Hands-on Docker learning project covering images, networking, volumes, Compose, and Swarm orchestration — built as a containerized microservices platform (API gateway, order/inventory services, Postgres) with security hardening and Prometheus/Grafana observability. Precursor to Kubernetes.
A self-directed, hands-on path toward Docker proficiency for a Platform/Infra Engineer role, structured around the Docker Certified Associate exam domains (no exam planned — used purely as a proficiency benchmark). Each stage adds one piece to a single running system rather than being a standalone tutorial exercise.
- API gateway routing to backend services
- order-service and inventory-service — small containerized REST APIs
- Postgres for persistence
- Docker Swarm for orchestration (services, secrets, rolling updates)
- Prometheus + Grafana for observability
Each service owns its own dedicated Postgres database — no service ever reaches into another service's database directly, and the gateway only ever talks to services, never to a database.
- Installation, configuration & CLI fundamentals
- Image creation & Dockerfile basics
- Multi-stage builds & registries
- Networking
- Storage & volumes
- Docker Compose fundamentals
- Compose advanced + orchestration intro
- Docker Swarm
- Security hardening
- Observability & full integration
Next chapter: Kubernetes (separate repo, learned from scratch).
