30-Day DevOps Kickstart Plan (For Beginners)

This plan is built for absolute beginners stepping into DevOps. It emphasizes hands-on projects, portfolio creation, and includes one excellent YouTube tutorial per tool to guide your learning.

Author: Pranjali

Days 1–3: Command Line Mastery (Linux Basics for DevOps)

The command line interface (CLI) is the heart of DevOps work.
Before jumping into automation, cloud, or Kubernetes, you must be comfortable navigating and controlling servers using just the terminal.

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1.Environment Setup

• Install VirtualBox (or VMware/Hyper-V).

• Download the latest Ubuntu Server ISO (no GUI).

• Create a Virtual Machine with at least:

  • 2 CPU cores

  • 4 GB RAM

• Complete a minimal installation (SSH enabled, no desktop).

👉 This setup simulates a real production server environment.

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2: Essential Linux Commands to Learn

File & Directory Management

• ls, cd, pwd, mkdir, rmdir

• cp, mv, rm

System Monitoring

• top, htop

• df -h (disk usage)

• du -sh (directory size)

Text Processing & Search

• cat, less, tail -f

• grep, awk, sed

Process & Service Management

• ps aux

• kill -9 <PID>

• systemctl start|stop|status <service>

👉 These commands are the building blocks of everything you’ll do in DevOps.

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3: Mini Projects (Daily Practice)

Project Ideas:

• Automate disk usage monitoring with email alerts at > 80%.

• Schedule daily backups of /var/log with timestamped archives.

• Build a log parser that counts failed SSH attempts and alerts anomalies.👉 These small projects will make you comfortable with automation using just Linux commands.

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4: Learning Resources

📌 Best YouTube Resource to Learn Linux (DevOps-focused):

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Days 4–7: Git & Version Control

Why Git?
Git is the backbone of DevOps collaboration. Every CI/CD pipeline, automation, and infrastructure-as-code workflow relies on version control. Mastering Git early makes you confident in managing codebases and team projects.

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Core Git Skills to Learn

1. Repo Management

   • git init → Initialize a local repo

   • git clone <url> → Clone a repo from GitHub

   • git remote -v → Manage remotes

2. Daily Workflow

   • git add <file> → Stage changes

   • git commit -m "message" → Save changes

   • git push / git pull → Sync with remote

3. Branching & Merging

   • git checkout -b feature-branch → Create & switch branch

   • git merge <branch> → Merge changes

   • git rebase <branch> → Reapply commits on top

4. Conflict Handling & Best Practices

   • Learn to resolve merge conflicts in files

   • Use .gitignore to keep secrets & junk files out

   • Maintain a clean commit history with good messages

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Daily Practice Projects

• Create a DevOps Learning Journey Repo – push your scripts & notes.

• Version control your Linux scripts from Days 1–3.

• Simulate a merge conflict (two branches editing the same file) and resolve it.

• Implement a branching strategy (feature, bugfix, main branch).

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📺 Best YouTube Resource for Git Beginners

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Week 2: Infrastructure & Cloud

Days 8–10: AWS Fundamentals

What is AWS?
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the leading cloud platform that powers scalable infrastructure, hosting, storage, and DevOps automation. Every DevOps engineer must know its core services.

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Core AWS Skills:

1. Create AWS account, enable MFA, configure AWS CLI

2. Launch and manage EC2 instances

3. Create and manage S3 buckets

4. Configure IAM users, groups, and policies

5. Set up VPC with public/private subnets

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Project Ideas:

• Host a static website on S3

• Launch an EC2 instance and deploy a web app

• Create a least-privilege IAM user for deployments

• Design a simple VPC network

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Best YouTube Resource for AWS

AWS-ZERO-TO-HERO

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Week 3: Containerization & Orchestration

Days 11–14: Docker Essentials

What is Docker?
Docker is a containerization platform that lets you package applications with all their dependencies into lightweight, portable containers. Unlike virtual machines, containers share the host OS kernel, making them faster, more efficient, and ideal for DevOps workflows.

