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Ogunkola Adeola
Ogunkola Adeola

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🛠️ DevOps Roadmap for Beginners: What to Learn, Tools to Master & How to Install, Configure & Use. 🛠️

DevOps is a cultural and technical movement aimed at unifying software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It emphasizes automation, collaboration, and monitoring throughout the software development lifecycle.

If you're interested in a DevOps career, this guide will help you get started with the right skills, tools, and practices in a step-by-step roadmap.

🚀 Why DevOps?

Before jumping in, here’s why DevOps is in demand:

  • Faster software releases
  • Improved collaboration between dev & ops teams
  • Increased automation = fewer errors
  • Scalable and reliable infrastructure

🧭 DevOps Learning Roadmap

Here’s a structured roadmap split into 8 essential stages:

📘 1. Learn the Basics of Operating Systems & Networking

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Linux command-line basics (shell, file systems, permissions)
  • Networking fundamentals (IP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, firewalls)

🛠️ Tools:

  • Linux (Ubuntu) – Preferred OS for DevOps
  • Terminal/Shell – bash, zsh

🔧 How to Install Linux:

  • Use WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) on Windows: 
  wsl --install
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  • Or install Ubuntu via VirtualBox or dual-boot.

🌐 2. Version Control with Git

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Git commands (clone, add, commit, push, pull, branch, merge)
  • Git workflows (feature branching, pull requests)

🛠️ Tool:

  • Git
  • GitHub / GitLab / Bitbucket

🔧 How to Install Git:

  • On Linux: 
  sudo apt update && sudo apt install git
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🧪 3. Learn a Scripting Language

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Shell scripting (bash)
  • Python basics (variables, loops, modules)

🛠️ Tools:

  • Bash
  • Python

🔧 How to Install Python:

  • On Linux: 
  sudo apt install python3 pip
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📦 4. Understand Package Managers & Repositories

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Install, update, and remove packages
  • Use repositories and third-party sources

🛠️ Tools:

  • apt (Debian/Ubuntu)
  • yum or dnf (CentOS/Fedora)
  • brew (macOS)

🐳 5. Containers & Virtualization

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Difference between VM and containers
  • Docker concepts (images, containers, volumes, networking)

🛠️ Tools:

  • Docker
  • Docker Compose

🔧 How to Install Docker:

  • On Ubuntu: 
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install docker.io
  sudo systemctl start docker
  sudo systemctl enable docker
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☸️ 6. Container Orchestration (Kubernetes)

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Kubernetes basics (pods, deployments, services)
  • YAML configuration
  • Helm for package management

🛠️ Tools:

  • Kubernetes (minikube or kind for local use)
  • kubectl – CLI for Kubernetes
  • Helm

🔧 How to Install Minikube:

  • Pre-requisites: Docker & kubectl
  • On Linux/macOS: 
  curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
  sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube
  minikube start
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🔁 7. CI/CD Pipelines

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Continuous Integration & Deployment concepts
  • Building pipelines: test → build → deploy

🛠️ Tools:

  • Jenkins (most beginner-friendly)
  • GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or CircleCI

🔧 How to Install Jenkins:

  • On Ubuntu: 
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk
  curl -fsSL https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable/jenkins.io.key | sudo tee \
  /usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc > /dev/null
  echo deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc] \
  https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/ | sudo tee \
  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list > /dev/null
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install jenkins
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📡 8. Monitoring & Logging

🧠 What to Learn:

  • Metrics collection and alerting
  • Log aggregation and visualization

🛠️ Tools:

  • Prometheus – Monitoring
  • Grafana – Dashboards
  • ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) – Logging

🔧 How to Install Prometheus & Grafana (Docker):

docker run -d -p 9090:9090 prom/prometheus
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 grafana/grafana
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📂 Bonus Skills to Explore Later

  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Terraform, Ansible
  • Cloud Providers: AWS, Azure, GCP
  • Security and compliance in DevOps (DevSecOps)
  • GitOps and advanced Kubernetes tools

🎓 Learning Resources

Resource Type Source
Free Linux Courses Linux Journey, OverTheWire
Git Practice learngitbranching.js.org
Docker & K8s Play with Docker, Katacoda
DevOps Labs KodeKloud, [FreeCodeCamp YouTube]

🧭 Final Thoughts

Starting a career in DevOps can feel overwhelming, but the key is to start small and build step by step. Practice by:

  • Automating personal projects
  • Setting up CI/CD for your code
  • Running containerized apps
  • Deploying apps to the cloud

DevOps is not just about tools—it's about culture, mindset, and continuous improvement.

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