After about a 15 months of not getting new AWS certifications, it’s about time to continue my journey to 11 out of 11. I’m currently at six - three associates, two professionals and the security specialty. Next up: Advanced Networking Specialty.
There are a lot of resources on the internet describing what materials to study. However, many of the Advanced Networking Specialty exam reviews found online come back to the same thing; the exam is difficult and you really need practical experience to pass it. The next thing they say is that it’s hard to get practical experience if advanced networking isn’t already your daily work.
That’s why I’ve decided to create my own practical trials and share them here. But before we dive into the exercises, here’s my list of study materials.
Study materials
General
- A Cloud Guru
- A Cloud Guru ANS Discussions
- Advanced Networking Study Guide (Book)
- Jade Liu’s AWS Specialty Study Guide
- ashiny.cloud blog
AWS FAQs
AWS White Papers
- AWS Security Best Practices
- Security at Scale: Governance in AWS
- Overview of AWS Security - Network Security
- Security at Scale: Logging in AWS
- AWS Best Practices for DDoS Resiliency
- An Introduction to High Performance Computing on AWS
- Integrating AWS with Multiprotocol Label Switching
- Best Practices for Deploying Amazon WorkSpaces
- AWS Direct Connect Plus VPN
AWS Blogs
- How to Set Up DNS Resolution Between On-Premises Networks and AWS Using AWS Directory Service and Amazon Route 53
- How to Set Up DNS Resolution Between On-Premises Networks and AWS Using AWS Directory Service and Microsoft Active Directory
- How to Set Up DNS Resolution Between On-Premises Networks and AWS by Using Unbound
- Amazon VPC for On-Premises Network Engineers – Part 1
- Amazon VPC for On-Premises Network Engineers – Part 2
AWS Answers
- Single Region Multi-VPC Connectivity
- Multiple Region Multi-VPC Connectivity
- Multiple Data Center HA Network Connectivity
AWS Documentation
- VPC Peering Configurations with Specific Routes
- Network-to-Amazon VPC Connectivity Options
- Network ACLs
- Example Bucket Policies for VPC Endpoints for Amazon S3
- Configuring White-Label Name Servers in Route 53
- Connecting a Single Customer Router to Multiple VPCs
- Accessing a remote AWS Region with Direct Connect
- VPC Flow Logs
- Troubleshooting AWS Direct Connect
YouTube
- AWS re:Invent 2015 | (ARC402) Double Redundancy with AWS Direct Connect
- AWS re:Invent 2017: Deep Dive: AWS Direct Connect and VPNs (NET403)
- AWS re:Invent 2018: AWS Direct Connect: Deep Dive (NET403)
- AWS re:Invent 2016: Deep Dive: AWS Direct Connect and VPNs (NET402)
- AWS re:Invent 2015: Deep Dive in AWS Direct Connect and VPNs (NET406)
Exercises
I’m sticking to the same order of topics as the Advanced Networking Study Guide. Each topic has a number of exercises, each in their own blog post.
The exercises are built on the assumption that you’re already familiar with the AWS basics and have achieved at least one associate level AWS certification.
Because writing exercises is quite time consuming, I will continue to update this post as new exercises are posted.
Topic 1: Amazon VPC and Networking Fundamentals
- Exercise 1.1: Subnetting and routing with IPv6
- Exercise 1.2: VPC Peering
- Exercise 1.3: DHCP Fundamentals
- Exercise 1.4: DNS Fundamentals
- Exercise 1.5: IPv4 Subnet Fundamentals
Topic 2: Advanced VPC
- Exercise 2.1: ANS Exercise 2.1: Cisco CSR1000v NAT Instance
- Exercise 2.2: ANS Exercise 2.2: Tcpdump, Wireshark and Encapsulation
Topic 3: VPNs
Topic 4: Direct Connect
- No exercises yet.
Topic 5: DNS and Load Balancing
- No exercises yet.
Topic 6: CloudFront
- No exercises yet.
Topic 7: Network Security
- No exercises yet.
Topic 8: Network Performance
- No exercises yet.
Topic 9: Automation
- No exercises yet.
Topic 10: Hybrid Architectures
- No exercises yet.
Topic 11: Network Troubleshooting
- No exercises yet.
Topic 12: Billing
- No exercises yet.
Topic 13: Risk and Compliance
- No exercises yet.
