Networking Fundamentals for DevOps
A deep, textbook-grade networking course that takes you from first principles to confident troubleshooting. Covers the OSI/TCP-IP models, IP addressing and subnetting, the link layer, routing, TCP/UDP internals, the Linux networking stack (ip, namespaces, veth, bridges, iptables/nftables), DNS, HTTP/TLS, firewalls, NAT, load balancing, VPNs, performance, and a full diagnostics-and-troubleshooting toolkit. By the end you will genuinely understand how packets move and be able to diagnose and resolve real network issues on Linux systems. Platform-neutral: no cloud-vendor or Kubernetes specifics.
Created by David Essien, DevOps and SRE Engineer/Instructor
- Live Mentorship
- Hands-on Labs
- Career Guidance
Program Syllabus
A structured breakdown of your learning journey.
Live Modules
Capstone Projects
Subnetting and VLSM Mastery Challenge
Design multi-subnet networks from requirements, calculate ranges by hand, apply VLSM, and verify with ipcalc and subnet calculators.
Build a Linux Network from Scratch
Use network namespaces, veth pairs, and a bridge to build and connect an isolated network by hand, then route and firewall traffic between the pieces.
Packet Capture and Analysis Lab
Capture real traffic with tcpdump, then dissect a TCP handshake, a DNS lookup, and a TLS handshake packet by packet in Wireshark.
DNS Debugging Simulation
Analyze a set of DNS failures, trace resolution with dig, and implement correct record configurations.
TLS and Certificate Debugging Lab
Diagnose expired, mismatched, and incomplete-chain certificate problems using openssl s_client and curl, and fix each one.
Firewall and NAT Configuration Lab
Build a default-deny firewall with nftables, add source and destination NAT and port forwarding, and verify with conntrack and packet capture.
Network Troubleshooting Capstone
Work through a broken multi-layer network, applying the systematic methodology and the full toolkit to diagnose and resolve connectivity, DNS, routing, firewall, and TLS faults.
Prerequisites
- Basic Linux experience
- Comfort using the terminal and editing files
- No prior networking knowledge required
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