Oracle Foundations Associate Certification by Andrew Brown (Exam Pro)

Introduction

• Entry-level certification for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
• Good for beginners to cloud computing
• Course includes account setup, launching instances, databases, and understanding the importance of cloud computing
• Success in the certification is intended to be achievable within a week

Comparison with AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

• OCI Foundations Certification: Valid for 1.5 years, cheaper by $5
  • Possible reason for short validity: Rapid changes anticipated in OCI
• AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification: Valid for 3 years, includes deal offering 50% off next certification
• Knowledge transfer between certifications is useful
• OCI has no weighted domains in exams, potentially leading to imbalanced questioning
• OCI has fragmented documentation and fewer certification holders, making it a potential niche market

OCI Exam Guide Overview

• Domains: Cloud Concepts, OCI Infrastructure, Core Services, Security, Billing, and Pricing
• No domain weighting: Unclear distribution of question topics
• Exam Details: 60 questions, multiple-choice and multiple-answer format, passing score of 68%, 105 minutes

Cloud Computing Fundamentals

• Advantages: On-demand resource availability, global reach, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, elasticity
• Types of Cloud Computing:
  • SaaS: Software as a Service (e.g., Salesforce, Gmail)
  • PaaS: Platform as a Service (e.g., AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine)
  • IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service (e.g., AWS, OCI)

Cloud Deployment Models

• Cloud Native: Fully built on the cloud
• Hybrid: Combination of on-premises and cloud
• Cross-Cloud/Hybrid Cloud: Use of multiple cloud providers

Cloud Architecture Terminologies

• Availability: Ensuring service remains available (High Availability, HA)
• Scalability: Growing capacity for increased demand
• Elasticity: Ability to grow or shrink based on demand
• Fault Tolerance: Prevention of failure
• Disaster Recovery: Recovery from a failure (Highly Durable, DR)

OCI Global Infrastructure

• Regions: Geographical locations for launching resources, including the 3 major types (Commercial, Government, Azure Connected)
• Availability Domains (ADs): Data centers within regions; important for redundancy and low latency
• Fault Domains (FDs): Logical data centers within a physical data center to improve fault tolerance

OCI Core Services

• Compute Services: Virtual Machines, Container Engines, Dedicated Virtual Hosts, Bare Metal
• Storage Services: Block Volume, File Storage, Object Storage, Archive Storage
  • Difference between Block, File, and Object Storage:
    • Block Storage: Local virtual hard drive, high cost at scale
    • File Storage: File system accessible by multiple connections
    • Object Storage: Serverless storage, low cost at scale

Networking Services

• Key Components: Regions, ADs, FDs, VCNS, Subnets, Internet Gateway, Security Lists, Network Security Groups, etc.
• Advanced Services: Service Gateway, Nat Gateway, VPN, FastConnect, Dynamic Routing Gateway, VCN Peering

Database Services

• Key Services: VMDB Systems, Bare Metal DB Systems, Oracle RAC, Exadata DB Systems, Autonomous Database
• Database Options: Oracle DB System, MySQL DB System, Autonomous Database (OLTP, OLAP)
• Oracle NoSQL: Key-value store for high volume data interactions and fast response times
• Cloud Native Services: API Gateway, Streaming, Kubernetes, Registry, Notifications, Integrations

Billing and Pricing

• Pricing Models: Pay-As-You-Go, Monthly Flex, Bring Your Own License
• Free Tiers: Always Free, 30-Day Free Trial
• Cost Management: Cost estimator, budget setting, cost analysis, usage reports

Security and Compliance

• Shared Security Model: Defines responsibilities of cloud provider vs. user
• IAM: Managing access and policies
• Encryption: At rest and in transit encryption, Bring Your Own Keys, TDE, Data Safe, Database Vault
• Compliance: Meeting standards and regulations (HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, etc.)

High-Level Services and Features

• OCI Vault: For managing and rotating encryption keys
• OS Management: Managing and securing operating systems on VMs
• DDOS Protection: Preventing Distributed Denial of Service attacks
• OCI WAF: Web Application Firewall for filtering HTTP/S traffic
• Data Safe: Monitoring security and compliance for Oracle databases

Setting Up OCI Basics

• Creating an Account: Initial setup, including payment info, selecting region
• Setting Up MFA: Adding an extra layer of security
• Adding Users, Groups, Policies: Managing access through compartments and policies
• Creating VCNs and Instances: Setting up networking infrastructure and launching instances
• Billing and Cost Management: Setting budgets, tracking usage, optimizing costs
• Booking the Exam: Process of scheduling examination through Pearson Vue