CMIT 495 Current Trends and Projects in Computer Networks and Security
Week 1 – Virtualization
⦁ Log in to your newly created AWS account and take a screen capture of the AWS Console (Dashboard) and embed it below.
⦁ Provide a detailed overview of the steps required to provision (create) and launch an AWS Ubuntu-based server virtual instance. The steps may be listed in bullet points or complete sentences. Use as much space as required.
⦁ What are the benefits of virtualization in a cloud environment? Discuss a minimum of three benefits in detail.
⦁ Based on your experience, what was the most challenging aspect of provisioning and launching the AWS Ubuntu-based server instance in the AWS virtual environment?
⦁ Configure your local host computer to use an SSH client application to interact with the newly created and running AWS Ubuntu virtual instance. If using a Windows-based local computer, read over the AWS document, “Connect to your Linux instance from Windows using PuTTY”, download and install PuTTY or use Windows 10 built-in OpenSSH client.
⦁ From the local computer establish an SSH connection to the AWS Ubuntu Server virtual instance, login, and update the Ubuntu Server using sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. Perform a screen capture after having each command successfully run.
⦁ Next, describe in depth what the update and upgrade commands are doing (explain why it is important to run these commands, how often should these commands be run, where do the commands pull the updates).
⦁ After successfully deploying the Ubuntu Server operating system updates and upgrades, reconnect to the AWS EC2 console, and if needed login again via an SSH client (Note: SSH session inactivity timeout is short). Instructions to SSH are provided by Amazon on how to do so. When connected, run the following commands to obtain information about the host and network settings (perform a screen capture of the results and embed below):
echo ‘<your name>’ && echo ‘CMIT 495 <your section> <your semester>’ && date (section is a 4-digit number like 6380 and semester is a 4-digit number like 2215 or 2218)
whoami
ip
pwd
ping -c 4 www.google.com
Example Screenshot:
⦁ What kind of account did you discover when you ran the whoami command? How do you know?
⦁ Note the difference between IP addresses—specifically, when you perform the ip a show or ipconfig on your personal system, versus the ip a show command within the EC2 instance VM command prompt. Describe the network settings of each system. Why are the IP addresses different? Are the IP addresses private or public? What is the difference between a public and private IP address? Explain in detail.
⦁ Virtualization allows us to place the functionality of many servers into a single host while maintaining configurable levels of separation between all virtual machines. How do you believe virtualization could help in data center consolidation? What would you be leery about during and after any transition?
⦁ Does virtualization increase the cybersecurity posture of the organization? If so, describe how and why. If not, describe how and why not.
⦁ There are various virtualization options: bare-metal (Type 1) in which the hypervisors run directly on the hardware as their own operating systems, and user-space (Type 2) hypervisors that run within the conventional operating systems. Which of these options is more secure? Describe the vulnerabilities you believe exist in either Type 1, Type 2, or both configurations. What do you believe can be done to mitigate these vulnerabilities?
⦁ Confirm that you have stopped and terminated your AWS Linux server instance. To confirm, simply type your name below.
