CompTIA CV0-004 - CompTIA Cloud+ (2025)

Part 1: Router 2

The problematic device is Router 2, which has an incorrect configuration for the IPSec tunnel. The IPSec tunnel is a secure connection between the on-premises datacenter and the cloud provider, which allows the traffic to flow between the two networks. The IPSec tunnel requires both endpoints to have matching parameters, such as the IP addresses, the pre-shared key (PSK), the encryption and authentication algorithms, and the security associations (SAs) .

According to the network diagram and the configuration files, Router 2 has a different PSK and a different address space than Router 1. Router 2 has a PSK of “1234567890”, while Router 1 has a PSK of “0987654321”. Router 2 has an address space of 10.0.0.0/8, while Router 1 has an address space of 192.168.0.0/16. These mismatches prevent the IPSec tunnel from establishing and encrypting the traffic between the two networks.

The other devices do not have any obvious errors in their configuration. The DNS provider has two CNAME records that point to the application servers in the cloud provider, with different weights to balance the load. The firewall rules allow the traffic from and to the application servers on port 80 and port 443, as well as the traffic from and to the VPN server on port 500 and port 4500. The orchestration server has a script that installs and configures the application servers in the cloud provider, using the DHCP server to assign IP addresses.

Part 2:

The correct options to provide adequate configuration for hybrid cloud architecture are:

Update the PSK in Router 2.

Change the address space on Router 2.

These options will fix the IPSec tunnel configuration and allow the traffic to flow between the on-premises datacenter and the cloud provider. The PSK should match the one on Router 1, which is “0987654321”. The address space should also match the one on Router 1, which is 192.168.0.0/16.

B. Update the PSK (Pre-shared key in Router2)

E. Change the Address Space on Router2

For a biweekly payroll-processing solution that takes a significant amount of time to deploy to each new VM, the best scaling strategy is Scheduled scaling. This strategy involves preparing new instances in advance of when they are needed based on a known schedule, which in this case is the biweekly payroll process. By scheduling the scaling actions in advance, the cloud engineer ensures that the resources are ready when needed without incurring extra costs for running them all the time. References: CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide (Exam CV0-004) by Todd Montgomery and Stephen Olson

Microservices architecture is the most suitable design principle that aligns with the security best practices mentioned. It involves developing a suite of small services, each running in its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms, often an HTTP resource API. This architecture minimizes the services running on each layer, allows for vendor-agnostic solutions, and is well-suited for virtualization over physical hardware.

Microservices as an architectural approach is discussed in the context of cloud-native applications within the CompTIA Cloud+ material.

A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) allows users to create a secluded section of the public cloud where resources can be launched in a defined virtual network. This enables an organization to have a section of the cloud that is secured and isolated from the public internet, thus, access to public cloud resources can be restricted to only a corporate VPN. References: CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide (Exam CV0-004) - Chapter on Cloud Security

GraphQL is the best option for transferring data over the internet with programmatic access and querying capabilities. It is a query language for APIs and a runtime for executing those queries with existing data, providing a more efficient, powerful, and flexible alternative to the REST API.

Data transfer and querying methods are part of the technical knowledge associated with cloud computing, as included in CompTIA Cloud+.

The communication plan defines the meeting cadence, frequency, participants, formats, and methods of communication. If participation is low, the project manager refers to this plan for validation and adjustment. This is part of governance and compliance to ensure the right stakeholders are engaged appropriately.

To meet the requirements of allowing the IT department to communicate with all subnets while keeping each department segregated and ensuring a maximum of three hosts per employee, two actions are required. First, configuring static routing from the IT subnet (10.1.30.1) to each of the other subnets would establish the necessary connectivity. Second, modifying the subnet mask to 255.255.255.128 for the IT and operations departments would provide the needed number of host addresses while maintaining subnet segregation.

This solution is based on networking and subnetting principles, which are part of the foundational knowledge for cloud networking within the CompTIA Cloud+ framework.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the best cloud service model for deploying code directly in the cloud without provisioning additional infrastructure. PaaS provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

The PaaS model and its benefits for application deployment are covered under the Cloud Concepts domain in the CompTIA Cloud+ certification.