DevOps & Infrastructure

Containerization

Docker

• Proficiency: Advanced
• Key Skills:
  • Dockerfile creation and optimization
  • Layer caching and efficiency
  • Multi-stage builds
  • Container networking
  • Volume management
  • Image tagging and registry
• Usage: All modern projects containerized
• Best Practices: Minimal images, security scanning, version pinning

Docker Compose

• Proficiency: Advanced
• Key Skills:
  • Service orchestration
  • Network configuration
  • Volume persistence
  • Environment variables
  • Override files
  • Dependency management
• Projects: Multiple microservices deployments, homelab services
• Use Cases: Local development, small production deployments

Infrastructure as Code

Terraform

• Proficiency: Intermediate-Advanced
• Key Skills:
  • HCL syntax and structure
  • Modules and reusability
  • State management
  • Variable interpolation
  • Providers (AWS, Proxmox, etc.)
  • Output values
  • Plan and apply workflows
• Projects: Proxmox VM provisioning
• Strengths: Declarative, version-controlled infrastructure

Ansible

• Proficiency: Intermediate-Advanced
• Key Skills:
  • Playbook design
  • Task organization
  • Variable management
  • Handlers and notifications
  • Jinja2 templating
  • Inventory management
  • Vault for secrets
  • Role structure
• Projects: VPS hardening, VM provisioning
• Use Cases: Configuration management, application deployment

Virtualization & Clustering

Proxmox VE

• Proficiency: Advanced
• Key Skills:
  • VM provisioning and management
  • Container (LXC) deployment
  • Cluster setup and maintenance
  • HA (High Availability)
  • Backup and restore
  • Networking and VLANs
  • Performance optimization
  • API usage
• Projects: 4-node homelab cluster
• Administration: 40-80 hours of hands-on experience

Ceph Distributed Storage

• Proficiency: Intermediate
• Key Skills:
  • Cluster deployment
  • OSD (Object Storage Daemon) management
  • Monitor nodes
  • PG (Placement Group) optimization
  • Health monitoring
  • Troubleshooting
• Projects: Proxmox cluster storage backend
• Usage: Providing block storage for VM disks and media

Kubernetes (Basic Understanding)

• Deployment and scaling
• Service networking
• ConfigMaps and Secrets
• Helm charts
• kubectl basics

Networking

Linux Networking

• VLANs: Virtual LAN configuration
• Bonding: Network interface bonding
• Bridges: Linux bridge configuration
• Routing: Static and dynamic routing
• Firewall: iptables and netfilter concepts
• DNS: DNS configuration and troubleshooting
• DHCP: DHCP server setup

Network Hardware

• Managed Switches: VLAN configuration, port mirroring
• 10GbE/2.5GbE: High-speed network setup
• Bonding: Interface aggregation
• SFP+: Transceiver and optics

Reverse Proxies & Load Balancing

Traefik

• Proficiency: Advanced
• Key Skills:
  • Dynamic configuration
  • Let’s Encrypt integration
  • Service discovery
  • Middleware configuration
  • SSL/TLS termination
  • Load balancing algorithms
  • Health checks
• Projects: All homelab services routing

Nginx

• Basic reverse proxy configuration
• Load balancing
• Static file serving
• SSL/TLS termination
• Compression

CI/CD & Automation

GitHub Actions

• Workflow Design: Triggers, jobs, steps
• Matrix Builds: Multi-platform testing
• Secrets Management: Secure credential handling
• Artifacts: Build artifact management
• Caching: Build cache optimization
• Self-hosted Runners: Local build execution

Jenkins

• Pipeline scripting (Declarative/Groovy)
• Job configuration
• Plugin ecosystem
• Docker integration
• Git integration
• Artifact management

GitLab CI/CD

• .gitlab-ci.yml configuration
• Pipeline stages
• Docker executor
• Artifacts and caching

Cloud & Hosting

AWS (Basic)

