FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Here to help you find the best answer to our most frequently asked questions!

Daily Life (Both AP House and Downtown Guidance)

How much do irons and rice cookers generally cost?

At Minishare, each would cost around 500 yen. If you wish to buy brand-new ones, it should cost approximately 2,000 yen for irons and 4,000 yen for rice cookers, depending on which kind you choose.



What kind of appliances should we bring?

Other than laptops and personal devices, it is not necessary to bring electric appliances like hair-dryers, hair-straighteners, lamps, etc. because the standard voltage in Japan could be different from your country. In the end, it may cause your electric appliance to short-circuit or break. In any case, you might just find buying appliances in Japan to be cheaper and more convenient.



What kind of things should we bring from Indonesia and which ones should we just buy in Beppu?

Religious materials might be hard to find in Beppu. If you practice Islam, it will do you good to bring prayer garments from back home (sarungs, mukenas, etc.).



Downtown Life

Introduction to DevOps

  • DevOps Bootcamp Overview
  • What is DevOps?
  • Roles and Responsibilities of a DevOps Engineer
  • How DevOps fits in the whole Software Development lifecycle



Version Control with Git

  • Introduction to Version Control and Git
Full Git Tutorial:
  • Basic Concepts of Git
  • Setup git repository (remote and local)
  • Working with Git (git status, git commit, git add, git push)
  • Initialize Git project locally
  • Concept of Branches
  • Merge Requests
  • Deleting Branches
  • Avoiding Merge Commits (rebase)
  • Resolving Merge Conflicts
  • Don't track certain files (.gitignore)
  • Save work-in-progress changes (git stash)
  • Going back in history (git checkout)
  • Undoing commits (git revert, git reset)
  • Merging Branches
  • Git for DevOps



Build & Package Manager Tools

  • What are Build Tools and Package Managers?
  • How to build an artifact?
  • How to run the application artifact?
  • How to publish the application artifact to artifact repository?
  • Build Tools for Java (gradle and maven examples)
  • Dependency Management in Software Development
  • Package Manager in JavaScript applications - Build and run applications in JS
  • Build Tools & Docker
  • Why Build Tools are relevant for DevOps Engineers?



Cloud & Infrastructure as a Service Basics

  • Cloud & Infrastructure as a Service Concepts
Working with a cloud server:
  • Setup Server on DigitalOcean (Droplet)
  • Install Java on Cloud Server
  • Deploy and run an application on Cloud Server
  • Create a Linux User to login to Server (instead of using Root User)



Artifact Repository Manager with Nexus

  • What is an Artifact Repository Manager?
  • Install and run Nexus on Cloud Server
  • Different Repository Types (proxy, hosted, etc.) explained
  • Different Repository Formats (maven, docker, npm, etc.) explained
  • Upload Jar File to Nexus (maven and gradle projects)
  • Nexus API and Repository URLs
  • Blob stores
  • Browsing Components - Components vs Assets
  • Cleanup Policies
  • Scheduled Tasks



Containers with Docker

  • What is a Container?
  • Docker Components and architecture explained
  • Docker vs. Virtual Machine
  • Main Docker Commands
  • Debugging a Docker Container
  • Demo Project Overview - Docker in Practice (Nodejs App with MongoDB and MongoExpress UI)
  • Developing with Containers
  • Docker Compose - Running multiple services
  • Dockerfile - Building our own Docker Image
  • Private Docker Repository - Pushing our built Docker Image into a private Registry on AWS
  • Deploy containerized app
  • Docker Volumes - Persist data in Docker
  • Volumes Demo - Configure persistence for our demo project
Docker & Nexus
  • Create Docker Images Repository on Nexus
  • Push/Pull Docker Image from/to Nexus Repository Manager
  • Install Nexus with Docker
  • Configure insecure repositories in Docker Engine



