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Phase 0: The Primitives (Beginner Foundations)

Before you can architect an enterprise cloud, you must understand the core building blocks of computing. You cannot orchestrate containers if you do not know how to build one.

📖 Deep-Dive Index

1. Linux & The Command Line

  • Navigation & Permissions: cd, ls, chmod, chown, file descriptors.
  • Process Management: top, ps, kill, systemd (services).
  • Text Manipulation: grep, awk, sed, vim or nano.
  • Bash Scripting: Variables, loops, writing simple automation scripts.

2. Networking 101

  • The OSI Model: Understanding Layer 3 (IP), Layer 4 (TCP/UDP), and Layer 7 (HTTP/DNS).
  • IP Addressing: IPv4, CIDR notation (e.g., what does /24 vs /16 mean?), private vs public IPs.
  • Troubleshooting: ping, curl, telnet, nslookup, traceroute.

3. Version Control (Git)

  • Core Git: clone, add, commit, push, pull.
  • Collaboration: Branching, merging, resolving merge conflicts, Pull Requests (PRs).

4. Containerization (Docker)

  • Concepts: Virtual Machines vs Containers, the Docker daemon.
  • Building: Writing a Dockerfile, understanding image layers, caching.
  • Running: Port mapping (-p), Volume mounting (-v), Environment variables (-e).

🛠️ Job-Essential Exercises

  1. The Linux Web Server Script:
  2. Spin up a local virtual machine (or use an AWS EC2 free tier). Write a Bash script (setup.sh) that automatically updates the OS, installs NGINX, creates a custom index.html saying "Hello World", and starts the web service.
  3. The Subnet Math Challenge:
  4. Take the IP block 10.0.0.0/16. Divide it into 4 equal subnets. Calculate the Network ID, Broadcast IP, and usable IP range for each. (You will need this for AWS VPCs later).
  5. The Dockerized Application:
  6. Write a simple Python/Flask or Node.js web API.
  7. Write a Dockerfile to containerize it.
  8. Build the image and run it locally, mapping port 8080 on your laptop to port 80 inside the container. Verify you can reach it via curl http://localhost:8080.