Foundations¶
Cloud-native systems ultimately run on Linux.
Before containers, before orchestration, before GitOps — there is the operating system, the network stack, and the process model.
This section focuses on the operational fundamentals required to debug and reason about distributed systems.
It is intentionally practical.
Scope¶
The Foundations layer covers:
- Filesystem navigation and manipulation
- Process inspection and control
- Networking diagnostics
- Log inspection
- Text processing
- Debugging techniques
These skills are mandatory for:
- Container troubleshooting
- Kubernetes debugging
- Incident response
- Performance analysis
Mental Model¶
Every cloud-native failure eventually maps to one of these domains:
- Process not running
- Port not listening
- Network not reachable
- File not found or permission denied
- Resource exhaustion (CPU, memory, disk)
- Configuration mismatch
Mastering Linux inspection tools drastically reduces debugging time.
Sections¶
Filesystem¶
Understand:
- Directory structure
- Permissions
- Ownership
- Disk usage
- File manipulation
Processes¶
Understand:
- Process tree
- Signals
- CPU and memory consumption
- Background services
Networking¶
Understand:
- IP addressing
- Routing
- Open ports
- Listening services
- Packet inspection
Logs¶
Understand:
- System logs
- Application logs
- Journal-based logging
- Streaming logs
Text Processing¶
Understand:
- Filtering output
- Pattern matching
- Transforming logs
- Extracting signals from noise
Guiding Principle¶
When debugging:
- Observe first.
- Confirm assumptions.
- Isolate layers.
- Avoid guessing.
The tools in this section are your primary instruments.