Essential Tips for Beginners in DevOps and Cloud Engineering

What is DevOps and what exactly these folks do ?

DevOps is a set of practices that integrates developers and operations teams to improve collaboration and productivity by automating infrastructure, automating workflows, and continuously monitoring application performance.

DevOps engineers are responsible for deploying applications, which includes:

• Creating and configuring servers and databases.

• Monitoring application performance and troubleshooting issues.

• Make sure that the software does not break when it is released and it is working fine all the time.

1. Networking Fundamentals

• Introduction to networking concepts like - TCP/IP, DNS, PORTS, Communications

• Understanding network protocols HTTP, SSH, etc.

• These are the concepts that will definitely gonna help you in Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, Building Servers

Useful resources

(i) Full video course by Kunal Kushwaha : LINK

(ii) Blog by Scaler school of Tech : LINK

2. Linux Fundamentals

You’ll gonna spend majority of your time on the terminal that’s why ⤵️

• Introduction to Linux and its working (Groups, permissions, user)

• Basic Linux commands cd ls mkdir

• File system management (permissions, ownership)

• Process management ps kill

NOTE : For the windows folks you can switch to WSL (Windows Subsystem For Linux) : LINK

Useful resources

(i) Introduction to Linux by Kunal Kushwaha : LINK

(ii) Introduction to LInux - course by Linux Foundation : LINK

3. Programming Language

Pick any language you're comfortable with—JavaScript, Python, Go, or Java—and build hands-on experience.

(i) Fundamentals of programming:

• Variables, Data Types, and Operators (strings, integers, booleans, etc.)

• Control Structures: conditional statements (if-else, switch), loops (for, while)

• Error Handling and Debugging:

  • Knowing how to handle errors and exceptions.

  • Understanding how to debug code using print statements, logs, or debuggers.

• Basic Data Structures:

  • Understanding arrays, lists, dictionaries, and other basic data structures.

(ii) Data Flow in Project Architecture:

• Study how data flows through the project architecture, including input/output operations, data storage, and retrieval.

(iii) Running a Project Locally:

• Learn how to set up a local development environment for your project.

• Understand how to run and debug your project locally.

Useful resources

(i) Go Lang Playlist by Hitesh Choudhary : LINK

(ii) Javascript Playlist by Piyush Garg : LINK

(iii) Python Playlist by Freecodcamp : LINK

4. How Open-Source works

As a DevOps or Cloud Engineer, it's important to get familiar with open-source workflows. Contributing to live open-source projects gives you real-world experience and a significant advantage over those with only dummy projects on their resume.

Useful resources

(i) Cloud-Native and DevOps Communities : CNCF, Layer5, Kubernetes

(ii) What is open-source video tutorial by Kunal Kushwaha : LINK

5. Reading Documentation

DevOps and Cloud involve a lot of tools and technologies. There's no single tutorial that covers everything. You'll often need to read documentation and learn as you go to stay up-to-date and effective. This requires a willingness to adapt and learn new things quickly. Being able to navigate complex documentation is a key skill in these fields.