Hello HN,

I've made a DevOps course covering a lot of different technologies and applications, aimed at startups, small companies and individuals.

To get this out of the way - this course doesn't cover Kubernetes or similar - I'm of the opinion that for startups and small companies you probably don't need Kubernetes. For small teams it usually brings more problems than benefits, and unnecessary infrastructure bills buried a lot of startups before they got anywhere.

As for prerequisites, you can't be a complete beginner in the world of computers. If you've never even heard of Docker, if you don't have even the slightest idea what DNS is, or if you don't have any experience with Linux, this course is probably not for you. That being said, I do explain the basics too, but probably not in enough detail for a complete beginner.

The course is available at Udemy, and here's a 100% OFF coupon URL (1000 of those available):

https://www.udemy.com/course/real-world-devops-project-from-...

Be sure to BUY the course for $0, and not sign up for Udemy's subscription plan. The Subscription plan is selected by default, but you want the BUY checkbox. If you see a price other than $0, chances are that all coupons have been used already.

I encourage you to watch "free preview" videos, but here's the gist:

The goal of the course is to create an easily deployable and reproducible server which will have "everything" a start up or a small company will need - VPN, mail, Git, CI/CD, messaging, hosting websites and services, sharing files, calendar, etc. It can also be useful to individuals who want to self-host all of those - I ditched Google 99.9% and other than that being a good feeling, I'm not worried that some AI bug will lock my account with no one to talk to about resolving the issue.

Considering that it covers a wide variety of topics, it doesn't go in depth in any of those. Think of it as going down a highway towards the end destination, but on the way there I show you all the junctions where I think it's useful to do more research on the subject.

We'll deploy services inside Docker and LXC (Linux Containers). Those will include a mail server (iRedMail), Zulip (Slack and Microsoft Teams alternative), GitLab (with GitLab runner and CI/CD), Nextcloud (file sharing, calendar, contacts, etc.), checkmk (monitoring solution), Pi-hole (ad blocking on DNS level), Traefik with Docker and file providers (a single HTTP/S entry point with automatic routing and TLS certificates).

We'll set up WireGuard, a modern and fast VPN solution for secure access to VPS' internal network, and I'll also show you how to get a wildcard TLS certificate with certbot and DNS provider.

To wrap it all up, we'll write a simple Python application that will compare a list of the desired backups with the list of finished backups, and send a result to a Zulip stream. We'll write the application, do a 'git push' to GitLab which will trigger a CI/CD pipeline that will build a Docker image, push it to a private registry, and then, with the help of the GitLab runner, run it on the VPS and post a result to a Zulip stream with a webhook.

If you apply the coupon, I'd appreciate if you leave your feedback on Udemy after you're done and spread the word about the course. It would mean a lot.

If you'd like to support me, you can instead use this 80% OFF coupon:

https://www.udemy.com/course/real-world-devops-project-from-...

I hope that you find it useful.

Happy learning, Predrag