Nomad 101 — Workload Orchestration, Clustering, and Production Operations
A comprehensive, hands-on course covering HashiCorp Nomad from fundamentals to production operations, all on Nomad Community Edition. Learn Nomad's architecture (servers, clients, leader election, the evaluation broker, and bin-packing scheduling), interact with Nomad via the CLI, UI, and HTTP API, write job specifications with task groups, task drivers, resources, and networking, bootstrap server and client clusters manually and automatically with Consul, secure service-to-service traffic with Consul Connect, monitor clusters with Prometheus, control job placement with constraints, affinities, and spread, roll out changes with rolling, blue/green, and canary strategies, federate multiple regions, integrate Vault for dynamic secrets, secure the cluster with gossip encryption, mTLS, and ACLs, understand the Autoscaler and Enterprise platform features, and run stateful workloads with host volumes.
Course Preview
Why This Course is Different
Get everything you need to master platform engineering and advance your career
Certificate of Completion
Earn a certificate while gaining real-world skills that go beyond traditional certification prep
Hands-on Labs
12 practical labs with real-world scenarios in pre-configured cloud environments
Expert-Led
Learn from Sam Gabrail, Former HashiCorp Sr. Solutions Engineer with 18+ years experience
Community Support
Join our community where members help each other and collaborate on learning
What You'll Master
Understand Nomad's core concepts and architecture: servers, clients, jobs, drivers, allocations, and the scheduler
Interact with Nomad via the CLI, UI, and HTTP API to run and manage jobs
Write Nomad job specifications with task groups, task drivers, resources, and networking
Bootstrap and cluster Nomad servers and clients, manually and with Consul auto-clustering
Integrate Nomad natively with Consul for service discovery and Consul Connect for secure service mesh
Monitor Nomad clusters and jobs with the CLI, UI, and Prometheus telemetry
Control job placement with constraints, affinities, and spread, and use variable interpolation
Apply rolling, blue/green, and canary job update strategies
Federate multiple Nomad regions and understand multi-region job deployments
Integrate Nomad with Vault for dynamic secrets and database credentials
Secure Nomad with gossip encryption, mTLS, and Access Control Lists
Understand Nomad's Autoscaler and which platform features are Enterprise-only
Run stateful workloads with Nomad host volumes, and understand CSI/Docker-volume-driver alternatives
Course Curriculum
SECTION 1 – COURSE INTRODUCTION
Course overview, why workload orchestration matters, Nomad editions and licensing, and how the hands-on labs work.
- •Welcome and Course Overview
- •Community
- •Why Workload Orchestration Matters
- •Nomad Editions and Licensing
- •Environment Setup and Lab Conventions
SECTION 2 – CONTAINERS & ORCHESTRATION FUNDAMENTALS
What containers are, containers versus VMs, how containers work, Docker in practice, and why orchestration becomes necessary.
- •What Are Containers and Why Do We Need Them?
- •Containers vs. Virtual Machines
- •How Containers Work and the Evolution to Containers
- •Introducing Docker
- •Containers in Action and the Need for Orchestration
- •Containers & Orchestration Fundamentals QuizQuiz
SECTION 3 – NOMAD OVERVIEW & CORE CONCEPTS
What Nomad is and its business value, use cases and feature tour, clusters and agents, jobs and task groups, and allocations, evaluations, and bin packing.
- •What Is Nomad and Why Does It Exist?
- •Nomad Use Cases and a Community Edition Feature Tour
- •Key Concepts: Clusters, Servers, and Clients
- •Jobs, Task Groups, Tasks, and Drivers
- •Allocations, Evaluations, and Bin Packing
- •Nomad Overview & Core Concepts QuizQuiz
SECTION 4 – INTERACTING WITH NOMAD
The Nomad CLI, UI, and HTTP API, installing Nomad, basic commands, and running a dev-mode agent with your first job.