Build Automation - CI/CD with Jenkins

  • What is Build Automation? What is Jenkins?
  • Install Jenkins on cloud server (Docker vs Server install)
  • Jenkins plugins
  • Installing build tools in Jenkins
  • Jenkins Basics Demo
    • Create Freestyle Job
    • Configure Git Repository
    • Run Tests and Build Java Application
  • Docker in Jenkins
    • Make Docker commands available in Jenkins
    • Build Docker Image
    • Push to DockerHub Repo
    • Push to Nexus Repo
  • Jenkins Pipeline (Use Cases)
  • Create a simple Pipeline Job
  • Full Jenkinsfile Syntax Demo
  • Create a full Pipeline Job
    • Build Java App
    • Build Docker Image
    • Push to private DockerHub
  • Create a Multi-Branch Pipeline Job
  • Credentials in Jenkins
  • Jenkins Shared Library
  • WebHooks - Trigger Jenkins Jobs automatically
  • Versioning Application in Continuous Deployment
    • Concepts of Versioning in Software Development
    • Increment Application version from Jenkins Pipeline
    • Set new Docker Image version from Jenkins Pipeline
    • Commit Version Bump from Jenkins Pipeline



AWS Services

  • Introduction to Amazon Web Services
  • Identity & Access Management (IAM) - User, Groups and Permissions
  • Regions and Availability Zones
  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) - Your Private Network
    • Subnets
    • Security Groups
    • Internet Gateway
    • Route Table
    • CIDR Blocks
  • Introduction to Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
    • Create an EC2 Instance
    • Run Webapplication on EC2 using Docker
  • AWS Command Line Tool
    • Install and configure AWS CLI
    • Create EC2
    • Create Security Group
    • Create key-pair
    • Create IAM user with permissions
AWS & Jenkins - Continuous Deployment with Jenkins to AWS EC2
  • Automate deploying from Jenkins Pipeline to EC2 Intance
    • using docker run
    • using docker-compose
  • Real-life example of dynamically setting new image version in docker-compose
  • SSH agent plugin and SSH credential type in Jenkins



Container Orchestration with Kubernetes

  • Introduction to Kubernetes
  • Understand the main Kubernetes Components
    • Node, Pod, Service, Ingress, ConfigMap, Secret, Volume, Deployment, StatefulSet
  • Kubernetes Architecture
  • Minikube and kubectl - Local Setup
  • Main Kubectl Commands - K8s CLI
    • Create and debug Pod in a Minicluster
  • Kubernetes YAML Configuration File
    • Create and Configure Deployment and Service Component
  • Demo Project: MongoDB and MongoExpress
  • Organizing your components with K8s Namespaces
  • Kubernetes Service Types
  • Making your App accessible from outside with Kubernetes Ingress
  • Persisting Data in Kubernetes with Volumes
    • Persistent Volume
    • Persistent Volume Claim
    • Storage Class
  • ConfigMap and Secret Kubernetes Volume Types
  • Deploying Stateful Apps with StatefulSet
  • Deploying Kubernetes cluster on a Managed Kubernetes Service (K8s on Cloud)
  • Helm - Package Manager of Kubernetes
  • Helm Demo: Install a Stateful Application on Kubernetes using Helm
  • Demo: Deploy App from Private Docker Registry
  • Extending the Kubernetes API with Operator
  • Prometheus Operator Demo with Helm: Setup Prometheus Monitoring in K8s
  • Secure your cluster - Authorization with Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
Microservices in Kubernetes
  • Introduction to Microservices
  • Demo project: Deploy Microservices Application
  • Production & Security Best Practices
  • Demo project: Create common Helm Chart for Microservices
  • Demo project: Deploy Microservices with helmfile



Kubernetes on AWS - EKS

AWS & Kubernetes

  • AWS Container Services: Overview (ECR, ECS, EKS, Fargate)
  • Create an EKS cluster with AWS Management Console (UI)
    • Create cluster VPC
    • Create cluster Roles
    • Use Cloudformation Stack
    • EC2 Worker Nodes
    • Fargate Profile
    • Configure Austoscaler
    • Configure kube context to connect to the cluster
  • Create an EKS cluster with eksctl (the easy way)
AWS & Kubernetes & Jenkins & Docker - CI/CD
  • Configure kubectl inside Jenkins
  • Configure kube context in Jenkins
  • Install aws-iam-authenticator in Jenkins
  • Complete Jenkins Pipeline - Deploy to EKS - using kubectl
  • Complete Jenkins Pipeline - Build and push docker image to ECR and deploy to EKS
  • Complete Jenkins Pipeline - Deploy to LKE using Kubernetes CLI plugin and kubeconfig file



