Tools and first-week setup

The tools a DevOps & CI/CD intern uses and how to set up your workspace in week one.

These are the main tools for DevOps & CI/CD tasks. You do not need all of them on day one; the Level 1 tasks tell you when to install each one.

Set up your workspace

Create a free GitHub account if you do not have one, with a professional username, and set up your LinkedIn profile: every task is submitted with a LinkedIn post.
Create one repository for the internship, for example devops-and-ci-cd-internship, with a README that says who you are and what the repo holds.
Keep one folder per task, named with the task number and title, so mentors find your work quickly.
Commit small changes every day with clear messages. Your daily work report uses these commits as proof.
Never commit passwords, API keys or personal data. Put secrets in a .env file and add it to .gitignore.

Task	What to do
Linux server basics	On a Linux VM or WSL, create users, set permissions, manage services with systemctl and read logs with journalctl. Document each command.
Git branching workflow	Practise feature branches, pull requests, merge conflicts and rebasing in a repo. Write a CONTRIBUTING.md describing the flow.
Shell scripting	Write a Bash script that backs up a folder to a dated archive, keeps the last 7 and logs the result.
Containerise an app	Write a Dockerfile for a small Node.js or Python app, build it and run it. Keep the image under 200 MB.