$ run as a normal user# run as root (or with sudo)
Read the DevOps loop
DevOps is one loop: plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate, monitor — and back to plan. Every tool has one place in it.
| Step | What happens | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Code | Write code and config, review in a pull request | git, gh |
| 2. Build | Compile, install packages, run tasks | make, npm, pip, mvn, go |
| 3. Test | Unit tests, the pipeline on your laptop | act, make test |
| 4. Package | Build and move container images | docker, podman, buildah, skopeo |
| 5. Infra | Make servers, networks and clusters from code | terraform, tofu, terragrunt, pulumi, ansible, packer |
| 6. Release | Pipelines and GitOps | gitlab-runner, jenkins, argocd, flux |
| 7. Deploy | Run the app on Kubernetes or servers | kubectl, helm, kustomize |
| 8. Route | Send traffic, TLS, canary | nginx, haproxy, traefik, istioctl |
| 9. Watch | Metrics, logs, load tests | promtool, grafana-cli, logcli, otelcol, k6 |
| 10. Operate | Daily work on servers | systemctl, journalctl, ssh, rsync |
Remember
The goal of DevOps is to ship small changes often and safely. Every tool here helps with one of those two words.
Know the 10 areas
The 62 tools in 10 groups. One chapter per group.
| Area | Tools | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Build and packages | make, npm, pip, Maven, Go | Build |
| Shell automation | bash, curl, jq, yq, xargs, envsubst, watch, tmux | Shell |
| Container images | Docker, Podman, Buildah, Skopeo | Images |
| Kubernetes | kubectl, Helm, Kustomize, minikube, kind, k3s, k9s, stern | Kubernetes |
| Git, CI/CD, GitOps | Git, GitHub CLI, act, GitLab Runner, Jenkins, Argo CD, Flux | Delivery |
| Infrastructure as code | Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, Pulumi, Ansible, Packer, Vagrant, cloud-init | IaC |
| Cloud CLIs | Azure CLI, AWS CLI, gcloud, eksctl | Cloud |
| Traffic | nginx, HAProxy, Traefik, Istio, Certbot | Traffic |
| Monitoring and load | Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry Collector, node_exporter, k6, ab | Observe |
| Daily server work | systemctl, journalctl, ssh, rsync, crontab, logrotate | Operate |
See how DevOps and DevSecOps differ
Same loop, other focus. DevOps asks "is it fast and reliable?", DevSecOps adds "is it safe?" at every step.
| DevOps guide (this one) | DevSecOps guide | |
|---|---|---|
| Main question | How do we ship often and keep it running? | How do we ship safely? |
| Extra tools | build tools, shell helpers, cloud CLIs, mesh, load tests | scanners, signing, secrets, hardening, runtime security |
| Typical metric | Deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR | Vulnerabilities fixed, policy violations |
At work
Most jobs mix both. Learn this guide for the daily work, then add the security layer from the DevSecOps guide.
Learn them in the right order
You do not need all 62 on day one. Follow the phases of my DevSecOps path.
- Phase 1 (Linux):
bash,curl,jq,ssh,rsync,systemctl,journalctl,tmux,nginx. - Phase 2 (Cloud):
az,awsorgcloud,cloud-init. - Phase 3 (IaC and CI/CD):
git,gh,make,terraform(ortofu),ansible,docker,act,gitlab-runner. - Phase 4 (Kubernetes):
kubectl,helm,kustomize,kindorminikube,k9s,stern,promtool,grafana-cli. - Phase 5 (GitOps and scale):
argocdorflux,terragrunt,istioctl,k6,otelcol.
Measure DevOps with the 4 DORA metrics
Teams measure how good their delivery is with four numbers (from the DORA research).
| Metric | Question | Elite teams |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment frequency | How often do we deploy to production? | Many times a day |
| Lead time for changes | Commit → production takes how long? | Less than a day |
| Change failure rate | How many deploys cause a problem? | 0–15 % |
| Time to restore | How fast do we fix a failure? | Less than an hour |
Remember
Small changes, automated tests, GitOps and good monitoring improve all four numbers at the same time.