This module introduces the concept of automation at scale and how it can be successfully achieved. Learners will understand what it means to work at scale and how automation is needed to scale effectively. The module covers configuration management, including the differences between unmanaged and managed configuration management. It explores infrastructure as code and its benefits, such as making fleets of nodes more reliable and repeatable. The module introduces Puppet, including how to apply basic configuration management and how Puppet agents and masters interact. Learners will study Puppet resources and classes, domain-specific languages, and Puppet facts. The module concludes with the driving principles of configuration management, including declarative, procedural, and idempotent principles.

This module focuses on deploying Puppet on local machines. Learners will start creating and applying Puppet rules, managing resource relationships, and organizing Puppet modules, which are collections of manifests and associated data. The module covers Puppet nodes and node definitions and how they are used to apply rules to fleets. It explores the Puppet certificate infrastructure, including concepts of public key infrastructure and secure socket layer to ensure clients can be trusted. Learners will see a Puppet deployment in action and learn about updating, modifying, and testing manifests deployed to fleets. The module covers Puppet parser validate commands for syntax checking, the difference between production and testing environments, and how to safely roll out changes using development environments, early-adopters, or canary tracks.

This module covers automation in cloud-based environments. Learners will explore cloud services overview, scaling in the cloud, and evaluating cloud solutions. The module addresses migrating to the cloud and spinning up virtual machines in the cloud. Learners will gain hands-on experience creating new VMs using the GCP Web UI, customizing VMs in GCP, and templating customized VMs. The module introduces cloud scale deployments, orchestration concepts, and cloud infrastructure as code. Learners will understand how to manage VMs in GCP and automate cloud deployments using templates and infrastructure as code principles.

This module focuses on managing cloud instances at scale. Learners will explore storing data in the cloud, load balancing techniques, and change management practices. The module covers understanding limitations in cloud environments and getting started with monitoring. Learners will learn about getting alerts when things go wrong, defining Service-Level Objectives (SLOs), and implementing basic monitoring in GCP. The module addresses remote troubleshooting when physical access is not possible, identifying where failures are coming from, and recovering from failures. Topics include incident management, disaster recovery plans, rollbacks, and redundancy strategies.