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Day 1: New Developer Onboarding

Status: Active
Last Updated: 2026-01-30
Category: Basics - Onboarding
Prerequisites: None (absolute beginner)
Time: 4-8 hours (Day 1), 1-2 weeks (complete basics)
Tags: onboarding, getting-started, beginner, checklist, tools, environment-setup

Summary

Your complete first-day guide to server management and infrastructure work. This orchestrates all basics articles into a progressive learning path, gets your tools installed, and provides the foundation for everything else in the knowledge base.

🎯 What You'll Accomplish Today

By the end of Day 1, you'll have:

🚀 The Learning Philosophy

Zero to Productive:

Complete Beginner → CLI Comfortable → Infrastructure Ready
(Day 1)            (Week 1)          (Month 1)

This knowledge base assumes ZERO prior knowledge. Every concept builds on previous ones. You can't break anything by following along - that's what test environments are for!

📋 Day 1 Checklist

Morning: Environment Setup (2-3 hours)

1. Get Your Hardware Ready ⏱️ 30 minutes

Local Development Machine:

Optional but Helpful:

2. Install Essential Tools ⏱️ 1 hour

Terminal Emulator:

SSH Client:

Text Editor (Pick ONE to start):

Version Control:

Docker (Optional for Day 1, but you'll need it soon):

3. Get Server Access ⏱️ 30 minutes

If you have a server:

If you're learning solo:

Generate SSH Key:

# Generate new SSH key pair
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your.email@example.com"

# Accept default location (~/.ssh/id_ed25519)
# Set a strong passphrase (recommended)

# Display your public key to send to admin
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Test SSH Connection:

# Replace user and hostname with your info
ssh username@server-ip-or-hostname

# Example:
ssh john@192.168.1.100
# or
ssh john@dev-server.example.com

Afternoon: Linux Fundamentals (2-3 hours)

4. Master the Terminal ⏱️ 2 hours

START HERE: Read linux-fundamentals

Key Concepts to Understand:

Practice Exercises (on your server):

# 1. Create a test directory
mkdir ~/learning
cd ~/learning

# 2. Create some test files
echo "Hello World" > test.txt
echo "Day 1 learning" > notes.txt

# 3. Check file permissions
ls -lh

# 4. Make a file executable
chmod +x test.txt

# 5. View system information
uname -a                    # System info
df -h                       # Disk usage
free -h                     # Memory usage
uptime                      # System uptime

# 6. Check running processes
ps aux | grep ssh           # Find SSH processes
top                         # Real-time process viewer (press q to quit)

# 7. View service status
systemctl status sshd       # SSH daemon status
journalctl -u sshd -n 20    # Last 20 SSH log entries

5. SSH Deep Dive ⏱️ 1 hour

READ: ssh-basics

Key Concepts:

Practice: Create SSH Config:

# Edit your SSH config
nano ~/.ssh/config

# Add an entry (replace with your server details):
Host devserver
    HostName 192.168.1.100
    User your-username
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    Port 22
    ServerAliveInterval 60

# Now you can connect with just:
ssh devserver

Advanced SSH Tasks:

# Copy files to server
scp local-file.txt devserver:~/remote-file.txt

# Copy directory recursively
scp -r local-directory/ devserver:~/remote-dir/

# Create SSH tunnel (forward local port 8080 to remote port 80)
ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 devserver

Evening: Command-Line Power Tools (1-2 hours)

6. Text Processing Essentials ⏱️ 1-2 hours

READ: command-line-essentials

Key Tools to Learn:

Practice Exercises:

# 1. Search system logs
journalctl -u sshd | grep "Failed"              # Find failed SSH attempts
grep -r "TODO" ~/projects/                      # Find TODO comments in code

# 2. Extract specific fields with awk
ps aux | awk '{print $1, $11}'                  # Print user and command
cat /etc/passwd | awk -F: '{print $1, $3}'      # Print username and UID

# 3. Text replacement with sed
sed 's/old/new/g' file.txt                      # Replace in file (preview)
sed -i 's/old/new/g' file.txt                   # Replace in-place

# 4. Find files
find /var/log -name "*.log" -mtime -7           # Logs modified in last 7 days
find ~ -type f -size +100M                      # Files larger than 100MB

# 5. Combine tools with pipes
cat access.log | grep "404" | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
# Translation: Find 404 errors, extract IPs, count occurrences, sort by frequency

7. Bash Scripting Basics ⏱️ 30 minutes (skim for now)

SKIM: bash-scripting

Goal: Understand that bash scripts exist and you'll learn them soon.