- •The Nomad CLI, UI, and HTTP API
- •Installing Nomad
- •Basic Nomad CLI Commands
- •Running a Dev Agent and Your First Job
- •Interacting with Nomad QuizQuiz
- •Nomad BasicsLab
SECTION 5 – NOMAD ARCHITECTURE & SCHEDULING
Deployment architecture, leader election and quorum, regions and datacenters, the evaluation broker, scheduler types and bin packing, and job priority and preemption.
- •Typical Deployment Architecture
- •Leader Election and Quorum
- •Regions, Datacenters, and a Federation Preview
- •Evaluations and the Evaluation Broker
- •Scheduler Types and Bin Packing
- •Job Priority and Preemption
- •Nomad Architecture & Scheduling QuizQuiz
SECTION 6 – NOMAD JOB SPECIFICATION & TASK DRIVERS
Job types and schedulers, task groups and tasks, the task-driver ecosystem, the Docker driver in depth, resources and networking, and Consul service registration.
- •Jobs, Schedulers, and the type Stanza
- •Declaring Task Groups and Tasks
- •Task Drivers Overview
- •The Docker Driver in Depth
- •The raw_exec, exec, Java, and QEMU Drivers
- •The resources and network Stanzas
- •Registering Tasks as Consul Services
- •Nomad Job Specification & Task Drivers QuizQuiz
SECTION 7 – RUNNING NOMAD SERVERS, CLIENTS & JOBS
Configuring server and client agents, the job specification lifecycle, running and monitoring jobs, and modifying jobs to scale.
- •Configuring Server and Client Agents
- •The Job Specification Lifecycle
- •Running a Job and Checking Its Status
- •Inspecting Allocations, Evaluations, and Logs
- •Modifying and Re-Running a Job to Scale
- •Running Clusters and Jobs QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Simple ClusterLab
SECTION 8 – MULTI-SERVER CLUSTERING & CONSUL INTEGRATION
Nomad's three clustering options, Consul's native integration and auto-clustering, service registration and dynamic templating, and Consul Connect service mesh.
- •Nomad's Three Clustering Options
- •Consul Native Integration Fundamentals
- •Automatic Clustering with Consul
- •Registering Services and Dynamic Templating
- •Nomad and Consul Connect for Secure Service Mesh
- •When to Use Connect vs Plain Service Discovery
- •Multi-Server Clustering & Consul Integration QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Multi-Server ClusterLab
- •Nomad Integration with Consul ConnectLab
SECTION 9 – MONITORING NOMAD
Inspecting jobs, allocations, and evaluations via the CLI and UI, viewing logs, and monitoring with Prometheus, Fabio, and Alertmanager.
- •Inspecting Jobs, Allocations, and Evaluations via the CLI
- •Viewing Allocation Logs
- •Monitoring with the Nomad UI
- •Monitoring with Prometheus
- •Monitoring Nomad QuizQuiz
- •Nomad MonitoringLab
SECTION 10 – JOB PLACEMENT & VARIABLE INTERPOLATION
The constraint, affinity, and spread stanzas, and variable interpolation with node attributes, runtime environment variables, and metadata.
- •The Constraint Stanza
- •Job and Task Group Level Constraints
- •The Affinity Stanza and Weights
- •The Spread Stanza
- •Variable Interpolation: Node Attributes vs. Runtime Environment Variables
- •Meta Variable Interpolation
- •Job Placement & Variable Interpolation QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Advanced Job PlacementLab
SECTION 11 – JOB UPDATE STRATEGIES
Rolling updates with health checks, blue/green deployments with manual promotion, and canary deployments with auto-revert.
- •Update Strategy Fundamentals
- •Rolling Updates
- •Blue/Green Deployments
- •Canary Deployments
- •Job Update Strategies QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Job Update StrategiesLab
SECTION 12 – FEDERATION & MULTI-REGION DEPLOYMENTS
Why federate Nomad regions, WAN federation with server join, operating across regions, and multi-region job deployments (Enterprise, conceptual).
- •Why Federate Multiple Nomad Regions
- •Federating Clusters with server join
- •Operating Across Federated Regions
- •Multi-Region Job Deployments (Enterprise, Conceptual)
- •Federation & Multi-Region Deployments QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Multi-Region FederationLab
SECTION 13 – HASHICORP VAULT INTEGRATION
Why pair Nomad with Vault, server and client vault configuration, the job-spec vault stanza, and pulling dynamic secrets through templates.
