CD with Azure Pipelines

Lab overview

Many teams prefer to define their build and release pipelines using YAML. This allows them to access the same pipeline features as those using the visual designer, but with a markup file that can be managed like any other source file. YAML build definitions can be added to a project by simply adding the corresponding files to the root of the repository. Azure DevOps also provides default templates for popular project types, as well as a YAML designer to simplify the process of defining build and release tasks.

Objectives

After you complete this lab, you will be able to:

• configure CI/CD pipelines as code with YAML in Azure DevOps

Instructions - Before you start

Review applications required for this lab

Identify the applications that you'll use in this lab:

• Microsoft Edge

Set up an Azure DevOps organization.

If you don't already have an Azure DevOps organization that you can use for this lab, create one by following the instructions available at Create an organization or project collection.

Prepare an Azure subscription

• Identify an existing Azure subscription or create a new one.

• Verify that you have a Microsoft account or an Azure AD account with the Owner role in the Azure subscription and the Global Administrator role in the Azure AD tenant associated with the Azure subscription. For details, refer to List Azure role assignments using the Azure portal and View and assign administrator roles in Azure Active Directory.

Exercise 0: Configure the lab prerequisites

In this exercise, you will set up the prerequisites for the lab, which consist of the preconfigured Parts Unlimited team project based on an Azure DevOps Demo Generator template and Azure resources, including an Azure web app and an Azure SQL database.

Task 1: Configure the team project

In this task, you will use Azure DevOps Demo Generator to generate a new project based on the PartsUnlimited-YAML template.

1. On your lab computer, start a web browser and navigate to Azure DevOps Demo Generator. This utility site will automate the process of creating a new Azure DevOps project within your account that is prepopulated with content (work items, repos, etc.) required for the lab.

   Note: For more information on the site, see What is the Azure DevOps Services Demo Generator?.

2. Click Sign in and sign in using the Microsoft account associated with your Azure DevOps subscription.

3. If required, on the Azure DevOps Demo Generator page, click Accept to accept the permission requests for accessing your Azure DevOps subscription.

4. On the Create New Project page, in the New Project Name textbox, type Configuring Pipelines as Code with YAML, in the Select organization dropdown list, select your Azure DevOps organization, and then click Choose template.

5. In the list of templates, in the toolbar, click General, select the PartsUnlimited-YAML template and click Select Template.

6. Back on the Create New Project page, click Create Project

   Note: Wait for the process to complete. This should take about 2 minutes. In case the process fails, navigate to your DevOps organization, delete the project, and try again.

7. On the Create New Project page, click Navigate to project.

Task 2: Create Azure resources

In this task, you will create an Azure web app and an Azure SQL database by using the Azure portal.

1. From the lab computer, start a web browser, navigate to the Azure Portal, and sign in with the user account that has the Owner role in the Azure subscription you will be using in this lab and has the role of the Global Administrator in the Azure AD tenant associated with this subscription.

2. In the Azure portal, click the icon consisting of three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the page and, in the hub menu and click + Create a resource.

3. On the New blade, in the search text box, type Web App + SQL and press the Enter key.

4. On the Web App + SQL, click Create.

5. On the Web App + SQL blade, specify the following settings:

   Setting	Value
   App name	any valid, globally unique DNS host name
   Subscription	the name of the Azure subscription you are using in this lab
   Resource group	the name of a new resource group az400m11l01-RG
6. Click App Service plan/Location, on the App Service plan blade, click + Create new.

7. On the New App Service Plan blade, specify the following settings and click OK:

   Setting	Value
   App service plan	any valid name
   Location	the name of the Azure region where you want to deploy resources you will be using in this lab
   Pricing tier	D1 Shared
8. Back on the Web App + SQL blade, click SQL Database.

9. On the SQL Database blade, in the Name textbox, type partsunlimited.

10. On the SQL Database blade, click Target server.

11. On the New server blade, specify the following settings and click Select:

    Setting	Value
    Server name	any valid, globally unique DNS host name
    Server admin login	Student
    Password	Pa55w.rd1234
    Location	the name of the Azure region that you chose for the App Service plan
    Allow Azure services to access server	enabled
12. Back on the SQL Database blade, click Select.

13. Back on the Web App + SQL blade, click Create.

    Note: Wait for the process to complete. This should take about 2 minutes.

