I spent over a week reading about cloud deployment models and service models, AWS compute services, its security and compliance. I have started with explaining what do you mean by cloud and it’s benefits.

Q.What is cloud?

It refers to servers that are accessed over the Internet or Ethernet cables, an on-demand shared resources offering compute, storage, databases, analytics and much more that can be deployed and scaled with ease. By using cloud computing, users and companies don’t have to manage physical servers themselves or run software applications on their own machines, they can focus on their own application code.

AWS is a cost-effective solution for businesses as its a pay-as-you-go model.

Cloud benefits,

1. You can access as much or as little resources/services as you need, and scale up and down as required with only a few minutes’ notice. You can scale horizontally or vertically.
2. Increase in agility for the organization, since the cost and time it takes to experiment and develop is significantly lower.
3. Cloud computing lets you focus on your own customers, rather than on the heavy lifting of racking, stacking, and powering servers. So you can focus on your code and it’s efficiency.
4. Easily deploy your application in multiple regions around the world. This means you can provide lower latency and a better experience for your customers at minimal cost.

Q.What do you mean by Compute?

Compute can be thought of as processing power required by application to process and execute it’s tasks. A physical server within a data center would be considered a Computer resource as it may have multiple CPU’s and many Gigabytes of RAM.

Q.What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing provides a simple way to access servers, storage, databases and a broad set of application services over the Internet.

A cloud services platform such as Amazon Web Services owns and maintains the network-connected hardware required for these application services, while you provision and use what you need via a web application. You can access as many resources as you need, almost instantly, and only pay for what you use.

There are different cloud deployment models, a simple problem statement can be you wanting to travel from point A to point B, now options available are,

1. Public provider owns and operates all the hardware needed to run a public cloud. For our problem statement think of it as using a bus for transportation.
   1. Low cost for the ticket
   2. Limited tickets and, less reliability and security in reaching the place on time.
2. Private cloud belongs to a specific organization. That organization controls the system and manages it in a centralized fashion. For our problem statement think of it as using your own car for transportation.
   1. High cost and maintenance required.
   2. Fixed spacing but Highly secure in reaching the place.
   3. Full control over the device.
3. Hybrid cloud is a combination of two or more infrastructures, every model within a hybrid is a separate system, but they are all a part of the same architecture. For our problem statement think of it as renting a private taxi.
   1. Cost effective while comparing with your own car.
   2. Secure and Flexible up-to certain extent.
   3. Can be very complex and may cater to specific use cases or destinations.

A simple problem statement can be you wanting to eat pizza, now options available are,

In traditional on-premises services, you will have to make everything at home. From setting dining table, owning a oven, making the pizza dough, tomato sauce and other ingredients.

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides you with the highest level of flexibility and management control over your IT resources. For our problem statement, which is eating pizza,
   1. Vendor will manage getting all the ingredients from the market such as pizza dough and tomato sauce. You have to focus on resources you already own such as dinning table and oven.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) manages the underlying infrastructure ( hardware and operating systems) and allow you to focus on the deployment and management of your applications. For our problem statement, which is eating pizza,
   1. Vendor will manage getting all the ingredients from the market and using an oven to make it for you. You have to focus on managing the dining table for the pizza.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS), a completed product that is run and managed by the service provider. With a SaaS offering you do not have to think about how the service is maintained or how the underlying infrastructure is managed, you only need to think about how you will use that particular piece software.
   1. Vendor will manage getting all the ingredients from the market and using an oven to make it for you, and setting up the dining table. You have to focus on enjoying the pizza.

A few AWS Cloud computing services,

1.Elastic Compute cloud (EC2): Allows you to deploy virtual servers within your AWS environment. Most people will require an Ec2 instance within their environment as a part of at least one of their solutions. Configuration of EC2 depends on,

1. Amazon machine image(AMIs): a template of pre-configured EC2 instances, to quickly launch your instance.
2. Instance types: depends on the parameters such as CPU’s, memory, storage …
3. Instance Purchasing Options: You can choose your ec2 instances from on-demand, spot, reserved, .. purchasing options.
4. Storage options: Depending on your instance selected, you can select
   1. Persistent storage
   2. Ephemeral storage

For more information on EC2, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/concepts.html

Q.What is a container?

It holds everything an applications needs to run from within its container package.

2.EC2 Container Service(EBS): Runs Docker-enabled applications packaged as containers across a cluster of EC2 instances without a complex cluster management system.

An amazon ECS cluster is comprised of a collection of EC2 instances, these instances still operate in much the same was as a single EC2 instance. A Cluster can only scale in a single region.

For more information on EBS, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AmazonEBS.html

3.Elastic Container Registry(ECR): Provides a secure location to store and manage your docker images.

This is a fully managed service, so you don’t need to provision any infrastructure to allow you to create this registry of docker images.

For more information on ECR, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECR/latest/userguide/what-is-ecr.html

4.Elastic Container service for Kubernetes (EKS): Kubernetes: Container orchestration tool designed to automate, deploy, scale and operate containerized applications.

EKS allows you to run Kubernetes across your AWS infrastructure without having to take care of provisioning and running the Kubernetes management infrastructure in what’s referred to as the control plane.

For more information, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/what-is-eks.html

5.AWS Elastic Beanstalk: AWS managed service that takes your code of your web application code and automatically provisions and deploys the required resources with AWS to make the web application operational.

An ideal service for developers who are not familiar with necessary AWS skills.

For more information, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/Welcome.html

6.AWS Lambda: It is a serverless compute service that allows you to run your application code without having to manage EC2 instances.

Serverless means that you do not need to worry about provisioning and managing your own compute resource to run your own code, instead this is managed and provisioned by AWS.

You only have to pay for computer power when lambda is in use via it’s functions.

Components of AWS Lambda,

1. The Lambda function is compiled of your own code that you want Lambda to invoke as per defined triggers.
2. Event sources are AWS services that can be used to trigger your Lambda functions.
3. A trigger is essentially an operation from an event source that causes the function to invoke.
4. Downstream Resources are resources that are required during the execution of your lambda function.
5. Log streams help to identify issues and troubleshoot issues with your lambda function.

For more information on AWS Lambda, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/welcome.html

7.AWS batch: Used to manage and run batch computing workloads within AWS.

Primarily used in specialist use cases which require a vast amount of compute power across a cluster of compute resources to complete batch processing executing a series of tasks.

1. Jobs: Classed as the unit of work that is to be run by AWS batch.
2. Job definition: Define specific parameters for the Jobs themselves and dictate how the job will run and with what configuration.
3. Job queues: Scheduled are placed into a job queue when they run
4. Job scheduling: Takes care of when a job should be run and from which compute environment.

For more information, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/batch/latest/userguide/what-is-batch.html

8.Lightsail: Much like an EC2 instance but without as many configurable steps throughout its creation.

It has been designed to be simple, quick and very easy to use at a ow cost point for small scale use cases by small businesses or for single users

For more information, https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/what-is-amazon-lightsail

Common use cases of cloud computing,

1. Migration of Production services
2. To avoid traffic bursting
3. Backup and Disaster recovery
4. Web hosting
5. Big data analytics

Security and Compliance

In the cloud, you don’t have to manage physical servers or storage devices. Instead, you use software-based security tools to monitor and protect the flow of information into and of out of your cloud resources.

The AWS Cloud enables a shared responsibility model.

1. AWS manages security of the cloud, you are responsible for security in the cloud.
2. You retain control of the security you choose to implement to protect your own content, platform, applications, systems, and networks no differently than you would in an on-site data center.

Benefits of AWS Security

1. The AWS infrastructure puts strong safeguards in place to help protect your privacy. All data is stored in highly secure AWS data centers.
2. Cut costs by using AWS data centers. Maintain the highest standard of security without having to manage your own facility
3. Security scales with your AWS Cloud usage. No matter the size of your business, the AWS infrastructure is designed to keep your data safe.

AWS Cloud Compliance enables you to understand the robust controls in place at AWS to maintain security and data protection in the cloud. As systems are built on top of AWS Cloud infrastructure, compliance responsibilities will be shared.

For more information, https://awseducate.instructure.com/courses/197/pages/aws-cloud-computing-fundamentals?module_item_id=9215

I will be spending next couple of weeks focusing on AWS storage and databases. Let me know where i could improve at.

The post Introduction to AWS Compute Services appeared first on DataMounts.

Google recently released a dataset search, a free tool for searching 25 million publicly available datasets.

Search Tool Features:

 Search tool features are the following:

• Filters to limit results based on their license (free or paid),
• Format (CSV, images, etc. ),
• Update time.
• Descriptions of the dataset’s contents as well as
• Author citations.

Google’s dataset aggregation methodology differs from other dataset repositories like Amazon’s open data registry. Unlike other repositories that curate and host the datasets themselves, Google does not curate or provide direct access to the 25 million datasets directly.

Standards of the schema.org

Instead, Google relies on the dataset publishers to use the open standards of schema.org to describe their dataset’s metadata. Google then indexes and makes that metadata searchable across publishers.

What Is Schema.org?

Schema.org may be a cooperative, community activity with a mission to make, maintain, and promote schemas for structured information on the net, on web content, in email messages, and beyond.

Schema.org vocabulary is used with many various encodings, together with RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD. These vocabularies cowl entities, relationships between entities and actions, and may simply be extended through a well-documented extension model. Over ten million sites use Schema.org to markup their web content and email messages. several applications from Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Yandex, et al. already use these vocabularies to power wealthy, protrusible experiences.

Since publishers are still required to host the datasets themselves, for-profit publishers that conform to schema.org standards will also have their datasets indexed by Google. In my anecdotal experience, I found about half of the datasets in the search results were from for-profit aggregators, with an even higher percentage when searching for market-related datasets.

Other popular dataset publishers on the platform include government agencies and research institutions. Google claims that US government agencies alone have published over 2 million datasets.

According to Google, most of the datasets are related to “geosciences, biology, and agriculture.”

To publish your own datasets, you can simply use the open-standards of schema.org. The number of publicly available datasets is likely to continue growing as more publishers conform to the standard.

NOTE: At this time, Google does not provide an API for searching or downloading the free datasets.

More information about the release is available on Google’s blog.

The post Google Published 25 Million Free Datasets appeared first on DataMounts.

Cloud is the platform of the future, and with every passing day, an increasing number of organizations are trying to get their share of cloud-based advantages. You could be an IT professional, a manager or the owner of an organization. Irrespective of your title, if you are well-informed, competitive and development-oriented, it’s unlikely that you would get into a debate on the relevance of cloud.

Among the various cloud computing services, Microsoft Azure is a distinguished name. It’s a cloud platform that helps you build, deploy, manage services and applications on a vast global network.

Rising popularity? A thousand new users are adopting Azure every day. More than 360,000 organizations are joining the Microsoft Azure cloud every year. (Source: Microsoft)

Such extensive usage demands continuous learning and upgrading of necessary Azure cloud skills. That’s where Microsoft Azure Certifications comes in!

AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam

The AZ-103 Certification Exam has been introduced as a replacement for the AZ-100, AZ-101 or AZ-102 exams. The new exam is available for registration on or after May 1st, 2019. Clearing this exam provides you with the Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate badge.

The Reason for Replacement

To simplify the certifications earning process. Earlier, one had to pass both 100 and 101 exams to earn the Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification. Now, you are only required to take one exam, the AZ-103, which is a combination of both 100 and 101 exam objectives.

Certification Purpose & Prerequisites

The AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification exam validates and tests your knowledge as an Azure Administrator. The candidate’s expertise to manage cloud services range from computing, storage, networking and security to other cloud capabilities. All these skills are tested by the exam.

There are no prerequisites to take the AZ-103 Certification exam. However, if you are new to Microsoft Azure Development, you may first want to take AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals Certification exam. It validates your understanding of Microsoft Azure fundamentals.

Who Can Take This Exam?

• Azure Administrators managing cloud services, including storage, security, networking, and compute cloud capabilities.

• Candidates with a comprehensive understanding of each cloud service across the complete IT lifecycle.

• Professionals with abilities to use PowerShell, the Command Line Interface, ARM templates, Azure Portal, virtualization, operating systems, cloud infrastructure, storage, and networking.

