Updated 2023-09-16
This is a collection of recommended DevOps learning resources. Those with a ✅ green check-mark are my favorite resources for those topics.
DevOps
Online resources
- DevOps Roadmap
- SRE Books – Google
- Getting into DevOps – Reddit
Books
- ✅ The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim
- The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Developers, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order by Gene Kim
- The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations by Gene Kim, et al.
Cloud Native
AWS
- Hands-On AWS Troubleshooting - A Cloud Guru
Azure
GCP
Virtualization
Containerization
Docker
- CLI Cheat Sheet - Docker
- Docker Mastery - Udemy
- Docker Deep Dive by Nigel Poulton
Orchestration
Kubernetes
- ✅ The Kubernetes Book by Nigel Poulton
- Kubernetes The Hard Way - Free Tutorial
- KodeKloud.com - Learn-by-doing Platform
- Kubectl cheat sheet - Kubernetes
Automation
CI/CD
Continuous Integration Continuous Deployment
- ✅ Implementing a Full CI/CD Pipeline - A Cloud Guru
Jenkins
- Jenkins Quick Start - A Cloud Guru
Ansible (CaC)
- Official Ansible Documentation
Videos
- Getting Sarted with Ansible - LearnLinuxTV
- Ansible 101 by Jeff Geerling
Books
- ✅ Ansible for DevOps by Jeff Geerling
This is the single best resource for learning Ansible that I’ve found. - Ansible Up & Running
Courses
- Ansible for the Absolute Beginner – Udemy
- Ansible Quick Start – A Cloud Guru
Tutorials
- Getting started with Ansible – Ansible
Terraform (IaC)
Development
Programming, scripting, source code management (SCM).
Python
Online Resources
Books
- ✅ Automate the Boring Stuff by Al Sweigart
- Learn Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw
- Think Python by Allen B. Downey
Videos
- Learn Python with Socratica - YouTube
- Python Object Oriented Programming (OOP) - For Beginners - YouTube
SCM
Source Code Manegement
Git
- Official Git Documentation
- ✅ Git Cheat Sheet – Atlassian
Videos
- Version Control (Git) – MIT: Missing Semester
Books
- Pro Git – Git
Guides/Tutorials
- ✅ git - the simple guide by Roger Dudler
- How to Write a Git Commit Message
- gittutorial – Git
- giteveryday – Git
Regular Expressions
- ✅ RegexOne - Online tutorial
This is a great intro to RegEx that you can probably get through in a couple of hours.
Networking
- ✅ Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach by James F. Kurose
If you only consume one resource on computer networking, read this. - Professor Messer’s CompTIA N10-008 Network+ Course - Video Course
- Networking for System Administrators by Michael W Lucas
- Test-Out: Network Pro - Online Course + Labs
It’s important to do applied work to solidify skills and learning. If you’re studying for the Network+ the labs in this course are the closest facsimile to real-world experience that I’ve found. This course is all you need to get your Network+ if that’s your aim… it’s well worth the price of admission.
TCP/IP
Routing
NAT
- What is NAT? - CompTIA
Subnetting
- What is a subnet? | How subnetting works | Cloudflare - Cloudflare
- Seven-Second Subnetting by Professor Messer - YouTube
- What is a DMZ Network? - Fortinet
CIDR
Classless Inter-Domain Routing
- What is CIDR? - AWS
- Classful addressing - Wikipedia
- Reserved IP addresses - Wikipedia
DNS
Cloudflare has published some quality articles on DNS from a conceptual overview standpoint.
Start with these:
- What is DNS? | How DNS works | Cloudflare
- What is a domain name? | Domain name vs. URL | Cloudflare
- DNS server types | Cloudflare
- What is a DNS zone? | Cloudflare
- What are DNS records? | Cloudflare
Systems Administration
- The Practice of System and Network Administration: DevOps and other Best Practices for Enterprise IT, Volume 1 By Thomas A. Limoncelli, et al.
Unix & Linux
Tutorials
- Linux Upskill Challenge
Level up your Linux skills to Jr. Linux Administrator in month’s worth of daily challenges. I’m a contributor on this project and am active on the Discord.
Books
- Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook by Evi Nemeth, et al.
- Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud, 2nd Edition by Brendan Gregg
- Sudo Mastery by Michael W. Lucas
Bash & Linux CLI
Online Resources
- ✅ Command Line Crash Course – Learn Python the Hard Way
- Learning the Shell by William Shotts
- The Art of Command Line
- explainshell.com
Books
- ✅ The Linux Command Line by William Shotts
Videos
- The Shell – MIT: Missing Semester
- Linux Commands for Beginners - LearnLinuxTV
- Linux Crash Course - Public Key Authentication (SSH) - LearnLinuxTV
Bash Scripting
- Bash scripting cheatsheet - Devhints
- Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible by Richard Blum & Christine Bresnahan
- Shell Style Guide - Google
Windows
- Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches by Travis Plunk, et al.
Monitoring
Grafana
Prometheus
SIEM
Graylog
Knowledge Management
Documentation
Docs as Code
Markdown
Note Taking
Taking notes is akin to managing a personal “knowledge base”.
Making a habit out of taking notes is one of the single greatest force-multipliers for the IT professioal. Every exceptional developer, sysadmin, engineer, etc that I’ve worked with was a note-taker. The methodologies used doesn’t seem to matter so much, but taking notes does.
- How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens
- The Zettlekasten Method
This is the method that I (mostly) use. See my second brain as an example. - Obsidian
Markdown note-taking tool. Supports Zettelkasten methodologies. This is what I’m currently using, although I’ve also used Vim, Emacs, and explored various other tools and text-editors in the past.
Meta
Beyond just DevOps.
- ✅ Teach Yourself Computer Science
Best in-class books and courses for learning Computer Science (CS). - Open Source Society University (OSSU)
- Code by Charles Petzold