Preparation Instructions

ℹ️ INFO: Read carefully!

During the workshop for practical exercises, you'll need to use your own computer in combination with cloud resources. Please, install the recommended tools and make sure that you pass the self-check tests.

Tools

Any operating system is allowed, but some installation variations may apply. The following software needs to be installed locally on your computer:

• Git (available through package managers or Git for Windows installer). ℹ️ If you never used Git before, it is recommended to watch the introductory videos: Git for poets.
• SSH (it is installed by default on MacOS and Linux-based machines, but for Windows it is recommended to install Git for Windows with a full set of tools)
• AWS CLI
  • Installation guide
  • Direct link to MacOS installer
  • Direct link to Windows installer
• Terraform 1.+ (download binary for your platform and put it on your PATH)
  • Direct link to Linux binary
  • Direct link to MacOS binary
  • Direct link to Windows binary
• Kubectl 1.21.+ (download the binary for your platform and put it on your PATH)
  • Installation guide
  • Direct link to Linux binary
  • Direct link to MacOS binary
  • Direct link to Windows binary
• Helm 3.6.+ (download the binary for your platform and put it on your PATH)
• Docker 20.+ (available through package managers) or Docker Desktop (MacOS and Windows direct download links). ⚠️ If there are problems installing Docker on your computer, then a remote Docker host will be provided during the workshop, to which you can connect over SSH and use as a way to play with Docker directly.
• Ansible 2.9 (follow Ansible installation instructions below (especially if you are on Windows), or general instructions from the official documentation). ⚠️ If there are problems installing Ansible on your computer, then a remote control machine will be provided during the workshop, to which you can connect over SSH and use as a way to play with Ansible code.

IDEs

You may use the following (optional) visual tools to help you during the workshop:

• Visual Studio Code
• K8s Lens IDE (follow installation instructions)

Windows tools

• WSL (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10)
• Cmdr (http://cmder.net/)
• Putty (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) or Kitty (http://www.9bis.net/kitty/?page=Download)

Self-check

Essential tools

Check that Git is working from your command line, and you can clone a project from GitLab e.g.:

git --version
git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/examples/npm-install

Check that SSH is working from your command line, and you can connect to a remote server:

ssh -V
ssh [email protected]

You should get output similar to the following image:

Cloud/orchestrator tools

Check that cloud/orchestrator tools are installed and working from your command line:

aws --version
terraform version
kubectl version --client
helm version --client

You should get output similar to the following image:

Optional tools

Check that Ansible and Docker are working by running the following commands:

ansible --version
docker version

You should get output similar to the following image:

Optional tool installation variations

Ansible installation

Ansible on MacOS

Install Python (3.5+ will work well) and use pip to install Ansible (you may need to upgrade pip to the latest version):

pip install ansible

Ansible on Windows

There is no supported way of installing Ansible directly on Windows. But there are some options.

Option 1: WSL

If you have Windows 10, then install Windows Subsystem for Linux with Ubuntu and from within WSL command line run normal Ubuntu installation commands to get Ansible:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ansible -y

Option 2: VirtualBox/Vagrant

Another way is to configure a Linux virtual machine on your laptop. There are many ways to do that. One option could be:

vagrant init ubuntu/xenial64
vagrant up
vagrant ssh
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ansible -y

Ansible on remote machine

If none of the above methods work for you (e.g., you have a very old Windows laptop with no ability to install WSL and with not enough resources to start a VM), then a remote control machine will be provided during the workshop to which you can connect and use as a way to play with Ansible code.

Docker installation

Docker on Windows

Option 1: Docker Desktop

If you have Windows 10 and Hyper-V enabled then the best option will be installing Docker for Windows.

Option 2: Docker VM

If you have an older version of Windows, then you can use Docker Machine to install a VM with Docker engine inside: https://docs.docker.com/machine/.

Docker on MacOS

For MacOS the best option is to install https://download.docker.com/mac/stable/Docker.dmg

Docker on Linux

• Ubuntu: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/
• Debian: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/
• CentOS: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/centos/

Docker on remote machine

If none of the above methods work for you, then a remote Docker host will be provided during the workshop to which you can connect and use as a way to play with Docker directly.