AZ-103 Exam Details

• AZ-103 Exam duration: 210 minutes; 60 questions; pass score 700/1000; no negative marking
• Question types: 2 labs (with several tasks), 2-4 Case studies & Multiple-choice questions
• Multiple-choice questions are of following types:
  • • Single-correct answer
    • Up to ‘n’ correct answers (they tell how many answers to choose)
    • Fill in the blanks
    • Order statements in the right order
• The exam is divided into sections. You can go back and update the answer but only within sections. Once you are out of a section, you cannot go back

AZ-103 Exam Tips

• Don’t worry memorizing PowerShell/CLI. Understand the structure of the syntax
• For PowerShell, focus on the new ‘AZ’ module, not the older ‘AzureRM’
• Between PowerShell and CLI, the focus is more on PowerShell commands
• Labs don’t mandate the use of CLI or PowerShell; Only the result matters
• Don’t fret about ARM templates. You just need to understand its layout. You will not be required to create one but will be asked to pick the missing syntax
• Don’t worry about memorizing trivial information like CDN features, SKU details, etc., as these can change too often and cannot be meaningfully tested
• Expect questions on cost optimization/effectiveness
• Take an Azure subscription & practice the labs from Microsoft Learning, LinkedIn Free Trial
• Definitely, do a practice test to gauge your preparedness before the exam. You can access some free test here. WhizLabs, TestPrepTraining, ExamTopics
• Other common questions on Azure Certification & study tips are covered here
• Preferably, avoid taking the exam from home. There have been a lot of issues
• Expect the labs to be very slow. It will test your patience

Domains with % Weight & Topics Covered:

Manage Azure subscriptions and resources (15-20%)

Manage Azure subscriptions

• Assign Administrator Permissions

1. Add or change Azure subscription administrators [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Administrator role permissions in Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. View and assign administrator roles in Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
4. Assign administrator and non-administrator roles to users with Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• Configure Cost Center Quotas and Tagging

1. Azure subscription and service limits, quotas, and constraints [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Manage and request quotas for Azure resources [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Use tags to organize your Azure resources [Microsoft – Azure – Resource Manager]
4. Sample – Enforce tag and its value [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
5. Sample – Billing tags policy initiative [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
6. Use tags to organize your Azure resources [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
7. Prevent unexpected charges with Azure billing and cost management [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• configure Azure subscription policies at Azure subscription level

1. Add or change Azure subscription administrators [Microsoft – Azure – Billing]
2. Overview of the Azure Policy service [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Tutorial: Create and manage policies to enforce compliance [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
4. Azure Policy definition structure [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

Analyze resource utilization and consumption

• configure diagnostic settings on resources

1. Collect and consume log data from your Azure resources [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
2. Automatically enable Diagnostic Settings at resource creation using a Resource Manager template [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• create baseline for resources
• create and test alerts

1. Overview of alerts in Microsoft Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
2. Create, view, and manage activity log alerts using Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Create, view, and manage log alerts using Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
4. Alerts on activity log [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
5. Log alerts in Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• analyze alerts across subscription

1. Azure Monitor alerting just got better! [Microsoft – Azure – Blog]
2. Monitor at scale in Azure Monitor with multi-resource metric alerts [Microsoft – Azure – Blog]

• analyze metrics across subscription

1. Azure Monitor data platform [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Advanced features of Azure Metrics Explorer [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• create action groups

1. Create and manage action groups in the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• monitor for unused resources
• monitor spend

1. Use cost alerts to monitor usage and spending [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Understand Azure spending limit and how to remove it [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Tutorial: Create and manage Azure budgets [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• report on spend

1. What is Azure Cost Management? [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Quickstart: Explore and analyze costs with Cost analysis [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• utilize Log Search query functions

1. Using functions in Azure Monitor log queries [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
2. Get started with Azure Monitor log queries [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
3. Analyze log data in Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
4. Writing advanced queries in Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
5. Azure Monitor log queries [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
6. Search queries in Azure Monitor logs [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
7. Azure Monitor log query examples [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• view alerts in Log Analytics

1. View or analyze data collected with Log Analytics log search [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
2. Log alert queries in Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

Manage resource groups

• use Azure policies for resource groups

1. Tutorial: Create and manage policies to enforce compliance [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• configure resource locks

1. Lock resources to prevent unexpected changes [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Using Azure resource manager policy and Azure lock to control your Azure resources [Microsoft – Blog – Developer]

• configure resource policies

1. Portal Preview of Azure Resource Policy [Microsoft – Blog – Azure]
2. Announcing Azure Resource Policy general availability [Microsoft – Blog – Azure]
3. Azure Subscription Governance – Controlling resources with Tags, Policies, and Locks [Microsoft – Blog – TechNet]

• identify auditing requirements

1. Azure logging and auditing [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• implement and set tagging on resource groups

1. Resource naming and tagging decision guide [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Everything you need to know about resource tagging in Azure [Blog]

• move resources across resource groups

1. Move resources to new resource group or subscription [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Move a Windows VM to another Azure subscription or resource group [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Move a Recovery Services vault across Azure Subscriptions and Resource Groups [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• remove resource groups

1. Azure Resource Manager resource group deletion [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

Managed role based access control (RBAC)

• create a custom role

1. Custom roles for Azure resources [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Tutorial: Create a custom role for Azure resources using Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Tutorial: Create a custom role for Azure resources using Azure CLI [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
4. Create custom roles for Azure resources using Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• configure access to Azure resources by assigning roles

1. What is role-based access control (RBAC) for Azure resources? [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Built-in roles for Azure resources [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• configure management access to Azure

1. Manage access to Azure resources using RBAC and the Azure portal [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Manage access to Azure management with conditional access [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• troubleshoot RBAC

1. Troubleshoot RBAC for Azure resources [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Common problem when using Azure resource groups & RBAC [Microsoft – Blog – Developer]
3. View activity logs for RBAC changes to Azure resources [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• implement RBAC policies
• assign RBAC Roles

1. Set RBAC roles for administrative access [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Understanding Role Based Access Control [Microsoft – Docs – Exchange]
3. Tutorial: Grant a group access to Azure resources using RBAC and Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
4. Manage access to Azure resources using RBAC and Azure CLI [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

Implement and manage storage (15-20%)

Create and configure storage accounts

• configure network access to the storage account

1. Configure Azure Storage firewalls and virtual networks [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Manage storage account settings in the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Authorizing access to Azure Storage [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• create and configure storage account

1. Create a storage account [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Azure storage account overview [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• generate shared access signature

1. Using shared access signatures (SAS) [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Generate SAS token [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
3. Getting Started with Shared Access Signatures (SAS) [Microsoft – Azure – Storage account]

• install and use Azure Storage Explorer

1. Get started with Storage Explorer [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]
2. Quickstart: Use Azure Storage Explorer to create a blob in object storage [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Connect storage explorer to an Azure Stack subscription or a storage account [Microsoft – Docs – Azure stack]
4. Introduction to Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• manage access keys

1. Manage storage account settings in the Azure portal – Access Keys [ Microsoft Docs]
2. Authorize with Shared Key [Microsoft Docs]

• monitor activity log by using Log Analytics

1. Collect and analyze Azure activity logs in Log Analytics workspace in Azure Monitor [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• implement Azure storage replication

1. Azure Storage redundancy [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Geo-redundant storage (GRS): Cross-regional replication for Azure Storage [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Designing highly available applications using RA-GRS [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
4. Locally redundant storage (LRS): Low-cost data redundancy for Azure Storage [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

Import and export data to Azure

• create export from Azure job

1. What is Azure Import/Export service? [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Creating an export job for the Azure Import/Export service [Microsoft – Azure – Storage

• create import into Azure job

1. Creating an import job for the Azure Import/Export service [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• Use Azure Data Box

1. What is Azure Data Box? [Microsoft – Azure – Data box family]
2. Azure Data Box Documentation – Offline Transfer [Microsoft – Azure – Data box family]
3. Quickstart: Deploy Azure Data Box using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Data box family]
4. What is Azure Data Box Edge? [Microsoft – Azure – Data box family]
5. What is Azure Data Box Disk? [Microsoft – Azure – Data box family]

• configure and use Azure blob storage

1. Introduction to Azure Blob storage [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Quickstart: Upload, download, and list blobs with the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Manage Azure Blob Storage resources with Storage Explorer [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• configure Azure content delivery network (CDN) endpoints

1. What is a content delivery network on Azure? [Microsoft – Azure – CDN]
2. Quickstart: Create an Azure CDN profile and endpoint [Microsoft – Azure – CDN]
3. Tutorial: Add Azure CDN to an Azure App Service web app [Microsoft – Azure – CDN]

Configure Azure files

• create Azure file share

1. Create a file share in Azure Files [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Quickstart: Create and manage Azure file shares with Azure Storage Explorer [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Quickstart: Create and manage Azure Files share with Windows virtual machines [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
4. Quickstart: Create and manage Azure file shares with the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
5. Quickstart: Create and manage an Azure file share with Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
6. Quickstart: Create and manage Azure file shares using Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• create Azure File Sync service

1. Deploy Azure File Sync [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Tutorial: Extend Windows file servers with Azure File Sync [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

• create Azure sync group

• troubleshoot Azure File Sync

1. Troubleshoot Azure File Sync [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
2. Troubleshoot Azure Files problems in Windows [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]
3. Monitor Azure File Sync [Microsoft – Azure – Storage]

Implement Azure backup

• configure and review backup reports

1. Configure Azure Backup reports [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
2. Preview: Azure Backup reports through Power BI [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
3. Update the Azure Backup central reporting content pack [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
4. Microsoft Azure : Azure Backup Report with Recovery Services Vault & Power BI [Microsoft – TechNet – Article]

• perform backup operation

1. Introducing backup for Azure file shares [Microsoft – Blog – Storage]

• create Recovery Services Vault

1. Recovery Services vaults overview [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
2. Monitor and manage Recovery Services vaults [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
3. Back up Azure VMs in a Recovery Services vault [Microsoft – Azure – updates]

• create and configure backup policy

• perform a restore operation

Deploy and manage virtual machines (VMs) (15-20%)

Create and configure a VM for Windows and Linux

• configure high availability

1. Manage the availability of Windows virtual machines in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Manage the availability of Linux virtual machines [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
3. Tutorial: Create and deploy highly available virtual machines with the Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]

• configure monitoring, networking, storage, and virtual machine size

1. How to monitor virtual machines in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machines]
2. Quickstart: Create a virtual network using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
3. Create a virtual network [Microsoft – Docs – Virtualization]
4. Tutorial: Create and manage Azure virtual networks for Windows virtual machines with Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machines]
5. Add network interfaces to or remove network interfaces from virtual machines [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
6. Sizes for Windows virtual machines in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
7. General purpose virtual machine sizes [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]

• deploy and configure scale sets

1. What are virtual machine scale sets? [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Quickstart: Create a virtual machine scale set in the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine Scale Sets]
3. Resize a Windows VM [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
4. Quickstart: Create a Windows virtual machine scale set with an Azure template [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
5. Tutorial: Create a virtual machine scale set and deploy a highly available app on Windows with Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]

Automate deployment of VMs

• modify Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template

1. Quickstart: Create and deploy Azure Resource Manager templates by using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Resource Manager]
2. Deploy resources with Resource Manager templates and Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Resource Manager]
3. Update a resource in an Azure Resource Manager template [Microsoft – Azure – Architecture]
4. Create Azure Resource Manager template [Microsoft – Azure – Resource Manager]

• configure location of new VMs

1. Quickstart: Create a Windows virtual machine in Azure with PowerShell [Microsoft – Docs]
2. Quickstart: Create a Windows virtual machine with the Azure CLI [Microsoft – Docs]

•  configure VHD template

1. Virtual hard disk deployment template [Microsoft – Docs – Azure]

• deploy from template

1. Create a Windows virtual machine from a Resource Manager template [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Download the template for a VM [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
3. Deploy a Windows Virtual Machine with Azure Resource Manager Templates and PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
4. Tutorial: create a VM using a community template [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Stack]
5. Build an Azure virtual machine using an Azure RM template [Microsoft – Docs – Azure DevOps]

