Lesson 1: First Steps

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Vocabulary

A 10,000ft view of the world

Below are a few terms we will be using and a brief definition:

General Topics:
  • Software: A program that runs on a computer.
  • Operating System: Computer software that manages other software.
  • GNU/Linux: A free Operating System.
  • Computer Security: Like physical security but harder to solve with a baseball bat.
  • Virtual Machine: A computer emulated in software.
  • Containers: Not virtual machines, but basically virtual machines.
Development:
  • Version Control: A way to track changes and contributions to a project.
  • Continuous Integration: Releasing updates continuously.
Buzzwords:
  • FOSS: Free (and Libre) Open Source Software. Free as in Speech, not Free as in Pizza (but that too usually).
  • ‘The Cloud’: Computers somewhere else.
  • Docker: Software that manages Linux containers

Notation

Some notes about notation...

Just like a textbook, we have some unique notation you should be aware of. The following is a short list of key notation used in DOBC.

  • Variable (use whatever word you like here e.g., foo, bar, baz)
$ONE_VARIABLE_NOTATION
<another notation for variables>
  • Literal (copy this exactly): copy_me_exactly
  • Comments (parts of the code just for humans)
this_is(code)  # everything after the octothorp is a comment!

other_code(line)  // This can also be a comment. It depends on the
                  // language!

We try to write code-blocks so you can copy them verbatim into a file or into your terminal and hit Enter to see it run (unless it’s psuedo code!)

Every language has it’s own comment symbol. The common ones are #, //, and /* ... */ . If you see that in a code-block it denotes a comment block.

Code-block:

#! /usr/bin/env python
# This is a code block.
# Most of the time you can copy this code and run it exactly as is.
# It should be clear Where it 'goes' and how to run it based on
# context.
print('Hello world!')

You can copy the above script into a file named <whatever you want>.py and run it with python <whatever you want>.py

Shell commands are annotated with a $. For instance:

# Copy the text after `$` into your terminal & press enter.
$ echo Hello World

Exercise: Reading Examples

Trick question: how would you read this
#!/bin/python
dogs = ['$BREED_ONE', '$BREED_TWO', '$BREED_THREE']
for breed in dogs:
    print(breed)

Actually prints...

$BREED_ONE
$BREED_TWO
$BREED_THREE

Answer: Reading Examples

Replace the $BREED_N with actual dog breeds.

#!/bin/python
dogs = ['corgie', 'pug', 'french bulldog']
for breed in dogs:
    print(breed)

Actually prints...

corgie
pug
french bulldog

SSH: Secure Shell

  • Secure Shell (SSH) provides a secure channel to access a Linux machine remotely via command line.
  • It’s a primary tool for almost every DevOps engineer
  • Designed as a replacement to Telnet which provides unsecured remote shell access
  • Allows for password logins and private/public key-based logins which are more secure
  • Some tricks you can do with SSH
    • Run a single command remotely
    • Secure file transfer (via scp or WinSCP)
    • Port forwarding, SOCKS proxy or tunnel
    • SSHFS – userspace filesystem which uses SSH

Getting Setup on Linux

If you are taking the course exclusively online you will need setup Docker on your own computer. For more information jump down to the Docker Setup section of this lesson.

If you are taking DOBC in person we are able to offer you credentials to the OSU OSL Student Cloud. More information in the Lecture Setup section.

Tux Linux Logo

There are a variety of ways to run Linux!

  • Dual-boot Windows+Linux
  • Virtual Machine (VMWare, Virtualbox, cloud server, etc)
  • Container (Docker)
  • Windows Linux Subsystem

Docker Setup

We suggest you install Docker and Docker Compose, a tool which makes it easy to run small Linux Containers on your system in a safe sandbox without requiring to install Linux on your own machine. This is the same setup we used in the lecture.

Make sure you read the install documentation for Docker to ensure your system supports running it and have the required BIOS settings enabled.

After you have it installed, run this to start a container:

$ git clone https://github.com/DevOpsBootcamp/Bootcamp-Exercises.git
$ cd Bootcamp-Exercises
$ docker-compose up -d
$ docker-compose run -p 8080:8080 dobc bash

You can log out by typing exit and then enter which will stop the container.

To stop the container, run the following:

$ docker-compose kill
$ docker-compose rm --all

Feel free to try other Docker images, some that we recommend include:

  • ubuntu
  • debian
  • centos
  • fedora

To run those, do the following:

$ docker run -it --rm <docker image name> bash

You can find have more images at the Docker Hub. We also recommend you read Getting started with Docker to have a better understanding of how it works.

Virtual Machine Setup

Instead of using Docker, you can also run a Linux Virtual Machines on your computer. This will give you a full Linux environment as if it were on a real machine.

We suggest you install Vagrant, a tool which makes it easy to run and acquire Virtual Machines.

You may also need to install VirtualBox or install VMWare (Requires TEACH access) a tool necessary for Vagrant to function.

After you get Vagrant and either VirtualBox or VMWare installed, clone our vagrant repo (make sure you install Git first!) and then start the VM:

$ git clone https://github.com/DevOpsBootcamp/vagrant.git
$ cd vagrant
$ vagrant up
$ vagrant ssh

If you have any questions or problems, Google is your friend! If that does not work, contact us DevOps Bootcamp and we’ll help you as best we can.

Vagrant logo

Windows Subsystem for Linux Setup

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (Bash on Windows) allows you to run userspace Linux software on Windows, while using less resources than a virtual machine.

Windows Store

If you installed the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10, you can install one or more Linux distributions through the Windows Store.

Exercise: Change Your Password!

Challenge Change your password on your Linux machine.

To get acquainted with your new Virtual Machine we are going to change your users password. This is just like changing your password on your personal laptop (you’ve done that before right?) but entirely via the terminal, no windows or click-buttons at all.

Start by logging in (outlined in the previous slides). Then run the following command:

$ passwd
Changing password for user <user>.
Changing password for <user>.
(current) UNIX password: # Enter old password, hidden
New password:   # Enter new password, also hidden
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

In the next lesson we’re going to go over how to do almost everything via your terminal from editing files to browsing the web!

Don’t forget: when you login next time, use the new password you just set.

Further Reading

Next: Lesson 2: Operating Systems