- •Why Pair Nomad with Vault
- •Workload Identity and Vault Configuration
- •The Vault Stanza in Job Specifications
- •Retrieving Dynamic Secrets with Templates
- •HashiCorp Vault Integration QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Integration with VaultLab
SECTION 14 – NOMAD SECURITY: ENCRYPTION & ACLS
Gossip traffic encryption, mTLS for HTTP and RPC, the ACL system's components, bootstrapping ACLs, policies and rules, and token types.
- •Gossip Traffic Encryption
- •HTTP and RPC Encryption with mTLS
- •The ACL System's Three Components
- •Bootstrapping ACLs
- •Policies, Rules, and Policy Scope
- •Tokens: Standard vs Management
- •Nomad Security QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Access Control Lists (ACLs)Lab
SECTION 15 – AUTOSCALING & ENTERPRISE PLATFORM FEATURES
The Nomad Autoscaler and its plugin types, Autopilot and redundancy zones, audit logging, namespaces, resource quotas, and Sentinel policies.
- •Nomad Autoscaler Overview
- •Autoscaler Plugin Types: APM, Strategy, and Target
- •Autopilot, Automated Upgrades, and Redundancy Zones
- •Nomad Governance: Audit Logging and Namespaces
- •Resource Quotas
- •Sentinel Policies
- •Autoscaling & Enterprise Platform Features QuizQuiz
SECTION 16 – STATEFUL WORKLOADS
The three stateful-storage options, host volumes in depth, Docker volume drivers, CSI plugins, and choosing the right storage approach.
- •Stateful Workload Options Overview
- •Nomad Host Volumes Deep Dive
- •Docker Volume Drivers and Portworx
- •CSI Plugins with Cloud-Managed Disks
- •Choosing the Right Storage Option
- •Stateful Workloads QuizQuiz
- •Nomad Host VolumesLab
- •Nomad CSI Plugins on GCPLab
SECTION 17 – COURSE WRAP-UP & WHAT'S NEXT
What's new in Nomad 2.0, a Community Edition versus Enterprise recap, and additional resources and next steps.
- •What's New in Nomad 2.0
- •Community Edition vs. Enterprise: A Course Recap
- •Additional Resources and Next Steps
- •Course Wrap-Up QuizQuiz
Course Features
Hands-on Labs
Lots of hands-on labs to learn by doing
Join our Community
Community support to ask questions and collaborate
Test Your Knowledge
Quizzes to help you grasp the material well
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Hi there, I'm Sam
I'm a husband and father of two wonderful boys. I'm also very passionate 🔥 about all things technology. From when I was 10, I had a dream to become a computer 💻 engineer one day. Here I am today living the dream!
Thanks for visiting TeKanAid Academy. My goal is to teach you all things DevOps. Below are some of the things I've done over the years. I'm confident that I can help you achieve your dreams too.
- 18+ years of experience in various Information Technology fields from Telecommunications, Computer Networks, Digital Transformation, DevOps, Cybersecurity, and IoT
- President of TeKanAid Solutions Inc. building online content in the DevOps space
- Previous – Sr. Solutions Engineer at HashiCorp
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Terraform: Authorized HashiCorp Instructor
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HashiCorp Authorized Instructors are experienced DevOps professionals who deliver official HashiCorp training courses in person and virtually.
Issued by HashiCorp Partner Network (HPN)
Vault: Authorized HashiCorp Instructor
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HashiCorp Authorized Instructors are experienced DevOps professionals who deliver official HashiCorp training courses in person and virtually.
Issued by HashiCorp Partner Network (HPN)
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (002)
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Earners of the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate certification know the basic concepts, skills, and use cases associated with open source HashiCorp Terraform.
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HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate (002)
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Earners of the HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate certification know the basic concepts, skills, and use cases associated with open source HashiCorp Vault.
Issued by HashiCorp
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