DevOps Networking
Paribhasha Saxena
🌐 OSI & TCP/IP Models, Key Protocols, AWS Security 🔐
Future directions for research and development in DevOps network .Networking is at the heart of every DevOps workflow. Whether you're deploying apps to the cloud, setting up CI/CD pipelines, or managing containers, understanding how systems communicate is essential. From the moment a request leaves your computer to the time it reaches a server, network models, protocols, and security configurations make everything work behind the scenes. In this blog, you’ll learn the fundamentals of the OSI and TCP/IP models, explore commonly used protocols and ports, and understand how to protect your cloud servers with AWS Security Groups. 🚀
🧱 Understanding OSI & TCP/IP Models
The OSI model (Open Systems Interconnection) is a 7-layer framework that explains how data moves through a network. These layers are: Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical. Each plays a role in ensuring data is properly packaged, transmitted, and delivered.
In DevOps, you're mostly interacting with the top four layers. For example, when you visit a website, the Application layer handles protocols like HTTP or HTTPS. The Transport layer ensures data gets there reliably via TCP. The Network layer manages IP routing, and the Data Link/Physical layers deal with how the signal travels—over Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
The TCP/IP model, which is widely used in real networks, condenses these functions into four layers: Application, Transport, Internet, and Network Access. It powers almost everything on the internet today. Understanding how each layer works helps DevOps engineers troubleshoot issues, secure data transfers, and optimize performance.
🌐 Essential Protocols & Ports in DevOps
DevOps workflows rely heavily on protocols for communication between tools, services, and environments. From accessing servers and pushing code to transferring files and handling DNS lookups, each task involves specific protocols operating on designated ports.
Some of the most important ones include:
HTTP & HTTPS for web traffic 🌐
SSH for remote server access 🔐
DNS for resolving domain names 🌍
SFTP for secure file transfers 📁
MySQL/PostgreSQL for database connections 🗄️
Redis for caching and fast data retrieval ⚡
SMTP for sending emails from apps 📤
Knowing which ports are associated with these protocols and when they’re used helps you manage infrastructure more securely and efficiently. As a best practice, only open the ports your applications need and always use encrypted connections (e.g., HTTPS, SFTP) in production.
☁️ AWS EC2 and the Role of Security Groups 🔐
When deploying applications in the cloud using AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), you’re spinning up virtual servers. But with great power comes great responsibility—especially when it comes to security. That’s where Security Groups come in.
Security Groups in AWS act as virtual firewalls that control traffic to and from your EC2 instances. They let you define which IPs can access which ports, providing critical access control. For instance, you may allow SSH access (port 22) only from your own IP to connect securely to the server. Similarly, if you're hosting a web app, you’d allow HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) from the public internet.
Misconfiguring these rules can expose your server to attacks, so understanding how to use Security Groups properly is a key DevOps skill. Always review your inbound and outbound rules, and remove any unnecessary access. It’s one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to harden your cloud infrastructure.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Mastering networking concepts like the OSI and TCP/IP models, knowing your protocols, and setting up secure environments in AWS is a must-have skill set for any DevOps engineer. These are not just theoretical models—they impact real decisions in your workflows: why something won’t deploy, why a server is unreachable, or how to prevent unauthorized access. Learning these basics early helps build a strong foundation for working in cloud environments, automating deployments, and managing modern DevOps pipelines with confidence.
DevOps networking basics, OSI model explained, TCP/IP model, common DevOps protocols, AWS EC2 Security Groups, cloud infrastructure for beginners
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