepted Answer

The push model allows for immediate configuration changes to be applied to nodes because the central management system initiates the configuration change, pushing updates to the nodes without waiting for the nodes to request them. This is ideal for environments requiring rapid updates.

Question 4

Adele is looking at the options for automation tools and needs to choose one that does not require the installation of an agent. Which of the following tools might she choose?

Accepted Answer

Ansible is designed to be agentless, using SSH for communication with the managed nodes, which means it does not require an agent to be installed on the target machines for configuration management or orchestration.

Question 5

Desiree works for a web hosting company that adds new accounts and removes others on a regular basis. Which of the following should she automate for customers that have cancelled their service? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The answer of Desiree works for a web hosting company...

Question 6

Reina has configured an orchestration model for her company's infrastructure that requires servers to connect to the centralized server once an hour to determine if there should be any configuration changes made. Which of the following is she using?

Accepted Answer

In a pull model, the servers (or clients) initiate the connection to the centralized server to check for and apply any configuration changes. This is exactly what Reina's setup describes, where servers connect once an hour to see if there are updates, rather than the centralized server pushing updates to them.

Question 7

Fictional Corp has chosen AWS as its primary cloud service provider. Which of the following automation tools could they use to help with configuring and managing EC2 instances?

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager (SSM) is a service that allows for the automation of configuration and management tasks on EC2 instances.

Question 8

Dave manages a large network and has researched a bunch of automation tools. He decides on one that requires the installation of an agent, called a minion, on the nodes to be automated, which are then called minions. Which of the following automation tools did Dave choose?

Accepted Answer

SaltStack uses an architecture that requires the installation of an agent (referred to as a minion) on the nodes it manages. These nodes are then called minions, distinguishing SaltStack from other automation tools like Puppet, Chef, and Ansible, which have different terminologies and architectures for their agents and managed nodes.

Question 9

Cherice has just completed an audit of a server group that she has recently taken over. She found a number of accounts that were still active even though the users no longer worked for the company. Which of the following should she do to prevent this issue in the future?

Accepted Answer

Setting up an automation task to disable accounts that have been inactive over 30 days automatically and send the administrator a notification is a proactive and secure approach. It ensures that inactive accounts are promptly addressed without immediately deleting them, allowing for a review and potential reactivation if necessary. This practice helps in maintaining security by reducing the risk of unauthorized access through dormant accounts.

Question 10

Serena wants to implement as much automation in her organization as possible. One of her next tasks is to create a process where the system can duplicate a virtual machine on the fly. Which of the following terms might describe this automation process?

Accepted Answer

Cloning is the correct term for creating an exact copy of a virtual machine, which allows for the automation of deploying multiple instances of the same configuration.

Question 11

Eleanor is trying to secure a couple of servers that she manages. After hardening the servers, she installs a piece of software on each of them that will detect intrusions, log the event, and notify the administration team. She does not want it to automatically stop the intrusions due to the possibility of false positives. Which of the following has she installed?

Accepted Answer

Eleanor has installed a Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS), which monitors and analyzes the internals of a computing system as well as the network packets on its network interfaces. It detects intrusions, logs events, and notifies the administration team without automatically stopping the intrusions, differentiating it from a Host-based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) that would actively try to stop the intrusions.

Question 12

Jose just returned from a security conference where he learned about a technology that he can implement on his network that will detect security breaches on his network, log the event, and alert the administrator. He also wants it to automatically stop the breach. Which of the following technologies could he implement?

Accepted Answer

NIPS (Network Intrusion Prevention System) is a technology that can detect security breaches on a network, log the event, alert the administrator, and automatically stop the breach.

Question 13

Wyatt notices a message on the dashboard that one of the servers is no longer reachable by the automation system. He remotes into the server by name and is able to connect just fine. He pings the server by name from his workstation and it comes back with a different IP address than what is in the automation system. Which of the following is a possible reason why?

Accepted Answer

The server may have switched from a static IP to a DHCP-assigned IP, causing a mismatch with the IP address in the automation system, which may not automatically update IP changes.

Question 14

Gisella has just returned from a security conference where she won a free year of protection and support for her company with a device that will detect intrusions on her network, alert the administrators, and log the events. Unfortunately, it will not try to stop the intrusion. Which of the following has she won?

Accepted Answer

The device Gisella won is described as detecting intrusions, alerting administrators, and logging events without attempting to stop the intrusion. This functionality aligns with a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS), which monitors network traffic for suspicious activity and issues alerts, but does not take action to prevent the activity.

Question 15

Startup Inc. has chosen the Azure platform as its cloud service provider. Which of the following tools might they use for configuration management, update management, and process automation?

Accepted Answer

Azure Automation is a cloud service provided by Microsoft Azure for configuration management, update management, and process automation.

Question 16

Cadence is analyzing disk space usage on one of the Linux virtual machines she manages. She noticed that log files are taking up more space than necessary. Which of the following automation jobs could she set up to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Archiving log files older than 30 days to cold storage will free up disk space while preserving the logs for future reference if needed.

Question 17

Jeanette just finished watching a video on a popular social media site about a technology that can provision and manage IT infrastructure through configuration files that can be automated rather than interactive tools that require manual configuration. Which of the following technologies was she learning about?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the technology that allows for managing and provisioning IT infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. This enables automation and improves efficiency, consistency, and scalability.

Question 18

Julia uses AWS's CloudFormation tool to manage many of her company's resources. Which of the following may be used as part of the template configuration? (Choose two)

Accepted Answer

The answer of Julia uses AWS's CloudFormation tool to manage...

Question 19

Luc has installed Ansible and is trying to get it working correctly, but cannot seem to make it communicate with the various nodes that he wants to use it on. Which of the following is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

Ansible communicates with nodes using SSH by default, which operates over port 22. If port 22 is not open on the firewall, Ansible would not be able to communicate with the nodes. Ansible does not require an agent to be installed on the nodes (eliminating C), and it does not use a specific port for YAML (eliminating A). While B could be a potential issue, D is the most likely and common issue related to communication problems with Ansible.

Question 20

Amber has been researching automation tools and believes that Puppet is the best option for her company to use. She is currently testing the open-source version but is considering asking for budget to be allocated so that she can implement the enterprise version. How many nodes can she run the enterprise version on before needing to start paying for the product?

Accepted Answer

Puppet Enterprise can be used for up to 10 nodes without incurring any cost, which allows organizations to test and implement Puppet on a small scale before committing to a purchase for larger deployments.

Quiz 10: Cloud Automation