• save a deployment as an ARM template

1. How to use/create ARM templates for deployments [Microsoft – Blog – Developer]
2. Creating Azure Resources with ARM Templates Step by Step [Microsoft – Blog – Developer]

• deploy Windows and Linux VMs

1. Quickstart: Create a Windows virtual machine in Azure with PowerShell [Microsoft – Docs]
2. Quickstart: Create a Windows virtual machine with the Azure CLI [Microsoft – Docs]
3. Quickstart: Create a Linux virtual machine in Azure with PowerShell [Microsoft – Docs]
4. Quickstart: Create a Linux virtual machine with the Azure CLI [Microsoft – Docs]

Manage Azure VM

• add data discs

1. Attach a data disk to a Windows VM with PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Add a disk to a Linux VM using CLI [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
3. Use the portal to attach a data disk to a Linux VM [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
4. Attach a managed data disk to a Windows VM by using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Lab services]

• add network interfaces

1. Add network interfaces to or remove network interfaces from virtual machines [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Create, change, or delete a network interface [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Networks]

• automate configuration management by using PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) and VM Agent by using custom script extensions

1. Azure Automation State Configuration Overview [Microsoft – Azure – Automation]
2. Getting started with Azure Automation State Configuration [Microsoft – Azure – Automation]
3. Introduction to the Azure Desired State Configuration extension handler [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
4. Custom Script Extension for Windows [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
5. Virtual machine extensions and features for Windows [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
6. Using DSC on Microsoft Azure [Microsoft – Docs – PowerShell]
7. Configure a Linux virtual machine with Desired State Configuration [Microsoft – Azure – Automation]
8. Using Azure Custom Script Extension to execute scripts on Azure VMs [Microsoft – Blog – TechNet]
9. Use the Azure Custom Script Extension Version 2 with Linux virtual machines [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]

• manage VM sizes; move VMs from one resource group to another

1. Manage the availability of Windows virtual machines in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Move resources to new resource group or subscription [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Stack]
3. Resize virtual machines [Microsoft – Azure – Blog]

• redeploy VMs

1. Redeploy Windows virtual machine to new Azure node [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
2. Redeploy Linux virtual machine to new Azure node [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
3. Redeploy a VM in a lab in Azure DevTest Labs [Microsoft – Azure – Lab Services]

Manage VM backups

• configure VM backup

1. Back up a virtual machine in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
2. Backing up and restoring virtual machines [Microsoft – Docs – Windows]
3. Back up an Azure VM from the VM settings [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
4. About Azure VM backup [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
5. Back up Azure VMs in a Recovery Services vault [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
6. Frequently asked questions-Back up Azure VMs [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]

• define backup policies

1. Manage backup policy for a VM [Microsoft]

• implement backup policies
• perform VM restore

1. Restore Azure VMs [Microsoft – Azure – Backup]
2. Instantly restore your Azure Virtual Machines using Azure Backup [Microsoft – Blog – Backup]

• Azure Site Recovery

1. About Site Recovery [Microsoft – Azure – Site Recovery]
2. Azure Site Recovery: Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) for Azure, by Azure [Microsoft – Blog – Virtual Machine]
3. Set up disaster recovery to Azure for on-premises physical servers [Microsoft – Azure – Site Recovery]

Configure and manage virtual networks (30-35%)

Create connectivity between virtual networks

• create and configure VNET peering

1. Virtual network peering [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
2. Create, change, or delete a virtual network peering [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
3. Tutorial: Connect virtual networks with virtual network peering using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]

• create and configure VNET to VNET

1. Configure a VNet-to-VNet connection (classic) [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
2. Configure a VNet-to-VNet VPN gateway connection by using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
3. Configure a VNet-to-VNet VPN gateway connection using PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
4. Configure a VNet-to-VNet VPN gateway connection using Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]

• verify virtual network connectivity

1. Verify a VPN Gateway connection [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
2. Configuring and validating VNet or VPN connections [Microsoft – Support]

• create virtual network gateway

1. Create a route-based VPN gateway using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
2. Configure a virtual network gateway for ExpressRoute using PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – ExpressRoute]
3. Configure a virtual network gateway for ExpressRoute using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – ExpressRoute]

Implement and manage virtual networking

• configure private and public IP addresses network routes, network interface, subnets, and virtual network

1. Tutorial: Route network traffic with a route table using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
2. IP address types and allocation methods in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
3. Virtual network traffic routing [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
4. Create, change, or delete a public IP address [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
5. Add, change, or remove IP addresses for an Azure network interface [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
6. Configure private IP addresses for a virtual machine using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
7. How to reset network interface for Azure Windows VM [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Machine]
8. Configure private IP addresses for a virtual machine using the Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
9. Create a virtual network (classic) with multiple subnets [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
10. Add, change, or delete a virtual network subnet [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
11. Create, change, or delete a virtual network [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]

Configure name resolution

• configure Azure DNS

1. Azure DNS Documentation [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]
2. Quickstart: Create an Azure DNS zone and record using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]
3. Quickstart: Create an Azure DNS zone and record using Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]
4. Quickstart: Create an Azure DNS zone and record using Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]

• configure custom DNS settings

1. Use Azure DNS to provide custom domain settings for an Azure service [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]
2. Tutorial: Map an existing custom DNS name to Azure App Service [Microsoft – Azure – App Service]

• configure private and public DNS zones

1. Create an Azure DNS private zone using Azure PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]
2. Use Azure DNS for private domains [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]
3. Tutorial: Host your domain in Azure DNS [Microsoft – Azure – DNS]

Create and configure a Network Security Group (NSG)

• create security rules

1. Security groups [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
2. Create, change, or delete a network security group [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]

• associate NSG to a subnet or network interface

1. Securing Azure Virtual Machines using Network Security Groups (NSGs) [Blog] [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]

• identify required ports

1. Security groups [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]

• evaluate effective security rules

1. Microsoft Azure Network Security Group effective security rules evaluation [Blog] [Microsoft – Azure – Security]

Implement Azure load balancer

• configure internal load balancer

1. Internal Load Balancing [Microsoft – Azure – Blog]
2. Create an internal load balancer by using the Azure PowerShell module [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]
3. Create an internal load balancer to load balance VMs using Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]
4. Create an internal load balancer using a template [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]

• configure load balancing rules

1. Configure load balancing and outbound rules in Standard Load Balancer using Azure CLI [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]

• configure public load balancer

1. Creating a public load balancer using a template [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]

• troubleshoot load balancing

1. Troubleshoot Azure Load Balancer [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]
2. Metrics and health diagnostics for Standard Load Balancer [Microsoft – Azure – Load Balancer]

Monitor and troubleshoot virtual networking

• monitor on-premises connectivity

1. Diagnose on-premises connectivity via VPN gateways [Microsoft – Azure – Network Watcher]
2. Choose a solution for connecting an on-premises network to Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Architecture]

• use Network resource monitoring

1. Network Performance Monitor solution in Azure [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]
2. Network Performance Monitor solution: Performance monitoring [Microsoft – Azure – Azure Monitor]

• use Network Watcher

1. What is Azure Network Watcher? [Microsoft – Azure – Network Watcher]
2. Introduction to resource troubleshooting in Azure Network Watcher [Microsoft – Azure – Network Watcher]
3. Troubleshoot Virtual Network gateway and Connections using Azure Network Watcher [Microsoft – Azure – Network Watcher]

• troubleshoot external networking

• troubleshoot virtual network connectivity

1. Troubleshooting connectivity problems between Azure VMs [Microsoft – Azure – Virtual Network]
2. Troubleshoot Virtual Network gateway and Connections using Azure Network Watcher [Microsoft – Azure – Network Watcher]

Integrate on premises network with Azure virtual network

• create and configure Azure VPN Gateway

1. Tutorial: Create and manage a VPN gateway using PowerShell [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
2. About VPN Gateway configuration settings [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
3. Create a route-based VPN gateway using CLI [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
4. Create a route-based VPN gateway using PowerShell

• create and configure site to site VPN

1. Create a Site-to-Site connection in the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
2. Create a virtual network with a Site-to-Site VPN connection using CLI [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]
3. Configure a site-to-site VPN over ExpressRoute Microsoft peering [Microsoft – Azure – Expressroute]

• configure Express Route

1. Connect an on-premises network to Azure using ExpressRoute [Microsoft – Azure – Architecture]

• verify on premises connectivity

1. Verifying ExpressRoute connectivity [Microsoft – Azure – Expressroute]

• troubleshoot on premises connectivity with Azure

1. Diagnose on-premises connectivity via VPN gateways [Microsoft – Azure – Network Watcher]
2. Troubleshoot VPN Gateway [Microsoft – Azure – VPN Gateway]

Manage identities (15-20%)

Manage Azure Active Directory (AD)

• add custom domains

1. Add your custom domain name using the Azure Active Directory portal [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
2. Configure a custom domain name [Microsoft – Docs – Enterprise Mobility + Security]

Manage Azure AD objects (users, groups, and devices)

• create users and groups

1. Add or delete users using Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
2. Create a basic group and add members using Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• manage user and group properties

1. Edit your group information using Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
2. Add or remove a group from another group using Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• manage device settings

1. How to manage devices using the Azure portal [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
2. Manage your connected devices from the My Profile (preview) portal [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• perform bulk user updates

1. Importing data into my directory [Azure PowerShell]

• manage guest accounts

Implement and manage hybrid identities

• install Azure AD Connect including password hash and pass-through synchronization

1. Azure AD Connect and Azure AD Connect Health installation roadmap [Microsoft Docs]
2. Migrate from federation to password hash synchronization for Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
3. Azure Active Directory Pass-through Authentication: Quick start [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
4. What is password hash synchronization with Azure AD? [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
5. Azure AD Connect: Accounts and permissions [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
6. Azure Active Directory Pass-through Authentication: Current limitations [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
7. Implement password hash synchronization with Azure AD Connect sync [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• use Azure AD Connect to configure federation with on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)

1. Integrate on-premises Active Directory domains with Azure Active Directory [Microsoft – Azure – architecture]
2. Choose a solution for integrating on-premises Active Directory with Azure [Microsoft – Azure – architecture]

• manage Azure AD Connect

1. Next steps and how to manage Azure AD Connect [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• manage password sync and password writeback

1. Tutorial: Enabling password writeback [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]
2. How-to: Configure password writeback [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA)

• configure user accounts for MFA

1. Configure Azure Multi-Factor Authentication settings [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• enable MFA by using bulk update

1. PowerShell: Enable/Enforce Multifactor Authentication for All (Bulk) Users in Office 365 [Microsoft – Blog – TechNet]

• configure fraud alerts

1. Fraud alert [Azure AD Docs]

• configure bypass options

1. One-time bypass [Azure AD Docs]

• configure Trusted IPs

1. Trusted IPs [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

• configure verification methods

1. Choose verification options [Microsoft – Azure – Active Directory]

Additional Tips

I think the best thing that you can do after reading this, or even meanwhile, is to open a free Azure Trial (or a few), and play with those features, follow the tutorials and you shouldn’t have any problems with the exam!

Conclusion

Microsoft launched the AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam as a response to feedback they received for AZ-100 and AZ-101 exams. The idea is to simplify and streamline the Azure Administrator path as much as possible.

The Certification exam not only adds to your existing skills, but it also validates them for your employers. If you are willing to advance your career prospects as an Azure administrator, this exam could be beneficial for you. Please remember, practice is as essential as knowing how to prepare for this exam.

Did I miss any cool links in this guide? Let me know in the comments!

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Leave a comment and don’t forget to like the DataMount Tech Page  on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter , LinkedIn for the latest news and technical articles.

The post How to Prepare for AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam? appeared first on DataMounts.

Over the past few months, I received many queries from the readers of my blog regarding preparations for the Azure Certification exam. I compiled this post (Azure Certification FAQs) with all the questions I received. Make sure to go through them before you begin your preparation.

I will update this post as and when I receive unique questions.

Full Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I receive a commission when you purchase through them.

