Windows DevOps Tools

Version control, containers, orchestration, infrastructure as code, cloud CLIs, CI/CD and monitoring on Windows.

Many DevOps tools are Linux-first. Some have native Windows versions, some are best used through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and some run as containers or on remote servers. Each tool below says how it's typically used on Windows.

Part of the DevOps Engineer toolkit, which explains when you would use each tool.

Version control

Keep code and configuration in version control.

Git
Native Windows.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Containers

Build and run containers. On Windows these use a Linux VM or WSL 2 behind the scenes.

Docker Desktop
Native Windows app; runs Linux containers using WSL 2 or Hyper-V.
FreemiumWin / Mac / Linux
Podman
Native Windows client; containers run in a Linux VM (podman machine).
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Orchestration

Manage Kubernetes clusters from Windows.

kubectl
Native Windows command-line tool.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux
Helm
Native Windows command-line tool.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Infrastructure as code

Define infrastructure in version-controlled files.

Terraform
Native Windows command-line tool.
FreeWin / Mac / Linux
OpenTofu
Native Windows command-line tool.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Configuration management

Automate server configuration.

Ansible
Ansible's control node isn't supported natively on Windows; run it through WSL.
Open SourceMac / Linux

Cloud tooling

Command-line tools for the major cloud providers.

Azure CLI
Native Windows.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux
AWS CLI
Native Windows.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux
Google Cloud CLI
Native Windows.
FreeWin / Mac / Linux

CI/CD

Automate builds and deployments.

Jenkins
Runs natively on Windows or on a server; many teams run it on Linux or in containers.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Monitoring

Dashboards for metrics and logs.

Grafana
Usually runs on a server or in a container; open it in your browser.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux