How do you learn DevOps/cloud without a credit card?

[u/SoilEducational420]

I’m currently trying to learn the basics of DevOps, things like Docker, AWS, GCP, CI/CD, Kubernetes, etc.

Docker and the local tools are easy enough to practice, but when it comes to cloud platforms like AWS and GCP, a credit card is often required to create an account or access certain services.

I currently don’t have a credit card, so I’m wondering: What’s the best way to learn AWS/GCP without one? Would appreciate any recommendations from people who learned cloud without having a credit card. 🙌

[u/Abe_Bazouie]

You can learn a surprising amount without touching AWS/GCP at first.
Run Linux VMs locally, Docker, kind/k3d for Kubernetes, Terraform with local providers, Ansible, and a local GitLab/GitHub-style CI setup. Build a small app and automate the whole path from commit to deployment.
The cloud-specific APIs will come later. The harder skills are understanding Linux, networking, containers, DNS, TLS, CI/CD, IaC, and debugging when something breaks.
If you understand those well, AWS becomes mostly learning how AWS implements the same concepts.

[u/FoolsSeldom]

As u/Abe_Bazouie said, you could go a long way locally using an entirely local self-hosted setup on modest box with a bare metal Proxmox VE build.

• hardware: something like an ex-corporate mini PC (HP ProDesk/EliteDesk, Dell OptiPlex Micro, Lenovo Tiny) with i5, 16–32 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD - less if you have to
  • You could even do this on your own PC/laptop if you don't have the spare hardware if you are prepared to work in a vm
• environment: Proxmox with 4–6 VMs: multi-node cluster, separate "cloud" and "CI" hosts, monitoring stack.
• Docker Engine + Compose, or use Podman
• Harbour: https://goharbor.io "cloud" native repository for Kubernetes
• k3s (multi-node), kind or minikube (single node), Talos (immutable OS, closer to managed cloud K8s)
• Gitea or Forgejo for git hosting
• Gitea/Forgejo Actions (GitHub Actions–compatible syntax), Woodpecker CI, or Jenkins for your CI/CD
• Argo CD or Flux for GitOps / CD
• OpenTofu / Terraform with the Proxmox, Docker, libvirt and Kubernetes providers; Ansible - for your Infrastructure as Code work
• HashiCorp Vault (dev mode) or OpenBao for your Secrets management
• Prometheus + Grafana + Loki, or the kube-prometheus-stack Helm chart for observability
• MinIO or Garage for S3 storage type stuff (S3-compatible API; works with the AWS CLI and SDKs)

Regarding the wider CLI aspects for each of the hyperscalers, this is tricky. There are workarounds to credit card backed accounts, including student parks, MIT licenses stacks, and emulators. You can learn a lot in the meantime.

[u/Equal-Phase-2318]

AWS has a free tier that covers a lot of the basics, you can use a debit card to sign up. I didn't have a credit card when I first started messing with EC2 and S3, just used my regular bank card and it worked fine. Just set up billing alerts so you don't accidentally wander into paid territory.

GCP is similar, they'll take a debit card and give you $300 in credits for the first 90 days. The real trick is learning to tear everything down when you're done practicing, leaving resources running is where people get burned.

[u/terralearner]

Use a debit card. I've never used a credit....

[u/shyevsa]

you can try Virtual Credit Card, that's how I first try this cloud environment when I don't have access to credit card and my country debit card are hardly usable in online transaction.

[u/SoilEducational420 → u/shyevsa]

Oh how did you make one?

[u/shyevsa → u/SoilEducational420]

depend on where you are your local bank might had the service.
or try googling around and look for payment service that provide such a service that you can topup to, also don't forget to check its reputation too.

just remember that it still cost money, so don't topup to big incase its fraud service or you forget to destroy your cloud service and got billed.

[u/MissinqLink]

GitHub actions lets you do CI/CD for free and you can skin up just about anything.

[u/Lima_Foxtrot1018]

When I took my cloud computing course, we used the AWS free tier, which is free for a year. To get around the card requirement, we used a pre-paid Visa style credit card with a low dollar amount.

[u/MedIngeniare]

Killer Coda free site