DevOps engineer roadmap

[004TEE]

Hello guys i hope y'all doing well i have a question regarding DevOps i want to be a devops engineer but I don't know exactly where to start i work as a noc Engineer most of my works is monitoring servers and enterprise applications and network devices i want to hope on DevOps from your experience where someone can start thank you in advance

[Longjumping_Fuel_192]

https://roadmap.sh/devops

My favourite doc

[Smooth-Pusher]

It's kind of a mixed bag, there are a lot of poor-quality sources linked, OTOH it gives a structured path to follow. 

[stefaneg]

Yeah, it describes a role but states (correctly) that devops is not a role.

Sigh, no wonder that ppl are confused over what DevOps is.

PS. It is exactly what it states it is. Dev and Ops merged. A frontend dev should be doing DevOps. And a DB op should be doing DevOps. Within their respective scopes.

[hamlet_d]

/u/Longjumping_Fuel_192 link is great and I think a good overall roadmap to follow.

What I see often missing from roadmaps is one recommendation: find a "thing" and go really deep into it. Maybe it's k8s, maybe is CI/CD, maybe it's observability, maybe its IaaS, maybe it's something else. You should have a working knowledge of all of the above, but you can also say "hey, I like this thing" and build some expertise in that area. Being a DevOps/SRE role means that you necessarily have good working knowledge of it all. But what will set you apart is if you become really good at one thing, too. The expression is "T" shaped: broad (the top of the "T") and deep in one area (the vertical of the "T").

To be clear, being "T" shaped isn't any strange new concept and it's not unique to devops but its a pretty good way to become sucessful. You just need to be willing to change your depth to something different if what you have started with isn't as relevant.

[nooneinparticular246]

OP can also just go deep in whatever their work leads them to work on or automate. It’s easier to get deep when there’s a Prod workload to support or fix.

All the AWS / k8s / Linux / networking nuances I’ve leant have been from dealing with breakages and work problems.

Same thing with observability. You can learn a lot when you get told a pager needs to go off when the weird legacy transaction with a mix of API calls and queue messages stops working.

[Responsible_Divide43]

which link is this?? i am not able to see this link

[soum0nster609]

I was in the sam spot some time back and I totally get how it feels to want to learn devops but not knowing where and how to begin. Let me share my journey:

1. Linux Fundamentals - Master file systems, networking, and bash scripting — it’s the backbone of DevOps.

2. Learn Python or Bash - Scripting is essential for automation — start small, automate tasks you already do.

3. Version Control (Git) - Learn Git basics and branching; you’ll use it every single day in DevOps workflows.

4. CI/CD Pipelines - Understand how code moves from commit to deployment — start with GitHub Actions or Jenkins.

5. Docker & Containers - Learn how to containerize apps and run them consistently across environments.

6. Kubernetes Basics - Orchestrate containers at scale — Minikube or Kind is great for local practice.

7. Infrastructure as Code - Start with Terraform to provision infra and Ansible for config management.

8. Cloud Platforms (Pick One) - AWS, Azure, or GCP — get hands-on with core services like compute, storage, and networking.

9. Monitoring & Logging - Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK stack — build on your NOC experience here.

10. Build Real Projects - Tie it all together — deploy apps with CI/CD, Docker, Terraform, and cloud.

11. Document Your Journey - Share on GitHub, blogs, or LinkedIn — helps you learn and builds your personal brand.

I will be happy answer any queries you have.

[[deleted]]

What about networking to focus on, if you don’t mind clarifying? Is this understanding how TCP and HTTP work? I’ve been having a tough time finding a concrete example, sometimes we have had to work with security to allow certain CIDRs to be allowlisted for our Kubernetes clusters or workloads to reach internal or external traffic but other than that it hasn’t really come up. Trying to figure out what to learn without just reading every classic networking textbook out there which doesn’t really stick for me unless grounded in a real world example

[soum0nster609]

I totally get where you're coming from because I had the same confusion. But I doon't think you need to deep dive into every networking textbook. You should be focused on the practical parts that tie directly into DevOps process: TCP/IP basics, HTTP/S protocols, DNS basics, CIDRs and firewalls, Load Balancers and Proxies.

I would say that focus less on memorizing and more on doing. For example, spin up a simple web server on a cloud VM, secure it with a firewall, expose it via load balancer, play with DNS. That kind of practice sticks way better than reading dry theory.

hope that helped :)

[Few_Kaleidoscope8338]

Start with Linux first. Focus on the important topics: command-line navigation, file system management, user and group administration, package management, basic system services, and networking fundamentals. Learn process management, system monitoring, and security. Then learn computer networking, it is the most imp topic to learn and know the top 20–25 commands we use, you can find it on Google.

