Beginning AWS journey

itdept

I am finally jumping on the AWS bandwagon. I signed up for a Linux Academy subscription with Black Friday deal. I have read plenty of positive reviews and was hanging out for the bargain. I am going to start off with Cloud Practitioner and see where I go from there. I just thought I would create my own little "mini-blog"  to share the journey.
I am trying to finish off CCNA in the next few weeks and then deep dive it for AWS. 

JugglingReferee

Looking forward to hearing about CP!  I'm interested in what you learn, to compare with what I'm able to access via itpro.tv

itdept

I jumped the gun a bit, got a bit too excited with Linux Academy. I am still trying to knock out CCNA before current exam expires so I've had to back burner CP.

itdept

So I finally got the Cloud Prac under my belt. I studied for probably about 2 1/2 weeks having known really nothing about Cloud before that. I used the Linux Academy AWS Essentials and AWS Cloud Practitioner courses. Combined hours for the videos series were about 33 hours. I then figured I would try some practice exams so I grabbed a sale deal for Neal Davis CCP on Udemy. Fired up the practice and got 61% on both. I was seeing stuff on there that LA did not even mention!

Well panic set in as I had to take the exam the next day at noon. I pulled a 9 hour study session even partly on the day of the exam.

I did the exam and I was seeing loads of questions that Neal covered and LA did not. $12 totally well worth it.

Ended up with about 860 or around there.

On to CSAA and probably look to complete that one in 2 months time.

itdept

I am currently running through Adrian Cantril's course on Linux Academy and it is a really big course. There are about 56 hours of video and I am probably 70% of the way through it. Adrian has put together a great course. It is very obvious that a lot of time and effort has been put into the course.

Quite often he will comment about something being important to know, on the test or likely to be on the test.

Almost each learning section has a mini test comprising of 6 to 20 questions depending on AWS service. Once a test is completed you can review the questions to see why the answer is right or wrong. I had to redo a test or two and there is a small "bank" of questions so that means you don't just remember the answer.

There is a lot to work through and at time the mind can wander. Not because of boredom just tiredness. I've enabled a course schedule to keep me from burn out and keep me on track. I try to achieve 2 hours of AWS study a week day, 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday off.

Once I am finished going through the course I plan to take the Jon Bonso practice tests to see what level I'm at, weak areas, etc I'm thinking of doing CSAA in about a months time. I figure I'll do version 1 as I'll be better placed to pass.

shochan

Thxs for keeping us updated...I am going to get to this eventually

MeanDrunkR2D2

Please keep in mind that Adrian is no longer with Linux Academy and that course has not been updated in several months now and is missing from his words "about 30% of data needed to pass".  Also with the new C02 course, the LA course will not be a good idea.    He has gone off on his own and has a new updated course that was recently released on his own website.  I've purchased and have started that course and if you liked his old content on LA, you will really like what he is doing on his own as it's in my personal opinion, a much better course with better demos. 

JDMurray

acloud.guru is suppose to be the best training for AWS. Their materials are updated as the AWS exams are updated.

MeanDrunkR2D2

JDMurray said:

acloud.guru is suppose to be the best training for AWS. Their materials are updated as the AWS exams are updated.

I didn't really like much of the approach that ACG did for these topics in the past.  I haven't seen much, but from what I have heard from others, they don't really get deep enough to actually help someone learn the topics in depth enough to truly understand or be efficient using AWS in a production environment. 

JDMurray

It may be that acloud.guru is more geared towards helping people pass the AWS exams rather than becoming an expert in the use of the AWS environment and services.

MeanDrunkR2D2

I've heard more recently from others who are completely dissatisfied with ACG.  Since they bought out Linux Academy, the quality of the new content (on LA) has been slowly sliding down with many more issues with the labs and cloud playground.  I have a feeling it is just a matter of time before ACG scraps that part. 