Infrastructure as Code with Terraform

  • What is Terraform? How it works
  • Architecture
  • Providers
  • Resources & Data Sources
  • Variables & Output Values
  • Environment variables in Terraform
  • Terraform commands
  • Terraform State
  • Provisioners
  • Modules
  • Remote State
Terraform & AWS
  • Create Security Group
  • Create VPC
  • Create Subnet
  • Create Route Table
  • Create Internet Gateway
  • Create key-pair
  • Provision EC2 server
  • Modularize the demo project
Terraform & AWS & Kubernetes
  • Use existing modules from Terraform Registry
  • Create VPC
  • Provision EKS cluster
Terraform & AWS & Jenkins - complete CI/CD
  • Configure Terraform in Jenkins
  • Automate provisioning EC2 instance from Jenkins pipeline and deploy the application with docker-compose



Programming with Python

  • Introduction to Python: What is Python and why to learn Python as a DevOps engineer?
  • Installation and Setup Local Development Environment
  • Write our first Python program
  • Python IDE vs simple File Editor
  • Strings and Number Data Types
  • Variables
  • Encapsulate Logic with Functions
  • Accepting User Input
  • Conditionals (if / else) and Boolean Data Type
  • Error Handling with Try / Except
  • While Loops
  • Lists and For Loops
  • Comments in Python
  • Sets
  • Built-In Functions
  • Dictionary Data Type
  • Modularize your project with Modules
  • Project: Countdown App
  • Packages, PyPI and pip
  • Project: Automation with Python (Working with Spreadsheets)
  • Object Oriented Programming: Classes and Objects
  • Project: API Request to GitLab



Automation with Python

After having learnt the programming basics and now being able to write programs, you will learn how to use this Python knowledge for DevOps use cases. Cloud Automation - AWS & Python

  • Introduction to Boto (AWS Library for Python)
  • Install Boto3 and connect to AWS
  • Getting familiar with Boto Library
    • Automate creating VPC and Subnets
  • Terraform vs Python - understand the differences and when to use which tool
Automation Tasks around EC2 Instance:
  • Health Check: Automatically check the status of EC2 Instances
  • Scheduler: Write a scheduled task that executes the status check in a specified interval automatically
  • Configure Server: Automate adding tags to EC2 Instances with the environment label
  • Automate getting cluster information from all EKS clusters in your AWS account
Automation Tasks around Data Backup & Restore
  • Backup EC2 Instances: Automate creating snapshots of EC2 Volumes
  • Cleanup Task: Write a cleanup script to automate cleanup of old EC2 snapshots
  • Restore EC2 Volume: Write a program to restore an EC2 volume with the backup snapshot and attach it to the EC2 Instance
Automation Tasks around Website Monitoring (without AWS)
  • Monitoring: Write a scheduled automation program that monitors the website's health
  • E-Mail Notification: Configure python program to automatically send an email every time the website or server is down
  • Recover: Restart the application and reboot the underlying remote server



Configuration Management with Ansible

As a continuation of the projects in all the previous modules, we will use Ansible to further automate and optimize DevOps processes. Ansible, next to Terraform is one of the most popular infrastructure as code and configuration management tools currently used in IT projects. Core Concepts and Syntax of Ansible

