public/subjects/devops/easy-cloud/audit

General

Check the Repo content:

Ensure the repository contains all required files:

• Comprehensive README.md file with detailed documentation of the architecture, design decisions, and component descriptions.
• All source code and scripts necessary for deploying the WordPress application.
• Terraform configuration files for the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) setup.
• A cost estimation file reflecting the budget and financial considerations for the project.

Are all required files present?

Play the role of a stakeholder:

Conduct a role-play session where students present their solution as Cloud Engineers. Evaluate their understanding of cloud concepts, their solution's architecture, and their ability to communicate effectively. Suggested questions:

• Explain the choice of cloud provider and the benefits of using managed services in this project.
• How does your architecture ensure high availability and scalability for the WordPress application?
• Describe how you've implemented security measures to protect your application and data.
• Discuss the auto-scaling strategy you've chosen and how it aligns with cost management principles.
• How have you managed the storage of dynamic and static content to ensure consistency and performance?
• What monitoring and alerting mechanisms have you put in place to maintain the health and performance of your application?
• Provide details on how you used Terraform for infrastructure provisioning and the benefits of using Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

Were the students able to answer all questions satisfactorily?

Did the students demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the technologies and strategies used?

Could the students effectively communicate their design decisions and justify their architectural choices?

Review the Architecture Design:

Examine the student's architecture design to ensure it meets all project requirements:

1. Scalability: Does the architecture include an auto-scaling setup that efficiently handles varying loads?
2. High Availability: Are services deployed across multiple servers or data centers to ensure fault tolerance?
3. Security: Are appropriate security measures in place, including access controls and database security?
4. Cost Management: Is there evidence of cost optimization strategies and a clear understanding of the chosen cloud provider's pricing model?
5. Simplicity and Compliance: Has the student managed to design a straightforward solution without Kubernetes, as per the project's constraints?

Does the architecture align with the project's scalability, availability, security, and cost-effectiveness requirements?

Test WordPress Functionality:

• Navigate to the WordPress site URL.
• Upload a new media item to the WordPress site.
• Access various static assets (CSS, JavaScript, images).

Are these loading quickly, indicating effective CDN use?

Does the site load correctly from different locations or using different internet connections?

Is the item immediately accessible from different sessions, indicating successful NFS setup for dynamic content?

Is the WordPress application fully functional and serving content correctly?

High Availability and Auto-scaling Verification:

• Ask the student to demonstrate how WordPress instances are distributed across different physical locations or data centers.
• Simulate a server failure or take one instance offline.
• Show evidence of the auto-scaling configuration. Then, simulate or describe how the system scales up under high load and scales down when the load decreases.
• Perform a controlled load test to trigger auto-scaling. Monitor and record the scaling activity.

Does the site remain accessible, indicating successful failover and high availability?

Is the WordPress setup highly available with no downtime during server failures?

Does the auto-scaling mechanism work as expected, adjusting the number of instances according to load?

Load Balancing and Traffic Distribution:

• Explain or show the load balancer setup ensuring even traffic distribution.
• Ask the student to explain how is traffic evenly distributed across all servers.

Is the load balancing configured correctly, effectively distributing traffic across servers?

Alert and Monitoring Setup:

• Show the configuration for email alerts related to service problems or budget overruns.
• Trigger an Alert: (If possible), simulate a condition that would trigger an alert (e.g., stopping a service or exceeding a predefined budget threshold).

Are alerts properly set up and working as expected for system issues and budget overruns?

Security and Access Control:

• Ask the student to explain how are strict access controls implemented to secure NFS, object storage, and the database.
• Verify that the managed database is accessible only by WordPress servers and not exposed to the internet.
• Check the configuration of security groups or similar mechanisms to restrict traffic to necessary protocols and ports only.

Are security measures adequately implemented to protect infrastructure components?

Documentation Review:

Check the README.md file for completeness:

Does it include detailed setup and configuration instructions?

Are there clear, well-structured diagrams and thorough component descriptions?

Is there a clear explanation of design decisions and their rationale?

Is the documentation clear, complete, and easy to understand?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Evaluation:

• Request the student to demonstrate the use of Terraform commands (terraform plan, terraform apply) to verify the cloud environment setup.

Is Terraform used effectively to provision and manage cloud resources?

Do the Terraform configurations accurately reflect the architecture design and project requirements?

Does the IaC setup align with best practices and project requirements?

Cost Estimation Review:

• Examine the cost estimation file submitted by the student:

Does it provide a realistic estimate of the project's cost on the chosen cloud provider?

Are there considerations for scaling, data transfer, storage, and other potential costs?

Is the cost estimation detailed, realistic, and aligned with cloud provider pricing models?