• EC2 instances
• S3 storage
• CloudFormation
• VPC networking
• RDS databases
• IAM permissions
• CodePipeline basics

VPS Deployment

• Server provisioning
• SSH key management
• Application deployment
• SSL/TLS setup
• Monitoring and logging
• Backup strategies

System Administration

Linux (Advanced)

• Distributions: Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS
• Package Management: apt, yum, pacman
• User Management: sudo, groups, permissions
• Services: systemd, service management
• Filesystem: ext4, XFS, mounting
• Permissions: chmod, chown, file permissions
• Process Management: ps, top, systemctl

Security Hardening

• SSH hardening
• Firewall configuration
• Fail2ban setup
• SSL/TLS certificates
• Key management
• Security patching
• Audit logging

Monitoring & Alerting

Prometheus

• Metrics Collection: Scraping configuration
• Scrape Targets: Service discovery
• PromQL: Query language
• Recording Rules: Aggregation
• Alert Rules: Threshold-based alerting

Grafana

• Dashboard creation
• Data source configuration
• Panels and visualizations
• Alerting rules
• Variables and templating
• Plugin ecosystem

Other Tools

• Uptime Kuma: Uptime monitoring
• Cockpit: System management
• Portainer: Container management UI

Storage & Backup

Storage Solutions

• NFS: Network file sharing
• Samba/SMB: Windows file sharing
• S3-compatible: Wasabi, Minio
• iSCSI: Block storage protocol
• RAID: Data redundancy

Backup Strategies

• Wasabi S3: Hot storage for media
• Restic: Incremental backup tool
• Hetzner Storage: Cold backup
• Off-site Backup: Geographic redundancy
• Incremental Backups: Efficient storage

Database Administration

PostgreSQL

• Installation & Setup: Server configuration
• User Management: Roles and permissions
• Database Administration: CREATEDB, DROPDB
• Backup/Restore: pg_dump, pg_restore
• Performance: Query optimization, indexing
• Replication: Streaming replication
• Extensions: PostGIS, pgvector, etc.

SQLite

• Simple embedded database
• File-based storage
• No server needed
• Development and small projects

Scripting & Automation

Bash/Shell Scripting

• Script writing and debugging
• Cron jobs
• System automation
• Log parsing
• Backup automation
• Deployment scripts

Configuration Management

• YAML syntax
• Jinja2 templating
• Variable management
• Secrets handling

API & Integration

REST APIs

• Designing RESTful endpoints
• HTTP methods and status codes
• JSON serialization
• Error handling

Webhooks

• Event-driven integrations
• Payload handling
• Error resilience
• Signature verification

Testing Infrastructure

Integration Testing

• Environment setup
• Test data management
• Service mocking
• End-to-end testing

Load Testing

• Stress testing
• Performance benchmarking
• Resource monitoring

Documentation & IaC

Infrastructure as Documentation

• Self-documenting configuration
• README files
• Deployment runbooks
• Troubleshooting guides
• Architecture diagrams

Tools & Technologies

• Container Registries: Docker Hub, GitHub Packages
• Version Control: Git, GitHub
• SSH: Secure Shell administration
• OpenSSL: Certificate and key management
• curl/wget: HTTP client tools
• htop/top: System monitoring
• tmux/screen: Terminal multiplexing
• Vim/Nano: Text editors
• jq: JSON querying

Cloud-Native Concepts

• 12-Factor App: Application design principles
• Microservices: Service-oriented architecture
• Stateless Services: Scalability principles
• Configuration Management: Environment-driven config
• Observability: Logs, metrics, traces
• Resilience: Error handling, circuit breakers
• Scalability: Horizontal and vertical scaling

Best Practices

• Infrastructure versioning
• Change tracking and rollback
• Security scanning in CI/CD
• Automated testing
• Documentation consistency
• Disaster recovery planning
• Capacity planning
• Cost optimization