  • Introduction to Ansible
  • Install & Configure Ansible
  • Setup Managed Server to configure with Ansible
  • Ansible Inventory
  • Ansible ad-hoc Commands
  • Configure AWS EC2 server with Ansible
  • Managing Host Key Checking and SSH keys
  • Ansible Tasks, Play & Playbook
  • Ansible Modules
  • Ansible Collections & Ansible Galaxy
  • Ansible Variables - to make your Playbook customizable
  • Troubleshooting in Ansible
  • Conditionals
  • Privilege Escalation
  • Ansible Configuration - Default Inventory File
Learn most common Ansible modules with hands-on demos:
  • Project: Deploy Nodejs Application
  • Project: Deploy Nexus
  • Configure servers with different Linux distributions on AWS and Digital Ocean platforms
In these projects we will install tools on a server, configure applications, work with a file system, move static files between machines etc. Essentially you will learn how to map and translate shell scripts and commands into Ansible Playbooks to automate various common tasks in general. More Advanced Topics & Integrations with other Technologies
  • Dynamic Inventory for EC2 Servers
  • Ansible Roles - to make your Ansible content more reusable and modular for better maintenance
  • Project: Ansible & Terraform
  • Project: Run Docker applications
  • Project: Deploying Applications in Kubernetes
  • Project: Run Ansible from Jenkins Pipeline
So, you don't learn Ansible just as a standalone tool in this bootcamp, but rather integrated in different technologies, like Docker, K8s, Terraform, Jenkins, AWS and so on, in various real world use cases, as it builds on the previous modules in the bootcamp!



Operating Systems & Linux Basics

Introduction to Operating Systems

  • What is an OS and how does it work?

  • Tasks of an OS

  • How an OS is constructed

  • How different OSs, like Unix, Linux, Windows and MacOS differ from each other

Virtualization

  • Introduction to Virtual Machine
  • Setup a Linux Virtual Machine

Package Manager - Installing Software

  • What is a Package Manager and what are Software Repositories?

  • Learn all the options of installing software on Linux and how it all actually works in the background:

    • APT

    • APT vs APT-GET

    • SNAP

    • Ubuntu Software Center

    • YUM

Working with Vim Editor

  • What is Vim?

  • Learn most important Vim Commands to work with Vim efficiently

Users & Permissions

  • Linux Accounts
  • Users, Groups & Permissions
  • User Management in Practice
  • File Ownership & Permissions
  • Modifying Permissions
Linux File System Basic Linux Commands
  • Introduction to Command Line Interface
  • Learn all the essential Linux Commands like
    • Directory Operations
    • Navigating the Files System
    • Work with the File System (Create folders, list files, rename, remove files etc.)
    • Execute Commands as Superuser
    • Pipes, Redirects, Less, Grep
Shell Scripting
  • Shell vs sh vs Bash
  • Write & execute a simple script
  • Learn how to write Bash Scripts
    • Variables
    • Conditional Statements
    • Basic Operators
    • Passing Arguments to a Script to make it customizable and reusable
    • Read user input
    • Repeating code with shell loops
    • Functions

Environment Variables

  • What are environment variables and how to access them
  • Create, Delete and Persist Env Variables
  • Understand what the PATH env variables is

Networking

  • How computer networks work?
  • What is LAN, Switch, Router, Subnet, Firewall, Gateway
  • What is an IP address and port?
  • What is a DNS and how does DNS resolution work?
  • Useful Networking Commands

SSH - Secure Shell

  • What is SSH and how it works
  • SSH in Action:
    • Create Remote Server on Cloud
    • Generate SSH Key Pair
    • Execute a bash script on a remote machine



Monitoring with Prometheus

  • Introduction to Monitoring with Prometheus
  • Install Prometheus Stack in Kubernetes
  • Data Visualization with Prometheus UI
  • Introduction to Grafana
  • Alert Rules in Prometheus
  • Create own Alert Rules
  • Introduction to Alertmanager
  • Configure Alertmanager with Email Receiver
  • Trigger Alerts for Email Receiver
  • Monitor Third-Party Applications
  • Deploy Redis Exporter
  • Alert Rules & Grafana Dashboard for Redis
  • Collect & Expose Metrics with Prometheus Client Library
  • Scrape Own Application Metrics & Configure Own Grafana Dashboard