1. Does it makes sense to take Azure Certification Exams?

If you are in unchartered waters, it is sensible to use a compass. Or in unknown terrain, a GPS

Well, if you are just starting out, the certifications are your GPS to to upskill yourself. Think of certifications as a systematic plan to develop your skills. So, in a way, I would say, yes! they are worth my dime

If you already have a ton of experience working in Azure, then probably not! I have not seen anyone getting hired solely because they have done certifications. You do not require a GPS to navigate your city

Although certifications themselves will not lead to a job, but at least a talking point with a recruiter

2. I am new to cloud computing. Which platform should I choose between Azure, AWS and GCP for better career growth?

You will not go wrong with any!

But, instead of thinking how any platform will add value to your career, think in terms of how you can add value (cost, scale) to your organization by being better informed about the major cloud platforms.

Organizations prefer to adopt a multi-cloud strategy, meaning they will not lay all theirs eggs in one basket (either Azure or AWS or GCP)

So, understand how each cloud platform’s services would best meet the needs of your organization. This course should get you started with that

3. Which Azure Certification should I take?

Microsoft has organized Azure Certification exams based on roles into 3 levels. You should look at your role in the organization and decide which certification to pursue.

For example, if I was a C# developer with 5 years of work experience, I would go with AZ-203, but probably also AZ-900 before that to get all the bases covered.

Look at the available options and marry your role with roles offered by Azure or your goals

Fundamental Certification:

Anyone: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)

Associate Certification:

Security Engineer: Azure Security Engineer Associate (AZ-500)

Administrator: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-103)

AI Engineer: Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-100)

Data Engineer: Azure Data Engineer Associate (DP-200), (DP-201)

Data Scientist: Azure Data Scientist Associate (DP-100)

Developer: Azure Developer Associate (AZ-203)

Expert Certification:

DevOps Engineer: Azure DevOps Expert (AZ-400)

Solutions Architect: Azure Solutions Expert (AZ-300 & AZ-301)

4. Can I pass the Azure Certification Exams just by watching videos?

Even if you can, please don’t do it. Microsoft sponsors you to get certified by offering a free subscription for 30 days. Make use of that. If you run out of that, get another

5. What if I fail in the exam? Will I get another chance?

If you are worried about the Exam result, purchase ‘Exam Replays’ which will allow you to have an additional go at the exam for a slightly higher exam fee

6. What is the single best source to prepare for Azure Certification?

Honestly, I get exhausted learning from a single source. I start with documentation, and when it becomes too much, I move on to watch some videos from Pluralsight or LinkedIn Learning. And when I get bored of them as well, I do some labs or practice tests. This helps me to study constantly without getting saturated (make sure to stick to one topic)

7. Which learning resource has the most updated content?

The rapid pace of Azure release means that every other content provider will have tough time catching up. So, Microsoft documentation is the best place to look for the most updated information

Having said that, the documentation is in-depth and vast, sometimes more than is required for the exam. You can easily get lost in its contents.

8. You recommended so many courses. What is the best strategy to clear the AZ-103 exam?

The best strategy would be to take more than 1 course.

First, take 1 module.

Start with the AZ-103 Study Guide. Also have free trials of Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning or Udemy. Cross-refer them. The content is too exhaustive, so do a context-switch time and again. Learning the same concepts from different people will give you a different perspective and help you in understanding the concepts better.

It is similar to 5 blind men who never knew about an elephant, trying to conceptualize an elephant. If you learn only from a single source, then you touch an elephant’s tail and say the elephant is similar to a snake

Go through the labs Microsoft has provided and do them with Azure subscription.

Repeat for other modules

Once done, verify your understanding with practice tests

This will be the perfect strategy. Even if you will not be able to implement it 100%, since the process is there, you will do well!

9. Should I just use dumps to prepare for the exam?

Theoretically, you can. But, ponder over these questions:

a. Can you answer a job interview question?

b. Can you solve a real-world problem?

c. Can you meaningfully understand/explain what’s happening in the project?

Passing with dumps is like Being Confident without having Clarity. You will be confident in your skills. But you will look stupid! Do it the harder way, unlike 99% of your peers, so you stand out in the top 1%

On the other hand, I do recommend signing up for practice tests to validate your skill, so it will reinforce your understanding

10. Many people have passed the exam with dumps. Should I follow suit?

if the above answer doesn’t convince you, read the Microsoft policy on using dumps:

“If Microsoft learns that a candidate used a “brain dump” site to prepare for an exam, this candidate will be permanently banned or prohibited from taking any future Microsoft Certification exams and may be decertified from the Microsoft Certification Program. In addition, test scores and certifications, if applicable, may be revoked. These actions may be taken even if the candidate did not intend to defraud the Microsoft Certification Program.“

11. I am a Project Manager handling cloud projects. Is there a certification that I can do?

Unfortunately, there isn’t any certification targeting managers at this point in time. But, if you want to enhance your skills, go for AZ-900 exam

12. I am into AWS, looking to get certified in Azure. Can you write a post, that compares the services from both the platforms?

Well, I am planning to write one.

13. I want to do AZ-103. Should I do AZ-900 first and then AZ-103

If you already have good work experience in Azure, go directly to AZ-103. If you are getting started with cloud and Azure, begin with AZ-900

14. I have an exam in 2 weeks. How long does it take to prepare for the exam?

I get this question way too often. I cannot tell you anything without knowing your prior experience and how much you have already worked in Azure.

If you have never worked in Azure before, it is a mountain to climb. Sorry, nothing to scare you, but the amount of material to go through for even the introductory certification like AZ-900 is huge.

On the other hand, if you have already work in Azure, with your bases covered, preparation should be a breeze

15. Do I need to memorize the Azure PowerShell and CLI commands for the exam?

The exam will test you to know both GUI and commands. A few questions require PowerShell knowledge. Even fewer tests CLI. But don’t bother memorizing each command as you would not be asked to write one. Get an azure subscription and follow the instructor/ebook/documentation. Just write the commands (preferably) or copy and paste commands when you do the labs. With time, the syntax will stick in your memory.

Also, you don’t need to know the exact command name. Just understand the structure of the commands. The PowerShell questions will be like ‘Choose the right command of the following for this scenario‘ types

Also, for PowerShell, learn the AZ module, not the AzureRM module

16. The ARM template seems complex. How do I study them? How are they tested?

As with PowerShell commands, understand the way it is structured. For example, an ARM template has 5 top level sections, and so on,. They will never tell you to write the syntax to deploy a Virtual Machine. Mostly, it will be a case of identifying the missing parts

17. I heard there are questions with many correct answers. How do I know how many to select?

There are questions with a single correct answer and some questions with multiple correct answers. When it is the latter, the exam usually tells you to select ‘2’, ‘3’ correct answers from the options

18. Can you go back and change the answers you marked earlier?

The exam is organized into sections, probably sections of 3 or 4 questions that test on a scenario. Within the section, you can go back and change your answers. However, once you are out of a section, you can’t. Similar with Labs

19. Do I need to memorize the features of different SKUs? Or that of App Service Plans?

You don’t have to memorize anything. Remember that the features of any SKUs change too often to meaningfully test the candidate. For example, App Service Plan Free tier has 1 GB of memory. Microsoft may decide to upgrade to 2 GB based on customer feedback. So don’t worry about such trivial information

20. Does the lab require you to use PowerShell or CLI?

You can use any method you are comfortable with in labs. All that matters is the end result

21. How the labs in the Azure exam are designed?

The labs are a sequence of steps related to each other that must be done in order. For example,

• • • Step 1 may be to create a VNet.
    • Step 2 may be to join the VNet to another VNet and so on.

22. How AI-100 is different from DP-100?

Short answer: AI-100 is targeted for AI Engineers. DP-100 is targeted for Data Scientists.

I hope you get some value out of these Azure Certification FAQs. What do you think? Did I leave out any of your pestering concern regarding the exam? Let me know in the comments section below

The post 20+ Commonly Asked Questions about Azure Certification – FAQ appeared first on DataMounts.

Data Visualization is a big part of a data scientist’s jobs. In the early stages of a project, you’ll often be doing an Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) to gain some insights into your data. Creating visualizations really helps make things clearer and easier to understand, especially with larger, high dimensional datasets.

Towards the end of your project, it’s important to be able to present your final results in a clear, concise, and compelling manner that your audience, whom are often non-technical clients, can understand.

Matplotlib is a popular Python library that can be used to create your Data Visualizations quite easily. However, setting up the data, parameters, figures, and plotting can get quite messy and tedious to do every time you do a new project.

In this blog post, we’re going to look at 5 data visualizations and write some quick and easy functions for them with Python’s Matplotlib. In the meantime, here’s a great chart for selecting the right visualization for the job!

Scatter Plots

Scatter plots are great for showing the relationship between two variables since you can directly see the raw distribution of the data. You can also view this relationship for different groups of data simple by colour coding the groups as seen in the first figure below. Want to visualise the relationship between three variables? No problem! Just use another parameters, like point size, to encode that third variable as we can see in the second figure below. All of these points we just discussed also line right up with the first chart.

Now for the code. We first import Matplotlib’s pyplot with the alias “plt”. To create a new plot figure we call plt.subplots() . We pass the x-axis and y-axis data to the function and then pass those to ax.scatter() to plot the scatter plot. We can also set the point size, point color, and alpha transparency. You can even set the y-axis to have a logarithmic scale. The title and axis labels are then set specifically for the figure. That’s an easy to use function that creates a scatter plot end to end!

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

def scatterplot(x_data, y_data, x_label="", y_label="", title="", color = "r", yscale_log=False):

    # Create the plot object
    _, ax = plt.subplots()

    # Plot the data, set the size (s), color and transparency (alpha)
    # of the points
    ax.scatter(x_data, y_data, s = 10, color = color, alpha = 0.75)

    if yscale_log == True:
        ax.set_yscale('log')

    # Label the axes and provide a title
    ax.set_title(title)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)

Line Plots

Line plots are best used when you can clearly see that one variable varies greatly with another i.e they have a high co-variance. Lets take a look at the figure below to illustrate. We can clearly see that there is a large amount of variation in the percentages over time for all majors. Plotting these with a scatter plot would be extremely cluttered and quite messy, making it hard to really understand and see what’s going on. Line plots are perfect for this situation because they basically give us a quick summary of the co-variance of the two variables (percentage and time). Again, we can also use grouping by colour encoding. Line charts fall into the “over-time” category from our first chart.

Here’s the code for the line plot. It’s quite similar to the scatter above. with just some minor variations in variables.

def lineplot(x_data, y_data, x_label="", y_label="", title=""):
    # Create the plot object
    _, ax = plt.subplots()

    # Plot the best fit line, set the linewidth (lw), color and
    # transparency (alpha) of the line
    ax.plot(x_data, y_data, lw = 2, color = '#539caf', alpha = 1)

    # Label the axes and provide a title
    ax.set_title(title)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)

Histograms

Histograms are useful for viewing (or really discovering)the distribution of data points. Check out the histogram below where we plot the frequency vs IQ histogram. We can clearly see the concentration towards the center and what the median is. We can also see that it follows a Gaussian distribution. Using the bars (rather than scatter points, for example) really gives us a clearly visualization of the relative difference between the frequency of each bin. The use of bins (discretization) really helps us see the “bigger picture” where as if we use all of the data points without discrete bins, there would probably be a lot of noise in the visualization, making it hard to see what is really going on.

The code for the histogram in Matplotlib is shown below. There are two parameters to take note of. Firstly, the n_bins parameters controls how many discrete bins we want for our histogram. More bins will give us finer information but may also introduce noise and take us away from the bigger picture; on the other hand, less bins gives us a more “birds eye view” and a bigger picture of what’s going on without the finer details. Secondly, the cumulative parameter is a Boolean which allows us to select whether our histogram is cumulative or not. This is basically selecting either the Probability Density Function (PDF) or the Cumulative Density Function (CDF).

def histogram(data, n_bins, cumulative=False, x_label = "", y_label = "", title = ""):
    _, ax = plt.subplots()
    ax.hist(data, n_bins = n_bins, cumulative = cumulative, color = '#539caf')
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_title(title)

Imagine we want to compare the distribution of two variables in our data. One might think that you’d have to make two separate histograms and put them side-by-side to compare them. But, there’s actually a better way: we can overlay the histograms with varying transparency. Check out the figure below. The Uniform distribution is set to have a transparency of 0.5 so that we can see what’s behind it. This allows use to directly view the two distributions on the same figure.