Simple First Script:

#!/bin/bash
# Save as hello.sh

echo "Hello, $(whoami)!"
echo "Today is $(date)"
echo "You are on $(hostname)"

Make it executable and run:

chmod +x hello.sh
./hello.sh

Day 1 Takeaway: Scripts automate repetitive tasks. You'll dive deep into this later.

🎓 End-of-Day Review

You've Accomplished:

✅ Development environment configured
✅ SSH access working
✅ Basic Linux CLI navigation
✅ Text processing fundamentals
✅ Understanding of system basics

Skills Acquired:

Confidence Check:

Can you do these without looking them up?

If YES: Congratulations! You're ready for Week 1 content!
If NO: That's okay! Review the sections where you're uncertain.

🗓️ Week 1: Continuing Your Journey

Day 2: Git Fundamentals ⏱️ 4-6 hours

READ: git-fundamentals

Key Concepts:

Goal: Clone a repository, make changes, commit, push.

Day 3: Text Editors ⏱️ 2-3 hours

READ: text-editors

Choose Your Path:

Goal: Edit files comfortably in your chosen editor.

Day 4: Package Managers ⏱️ 2-3 hours

READ: package-managers

Key Systems:

Goal: Install, update, remove packages confidently.

Day 5: Deep Dive - Bash Scripting ⏱️ 6-8 hours

READ: bash-scripting (in-depth)

Key Skills:

Goal: Write your first automation script.

🧭 After Week 1: Where to Go Next

Path 1: Container Orchestration 🐳

Goal: Run Docker containers, deploy to k0s

Learning Path:

  1. kb/containers/README - Start here
  2. Docker basics → docker-compose → k0s
  3. Time: 2-4 weeks
  4. Outcome: Deploy containerized applications

Path 2: Infrastructure as Code 🏗️

Goal: Automate server provisioning

Learning Path:

  1. kb/infrastructure/README - Start here
  2. Manual → Bash scripts → Ansible → Terraform
  3. Time: 3-6 weeks
  4. Outcome: Provision infrastructure from code

Path 3: CI/CD Pipelines 🔄

Goal: Automate build and deployment

Learning Path:

  1. kb/cicd/README - Start here
  2. Git → Forgejo → Woodpecker CI → GitOps
  3. Time: 2-4 weeks
  4. Outcome: Automated deployment pipelines

Path 4: Security Hardening 🔒

Goal: Secure your infrastructure

Learning Path:

  1. kb/security/README - Start here
  2. Passwords → Firewalls → VPN → Secrets → Zero Trust
  3. Time: 3-6 weeks
  4. Outcome: Production-grade security

Path 5: Monitoring & Observability 📊

Goal: See everything happening in your systems

Learning Path:

  1. kb/observability/README - Start here
  2. Uptime checks → Prometheus/Grafana → Loki → Alerting
  3. Time: 2-4 weeks
  4. Outcome: Complete observability stack

🛠️ Essential Bookmarks

Quick Reference:

Documentation:

Community:

💡 Learning Tips

Learning Strategies:

  1. Hands-On Practice: Reading isn't enough - type commands, break things, fix them
  2. Document as You Learn: Keep notes, you'll forget details
  3. Ask Questions: No question is stupid in infrastructure
  4. Start Simple: Don't jump to Kubernetes on day 2
  5. Iterate: Manual first, automate later
  6. Test in Dev: Never test in production first

When You're Stuck:

  1. Read the Error Message: It usually tells you what's wrong
  2. Google the Error: Someone has seen it before
  3. Check Logs: journalctl, docker logs, application logs
  4. Ask for Help: Team chat, forums, Reddit
  5. Take a Break: Fresh eyes solve problems faster

Common Beginner Mistakes:

📊 Your Learning Progress Tracker

Basics (Week 1)

Intermediate (Weeks 2-8)

Advanced (Months 2-6)

🎯 30-60-90 Day Goals

30 Days:

60 Days:

90 Days:

🚀 Welcome to Infrastructure!

You're at the beginning of an exciting journey. Infrastructure engineering combines system administration, software development, and problem-solving. It's challenging but incredibly rewarding.

Remember:

You've got this! 💪

Now go complete your Day 1 checklist, and I'll see you in Week 1!

📝 Change Log

2026-01-30

🎓 Next Article: git-fundamentals - Version control for beginners

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