Master in DevOpsThrough Real-World Exercise
Strengthen your DevOps expertise with hands-on exercises designed to simulate real-world environments. Build skills through practice, not theory.
20 Exercises
81 Avg. Minutes
Track Progress
Spin up an Ubuntu 24.04 Linux server in the cloud, configure SSH key authentication, and learn to navigate your new server. This exercise uses DigitalOcean but the steps work with any cloud provider.
- Create a cloud Linux server running Ubuntu 24.04
- Generate and configure SSH keys for secure access
- +3 more objectives
Install Docker and Docker Compose on Ubuntu, run your first container, deploy a WordPress stack with docker-compose, and set up Nginx as a reverse proxy in front of your containers.
- Install Docker Engine and Docker Compose on Ubuntu 24.04
- Run and manage Docker containers from the command line
- +3 more objectives
Harden a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 server by creating a non-root user, locking down SSH, configuring a firewall with UFW, and setting up fail2ban to block brute-force attacks.
- Create a non-root user with sudo privileges
- Disable root login and password authentication over SSH
- +3 more objectives
Install Nginx on your Ubuntu server, configure server blocks for your domain, and set up free SSL certificates with Let's Encrypt and Certbot.
- Install and configure Nginx as a web server
- Set up server blocks (virtual hosts) for a domain
- +4 more objectives
Learn to monitor system resources, manage logs, configure automatic security updates, and set up basic alerting with cron jobs on your Ubuntu server.
- Monitor CPU, memory, and disk usage with standard Linux tools
- Use journalctl to read and filter systemd logs
- +3 more objectives
Master essential Git workflows, branching strategies, and collaboration techniques used in modern development teams.
- Understand core Git concepts and workflow
- Create and manage branches effectively
- +2 more objectives
Implement production-ready caching patterns with Redis to dramatically improve application performance and scalability.
- Implement cache-aside and write-through patterns
- Design effective cache invalidation strategies
- +2 more objectives
Master essential Linux performance analysis and optimization techniques to diagnose and resolve system bottlenecks.
- Identify CPU, memory, and I/O bottlenecks
- Use performance monitoring tools effectively
- +2 more objectives
Master load balancing and reverse proxy patterns with Nginx to build resilient, scalable infrastructure.
- Configure Nginx as a reverse proxy
- Implement load balancing strategies
- +2 more objectives
Build a comprehensive Ansible playbook to automate web server deployment, configuration, and security hardening across multiple environments.
- Create reusable Ansible playbooks
- Implement cross-platform compatibility
- +3 more objectives
Learn Infrastructure as Code basics by deploying a simple web server on DigitalOcean using Terraform. Perfect for beginners starting their IaC journey.
- Understand Infrastructure as Code fundamentals
- Learn Terraform workflow (init, plan, apply, destroy)
- +3 more objectives
Implement comprehensive observability for microservices using OpenTelemetry for distributed tracing, metrics, and logging across multiple services.
- Understand OpenTelemetry concepts and architecture
- Implement distributed tracing across microservices
- +4 more objectives
Implement enterprise-grade secret management using HashiCorp Vault and SOPS for encrypted GitOps workflows.
- Deploy and configure HashiCorp Vault
- Implement secret management workflows
- +4 more objectives
Implement GitOps workflows using ArgoCD for automated, declarative, and auditable Kubernetes application deployments.
- Understand GitOps principles and benefits
- Install and configure ArgoCD
- +4 more objectives
Learn Kubernetes application deployment and management using Helm charts with templates, values, and lifecycle management.
- Create and structure Helm charts
- Implement templating and values management
- +3 more objectives
Learn to create efficient Docker images using multi-stage builds to reduce image size and improve security.
- Understand multi-stage build concepts
- Reduce Docker image size by 70%+
- +2 more objectives
Configure and test Horizontal Pod Autoscaler to automatically scale applications based on CPU and memory usage.
- Configure Horizontal Pod Autoscaler
- Understand autoscaling metrics
- +2 more objectives
Build a complete AWS VPC infrastructure using Terraform with public/private subnets, NAT gateway, and security groups.
- Design secure VPC architecture
- Implement Infrastructure as Code principles
- +2 more objectives
Build a production-ready CI/CD pipeline with testing, security scanning, and automated deployment.
- Design comprehensive CI/CD workflow
- Implement automated testing
- +2 more objectives
Deploy and configure Prometheus and Grafana for comprehensive application and infrastructure monitoring.
- Deploy monitoring infrastructure
- Configure metrics collection
- +2 more objectives