I would go like this:
Start developing a Hello World app
Publish it to source control
Create a Kubernetes cluster
Create a build pipeline that builds, tests, packages it in a container, pushes your app to a container registry
Create a deployment pipeline that deploys the container to the Kubernetes cluster
Later you can add more apps to your pipeline and change to a private container registry to mimic the real world.
I have done sort of the same with Gitlab, Jenkins, a local Kubernetes cluster and an Azure Kubernetes cluster. The hardest part was linking Gitlab with Jenkins. Also, Jenkins is a very powerful beast once you get the hang of scripted pipelines and shared libraries!
But you could also use Azure Devops using their free pipeline and Git offering, so without Gitlab and Jenkins to make it simple in the beginning.
This sounds like a great plan!
I would go like this:
Start developing a Hello World app
Publish it to source control
Create a Kubernetes cluster
Create a build pipeline that builds, tests, packages it in a container, pushes your app to a container registry
Create a deployment pipeline that deploys the container to the Kubernetes cluster
Later you can add more apps to your pipeline and change to a private container registry to mimic the real world.
I have done sort of the same with Gitlab, Jenkins, a local Kubernetes cluster and an Azure Kubernetes cluster. The hardest part was linking Gitlab with Jenkins. Also, Jenkins is a very powerful beast once you get the hang of scripted pipelines and shared libraries!
But you could also use Azure Devops using their free pipeline and Git offering, so without Gitlab and Jenkins to make it simple in the beginning.
Thanks for the advice! Cheers.