What’s a good learning path for deploying real projects on DigitalOcean?

Question

I’ve used DigitalOcean to spin up a few test Droplets, but I want to go beyond the basics and actually build and deploy real-world apps, maybe with Docker, CI/CD, monitoring, and infrastructure as code.

What would be a good learning path to follow that ties everything together? Any recommended resources or steps to go from “just hosting a site” to doing DevOps properly?

Bobby Iliev · Accepted Answer

Hi there,

Nice! That’s exactly how I started too, just launching test Droplets and figuring things out one step at a time.

If you want to level up, I’d go with this flow:

Learn Docker so you can containerize your apps
Deploy them on a Droplet or use App Platform to skip the server management
Add CI/CD with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
Set up some basic monitoring/logging
Later, get into Terraform or Pulumi to manage infra like a pro

There are tons of solid resources on the DigitalOcean tutorials site, definitely worth checking out.

And if you want a simple visual roadmap to follow, this one’s a great place to start: DevOps Roadmap.

Hope that this helps!

- Bobby

KFSys · Answer

Heya,

Here’s a bit more detailed learning path that will help you move from simple site hosting to a robust DevOps workflow using Docker, GitHub Actions, monitoring tools, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC). This includes hands-on steps and resource suggestions.

Phase 1: Foundation – Build a Real App with Docker

Objective: Create a real-world web application containerized with Docker.

Stack Example:

Backend: Django (Python) or Node.js (Express)
Database: PostgreSQL
Frontend: React (optional)
Dev Tools: Docker, Docker Compose

Steps:

Build your app locally.
Containerize it with Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml.
Structure your project:

├── backend/
├── frontend/
├── docker-compose.yml
└── nginx/ (optional reverse proxy config)

🚀 Phase 2: CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Objective: Automate builds, tests, and deployments.

GitHub Actions Workflow Example:

name: Deploy to DigitalOcean

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Set up Docker Buildx
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2

      - name: Log in to DigitalOcean Container Registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v2
        with:
          registry: registry.digitalocean.com
          username: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}

      - name: Build and push Docker image
        run: |
          docker build -t registry.digitalocean.com/YOUR_REPO/your-app:latest .
          docker push registry.digitalocean.com/YOUR_REPO/your-app:latest

      - name: Deploy via SSH
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@v1.0.0
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.DROPLET_IP }}
          username: root
          key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          script: |
            docker pull registry.digitalocean.com/YOUR_REPO/your-app:latest
            docker-compose -f /path/to/docker-compose.yml up -d

Phase 3: Monitoring and Logs

Objective: Add observability to your stack.

Tools:

Monitoring: Prometheus + Grafana or DigitalOcean Monitoring
Logs: Loki or self-hosted ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack
Alerts: Grafana alerts or external services like BetterUptime

Setup Steps:

Install Prometheus and Grafana using Docker Compose.
Add Prometheus exporters (e.g., node_exporter, blackbox_exporter).
Add a logging service or configure your app to output logs in JSON format.

Phase 4: Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Objective: Reproducibly set up your infrastructure.

Tools:

Terraform (DigitalOcean Provider)
Ansible (for configuration management, optional)
doctl CLI (DigitalOcean CLI)

Steps:

Use Terraform to define your infrastructure (Droplets, VPC, firewalls, registry).
Use doctl to manually test deployment steps.
Optionally automate server setup with Ansible.

Resources:

Terraform + DigitalOcean Guide
Ansible Basics

🛠️ Bonus: Tools to Consider

Portainer: Manage Docker containers via UI.
Watchtower: Auto-update running Docker containers.
Certbot: Auto-renew Let’s Encrypt SSL.
Fail2Ban + UFW: Basic security.

This all will lead to something like this

Create a full-stack app (e.g., job board, quiz app, portfolio CMS) that:

Uses Docker and Docker Compose
Builds & deploys via GitHub Actions
Uses Terraform to create the infrastructure
Is monitored with Prometheus + Grafana
Serves HTTPS with Nginx and Certbot

alexdo · Answer

Heya, @bd124f2f969746df8a8d4699339476

Start by learning Linux basics. Focus on commands like cd, ls, nano, chmod, systemctl, and ufw. Good resources for this are linuxjourney.com and explainshell.com.

Next, learn Docker. Practice building and running containers, and get familiar with docker-compose. A good starter project is containerizing a basic Flask or Node.js app.

Then add CI/CD using GitHub Actions. Set up a workflow that builds your app, pushes a Docker image to the DigitalOcean Container Registry, and deploys it to your Droplet via SSH.

After that, set up monitoring. You can use docker-compose to run Prometheus and Grafana, or you can use DigitalOcean’s built-in Monitoring tools for a simpler option.

Finally, learn Infrastructure as Code. Use Terraform to manage Droplets, firewalls, domains, DNS, and backups through version-controlled configuration.

Hope that this helps!