There are a few things to set up in code for the overlaid histograms. First, we set the horizontal range to accommodate both variable distributions. According to this range and the desired number of bins we can actually computer the width of each bin. Finally, we plot the two histograms on the same plot, with one of them being slightly more transparent.

# Overlay 2 histograms to compare them
def overlaid_histogram(data1, data2, n_bins = 0, data1_name="", data1_color="#539caf", data2_name="", data2_color="#7663b0", x_label="", y_label="", title=""):
    # Set the bounds for the bins so that the two distributions are fairly compared
    max_nbins = 10
    data_range = [min(min(data1), min(data2)), max(max(data1), max(data2))]
    binwidth = (data_range[1] - data_range[0]) / max_nbins


    if n_bins == 0
    	bins = np.arange(data_range[0], data_range[1] + binwidth, binwidth)
    else: 
    	bins = n_bins

    # Create the plot
    _, ax = plt.subplots()
    ax.hist(data1, bins = bins, color = data1_color, alpha = 1, label = data1_name)
    ax.hist(data2, bins = bins, color = data2_color, alpha = 0.75, label = data2_name)
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_title(title)
    ax.legend(loc = 'best')

Bar Plots

Bar plots are most effective when you are trying to visualize categorical data that has few (probably < 10) categories. If we have too many categories then the bars will be very cluttered in the figure and hard to understand. They’re nice for categorical data because you can easily see the difference between the categories based on the size of the bar (i.e magnitude); categories are also easily divided and colour coded too. There are 3 different types of bar plots we’re going to look at: regular, grouped, and stacked. Check out the code below the figures as we go along.

The regular bar plot is in the first figure below. In the barplot() function, x_data represents the tickers on the x-axis and y_data represents the bar height on the y-axis. The error bar is an extra line centered on each bar that can be drawn to show the standard deviation.

Grouped bar plots allow us to compare multiple categorical variables. Check out the second bar plot below. The first variable we are comparing is how the scores vary by group (groups G1, G2, … etc). We are also comparing the genders themselves with the colour codes. Taking a look at the code, the y_data_list variable is now actually a list of lists, where each sub-list represents a different group. We then loop through each group, and for each group we draw the bar for each tick on the x-axis; each group is also colour coded.

Stacked bar plots are great for visualizing the categorical make-up of different variables. In the stacked bar plot figure below we are comparing the server load from day-to-day. With the colour coded stacks, we can easily see and understand which servers are worked the most on each day and how the loads compare to the other servers on all days. The code for this follows the same style as the grouped bar plot. We loop through each group, except this time we draw the new bars on top of the old ones rather than beside them.

def barplot(x_data, y_data, error_data, x_label="", y_label="", title=""):
    _, ax = plt.subplots()
    # Draw bars, position them in the center of the tick mark on the x-axis
    ax.bar(x_data, y_data, color = '#539caf', align = 'center')
    # Draw error bars to show standard deviation, set ls to 'none'
    # to remove line between points
    ax.errorbar(x_data, y_data, yerr = error_data, color = '#297083', ls = 'none', lw = 2, capthick = 2)
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_title(title)



def stackedbarplot(x_data, y_data_list, colors, y_data_names="", x_label="", y_label="", title=""):
    _, ax = plt.subplots()
    # Draw bars, one category at a time
    for i in range(0, len(y_data_list)):
        if i == 0:
            ax.bar(x_data, y_data_list[i], color = colors[i], align = 'center', label = y_data_names[i])
        else:
            # For each category after the first, the bottom of the
            # bar will be the top of the last category
            ax.bar(x_data, y_data_list[i], color = colors[i], bottom = y_data_list[i - 1], align = 'center', label = y_data_names[i])
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_title(title)
    ax.legend(loc = 'upper right')



def groupedbarplot(x_data, y_data_list, colors, y_data_names="", x_label="", y_label="", title=""):
    _, ax = plt.subplots()
    # Total width for all bars at one x location
    total_width = 0.8
    # Width of each individual bar
    ind_width = total_width / len(y_data_list)
    # This centers each cluster of bars about the x tick mark
    alteration = np.arange(-(total_width/2), total_width/2, ind_width)

    # Draw bars, one category at a time
    for i in range(0, len(y_data_list)):
        # Move the bar to the right on the x-axis so it doesn't
        # overlap with previously drawn ones
        ax.bar(x_data + alteration[i], y_data_list[i], color = colors[i], label = y_data_names[i], width = ind_width)
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_title(title)
    ax.legend(loc = 'upper right')

Box Plots

We previously looked at histograms which were great for visualizing the distribution of variables. But what if we need more information than that? Perhaps we want a clearer view of the standard deviation? Perhaps the median is quite different from the mean and thus we have many outliers? What if there is so skew and many of the values are concentrated to one side?

That’s where box plots come in. Box plots give us all of the information above. The bottom and top of the solid-lined box are always the first and third quartiles (i.e 25% and 75% of the data), and the band inside the box is always the second quartile (the median). The whiskers (i.e the dashed lines with the bars on the end) extend from the box to show the range of the data.

Since the box plot is drawn for each group/variable it’s quite easy to set up. The x_data is a list of the groups/variables. The Matplotlib function boxplot() makes a box plot for each column of the y_data or each vector in sequence y_data; thus each value in x_data corresponds to a column/vector in y_data. All we have to set then are the aesthetics of the plot.

def boxplot(x_data, y_data, base_color="#539caf", median_color="#297083", x_label="", y_label="", title=""):
    _, ax = plt.subplots()

    # Draw boxplots, specifying desired style
    ax.boxplot(y_data
               # patch_artist must be True to control box fill
               , patch_artist = True
               # Properties of median line
               , medianprops = {'color': median_color}
               # Properties of box
               , boxprops = {'color': base_color, 'facecolor': base_color}
               # Properties of whiskers
               , whiskerprops = {'color': base_color}
               # Properties of whisker caps
               , capprops = {'color': base_color})

    # By default, the tick label starts at 1 and increments by 1 for
    # each box drawn. This sets the labels to the ones we want
    ax.set_xticklabels(x_data)
    ax.set_ylabel(y_label)
    ax.set_xlabel(x_label)
    ax.set_title(title)

Conclusion

There are your 5 quick and easy data visualizations using Matplotlib. Abstracting things into functions always makes your code easier to read and use! I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new and useful.

This post was originally posted here.

The post 5 Quick and Easy Data Visualizations using Matplotlib appeared first on DataMounts.

This tutorial features Postfix as an SMTP server, Dovecot for POP/IMAP functionality, and RoundCube as a webmail program for users to check and receive email from a web browser.

The tutorial will also walk you through the process of creating and using a self-signed SSL certificate for use in securing incoming and outgoing email connections.

Requirements

• A Cloud Server running CentOS 7.
• Postfix installed and running.

To check the status of Postfix on the server, use the command:

sudo postfix status

If Postfix is installed and running, you will see the output:

[user@localhost ~]# sudo postfix status
postfix/postfix-script: the Postfix mail system is running: PID: 1681

Also Read: How to get started with Firewalld

Firewall Access

If you have a firewall, you will need to allow access to the following ports:

• SMTP: 25
• POP3: 110
• IMAP: 143
• SMTP Secure: 465
• MSA: 587
• IMAP Secure: 993
• POP3 Secure: 995

Also Read: 30+ Commands to understand Firewalld

Create an SSL Certificate

We will create a self-signed SSL certificate to secure incoming and outgoing email connections:

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout mailserver.key -out mailserver.crt -nodes -days 365

Answer the questions at the prompts, or just hit [Enter] to leave an answer blank. This command will create two files: mailserver.key and mailserver.crt.

Also Read: What Is HTTPS, and Why Should I Care?

Create a folder for the SSL certificate files:

sudo mkdir /etc/postfix/ssl

Then move the files into this folder:

sudo mv mailserver.key /etc/postfix/ssl
sudo mv mailserver.crt /etc/postfix/ssl

Configure Postfix

The following steps will enable a basic Postfix set-up, allowing you to send and receive mail. For more information on these configurations, consult the official documentation.

Before you begin the configuration changes, be sure that you have the most recent version of Postfix by running the command:

sudo yum update postfix

Edit master.cf

First we will edit the /etc/postfix/master.cf file to enable the submission daemon to send and accept mail securely:

sudo nano /etc/postfix/master.cf

Delete the hash mark (#) to un-comment the following lines:

#submission inet n       -       n       -       -       smtpd
#  -o syslog_name=postfix/submission
#  -o smtpd_tls_security_level=encrypt
#  -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING

Save and exit the file.

Edit main.cf

The /etc/postfix/main.cf file contains the configuration options for your Postfix installation. Edit this file:

sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

Make the following changes:

Set Hostname

Edit the line which reads:

#myhostname = host.domain.tld

Delete the hash mark (#) to un-comment the line, and replace host.domain.tld with the hostname of the server:

myhostname = example.com

Set Domain

Edit the line which reads:

#mydomain = domain.tld

Delete the hash mark (#) to un-comment the line, and replace domain.tld with the domain you want to receive mail for:

mydomain = example.com

Enable Other Settings

Delete the hash mark (#) to un-comment the following lines:

#myorigin = $myhostname
#inet_interfaces = all
#inet_interfaces = localhost
#inet_protocols = all
#mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost
#home_mailbox = Maildir/

Add Configurations

Finally, add the following lines to the end of the file:

smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/ssl/mailserver.key
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/ssl/mailserver.crt
smtpd_use_tls=yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache
smtpd_tls_security_level=may

Save and exit the file, then restart Postfix to load the new configurations:

sudo systemctl restart postfix

Test Postfix With Telnet

To test Postfix we will telnet to the server and perform a basic “handshake protocol,” just as an email program would.

First, install Telnet:

sudo yum install telnet

Once Telnet is installed, use it to connect to the server’s SMTP port:

telnet localhost 25

The server will respond with:

[user@localhost ~]$ telnet localhost 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.

Start by telling the server who the mail is being sent from:

mail from: some-person@some-other-server.com

Then tell the server who you are sending mail to, replacing user@example.com with your own username and domain name:

rcpt to: user@example.com

Now add a simple message. Tell the server your message body starts here:

data

Type the message, then follow it with [Enter], a period ., and [Enter]:

hello world 
.

Close the session by typing quit and hitting Enter.

If you are successful, your test message will appear in /home/username/Maildir/new. You can view this message with the command:

ll /home/username/Maildir/new

To read the message, copy and paste the name of the file (it will be a long name like 1481229255.Vfd01I402b66aM546595.example.com) and read it with more:

more 1481229255.Vfd01I402b66aM546595.example.com

You will see the email message, along with all of the header information:

From some-person@some-other-server.com  Thu Dec  8 19:43:10 2016
Return-Path: <some-person@some-other-server.com>
X-Original-To: user@example.com
Delivered-To: user@example.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
        by mail.example.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 6CFD589184
        for <user@example.com>; Thu,  8 Dec 2016 19:42:33 +0000 (UTC)
Message-Id: <20161208194238.6CFD589184@mail.oxnardindustries.com>
Date: Thu,  8 Dec 2016 19:42:33 +0000 (UTC)
From: some-person@some-other-server.com

hello world

Install and Configure Dovecot

We will be using Dovecot as a POP3/IMAP server, so that users can receive and check their email. You can find more information about Dovecot on the Dovecot website.

Install Dovecot with the command:

sudo yum install dovecot

You can check on the status of Dovecot with the command:

sudo systemctl status dovecot

If Dovecot is running, you will see output similar to:

[user@mail dovecot]$ sudo systemctl status dovecot -l
● dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dovecot.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2016-12-08 21:04:48 UTC; 3s ago
  Process: 8985 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/dovecot/prestartscript (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 8989 (dovecot)
   CGroup: /system.slice/dovecot.service
           ├─8989 /usr/sbin/dovecot -F
           ├─8992 dovecot/anvil
           ├─8993 dovecot/log
           └─8995 dovecot/config

Dec 08 21:04:48 example.com systemd[1]: Starting Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Dec 08 21:04:48 example.com systemd[1]: Started Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Dec 08 21:04:48 example.com dovecot[8989]: master: Dovecot v2.2.10 starting up for imap (core dumps disabled)

Active: active (running) since Thu 2016-12-08 21:04:48 UTC; 3s ago

This means that Dovecot is installed and running.

