This is best project.
A hands-on lab covering 11 Cloud Native Foundation certifications — running entirely locally at $0 cost.
| Cert | Tool | Lab |
|---|---|---|
| LFCS | Linux (systemd, LVM, networking) | make lab-lfcs |
| CCA | Cilium (eBPF CNI, Hubble, L7 policies) | make lab-cca |
| CAPA | Argo (ArgoCD + Rollouts + Workflows) | make lab-capa |
| CGOA | GitOps (ArgoCD, reconciliation, drift) | make lab-cgoa |
| CBA | Backstage (catalog, templates, TechDocs) | make lab-cba |
| OTCA | OpenTelemetry (collector, traces, OTLP) | make lab-otca |
| PCA | Prometheus (PromQL, recording rules, alerts) | make lab-pca |
| ICA | Istio (VirtualService, fault injection, mTLS) | make lab-ica |
| KCA | Kyverno (validate, mutate, generate, verify) | make lab-kca |
| CNPE | Platform Engineering (IDP, cert-manager, golden paths) | make lab-cnpe |
| CNPA | Cloud Native Associate (CNCF landscape, containers) | make lab-cnpa |
| Layer | Tools |
|---|---|
| Cluster | kind (Cilium CNI, no kube-proxy) |
| CNI | Cilium + Hubble |
| GitOps | ArgoCD + Argo Rollouts + Argo Workflows |
| Observability | Prometheus + Grafana + Loki + Tempo + Promtail |
| Tracing | OpenTelemetry Collector → Tempo |
| Service Mesh | Istio + Kiali |
| Policy | Kyverno |
| Developer Portal | Backstage (Docker) |
| Linux VM | Vagrant + Ubuntu 22.04 (LFCS) |
| MLOps | DVC + GitHub Actions + FastAPI model server |
- Docker Desktop (8GB RAM allocated)
- kind, kubectl, helm, istioctl, cilium CLI
- Vagrant + VirtualBox (for LFCS Linux lab only)
Install all tools:
make ansible-toolsmake open # start of day — restarts cluster + all port-forwards
make close # end of day — stops port-forwards + saves cluster statemake full-stack # cluster + cilium + argo + monitoring + otel + istio + kyverno
# Or step by step
make cluster-create # kind cluster with Cilium CNI
make cilium-install # Cilium CNI + Hubble
make argo-install # ArgoCD
make argo-rollouts # Argo Rollouts
make argo-workflows # Argo Workflows
make monitoring-install # Prometheus + Grafana + Loki + Tempo
make otel-install # OpenTelemetry Operator + Collector
make istio-install # Istio + Kiali
make kyverno-install # Kyverno
make kyverno-policies # Apply all policies
make backstage-install # Backstage (Docker)
make vagrant-up # Linux VM for LFCS| Service | URL | Credentials |
|---|---|---|
| Grafana | http://localhost:3000 | admin / see .env.local |
| ArgoCD | http://localhost:8080 | admin / make argo-password |
| Argo Workflows | https://localhost:2746 | none |
| Argo Rollouts | http://localhost:3100 | none |
| Kiali | http://localhost:20001 | anonymous |
| Hubble | http://localhost:12000 | none |
| Backstage | http://localhost:7007 | none |
| Day | Topics | Certs |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 ✅ | Cilium L7 policies, Hubble, Argo Rollouts canary, Argo Workflows DAG, Grafana + Loki | CCA, CAPA, PCA |
| Day 2 ✅ | PromQL recording/alerting rules, AlertManager, OTel collector, traces in Tempo | PCA, OTCA |
| Day 3 ✅ | Istio VirtualService, fault injection, circuit breaker, mTLS STRICT, AuthorizationPolicy, Kiali | ICA |
| Day 4 | Kyverno generate, mutate, verify-image, PolicyReport | KCA |
| Day 5 | Backstage catalog + templates, LFCS Linux VM, Platform Engineering | CBA, LFCS, CNPE, CNPA |
| Day 6 | MLOps: DVC pipeline, GitHub Actions CI/CD, model deploy to K8s | MLOps/AIOps |
# Local run
pip install -r mlops/requirements.txt
dvc repro mlops/dvc.yaml # prepare → train → evaluate
dvc metrics show # print accuracy
# GitHub Actions (automatic on push)
# mlops-train.yml → trains model, posts metrics on PR
# mlops-deploy.yml → builds Docker image, pushes to GHCR, deploys to K8s
# GitHub secrets needed before Day 6
# KUBECONFIG = cat ~/.kube/config | base64make clean
docker stop backstage && docker rm backstage
make vagrant-destroy- kubestronaut-lab — CKA, CKAD, CKS, KCNA, KCSA
Total cost: $0 — Setup time: 5 minutes with make full-stack