I’ve always been curious and passionate about open source. The concept fascinated me: people from any part of the world contributing to real-world projects, gaining hands-on, industry-level experience, and being mentored by the project maintainers themselves.
Thanks to Kunal Kushwaha and Harkirat Singh, from whom I learned a lot about open source, my interest only grew stronger. Kunal, a former LFX mentee, shared his journey and experiences—which truly resonated with me. I knew I wanted to be part of something like that.
Earlier, my academic workload didn’t leave me much time, but after my semester exams, I finally got the chance to explore the LFX Mentorship portal—where one project instantly caught my eye: CNCF - Microcks.
Why I Chose Microcks
What really made me choose Microcks was the friendly and supportive community—especially how active and helpful the mentors were on Discord.
Also, the project “Building Community-Driven Documentation for Deploying Microcks in Cloud Production Environments” felt like a great match for me. I already had some experience with AWS, GCP, and Docker, but I had never worked with Kubernetes before. This project seemed like the perfect chance to learn something new and in-demand—cloud-native deployments.
Getting Involved (Even Before Selection!)
I only discovered the project a week before the deadline—February 18, 2025—but I didn’t let that stop me. In just a few days, I:
- Joined the Microcks Discord server
- Got my first PR merged (a guide for installing hub.microcks.io locally)
- Actively helped other contributors navigate the project setup — also got a PR merged in the CNCF Kubestellar project
- Shared everything I learned on Twitter to help grow awareness
This shows that you don’t always have to contribute to the codebase to make an impact. You can get involved through documentation, stay active on Discord or Slack, and support the community in meaningful ways. I submitted cover letters and resume for the projects.
🎉 The Selection Day Surprise
I still remember staying up until 4 AM fixing broken links and polishing the docs. The next morning, I woke up and checked my email — and my heart skipped a beat.
“Congratulations! You were accepted to CNCF - Microcks: Community-Driven Docs for Deploying Microcks in Cloud Production.”
I read it twice to believe it. I was so happy and excited! I shared the news with my friends and couldn’t wait to get started.
🗓️ Mentorship Kickoff
The program officially started on March 3rd. During the onboarding, we had a CNCF-wide session hosted by Nate Waddington, Head of CNCF Mentorship & Documentation. He shared stories, set expectations, and made us all feel welcomed and excited.
Our first Microcks mentee meeting with Yacine Kheddache and Laurent Broudoux outlined the mentorship structure, expectations, and goals. I was assigned Yacine as my mentor for weekly 1-on-1 calls. These calls were essential in keeping my work focused, solving blockers quickly, and receiving continuous feedback.
We used a shared Google Doc to plan and track weekly goals and updates.
Three-Month Milestone — What I Accomplished
Month 1: Laying the Foundation
- Organized documentation folders under installation/ to clearly separate guides for AWS, GCP, Azure, OVH, Oracle, and Scaleway.
- Deployed an external Keycloak on GKE, integrated with Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) using secure IAM roles and VPC peering. This setup followed GCP production best practices.
- Integrated Google Firestore as a NoSQL backend, making the setup fully cloud-native and scalable.
Month 2: Strengthening Deployments
- Enabled Kafka support in Microcks using Strimzi Operator, which simplified asynchronous protocol testing.
- Implemented TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt, ensuring automatic HTTPS provisioning and enhanced security.
- Wrote a comprehensive Troubleshooting Guide that addressed common errors in external Keycloak and MongoDB deployments—this helped reduce user onboarding friction.
- Authored a Cloud-Agnostic Common Guidelines doc that outlined infrastructure patterns, IAM setups, database connections, and Helm configurations for different cloud providers.
- Presented my work to the Microcks community, gathered feedback, and welcomed suggestions.
Month 3: Deep Dive into Azure (AKS)
- Deployed Microcks on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
- Set up an external Keycloak backed by Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
- Configured a managed MongoDB instance on AKS and connected it to Microcks.
- Integrated Azure Active Directory (AAD) for secure AKS access and authentication.
- Documented all the above in a detailed, step-by-step guide covering CLI commands, YAML manifests, and Helm chart values for real-world production setups.
Challenges Faced & How I Overcame Them
IAM Permissions on GCP
Setting up the right permissions for services like Cloud SQL, GKE, and Keycloak was tricky. I had to strike a balance between security and functionality, learning how to handle permission errors, scoped tokens, and workload identity.
Helm Chart Customization
The default Helm charts are built for internal Keycloak and MongoDB. I needed to override multiple values to use external services, which taught me a lot about Helm templating and real-world deployment tweaks.
Stateful Workloads in Kubernetes
Deploying databases like MongoDB or PostgreSQL required understanding persistent storage, stateful sets, and backup strategies—especially on AKS. I spent time digging into best practices to manage these safely.
Learning Kubernetes from Scratch
This was my first real dive into Kubernetes. Terms like pods, ingress, and config maps were confusing at first, but thanks to my mentor’s support and hands-on work, I picked it up step by step.
🙌 Wrapping Up
During this mentorship:
- I got 11 PRs merged into the official Microcks documentation repo
- Promoted Microcks and my contributions on social media, especially Twitter and LinkedIn, sharing deployment tips, learnings, and threads
- Helped onboard new contributors by responding on Discord and pointing them to helpful docs and resources
- Actively encouraged others to explore the LFX program and join the open-source community
On June 12, during the final Microcks community meeting, we mentees, shared our experiences. It was a beautiful moment to reflect on our growth and conclude the mentorship with pride.
💬 Final Thoughts
This was my first open source contribution—and first time being part of a global mentorship program. The experience was transformative.
I'm deeply thankful to my mentors Yacine Kheddache and Laurent Broudoux for their support, technical guidance, and continuous encouragement. Without them, this journey wouldn’t have been the same.
Although the program has officially ended, my journey with Microcks continues—and I look forward to contributing more in the future.
If you’re thinking about applying for LFX—do it. You don’t have to be an expert. If you're passionate, willing to learn, and ready to contribute, the community will welcome you with open arms.
You can check out all my contributions on the Microcks repository, and I’m always happy to help anyone get started!
💙 Thanks for reading!
If you're passionate about open source and cloud-native technologies, the next LFX mentorship batch is a great chance to gain hands-on experience, collaborate with communities, and grow professionally.
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