Install Roundcube

Roundcube is a free, open source webmail program with robust built-in multilingual capabilities, and many convenient features for your users. You can read more about Roundcube on the Roundcube website.

Roundcube requires several PHP and MariaDB packages as a prerequisite. Install and/or update these first with the command:

sudo yum install mysql mariadb-server php php-common php-json php-xml php-mbstring

Next, create a MariaDB username and database for the Roundcube installation. Log into the MariaDB client with the command:

mysql -u root -p

Log in with the root password, then create a Roundcube database:

create database roundcube_db;

Create a user for this database. Note: Be sure to give the user a strong password.

grant all on roundcube_db.* to roundcube_user@localhost identified by 'roundcube_db_password';

Replace:

• roundcube_user with the username you want to create for your database.
• roundcube_db_password with a strong password for this user.

Then exit MariaDB:

quit;

Go to your website’s document root. Download the current release from the Roundcube website by using the command:

sudo wget [download URL]

To find the download URL, visit the current release page on the Roundcube website. Copy the URL for the green “Download” link. You can paste it into the command line by clicking Shift + Insert.

For example, to download the current stable release as of this article’s publication the command is:

sudo wget https://github.com/roundcube/roundcubemail/releases/download/1.2.3/roundcubemail-1.2.3-complete.tar.gz

Uncompress this file using the command:

sudo tar -xvf [filename]

Tip: You can use tab completion to make this process easier. Type sudo tar -xvf roundcube then hit Tab. The shell will automatically fill out the rest of the file name on the command line.

To unzip the file downloaded above, the command is:

 sudo tar -xvf roundcubemail-1.2.3-complete.tar.gz

Rename the extracted directory roundcube:

sudo mv roundcubemail-1.2.3 roundcube

Set the ownership of the files to the Apache user:

sudo chown -R apache:apache roundcube

To complete the installation, switch to a browser and go to the URL http://example.com/roundcube/installer/.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click NEXT.

In the next section, you will need to fill out the database information.

Fill out the MariaDB database name, username, and password which you created above. Then scroll down and click CREATE CONFIG.

Note: There are many potential configurations. You can change or set them at any time in the future.

After the config file is created, click CONTINUE to continue.

Click the Initialize database button to set up the database.

Test the mail server configuration by sending a test SMTP email.

• Sender: Your new email address on this server. (For example, jdoe@example.com)
• Recipient: An external email address. (For example, jdoe@gmail.com)

Then click Send test mail. After a few moments, check the external email account to see if your email was sent.

Test the IMAP configurations by logging in with your username and password.

Note that your username is NOT your full email address. For example, log in with the username jdoe, not jdoe@example.com.

Now that the configuration is complete, you can log in at http://example.com/webmail to check and send email.

The post How to Set up a Postfix Mail Server With Dovecot and RoundCube on CentOS 7 appeared first on DataMounts.

The short answer is that REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It’s an architectural pattern for creating web services. A RESTful service is one that implements that pattern.

The long answer starts with “sort of” and “it depends” and continues with more complete definitions.

Defining REST

Let’s start by defining what REST is and is not. For some, REST means a server that exchanges JSON documents with a client over HTTP. Not only is that not a complete definition, but it’s also not always true. The REST specification doesn’t require HTTP or JSON. (The spec doesn’t mention JSON or XML at all.)

Also Read: Introduction to Git and GitHub [Tutorial]

The Origins of REST

Roy Fielding introduced the REST architectural pattern in a dissertation he wrote in 2000. The paper defines a means for clients and servers to exchange application data. A key feature is that the client doesn’t need to know anything about the application in advance. The link is to chapter five of his paper. While the entire dissertation describes the hows and whys of REST, that chapter defines the architectural pattern.

Fielding doesn’t mandate specific requirements. Instead, he defines REST regarding constraints and architectural elements.

REST’s Architectural Constraints

Here is a summary of the constraints.

• Client-server – REST applications have a server that manages application data and state. The server communicates with a client that handles the user interactions. A clear separation of concerns divides the two components. This means you can update and improve them in independent tracks.
• Stateless – servers don’t maintain any client state. Clients manage their application state. Their requests to servers contain all the information required to process them.
• Cacheable – servers must mark their responses as cacheable or not. So, infrastructures and clients can cache them when possible to improve performance. They can dispose of non-cacheable Information, so no client uses stale data.
• Uniform interface – this constraint is REST’s most well known feature or rule, depending on who you ask. Fielding says “The central feature that distinguishes the REST architectural style from other network-based styles is its emphasis on a uniform interface between components.” REST services provide data as resources, with a consistent namespace. We’ll cover this in detail below.
• Layered system – components in the system cannot “see” beyond their layer. So, you can easily add load-balancers and proxies to improve security or performance.

A RESTful service is more than a web server that exchanges JSON, or any other, documents. These constraints work together to create a very specific type of application.

Applying the Constraints

First, the client-server, layered systems and stateless constraints combine to form an application with solid boundaries and clear separations between concerns. Data moves from the server to the client upon request. The client displays or manipulates it. If the state changes, the client sends it back to the server for storage. Fielding specifically contrasts REST with architectures that use distributed objects to hide data from other components. In REST, the client and server share knowledge about data and state. The architecture doesn’t conceal data, it only hides implementations.

The cacheable and uniform state constraints go one step further. Application data is available to clients in a clear and consistent interface and cached when possible.

So, that’s the technical definition of REST. What does it look like in the real world?

RPC Over HTTP vs. RESTful

Often when someone says that a service “isn’t REST,” they’re looking at the URIs or how the service uses HTTP verbs. They’re referring to REST’s presentation of data as a uniform set of resources.

This distinction is sometimes framed as a difference between remote procedures calls (RPC) and REST. Imagine a web service for listing, adding, and removing, items from an e-commerce inventory.

In one version, there’s a single URL that we query with HTTP GETs or POSTs.  You interact with the service by POSTing a document, setting the contents to reflect what you want to do.

Add new items with a POST with a NewItem:

POST /inventory HTTP/1.1
 
{
    "NewItem": {
          "name": "new item",
          "price": "9.99",
          "id": "1001"
      }
}    

Query for items with a POST and an ItemRequest:

POST /inventory HTTP/1.1
 
{
    "ItemRequest": {
          "id": "1001"
      }
}

Some implementations accept a request for a new item with a get, too.

POST /inventory?id=1001 HTTP/1.1

We also change or delete items with a POST and an ItemDelete or ItemUpdate.

POST /inventory HTTP/1.1
 
{
    "ItemDelete": {
          "id": "1001"
      }
}

This isn’t REST. We’re not exchanging the state of resources. We’re calling a function with arguments that happen to be in a JSON document or URL arguments.

A RESTful service has a URI for each item in the inventory.

So, adding a new item would look like the example above.

POST /item HTTP/1.1
 
{
    "Item": {
          "name": "new item",
          "price": "9.99",
          "id": "1001"
      }
}    

But the similarities end there. Retrieving an item is always a GET:

GET /item/1001 HTTP/1.1   

Deleting is a DELETE:

DELETE /item/1001 HTTP/1.1  

Modifying an item is a PUT:

POST /inventory HTTP/1.1
 
{
    "Item": {
          "name": "new item",
          "price": "7.99",
          "id": "1001"
      }
}    

The difference is important. In REST, operations that use distinct HTTP actions. These verbs correspond directly to the activity on the data. GET, POST, PUT, DELETE and PATCH all have specific contracts. Most well-designed REST APIs also return specific HTTP codes, depending on the result of the request.

The critical point is that the URIs operate on the data, not on remote methods.

But there’s another reason why the resource model is essential.

REST vs RESTful and the Richardson Maturity Model

When you model your URIs after resources and use HTTP verbs you make your API predictable. Once developers know how you defined your resources, they can almost predict what the API looks like. Here again, the emphasis is on understanding the data, not the operations.

But even if you can’t make the API entirely predictable, you can document any REST service with hypertext. So, each item returned in the inventory app would contain links for deleting, modifying, or setting the inventory level of the resource. Fielding says that before a service is RESTful, it must provide hypertext media as part of the API.

Many sites don’t meet this requirement but are still called REST. Fact is, many sites break the rules in one way or another. So many that Leonard Richardson created a model breaks down REST into levels of compliance

We’ve already covered the source levels:

• 0 – exporting an API over HTTP with methods called with arguments
• 1 – Exporting resources instead of methods
• 2 – Proper use of HTTP verbs
• 3 – Exporting hypertext with objects that make all or part of the API discoverable.

Richardson’s model is his own, and it doesn’t map directly into Fielding’s spec. Since Fielding requires level three, he would say that most apps aren’t REST anyway.

The point is many services that we colloquially refer to as REST, technically aren’t.

REST vs RESTful: Does It Matter?

So, does the REST vs. RESTful comparison matter? Probably not. How well your architecture complies with an arbitrary standard isn’t as important with how well it suits your needs and can grow with your business.

The REST architectural pattern has many advantages. Fielding designed it for the web and, 18 years later, most of the constraints he had in mind are still with us. In 2000 we didn’t have Android or the iPhone. IE5 had 50% of the browser market share. It’s biggest rival was Firefox. But Fielding recognized what online applications needed and how web clients would evolve from HTML display engines into complete applications. The tools we use today have grown to suit REST, not the other way around.

Thank you for reading. Hope this tutorial will help you!

The post What the difference between REST API and RESTful API? appeared first on DataMounts.

Docker is a set of Platform as a Service (PaaS) products that uses operating system level virtualizations to deliver software in the form of containers. Docker CE (Community Edition) is the strip down version of Docker EE (Enterprise Edition). Docker CE is free and open source and distributed under Apache License 2.0.

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 / CentOS 8, Support of Docker has been removed by the vendor. Whereas a new containerization platform libpod (Podman’s Container Management Library) has been introduced in place of Docker.

Also Read: How to containerize and deploy your project using Docker Image

However, we can still install Docker and it’s dependencies on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 from third party yum repositories.

In this article, we are installing Docker CE and docker-compose on CentOS 8.

Prerequisites

• You must have Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) activated and verified your valid payment method. If you are a new user, you can get $450 – $1300 worth in Alibaba Cloud credits for your new account. If you don’t know how to setup your ECS instance, you can refer to this tutorial or quick-start guide.
• A domain name registered from Alibaba Cloud. If you have already registered a domain from Alibaba Cloud or any other host, you can update its domain nameserver records.
• Domain name must be pointed to your Alibaba Cloud ECS’s IP address
• Access to VNC console in your Alibaba Cloud or SSH client installed in your PC
• Set up your server’s hostname and create a user with root privileges.

Environment Specification

We have configured a CentOS 8 virtual machine with following specifications.

• CPU – 3.4 Ghz (2 cores)
• Memory – 2 GB
• Storage – 40 GB
• Operating System – CentOS 8.0
• Hostname – docker-01.example.com
• IP Address – 192.168.116.6/24

Adding Docker CE yum Repository on CentOS 8:

Connect with docker-01.example.com using ssh as root user.

Docker CE is available to download from Docker’s Official Website However, we can also install it from Docker CE yum repository.

Add Docker CE yum repository using dnf command.

[root@docker-01 ~]# dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
Adding repo from: https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo

Build cache for Docker yum repository.

[root@docker-01 ~]# dnf makecache
CentOS-8 - AppStream                            7.0 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00
CentOS-8 - Base                                 2.2 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:01
CentOS-8 - Extras                               1.7 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00
Docker CE Stable - x86_64                       6.5 kB/s |  21 kB     00:03
Metadata cache created.

Installing Docker CE on CentOS 8:

After addition of Docker CE yum repository, we can now easily install Docker CE on CentOS 8 by using a dnf command.

Also Read: 25+ Docker Commands for sysadmin and developers

Docker CE requires containerd.io-1.2.2-3 (or later) package, which is blocked in CentOS 8. Therefore, we have to use an earlier version of containerd.io package.

