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

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:

1. Build your app locally.

2. Containerize it with Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml.

3. Structure your project:

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

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🚀 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:

1. Install Prometheus and Grafana using Docker Compose.

2. Add Prometheus exporters (e.g., node_exporter, blackbox_exporter).

3. 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:

1. Use Terraform to define your infrastructure (Droplets, VPC, firewalls, registry).

2. Use doctl to manually test deployment steps.

3. Optionally automate server setup with Ansible.

Resources:

• Terraform + DigitalOcean Guide

• Ansible Basics

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🛠️ 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

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!