DevOps Studio

Appearance

Prerequisites Guide ​

DevOps Studio › Docs › Prerequisites

This guide details all requirements for using DevOps Studio labs.

Required Tools ​

AWS CLI (v2.0+) ​

Purpose: Interact with AWS services

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install awscli

# Linux
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

# Verify
aws --version

Configuration:

bash
aws configure
# Enter: Access Key, Secret Key, Region, Output Format

Documentation: AWS CLI User Guide

Terraform (v1.9+) ​

Purpose: Infrastructure as Code

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install terraform

# Linux
wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.9.8/terraform_1.9.8_linux_amd64.zip
unzip terraform_1.9.8_linux_amd64.zip
sudo mv terraform /usr/local/bin/

# Verify
terraform version

Documentation: Terraform Documentation

Git (v2.0+) ​

Purpose: Version control

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install git

# Linux
sudo apt-get install git  # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install git      # RHEL/CentOS

# Verify
git --version

Documentation: Git Documentation

curl ​

Purpose: HTTP requests for testing

Installation:

  • Usually pre-installed on macOS and Linux
  • If missing: brew install curl (macOS) or sudo apt-get install curl (Linux)

kubectl (v1.32+) ​

Purpose: Kubernetes cluster management (Lab 02+)

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install kubernetes-cli

# Linux
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

# Verify
kubectl version --client

Documentation: kubectl Documentation

Helm (v3.10+) ​

Purpose: Kubernetes package management (Lab 02+)

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install helm

# Linux
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash

# Verify
helm version

Documentation: Helm Documentation

Docker (v20.0+) ​

Purpose: Container management (Lab 03+)

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install --cask docker

# Linux
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

# Verify
docker --version

Documentation: Docker Documentation

jq ​

Purpose: JSON processing (helpful for scripts)

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install jq

# Linux
sudo apt-get install jq  # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install jq      # RHEL/CentOS

# Verify
jq --version

infracost ​

Purpose: Cost estimation for Terraform

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install infracost

# Linux
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/infracost/infracost/master/scripts/install.sh)"

# Verify
infracost --version

Documentation: infracost Documentation

tfsec ​

Purpose: Security scanning for Terraform

Installation:

bash
# macOS
brew install tfsec

# Linux
brew install tfsec  # Using Homebrew on Linux
# Or download from: https://github.com/aquasecurity/tfsec/releases

# Verify
tfsec --version

Documentation: tfsec Documentation

AWS Account Requirements ​

Account Setup ​

  1. AWS Account with billing enabled

    • Sign up at aws.amazon.com
    • Enable billing (required for most services)
    • Set up payment method

  2. IAM User with programmatic access

    • Create dedicated IAM user (don't use root account)
    • Enable programmatic access (Access Key + Secret Key)
    • Attach required policies (see below)

Required IAM Permissions ​

For learning purposes, you can use PowerUserAccess policy. For production, use least-privilege policies.

Minimum Required Permissions:

json
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:*",
        "vpc:*",
        "rds:*",
        "eks:*",
        "iam:CreateRole",
        "iam:CreatePolicy",
        "iam:AttachRolePolicy",
        "iam:PutRolePolicy",
        "iam:GetRole",
        "iam:GetPolicy",
        "iam:ListRoles",
        "iam:ListPolicies",
        "iam:PassRole",
        "cloudwatch:*",
        "logs:*",
        "s3:*",
        "dynamodb:*",
        "lambda:*",
        "apigateway:*",
        "secretsmanager:*",
        "ssm:*",
        "kms:*",
        "autoscaling:*",
        "elasticloadbalancing:*",
        "application-autoscaling:*",
        "servicequotas:GetServiceQuota",
        "servicequotas:ListServiceQuotas"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Recommended: Use PowerUserAccess for learning (excludes IAM management).

Service Quotas ​

Some AWS services have default quotas. You may need to request increases:

  • EC2: Running On-Demand instances (default: 20)
  • VPC: VPCs per region (default: 5)
  • RDS: DB instances (default: 40)
  • EKS: Clusters per region (default: 4)

Check Quotas:

bash
aws service-quotas get-service-quota \
  --service-code ec2 \
  --quota-code L-34B43A08

Request Increase: AWS Console → Service Quotas → Request quota increase

System Requirements ​

Operating System ​

  • macOS: 10.15+ (Catalina or later)
  • Linux: Ubuntu 20.04+, RHEL 8+, or similar
  • Windows: Windows 10/11 with WSL2 (Ubuntu recommended)

Hardware ​

  • CPU: 2+ cores recommended
  • Memory: 4GB minimum, 8GB+ recommended
  • Disk Space: 5GB+ free space
  • Network: Reliable internet connection (for AWS API calls)

Network ​

  • Internet: Required for AWS API access
  • Bandwidth: Minimal (mostly API calls, not data transfer)
  • Firewall: Allow outbound HTTPS (443) to AWS endpoints

Knowledge Prerequisites ​

Essential (Before Starting) ​

  • Command Line: Basic familiarity with terminal/command prompt
  • Git Basics: Clone, commit, push
  • Cloud Concepts: Understanding of cloud computing basics
  • Text Editor: Comfortable editing configuration files

Helpful (Will Learn as You Go) ​

  • AWS Basics: EC2, VPC, S3 concepts
  • Terraform Basics: Resources, modules, state
  • Networking: Subnets, routing, security groups
  • Containers: Docker basics (for Lab 02+)
  • Kubernetes: Basic concepts (for Lab 02+)

Learning Resources ​

Verification ​

Quick Check ​

Run the validation script:

bash
./tools/validate.sh

This checks:

  • ✅ All required tools installed
  • ✅ Tool versions meet requirements
  • ✅ AWS CLI configured
  • ✅ System resources adequate
  • ⚠️ Optional tools (warnings only)

Manual Verification ​

bash
# Check AWS
aws --version
aws sts get-caller-identity

# Check Terraform
terraform version

# Check Git
git --version

# Check optional tools
kubectl version --client 2>/dev/null || echo "kubectl not installed"
helm version 2>/dev/null || echo "helm not installed"
docker --version 2>/dev/null || echo "docker not installed"

Troubleshooting Installation ​

AWS CLI Issues ​

Problem: aws: command not found

bash
# Check installation
which aws
# If not found, reinstall or add to PATH

Problem: Unable to locate credentials

bash
# Configure credentials
aws configure
# Or set environment variables
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=...
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...

Terraform Issues ​

Problem: terraform: command not found

bash
# Check installation
which terraform
# If not found, reinstall or add to PATH

Problem: Version too old

bash
# Update Terraform
# macOS
brew upgrade terraform

# Linux
# Download latest from: https://terraform.io/downloads

Permission Issues ​

Problem: Permission denied when running scripts

bash
# Make scripts executable
chmod +x tools/*.sh
chmod +x labs/*/scripts/*.sh

Next Steps ​

Once all prerequisites are met:

  1. Run Bootstrap

    bash
    ./tools/bootstrap.sh

  2. Run Setup

    bash
    ./tools/setup.sh

  3. Start Your First Lab

    bash
    cd labs/01-terraform-foundations
make apply

Additional Resources ​

Ready? Proceed to Getting Started Guide!

Released under the MIT License.

DevOps Studio - architecture decisions, implementation patterns, and operational readiness.