Install docker-ce with an earlier version of containerd.io using following command.

[root@docker-01 ~]# dnf -y install --nobest docker-ce
Last metadata expiration check: 0:21:14 ago on Wed 25 Dec 2019 10:25:37 PM PKT.
Dependencies resolved.

 Problem: package docker-ce-3:19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64 requires containerd.io >= 1.2.2-3, but none of the providers can be installed
  - cannot install the best candidate for the job
  - package containerd.io-1.2.10-3.2.el7.x86_64 is excluded
  - package containerd.io-1.2.2-3.3.el7.x86_64 is excluded
  - package containerd.io-1.2.2-3.el7.x86_64 is excluded
  - package containerd.io-1.2.4-3.1.el7.x86_64 is excluded
  - package containerd.io-1.2.5-3.1.el7.x86_64 is excluded
  - package containerd.io-1.2.6-3.3.el7.x86_64 is excluded
================================================================================
 Package                      Arch   Version             Repository        Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 docker-ce                    x86_64 3:18.09.1-3.el7     docker-ce-stable  19 M
Installing dependencies:
 container-selinux            noarch 2:2.94-1.git1e99f1d.module_el8.0.0+58+91b614e7
                                                         AppStream         43 k
 checkpolicy                  x86_64 2.8-2.el8           BaseOS           338 k
 libcgroup                    x86_64 0.41-19.el8         BaseOS            70 k
 policycoreutils-python-utils noarch 2.8-16.1.el8        BaseOS           228 k
 python3-audit                x86_64 3.0-0.10.20180831git0047a6c.el8
                                                         BaseOS            85 k
 python3-libsemanage          x86_64 2.8-5.el8           BaseOS           127 k
 python3-policycoreutils      noarch 2.8-16.1.el8        BaseOS           2.2 M
 python3-setools              x86_64 4.2.0-2.el8         BaseOS           598 k
 containerd.io                x86_64 1.2.0-3.el7         docker-ce-stable  22 M
 docker-ce-cli                x86_64 1:19.03.5-3.el7     docker-ce-stable  39 M
Enabling module streams:
 container-tools                     rhel8
Skipping packages with broken dependencies:
 docker-ce                    x86_64 3:19.03.5-3.el7     docker-ce-stable  24 M

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  11 Packages
Skip      1 Package

Total download size: 84 M
Installed size: 348 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/11): libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64.rpm        182 kB/s |  70 kB     00:00
(2/11): container-selinux-2.94-1.git1e99f1d.mod 108 kB/s |  43 kB     00:00
(3/11): python3-audit-3.0-0.10.20180831git0047a 102 kB/s |  85 kB     00:00
(4/11): policycoreutils-python-utils-2.8-16.1.e 132 kB/s | 228 kB     00:01
(5/11): python3-libsemanage-2.8-5.el8.x86_64.rp 106 kB/s | 127 kB     00:01
(6/11): checkpolicy-2.8-2.el8.x86_64.rpm        126 kB/s | 338 kB     00:02
(7/11): python3-setools-4.2.0-2.el8.x86_64.rpm  113 kB/s | 598 kB     00:05
(8/11): python3-policycoreutils-2.8-16.1.el8.no 109 kB/s | 2.2 MB     00:20
(9/11): docker-ce-18.09.1-3.el7.x86_64.rpm       75 kB/s |  19 MB     04:16
(10/11): containerd.io-1.2.0-3.el7.x86_64.rpm    80 kB/s |  22 MB     04:41
(11/11): docker-ce-cli-19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64.rpm 122 kB/s |  39 MB     05:31
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                           240 kB/s |  84 MB     05:58
warning: /var/cache/dnf/docker-ce-stable-091d8a9c23201250/packages/containerd.io-1.2.0-3.el7.x86_64.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA512 Signature, key ID 621e9f35: NOKEY
Docker CE Stable - x86_64                       1.5 kB/s | 1.6 kB     00:01
Importing GPG key 0x621E9F35:
 Userid     : "Docker Release (CE rpm) <docker@docker.com>"
 Fingerprint: 060A 61C5 1B55 8A7F 742B 77AA C52F EB6B 621E 9F35
 From       : https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/gpg
Key imported successfully
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1
  Installing       : docker-ce-cli-1:19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64                  1/11
  Running scriptlet: docker-ce-cli-1:19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64                  1/11
  Installing       : containerd.io-1.2.0-3.el7.x86_64                      2/11
  Running scriptlet: containerd.io-1.2.0-3.el7.x86_64                      2/11
  Installing       : python3-setools-4.2.0-2.el8.x86_64                    3/11
  Installing       : python3-libsemanage-2.8-5.el8.x86_64                  4/11
  Installing       : python3-audit-3.0-0.10.20180831git0047a6c.el8.x86_    5/11
  Running scriptlet: libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64                          6/11
  Installing       : libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64                          6/11
  Running scriptlet: libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64                          6/11
  Installing       : checkpolicy-2.8-2.el8.x86_64                          7/11
  Installing       : python3-policycoreutils-2.8-16.1.el8.noarch           8/11
  Installing       : policycoreutils-python-utils-2.8-16.1.el8.noarch      9/11
  Installing       : container-selinux-2:2.94-1.git1e99f1d.module_el8.0   10/11
  Running scriptlet: container-selinux-2:2.94-1.git1e99f1d.module_el8.0   10/11
  Running scriptlet: docker-ce-3:18.09.1-3.el7.x86_64                     11/11
  Installing       : docker-ce-3:18.09.1-3.el7.x86_64                     11/11
  Running scriptlet: docker-ce-3:18.09.1-3.el7.x86_64                     11/11
  Verifying        : container-selinux-2:2.94-1.git1e99f1d.module_el8.0    1/11
  Verifying        : checkpolicy-2.8-2.el8.x86_64                          2/11
  Verifying        : libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64                          3/11
  Verifying        : policycoreutils-python-utils-2.8-16.1.el8.noarch      4/11
  Verifying        : python3-audit-3.0-0.10.20180831git0047a6c.el8.x86_    5/11
  Verifying        : python3-libsemanage-2.8-5.el8.x86_64                  6/11
  Verifying        : python3-policycoreutils-2.8-16.1.el8.noarch           7/11
  Verifying        : python3-setools-4.2.0-2.el8.x86_64                    8/11
  Verifying        : containerd.io-1.2.0-3.el7.x86_64                      9/11
  Verifying        : docker-ce-3:18.09.1-3.el7.x86_64                     10/11
  Verifying        : docker-ce-cli-1:19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64                 11/11

Installed:
  docker-ce-3:18.09.1-3.el7.x86_64
  container-selinux-2:2.94-1.git1e99f1d.module_el8.0.0+58+91b614e7.noarch
  checkpolicy-2.8-2.el8.x86_64
  libcgroup-0.41-19.el8.x86_64
  policycoreutils-python-utils-2.8-16.1.el8.noarch
  python3-audit-3.0-0.10.20180831git0047a6c.el8.x86_64
  python3-libsemanage-2.8-5.el8.x86_64
  python3-policycoreutils-2.8-16.1.el8.noarch
  python3-setools-4.2.0-2.el8.x86_64
  containerd.io-1.2.0-3.el7.x86_64
  docker-ce-cli-1:19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64

Skipped:
  docker-ce-3:19.03.5-3.el7.x86_64

Complete!

Enable and start Docker service.

[root@docker-01 ~]# systemctl enable --now docker.service
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/docker.service â /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service.

Check status of Docker service.

[root@docker-01 ~]# systemctl status docker.service
â docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor pres>
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-12-25 22:56:45 PKT; 30s ago
     Docs: https://docs.docker.com
 Main PID: 3139 (dockerd)
    Tasks: 17
   Memory: 66.9M
   CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
           ââ3139 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd://
           ââ3148 containerd --config /var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.tom>

Dec 25 22:56:43 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:43.>
Dec 25 22:56:43 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:43.>
Dec 25 22:56:43 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:43.>
Dec 25 22:56:43 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:43.>
Dec 25 22:56:44 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:44.>
Dec 25 22:56:44 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:44.>
Dec 25 22:56:45 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:45.>
Dec 25 22:56:45 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:45.>
Dec 25 22:56:45 docker-01.recipes.com dockerd[3139]: time="2019-12-25T22:56:45.>
Dec 25 22:56:45 docker-01.recipes.com systemd[1]: Started Docker Application Co>

Check Docker version.

[root@docker-01 ~]# docker version
Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           19.03.5
 API version:       1.39 (downgraded from 1.40)
 Go version:        go1.12.12
 Git commit:        633a0ea
 Built:             Wed Nov 13 07:25:41 2019
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Experimental:      false

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          18.09.1
  API version:      1.39 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.10.6
  Git commit:       4c52b90
  Built:            Wed Jan  9 19:06:30 2019
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false

Docker CE has been installed on CentOS 8.

Create a Container using Docker in CentOS 8:

Let’s put Docker into action by creating a simple container.

Also Read: What is Container Service for Kubernetes, Advantage and Architecture

For this purpose, we are using official image of Alpine Linux from Docker Hub.

[root@docker-01 ~]# docker search alpine --filter is-official=true
NAME                DESCRIPTION                                     STARS               OFFICIAL            AUTOMATED
alpine              A minimal Docker image based on Alpine Linux⦠  5945                [OK]

Pull Alpine Linux image from Docker Hub.

[root@docker-01 ~]# docker pull alpine
Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from library/alpine
e6b0cf9c0882: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:2171658620155679240babee0a7714f6509fae66898db422ad803b951257db78
Status: Downloaded newer image for alpine:latest
docker.io/library/alpine:latest

List locally available docker images.

[root@docker-01 ~]# docker images
REPOSITORY          TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
alpine              latest              cc0abc535e36        23 hours ago        5.59MB

Create and run a container using Alpine Linux image.

[root@docker-01 ~]# docker run -it --rm alpine /bin/sh
/ # cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Alpine Linux"
ID=alpine
VERSION_ID=3.11.2
PRETTY_NAME="Alpine Linux v3.11"
HOME_URL="https://alpinelinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.alpinelinux.org/"
/ # uname -a
Linux c0089c037e24 4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Sep 24 11:32:19 UTC 2019 x86_64 Linux
/ # exit

Installing Docker-compose on CentOS 8:

Additionally, we are installing docker-compose on our CentOS 8 server, so we can create and run multiple containers as a single service.

Also Read: Understand the Basics of Linux terminal commands

Download docker-compose package from GitHub.

[root@docker-01 ~]# curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.25.1-rc1/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   617    0   617    0     0    546      0 --:--:--  0:00:01 --:--:--   546
100 16.2M  100 16.2M    0     0   184k      0  0:01:29  0:01:29 --:--:--  276k

Grant execute permissions to docker-compose command.

[root@docker-01 ~]# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Check docker-compose version.

[root@docker-01 ~]# docker-compose version
docker-compose version 1.25.1-rc1, build d92e9bee
docker-py version: 4.1.0
CPython version: 3.7.4
OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.0l  10 Sep 2019

We have successfully installed Docker CE and Docker-Compose on CentOS 8. We have only explored the installation of Docker CE here

The post How to Install Docker CE and Docker-Compose on CentOS 8 appeared first on DataMounts.

Enterprises run multiple servers to deliver business critical services for their end users. Some of them include database servers, core app servers, caching servers, web servers, and more. Performance of each of these servers are critical because even if one of the servers fail, then it impacts the delivery of business critical services.

Therefore it is imperative to know any performance issues proactively so that they are identified at the early stage and fixed before they turn big and pose a threat to business. Server monitoring tools help in monitoring servers as well as the entire infrastructure. They also provide intensive reports on capacity planning to maintain the network without any hassle.

Server Monitor

Server Monitoring is the process of monitoring a server’s system resources like CPU Usage, Memory Consumption, I/O, Network, Disk Usage, Process etc. Server Monitoring also helps in capacity planning by understanding the server’s system resource usage.

A server monitor software helps in automating the process of server monitoring. Server performance monitoring also helps in identifying other performance related issues like resource utilization, app downtime and response time.