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Core Docker Skills:

1. Install and configure Docker Engine

2. Understand Images vs Containers

3. Write and optimize Dockerfiles

4. Manage networks, volumes, and multi-container setups

5. Use docker-compose for orchestration

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Project Ideas:

• Containerize a simple Node.js or Python web app

• Build a multi-container stack (app + database) via docker-compose

• Push your own custom Docker image to DockerHub

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Best YouTube Resource for Docker:

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Days 15–17: Kubernetes Basics

What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system. It automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications—helping DevOps teams run apps reliably in production.

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Core Kubernetes Skills:

1. Install Minikube (local cluster) & kubectl (CLI)

2. Understand Pods, Deployments, and Services

3. Use ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Ingress for configuration & routing

4. Perform rolling updates and horizontal scaling

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Project Ideas:

• Deploy your Dockerized app to Kubernetes (via Minikube)

• Add readiness & liveness probes for app health

• Scale app replicas horizontally

• Configure Ingress Controller for external traffic

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Best YouTube Resource for Kubernetes

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Week 4: CI/CD & Monitoring

Days 18–20: Continous Integration

What is CI?
CI (Continuous Integration) automates the testing and validation of every code change. It ensures fast feedback and maintains software quality.

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Key CI Skills:

1. Configure GitHub Actions workflows (YAML)

2. Integrate unit tests and linters

3. Manage secrets securely

4. Send build status notifications (Slack/Email)

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Project Ideas:

• Create a CI pipeline for your Docker app with GitHub Actions

• Automate linting & tests on every commit

• Notify team on Slack when a build fails

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Best YouTube Resource for Github Actions:

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Days 21–23: Continuous Deployment (CD)

What is CD?
CD (Continuous Deployment) automates app delivery to environments like AWS or Kubernetes, enabling safe, repeatable deployments.

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Key CD Skills:

1. Deploy apps to AWS EC2 or Kubernetes

2. Implement blue-green or rolling deployments

3. Enable rollback mechanisms for failures

4. Manage multi-environment pipelines

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Project Ideas:

• Automate app deployment to AWS EC2 via GitHub Actions

• Deploy automatically to Kubernetes

• Implement blue-green deployment with rollback

Best YouTube Resource for CD

🎥 CI/CD with GitHub Actions & AWS – CodeWithVlad

Days 24–26: Monitoring & Final Integration

What is Monitoring?
Monitoring ensures apps run smoothly by tracking metrics and alerting issues before they impact users.

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Key Monitoring Skills:

1. Deploy Prometheus (metrics collection) & Grafana (dashboards)

2. Monitor CPU, Memory, Pod health

3. Configure alerts (Slack, Email, PagerDuty)

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Project Ideas:

• Monitor your Kubernetes cluster with Prometheus

• Create Grafana dashboards for app performance

• Set alerts for downtime & anomalies

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Best YouTube Tutorial:

By Day 30, You Will Have:

• 5+ meaningful projects on GitHub: shell automations, AWS IaaC, Dockerized app, Kubernetes deployment, CI/CD pipeline, monitoring dashboards.

• A complete, demonstrable DevOps pipeline.

• A polished portfolio to show in job applications.

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Next Steps

1. Apply for Junior DevOps or SRE roles.

2. Contribute to open-source DevOps tools or scripts.

3. Prepare for certifications like AWS Cloud Practitioner or SysOps.

4. Continue building—explore advanced topics like infrastructure security or service meshes.

5. Engage with DevOps communities on LinkedIn, Slack, or Reddit.

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Final Advice from Pranjali

Master the core principles—Linux, Git, Cloud infrastructure, containers, orchestration, CI/CD, and monitoring. Your portfolio, full of hands-on projects, is your strongest asset. Keep learning, keep building, and stay confident.

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