There have been many recent changes at EDC4IT that we have shared in various blog posts, our most recent one was just last week. We thought we would share one more with you as it is a major improvement that affects anyone considering a place on one of our in-depth Ansible or Kubernetes courses.
Take our Ansible or Kubernetes courses using your choice of Linux, Windows, or Mac
One of the major changes this month is that our Ansible and Kubernetes courses have been made more accessible. What does this mean in real terms? It means that where students used to need a fresh install of Linux on their machine in order to take an Ansible or Kubernetes course with EDC4IT, now that is no longer necessary.
Our Chief Instructor has worked through the courses after listening to feedback from both companies that block book online instructor-led courses with us, and also individual students who come to us for online instructor-led open enrolment courses. For these students in particular the requirements for a machine running Linux was sometimes impractical.
The update means that students can now use Linux if they have it, but they can choose to take the Ansible and Kubernetes courses using Windows or Mac, if that is what they have. This has been made possible due to our infrastructure that incorporates a network of Linux-based virtual machines. These are all scripted so students can take the course with ease, without concerning themselves with configuration.
Linux remains our go-to operating system for different reasons.
Why Linux is so necessary for our Ansible course
In the past we required students to run Linux on their machine due to the cluster of 8 managed nodes - a mixture of Linux and Windows - that supported the labs on our Ansible course. Some students would run a Linux virtual machine with those 8 machines on top.
Due to hardware issues this nested virtualisation was not always practical as it slowed down the system. To overcome the requirement and improve the teaching and learning experience we have set up a network connecting the control machine to the 8 managed nodes.
Why Linux is so necessary for our Kubernetes course
We previously asked students to run Linux to facilitate the following requirements:
- Students need to use Kubernetes client tools (kubectl) to interact with their cluster,
- Students need to run Docker to build images.
Students have used Windows operating systems in the past but this led to problems with virtualisation and Docker support.
We offer a solid solution in the form of a network linking a Linux based admin machine and the minikube virtual machine. Minikube itself runs as a virtual machine - an on-the-metal option has recently been added.
Our Kubernetes course supports both Amazon Web Services and minikube, however we recommend minikube for Open Enrolment courses since this makes for a smoother learning experience.
For our Kubernetes course this is not the only improvement our Chief Instructor has implemented. Students now benefit from the updated version 1.17.7 for AWS and minikube, and we are using newer versions of Nexus, Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, Prometheus, and Grafana, as well as Helm 3.
What about our other courses?
Our other courses, such as ReactJS, Java, Scala, and others, an optional Linux-based virtual machine has been available for some time, with all required software already installed.
Follow us on social media for all our updates and to catch the next blog. If you are considering a training course for yourself, or your team, contact us directly. You can also use the chat function on our website.