Networking to and inside the Cloud Service Providers
This full day workshop will lead you through a deep dive into cloud networking. As a participant, you will leave this workshop with knowledge of the necessary networking components required to operate a functional cloud environment with dedicated cloud connectivity. The workshop combines lectures with labs to provide hands-on experience with the course concepts.
Some of the things you will learn during the workshop include:
- Overview and benefits of Internet2’s Cloud Connect service
- Use of Internet2 Insight Console used to build dedicated connections to the Cloud Service Providers (CSP's)
- Networking components supporting dedicated connectivity for each of the Cloud Service Providers.
- Establish dedicated connectivity and route traffic between multiple clouds.
Morning 08:00 - 11:30
- Gather and Introductions (30 minutes)
- Lesson: Overview of Internet2 Cloud Connect (20 minutes)
- Lesson: Introduction to Insight Console (20 minutes)
- Lab 1: Internet2 Insight Console (10 minutes)
- Lesson: Insight Console use cases (10 minutes)
Break 09:30 - 10:00 (30 minutes)
- Lesson: Networking in the Cloud(s) (45 minutes)
- Lab 2: Using GitHub Codespaces (15 minutes)
- Lesson: Lab overview (10 minutes)
- Lab 3: Authenticating and Configure CLI tools (10 - 40 minutes)
Lunch 11:30 - 13:00
Included On-site
Afternoon 13:00 - 16:30
- Lab 4: Infrastructure as Code deployment of CSP lab environments (10 minutes)
- Lesson: Networking Components for each CSP (20 minutes)
- Demo: Building Insight Console Connections (15 minutes)
- Lab 5: Building Dedicated Connections to the Cloud (60 minutes)
Break 14:30-15:00
- Lab 6: Testing and verifying routing (20 minutes)
- Lab 7: Verifying Routing Tables with the CSPs (time permitting) (20 minutes)
- Lab 8: Cleaning up (avoiding large bills) (30 minutes)
- Close-out
You can find the slide deck for the lectures here.
Note
As long as you clean up and delete the resources you build the cloud costs will be minimal for this workshop.
It's helpful if you have some prior experience with GNU/Linux, Git, GitHub, Terraform, VS Code, and Cloud Technology but it's not a prerequisite to learn and have fun with the labs.
- Laptop with internet access.
- Access to Internet2's Insight Console.
- GitHub account with access to run GitHub Codespaces.
- An account with each of the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) you wish to use during the labs.
Tip
I strongly recommend a personal free tier account so you don't run into policy/permission issues with a restricted account from your institution.
Consider creating a free-tier account using an email alias address, masked email or use plus addressing like <email>[email protected] for each account.
Important
Free tier accounts will require a credit card but we will keep the costs to a minimum. In many cases the free services and credits your account will start with will cover some or all the costs. (With my accounts I've been able to run through the labs and keep the daily cost around 5 USD with each CSP.)
As you build out your Free Tier accounts keep in mind that the terraform code for the Cloud Service Provider (lab) environments and the GitHub Codespaces are preconfigured to run in the US-East regions. If you are able to use those regions for this workshop it should simplify things.
If you need help getting the free tier accounts setup, see the Further Learning resources below. ⬇️
- Getting Started With AWS Cloud | Step-by-Step Guide
- Azure Account Setup
- Google Cloud Account, Organization, Project Setup
- Oracle Cloud Account Setup
- Git Immersion
- GitHub for Beginners
- GitHub Training with Andrew Brown (Free limited version of the course available)
Future
- Rework code to update SSH config file when public IP changes
- Get budgets working for
- Google Cloud
- Oracle Cloud
- Change base Dockerfile image to reduce size of prebuilt
- Further optimize Devcontainer environment
- Breakout slides for each lesson
- Branches with IaC for Lab solutions?
- IPv6 addressing
- Refactor code to make it easier to switch regions
- Migrate code to OpenTofu
- Develop 2/3/400 level workshop that builds on this workshop