Focus 2025

Career goals for 2025

We're already nearing the end of Feb 2025, and I feel that I'm a bit behind of my goals for the year. One of the goals I have is to do the RHCSA (EX200) exam by the end of January, but I'm far from ready to take the exam, as I haven't even completed 20% of RH124 - let alone RH134.

Then I also have personal goals, like becoming a Spartan (physique-wise), which have been a goal of mine since the movie 300 came out in 2006. Almost 20 years later, and I'm still out of shape, and sitting behind a desk for the majority of my active hours isn't exactly helping.

But let's not focus on that now. In this post I want to shortly share my approach, in terms of my career development. There are four (maybe five) areas I want to focus on in 2025. When I did my traineeship last year, we were getting the basics of the basics. Think of Linux, networking, programming, cloud etc., and when I say etc. it's a lot more. But as mentioned above, I really want to focus on a few areas I think will make me a far better DevOps Engineer next year. And these are those areas: Linux, networking, Python, Docker, and Kubernetes.

While I already have a basic, and probably beyond that in some of those areas, I really want to build a stronger base, and also dive deeper, but I also need some sort of validation or tangibility, or when we talk about formulating smart goals, I need something measurable. In terms of something measurable in terms of the basics, well, that's certifications. I think that's the perfect use case for getting certified. The great thing about the certifications in those areas, with the exception of Python and Docker, is that they're mostly hands-on. So below I have put the certifications per area I want to achieve for this year:

• Linux: RHCSA, RHCE
• Networking: CCNA
• Python: /
• Docker: /
• Kubernetes: CKA, CKAD, CKS

Then to go beyond the basics, that's like learning about Cilium and eBPF. And finally to also make that measurable or at least tangible, that's where the Project K8s Homelab comes into play, and also where all of those above areas come together.

Which is a nice bridge to a quick update on my K8s Homelab. I've added NAS storage to my home network, which will serve as persistent volume for my cluster, and I finally replaced K3s on Ubuntu Server with Talos Linux. I had already installed Talos Linux before, but that was using Flannel as the CNI and missing the iSCSI-tools for setting up my Synology NAS.

Yesterday, I setup Talos Linux again, but this time using Cilium as the CNI and with the iSCSI-tools from the custom image. I've also replaced my unmanaged switch with a smart switch, which I later found out is not the best solution, but it does provide the option to create VLANS.

So that's a quick update. Next on my to-do list is to install Flux and setting up the Synology NAS, and of course deploy some apps. Bye for now!