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Platform Engineering Lab Series — Full Internal Developer Platform

2025

15 hands-on labs building a production-grade Internal Developer Platform with Backstage, Argo CD, and Crossplane — from Kubernetes fundamentals to a fully integrated IDP.

platform-engineeringkubernetesargocdcrossplanebackstagegitopshelm
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A comprehensive, 15-lab journey through modern platform engineering. Starting from Kubernetes fundamentals and progressing through GitOps, control planes, and developer portals, this series builds a complete Internal Developer Platform (IDP) step by step.

Lab Progression

Foundation (Labs 1–4):

  • Lab 01 — Platform Engineering Fundamentals: Understand the principles — self-service, golden paths, and the platform as a product
  • Lab 02 — Kubernetes Foundation & Cluster Setup: Deploy a production-ready Kubernetes cluster as the platform substrate
  • Lab 03 — GitOps with Argo CD: Install and configure Argo CD for declarative, Git-driven deployments
  • Lab 04 — Argo CD: Helm Charts & Kustomize: Manage complex applications with Helm and Kustomize through GitOps

Control Plane (Labs 5–7):

  • Lab 05 — Crossplane: Installation & First Provider: Deploy Crossplane to manage cloud resources through Kubernetes APIs
  • Lab 06 — Crossplane: Managing Resources: Provision cloud infrastructure (databases, buckets, networks) declaratively
  • Lab 07 — Crossplane: Compositions & XRDs: Build platform APIs that abstract cloud resource complexity

Developer Portal (Labs 8–9):

  • Lab 08 — Backstage: Setup & Software Catalog: Deploy Backstage and populate the software catalog
  • Lab 09 — Backstage: Software Templates (Golden Paths): Create self-service templates that scaffold production-ready services

Integration & Production (Labs 10–15):

  • Lab 10 — Integrating Argo CD + Crossplane (GitOps-Driven IaC): Close the loop — infrastructure and applications managed together
  • Lab 11 — Argo CD: ApplicationSets & Multi-Cluster: Scale deployments across multiple clusters
  • Lab 12 — Crossplane: Advanced Compositions & Functions: Build sophisticated platform APIs with patch-and-transform
  • Lab 13 — Backstage: Plugins & Kubernetes Integration: Connect Backstage to your platform for unified visibility
  • Lab 14 — Full IDP: Backstage + Argo CD + Crossplane End-to-End: Wire everything together into a self-service platform
  • Lab 15 — Production-Ready Platform: Security, Observability & Multi-Tenancy: Harden the platform for production use

Technologies

Kubernetes, Argo CD, Crossplane, Backstage, Helm, Kustomize, Docker, GitHub Actions, Prometheus, Grafana, OPA/Gatekeeper

Start the lab series on docs.beyondyou.my.id → — each lab includes detailed step-by-step instructions, architecture diagrams, and troubleshooting guides.