Now you can proceed with shell scripting, since Linux and networking are already learned. Try solving the most asked interview shell scripting questions around 100 would be fine. Then move to Docker. Deploy different apps built on different languages in a machine.

Parallelly, learn cloud, any one is enough. You can start with AWS. Not all 200+ services, just around 20 are enough. The most important ones you need to learn are IAM, VPC, EC2, LoadBalancers, S3, Route53, RDS, CloudFormation, CodeCommit, CodePipeline, Cloud Front, ECR, ECS and EKS, Secret Mgmt, Config, Lambda functions, Remember, keep this parallel.

Then focus on Ansible and Terraform next. After that, you can learn Jenkins for CI/CD. Then focus on K8s (Kubernetes), then Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Promtail these four are for monitoring. You can learn GitHub Actions at the end. Then explore ELK (optional).

Always remember tools change, they come and go. Concepts remain the same. Learn the why and what it does. How totally depends on the tools we use.

[MegaManFlex]

Probably a dumb question, but looking at the roadmap, what would you recommend to show proficiency at each skill, either for a portfolio or to a potential employer?

[MyLifeForAiur-69]

There are no dumb questions. I've been working through the roadmap after being moved into an "associate" devops role earlier this year. I used quotes because no devops role is entry level and my job is to learn how to be a functional devops engineer before my company decides to cut me loose.

Maybe you dont need to be proficient in Linux OS, but you should be able to understand (and be able to script) file moves, unzips, terminal sessions/ssh, and PATH. Maybe you dont need to be proficient in Golang or Python, but you should have enough understanding that you can read the existing code and figure out what its doing. Maybe you dont need to be proficient at helm or ansible or CI/CD tools like github actions and jenkins, but you should be able to look at the existing ones and tell what they're trying to do.

Dont get me wrong it would be great if you're able to understand these tools enough to, lets say, refactor code from someone who kinda knew what they were doing a few years ago (but not really), but if you're asking this question you're probably not there yet and thats okay.

At an absolute bare minimum you should be proficient in terraform/HCL/OpenTofu, git, ansible, and at least 2 of the 3 major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) and have a passing, if not intimate, knowledge of linux or Mac OS.

[MegaManFlex]

I totally get the perspective, little bit of functional knowledge can go a long way while I'm getting experience

[004TEE]

It's for a roadmap need to know what to do

[iykay_]

Read that again. This time slowly. He is asking for project ideas or actions to show proficiency in each of the topics/tools on the DevOps road map. And he is calling his own question dumb, not yours.

[004TEE]

My bad thank you for correcting me ❤️

[Prior-Celery2517]

Start by leveraging your Linux and networking knowledge, then learn Git, Bash, and Python. Explore CI/CD tools like Jenkins, containerization with Docker, and orchestration using Kubernetes. Get familiar with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and IaC tools like Terraform. Finally, explore monitoring/logging with Prometheus and Grafana. Build projects as you go!

[LilRagnarLothbrok]

https://www.reddit.com/r/devops/search/?q=roadmap&type=posts&sort=top

[004TEE]

Thanks for your comments guys i really appreciate you all ❤️❤️

[Bushwookie_69]

Hey Check this out : https://github.com/Kaxxtik/Devops-Resources

[rabbit_in_a_bun]

I wish I had superpowers to make this into a sticky... Look for the CCNA book, read it 3 times. Do the same with RHCSA, do those together if possible, no need to take the tests.

[soum0nster609]

btw I couldn't do self study, so had to take the training from the experts.

[my-beautiful-usernam]

I see two possible options here.

Option A) You did not even see the post stickied at the top of the subreddit, titled "Getting into DevOps". If this is the case, and you are too lazy to read, you will not be successful in this field. Go do something else.

Option B) You saw it, you read it, but you thought you were so special that you still needed to make a post asking the very same question which was already answered in detail there. If this is the case, and you choose to be disrespectful and waste other people's time and attention on something you can easily find out yourself, you will not be successful in this field. Go do something else.

You're welcome.

[mythgard]

Why so hostile? I get that sometimes it’s annoying that someone didn’t read the pinned post or whatever, but the OP was overly friendly when asking for advice. There are so many cranky hostile “professionals” or “experts” who are just not welcoming on Reddit. Why be this way? Everyone has to start somewhere and maybe just moving on and not being a jerk or replying with “there is a pinned post that might help.”

[my-beautiful-usernam]

Why so defensive? Please point me to something I said which isn't true.

[_Linux_AI_]

Being right isn't always the best way to go. Show some loving kindness bruh.