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Free courses · 8 lessons

DevOps From Scratch: Free Course Built on a Real Pipeline

A free DevOps course for beginners, built on the real pipeline behind this website: Docker, GitHub Actions, a VPS, nginx, Cloudflare and monitoring.

By Matthews WongReviewed on

Key takeaway

DevOps is the practice of getting code from a laptop to production reliably, and keeping it running. This free course teaches it on one real system, the pipeline that deploys this website: a Docker image, a GitHub Actions workflow, a single VPS, nginx and Cloudflare in front, and the monitoring that tells you when it breaks.

Free, no sign-up, no certificate. Built from the setup that runs this website.

Start the course

What you will be able to do

  • Explain every hop between git push and a page in a visitor's browser.
  • Build small, cache-friendly Docker images and run them safely with Compose.
  • Write a GitHub Actions pipeline that tests, builds, pushes and deploys to a VPS.
  • Put nginx and Cloudflare in front, watch the service, and roll back a bad release.

Who it is for

Web developers who can build an app locally but have never deployed one themselves, and anyone who wants to understand what a deploy pipeline actually does.

Before you start

  • Comfortable with a terminal and git (clone, commit, push).
  • Docker Desktop or Docker Engine installed. Every exercise runs locally, with no paid service.
Lessons

DevOps from zero

  1. DevOps Pipeline Explained: From Git Push to ProductionA DevOps pipeline explained on a real site: how one git push is checked, built into a Docker image, run on a VPS and served through nginx and Cloudflare.10 min
  2. SSH for Beginners: Log In to a Linux Server With a KeySSH for beginners: make an Ed25519 key, log in to a Linux server without a password, open only ports 22, 80 and 443, and avoid the Cloudflare SSH trap.12 min
  3. Docker Tutorial for Beginners: Image, Container, DockerfileLearn Docker from a real Dockerfile: what an image and a container are, how layers and the build cache work, and how to order instructions for fast builds.11 min
  4. Docker Multi-Stage Build: Shrink a Real Next.js ImageLearn the Docker multi-stage build from a real Dockerfile: named stages, COPY --from, a non-root user, --target, and why only the final stage ships.12 min
  5. Docker Compose in Production: Limits, Health, RestartsRun Docker Compose in production safely: a restart policy, a memory limit paired with Node's heap cap, a health check, and a port bound to localhost.13 min
  6. GitHub Actions Deploy to VPS: Build, Push to GHCR, SSHDeploy to a VPS with GitHub Actions the way this site does: a verify gate, an image pushed to GHCR, then SSH and Docker Compose, with secrets kept safe.14 min
  7. Nginx Reverse Proxy With Docker Compose, Behind CloudflarePut nginx in front of a Docker Compose app and Cloudflare in front of nginx, then decide header by header what the edge may cache and what it never should.13 min
  8. Monitoring Docker Containers: Uptime, Rollback and BackupsLearn what to watch on a Docker server and why: health checks, uptime checks and metrics. Then roll back a broken release by its tag and test a backup.12 min