While getting the cert is nice, I also would want to stress about how much I'd want to learn more about how to properly utilize AWS in comparison to just doing good enough to pass an exam.  It's one of those rock and hard place type of scenarios. 

itdept

ACG bought LA to buy out the opposition and make a profit from them, so I see the price going up one way or another. I've been happy so far with LA but I get killed by the exchange rate so I probably won't renew my membership.

itdept

So I managed to pass CSAA back in Jan and figured I would need to make the next step and get the Associate SysOps under my belt as well. I picked up the Adrian Cantrill course from his site. I will probably do more of a write-up / review as I proceed through the course. I have heard there is quite a bit of overlap with CSAA so I figure I can probably complete in a months time. That will be the goal anyways.

JDMurray

Yes, it looks like there is a lot of overlap on the AWS associate certs in the AWS fundamental concepts and foundational services (S3, EC2, VPC, IAM, etc.). Learn them well for one AWS cert and your next AWS cert gets a little easier to achieve.

itdept

In the SysOps course I have so far "completed"
-INTRODUCTION & SCENARIO
-Course Fundamentals and AWS Accounts
-Cloud Computing Fundamentals
This puts me at about 5% complete.

The Intro was worthwhile doing as it laid out Github setup information and course structure. I also found it worthwhile going through "Course Fundamentals and AWS Accounts" again as once you set up an AWS account that is it, you then move on the real stuff like VPC and EC2. The refresher was good to have. I mostly skipped "Cloud Computing Fundamentals" section as it is a rehash on what cloud is and just did not find it worthwhile.

Having used Adrian's course from Linux Academy I am seeing the same high quality provided. I like his clear speaking, well edited slides and presentation.

JDMurray

Are you taking notes as you go your first time through or will you reviewing the material a second time and taking notes then?

itdept

JDMurray said:

Are you taking notes as you go your first time through or will you reviewing the material a second time and taking notes then?

I am not taking notes the first time through but I am doing the labs. I never found the CSAA exam to have trivia types questions or Microsoft tests asking about a radio button on a page.

I am about 20% of the way through the course and I am warming up to the style and presentation. I have completed
-Tech Fundamentals
-AWS Fundamentals
-IAM, ACCOUNTS AND AWS ORGANISATIONS

Tech fundamentals is pretty straight forward as it goes over topics like YAML, JSON and Encryption 101. I thought the presentation for Encryption was well explained even though I have read about Bob and Jane swapping keys many times previously. The section is rounded out with networking (OSI), I watched a few videos and thought the content  was good but as I hold a CCNA I figured I already had the knowledge and wanted to move on to the more "meatier" AWS content.

AWS Fundamentals gets more interesting and goes over general topics like EC2, CloudFormation, Route53, etc. I liked the usage of templates to generate the content and showed the power of "automation" to construct infrastructure and apply settings.

IAM, ACCOUNTS AND AWS ORGANISATIONS goes over identities and policies, AWS orgs. I found the demo lesson helped a lot to get my head around Organizations. I find I understand the concept much better and liked the demo lesson to link accounts. The Chapter touched on few areas like Cloudwatch logs, Cloudtrail, Cost Explorer to name a few.
The section finishes with a Demo / Prac for AWS SSO which was quite interesting and see it being commonly used in real life. I will probably go through this prac a few more time to get the hang of it.  

itdept

Been a while since my last post. I have been incredibly busy the past couple months so time to get back on track...

I moved through the Simple Storage Service (S3) section fairly quickly. Once again a good amount of theory with practical examples thrown in. I did not find the section too difficult overall but suspect I will go over some of the training videos a few times just to solidify concepts and knowledge.
Security focuses on analyzing policy documents. Reviewing JSON statements to determine allowed and denied. Exam guide lists Domain 5 : Security and Compliance as being 18%
Quick review of GuardDuty, Trusted Advisor, Inspector

VIRTUAL PRIVATE CLOUD (VPC) BASICS
I liked this section as it has real world application. Uses the example and how to structure VPC

JDMurray

Always keep in mind how data (information) is flowing through the AWS services. I find that AWS' learning materials doesn't cover data flow nearly as well as Google's (GCP) does.

End-to-End Visibility with AWS and Splunk

STANLY_CC

Let us know if we an help in any way with your training needs.

https://www.stanly.edu/future-students/it-academy/aws-academy

https://www.stanly.edu/future-students/it-academy/red-hat-academy