Why is it important to monitor server performance?

• To monitor server availability and data loss.
• To monitor the responsiveness of the server.
• To know the server capacity, user load and speed of the server.
• To detect and prevent any issues that might affect the server proactively.

Also Read:  How to Maintain Your Privacy Online

collectd – The system statistics collection daemon

Collectd – gathers metrics from various sources, e.g. the operating system, applications, logfiles and external devices, and stores this information or makes it available over the network. Those statistics can be used to monitor systems, find performance bottlenecks (i.e. performance analysis) and predict future system load (i.e. capacity planning). Or if you just want pretty graphs of your private server and are fed up with some homegrown solution you’re at the right place, too ;).

NixSTAT – THE COMPLETE TOOL FOR MONITORING

Nixstats – Keep track of your servers infrastructure usage and prevent downtime and performance issues. Over 40 plugins available out-of-the-box such as CPU, Process, Network, NGiNX, Disk I/O and much more.

Monitorix

Monitorix – Monitorix is a free, open source, lightweight system monitoring tool designed to monitor as many services and system resources as possible. It has been created to be used under production Linux/UNIX servers, but due to its simplicity and small size can be used on embedded devices as well.

ScoutRealtime

Scoutapp Realtime –  Tool useful for the developer, let you monitor disk, memory, network, CPU, and process metrics.

Glances – An Eye on Your System

Glances – Written in Python, Glances will run on almost any plaftorm : GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OS X and Windows. Glances includes a XML-RPC server and a RESTful JSON API which can be used by another client software.

NetData – Get Control of your Linux Server

My-netdata.io – MONITOR EVERYTHING IN REAL-TIME. Instantly diagnose slowdowns and anomalies in your infrastructure with thousands of metrics, interactive visualizations, and insightful health alarms.

Cabot – monitor and alert

Cabotapp – Easy to use, self hosted, an opensource monitoring tool for system administrators. Get alerted when services go down or metrics go crazy

Graphite

Graphiteapp – Graphite is an enterprise-ready monitoring tool that runs equally well on cheap hardware or Cloud infrastructure. Teams use Graphite to track the performance of their websites, applications, business services, and networked servers. It marked the start of a new generation of monitoring tools, making it easier than ever to store, retrieve, share, and visualize time-series data.

Grafana – The open observability platform

Grafana – Grafana is the open source analytics and monitoring solution for every database. Used by thousands of companies to monitor everything from infrastructure, applications, and power plants to beehives.

Santry – Software errors are inevitable. Chaos is not

Sentry – Error tracking tool for your web apps, mobile apps, and games. Sentry provides self-hosted and cloud-based error monitoring that helps all software teams discover, triage, and prioritize errors in real-time.  One million developers at over fifty thousand companies already ship better software faster with Sentry.

Rollbar – Deploy with confidence, more often

Rollbar – Error Tracking Software for various software written on Ruby, Python, JavaScript, else. Spend less time worrying and more time on improving code. With Rollbar, you can feel safe knowing every error is reported in real-time.

Uptime – Website uptime Monitoring Service

Uptime.com – Tool to monitor the uptime of websites, and provides alerts when it goes down. Get website downtime alerts by SMS, phone call or email if your website is down. Uptime.com checks your website availability at one minute intervals from 30 different locations across 6 continents.

Cacti – Complete RRDTool Based Graphic Solution

Cacti – Cacti is an open-source, web-based network monitoring and graphing tool. It monitors network traffic via Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool’s data storage and graphing functionality. Cacti provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features out of the box. All of this is wrapped in an intuitive, easy to use interface that makes sense for LAN-sized installations up to complex networks with thousands of devices.

Supervisor: A Process Control System

Supervisord –  Tool to monitor and control a number of processes on UNIX-like operating systems.

Supervisor is a client/server system that allows its users to monitor and control a number of processes on UNIX-like operating systems.

It shares some of the same goals of programs like launchd, daemontools, and runit. Unlike some of these programs, it is not meant to be run as a substitute for init as “process id 1”. Instead it is meant to be used to control processes related to a project or a customer, and is meant to start like any other program at boot time.

Inspectit Ocelot – Collecting Performance, tracing and Business

Inspectit – inspectIT Ocelot is a Java agent that allows you to extract any kind of data and information out of your Java application and consume the data using a big variety of established monitoring tools such as Prometheus, Zipkin, Grafana and many, many more. You can collect for example performance data such as response times and hardware metrics or tracing data that shows you in detail which methods are executed, i.e. what the application actually does or where the errors occur.

RRDtool

RRDtool – RRDtool is the OpenSource industry standard, high performance data logging and graphing system for time series data. RRDtool can be easily integrated in shell scripts, perl, python, ruby, lua or tcl applications.

Zabbix – Networking Monitoring Solution

Zabbix – Enterprise level open source monitoring solution for networks and applications, designed to monitor and track the status of various network services, servers, and other network hardware.

Solutions for any kind of IT infrastructure, services, applications, resources

Prometheus – Monitoring System

Prometheus.io – Prometheus monitoring is an open source monitoring and  system time series database. Prometheus fundamentally stores all data as time series: streams of timestamped values belonging to the same metric and the same set of labeled dimensions. Besides stored time series, Prometheus may generate temporary derived time series as the result of queries.

Paessler Router Traffic Grapher or PRT

PRTG – Paessler Router Traffic Grapher or PRTG is a server up-time and utilization, network monitoring and bandwidth usage monitoring too. PRTG monitors your whole IT infrastructure 24/7 and alerts you to problems before users even notice. Find out more about the monitoring software that helps system administrators work smarter, faster, better.

Pandora FMS – Open Source Monitoring Software

Pandora FMS– Pandora FMS is a monitoring software for IT infrastructure management. It includes network equipment, Windows and Unix servers, virtual infrastructure and all different kinds of applications. Pandora FMS has a large amount of features, making it a new generation software which covers all the monitoring issues that your organization may have.

OpenNMS – Network Monitoring and Management Tool

OpenNMS – Free and open-source network monitoring and management tool. Built for enterprises, OpenNMS monitors millions of devices from a single instance. Use the flexible and extensible architecture of OpenNMS to extend service polling and performance data collection frameworks

OP5 – Monitoring and Log Analysis

op5 –  Based on Nagios, It is an open-source network monitoring and server monitoring software. It is free to use. Scalable, Tailor-Made Solutions Providing Near Real-Time Observability and Operational Intelligence Enabling Hybrid IT Automation and Orchestration.

Observium – Network monitoring with intuition

Observium – Observium is a low-maintenance auto-discovering network monitoring platform supporting a wide range of device types, platforms and operating systems including Cisco, Windows, Linux, HP, Juniper, Dell, FreeBSD, Brocade, Netscaler, NetApp and many more. Observium focuses on providing a beautiful and powerful yet simple and intuitive interface to the health and status of your network.

Nagios – Network, Server and Log Monitoring

Nagios – IT Infrastructure monitoring tool. It is one of the popular tool. Nagios XI provides monitoring of all mission-critical infrastructure components including applications, services, operating systems, network protocols, systems metrics, and network infrastructure. Hundreds of third-party addons provide for monitoring of virtually all in-house and external applications, services, and systems.

Munin – Network Resource Monitoring Tool

Munin – Munin is a networked resource monitoring tool that can help analyze resource trends and “what just happened to kill our performance?” problems. It is designed to be very plug and play. A default installation provides a lot of graphs with almost no work.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned about several Server Monitoring Tools and still, there are various other server tools used in different organizations. Benefits derived and cost involved is completely based on the usage of the tool

Not all Server monitoring tools are capable of monitoring the slow performance, exceptions in the application, response time, restore application server, etc and many organizations use log monitoring and analytics system to overcome such issues.

The post 20+ Top Server Management and Monitoring Tools appeared first on DataMounts.

PHP is an open-source programming language widely for web development, created by Rasmus Lerdorf. It is an HTML-embedded scripting language for creating dynamic web sites.

RHEL 8 comes with PHP v7.2 by default.

In this post, we will see how to install PHP 7.3 on RHEL 8.

Add Remi Repository on RHEL 8

Remi, a third-party repository which offers multiple versions of PHP (7.4 / 7.3 / 7.2) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Remi repository requires EPEL repository be enabled on your system.

rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

To enable the Remi repository on your system, install the Remi repository auto-configuration package using the below command.

yum install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm

Output:

Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:04 ago on Thu 19 Sep 2019 03:20:07 AM UTC.
remi-release-8.rpm                                                                  14 kB/s |  21 kB     00:01    
Dependencies resolved.
===================================================================================================================
 Package                     Arch                  Version                       Repository                   Size
===================================================================================================================
Installing:
 remi-release                noarch                8.0-3.el8.remi                @commandline                 21 k

Transaction Summary
===================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total size: 21 k
Installed size: 19 k
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                           1/1 
  Installing       : remi-release-8.0-3.el8.remi.noarch                                                        1/1 
  Verifying        : remi-release-8.0-3.el8.remi.noarch                                                        1/1 

Installed:
  remi-release-8.0-3.el8.remi.noarch                                                                               

Complete!

Install PHP 7.3 on RHEL 8

List the available PHP module stream.

Also Read: Install PHP 7 on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 & CentOS 6 / RHEL 6

yum module list php

You should see below output.

Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64
Name            Stream                  Profiles                                  Summary                          
php             remi-7.2                common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language           
php             remi-7.3                common [d], devel, minimal            PHP scripting language           
php             remi-7.4                common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language           

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream from RHUI (RPMs)
Name            Stream                  Profiles                                  Summary                          
php             7.2                     common [d], devel, minimal                PHP scripting language           

Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalled

Enable php:remi-7.3 module to install PHP 7.3.

yum module enable php:remi-7.3 -y

Output:

Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:19 ago on Thu 19 Sep 2019 03:20:56 AM UTC.
Dependencies resolved.
===================================================================================================================
 Package                    Arch                      Version                     Repository                  Size
===================================================================================================================
Enabling module streams:
 httpd                                                2.4                                                         
 nginx                                                1.14                                                        
 php                                                  remi-7.3                                                    

Transaction Summary
===================================================================================================================

Complete!

Switching module streams does not alter installed packages (see 'module enable' in dnf(8) for details)

Install PHP 7.3 on RHEL 8 with yum command.

yum install -y php php-cli php-common

Check PHP Version

Once you have installed PHP, check the PHP version with the following command.

php -v

Output:

PHP 7.3.9 (cli) (built: Aug 27 2019 22:52:39) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.9, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.3.9, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Install PHP-FPM

If you are setting up LEMP stack on RHEL 8, you might want to install php-fpm 7.3.

yum install -y php-fpm

Install PHP Extensions

PHP extensions are compiled libraries which enables specific support for your code.
To have MySQL support on your code, you can install php-mysqlnd package.

yum install -y php-mysqlnd

Once you have installed MySQL extension, you can use the below command to verify it.

php -m | grep -i mysql

Output:

mysqli
mysqlnd
pdo_mysql

PHP Extensions for WordPress

The following extensions are required to install and run WordPress on your RHEL 8 machine. WordPress recommends PHP v7.3 for the installation.

yum install -y php-dom php-simplexml php-ssh2 php-xml php-xmlreader php-curl php-date php-exif php-filter php-ftp php-gd php-hash php-iconv php-json php-libxml php-pecl-imagick php-mbstring php-mysqlnd php-openssl php-pcre php-posix php-sockets php-spl php-tokenizer php-zlib

PHP Extensions for Joomla

The following extensions are required to install and run Joomla on your RHEL 8 machine. Joomla requires PHP v7.1 and above.

yum install -y php-mysqlnd php-zlib php-xml php-pear php-json php-mcrypt php-pecl-imagick

PHP Extensions for Drupal

The following extensions are required to install and run Joomla on your RHEL 8 machine. Drupal requires PHP v7.1 and above.

yum install -y php-mysqlnd php-date php-dom php-filter php-gd php-hash php-json php-pcre php-pdo php-session php-simplexml php-spl php-tokenizer php-xml

Conclusion

That’s All. I hope you have learned how to install PHP 7.3 on RHEL 8. Please share your feedback in the comments section.

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