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Tools & Setup Guide

This course relies on a mix of open-source tools and cloud free tiers.
Follow this guide to prepare your workstation and accounts.

Core Tools

  • Python 3 + venv → for MkDocs & site builds
  • Git & GitHub → version control, submissions
  • Slack → team communication, ChatOps
  • Taiga → Agile project management (Scrum/Kanban boards)

Infrastructure & Virtualization

  • VirtualBox (free) or VMware Workstation Player → VM hosting
  • Ubuntu LTS ISO → baseline Linux VM
  • Windows ISO (optional) → baseline Windows VM
  • TrueNAS CORE → NAS & SAN labs

Cloud

  • AWS Free Tier account → EC2, S3, VPC labs
  • MinIO → local S3-compatible object storage

Containers & DevOps

  • Docker Desktop / Docker Engine
  • Minikube + kubectl → local Kubernetes cluster
  • Helm (optional) → package manager for Kubernetes
  • Jenkins → CI/CD pipelines (or GitHub Actions alternative)
  • Ansible → configuration management, automation
  • Terraform → Infrastructure as Code for cloud provisioning

Monitoring & Logging

  • Prometheus → metrics collection
  • Grafana → dashboards & visualizations
  • ELK Stack (optional) → logs aggregation

Security

  • AWS IAM → users, roles, policies
  • Vault (HashiCorp) (optional) → secrets management
  • OpenVAS or similar (optional) → vulnerability scanning

Suggested Folder Structure (per team repo)

team-repo/
├── infra/ # VM configs, Terraform, Ansible playbooks
├── app/ # Sample app (containerized)
├── cicd/ # Jenkins pipelines, workflows
├── monitoring/ # Prometheus, Grafana configs
├── security/ # IAM policies, hardening scripts
└── docs/ # Lab notes, screenshots, diagrams

Pre-course Checklist

  • Install VirtualBox (or VMware Workstation)
  • Download Ubuntu LTS ISO
  • Create GitHub account
  • Create Slack account (invite link will be provided)
  • Create Taiga account (invite link will be provided)
  • Register AWS Free Tier account
  • Install Docker + Minikube + kubectl