A short post on studying for and passing AWS CCP.

Estimate: 1 Minute Read

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Recently passed the AWS CCP (91.7% 😀) exam after one week of studying. There are many guides like this on the Internet, but nevertheless here are the resources I used.

Background:

• Bachelors in IT
• Masters in IT (1 last semester)
• HelpDesk/Sysadmin for ~3 years (on-prem)
• No professional cloud experience, but lots of on-prem experience. Linux/IaaC

Resources:

• Free - Reddit posts like this one
• Free - AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Video Course (6 hours)
• Free - AWS Overview White Paper
• ~$12 - Udemy Practice Exams (Shoot for 85%+)

And lastly, my rough notes. These notes cover all 6 hours of the AWS video course and Udemy practice exams.

If you’re a system administrator looking for unique ways to incorporate Linux servers with class curriculums, this article may inspire methodologies for bringing the command line to the student masses.

Estimate: 10 Minute Read

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
  • Forward - What You Can Gain from Reading This
  • The Problem
  • Exposition
  • What We Implemented Uniquely
    • SSO and Credentials
    • What about MySQL credentials?
    • Solving the SFTP problem
    • A Quick Note on Passwords
    • Systemd - Small Note
  • How The Rollout Went
    • User Testing
    • Scope Creep and the First Day
  • Fail2ban Woes
  • Miscellaneous Notes
  • After Action Report

Forward - What You Can Gain from Reading This

I asked on reddit’s /r/linuxadmin how they handle student-accessible servers. Many ideas were brought up - segmented Docker containers, locked down hosts, restrictive commands. I went with what I know best: a strong dose of Ansible, glorious SSSD, and trusty Bash.