Exercise 1: Configure CI/CD Pipelines as Code with YAML in Azure DevOps

In this exercise, you will configure CI/CD Pipelines as code with YAML in Azure DevOps.

Task 1: Delete the existing pipeline

In this task, you will delete the existing pipeline.

1. On the lab computer, switch to the browser window displaying the Configuring Pipelines as Code with YAML project in the Azure DevOps portal and, in the vertical navigational pane, select the Pipelines.

   Note: Before configuring YAML pipelines, you will disable the existing build pipeline.

2. On the Pipelines pane, select the PartsUnlimited entry.

3. In the upper right corner of the PartsUnlimited blade, click the vertical ellipsis symbol and, in the drop-down menu, select Delete.

4. Write PartsUnlimited and click Delete.

5. In the vertical navigational pane, select the Repos > Files. Make sure you are in the master branch (dropdown on top of Files window), on the azure-pipelines.yml file, click the vertical ellipsis symbol and, in the drop-down menu, select Delete. Commit the change on the master branch by clicking on Commit (leaving default options).

Task 2: Add a YAML build definition

In this task, you will add a YAML build definition to the existing project.

1. Navigate back to the Pipelines pane in of the Pipelines hub.

2. In the Create your first Pipeline window, click Create pipeline.

   Note: We will use the wizard to automatically create the YAML definition based on our project.

3. On the Where is your code? pane, click Azure Repos Git (YAML) option.

4. On the Select a repository pane, click PartsUnlimited.

5. On the Configure your pipeline pane, click ASP.NET to use this template as the starting point for your pipeline. This will open the Review your pipeline YAML pane.

   Note: The pipeline definition will be saved as a file named azure-pipelines.yml in the root of the repository. The file will contain the steps required to build and test a typical ASP.NET solution. You can also customize the build as needed. In this scenario, you will update the pool to enforce the use of a VM running Visual Studio 2017.

6. Make sure trigger is master.

   Note: Review in Repos if your repository has master or main branch, organizations could choose default branch name for new repos: Change the default branch.

7. On the Review your pipeline YAML pane, in line 10, replace vmImage: 'windows-latest' with vmImage: 'vs2017-win2016'.

8. On the Review your pipeline YAML pane, click Save and run.

9. On the Save and run pane, accept the default settings and click Save and run.

10. On the pipeline run pane, in the Jobs section, click Job and monitor its progress and verify that it completes successfully.

    Note: Each task from the YAML file is available for review, including any warnings and errors.

11. Return to the pipeline run pane, switch from the Summary tab to the Tests tab, and review test statistics.

Task 3: Add continuous delivery to the YAML definition

In this task, you will add continuous delivery to the YAML-based definition of the pipeline you created in the previous task.

Note: Now that the build and test processes are successful, we can now add delivery to the YAML definition.

1. On the pipeline run pane, click the ellipsis symbol in the upper right corner and, in the dropdown menu, click Edit pipeline.

2. On the pane displaying the content of the azure-pipelines.yaml file, in line 8, following the trigger section, add the following content to define the Build stage in the YAML pipeline.

   Note: You can define whatever stages you need to better organize and track pipeline progress.

   stages:
   - stage: Build
     jobs:
     - job: Build

3. Select the remaining content of the YAML file and press the Tab key twice to indent it four spaces (it should be placed with same identation as job: Build).

   Note: This way, everything starting with the pool section becomes part of the job: Build.

4. At the bottom of the file, add the configuration below to define the second stage.

   - stage: Deploy
     jobs:
     - job: Deploy
       pool:
         vmImage: 'vs2017-win2016'
       steps:

5. Set the cursor on a new line at the end of the YAML definition.

   Note: This will be the location where new tasks are added.

6. In the list of tasks on the right side of the code pane, search for and select the Azure App Service Deploy task.

7. In the Azure App Service deploy pane, specify the following settings and click Add:

   • in the Azure subscription drop-down list, select the Azure subscription into which you deployed the Azure resources earlier in the lab, click Authorize, and, when prompted, authenticate by using the same user account you used during the Azure resource deployment.

   • in the App Service name dropdown list, select the name of the web app you deployed earlier in the lab.

   • in the Package or folder text box, type $(System.ArtifactsDirectory)/drop/*.zip.

   Note: This will automatically add the deployment task to the YAML pipeline definition.

8. With the added task still selected in the editor, press the Tab key twice to indent it four spaces, so that it listed as a child of the steps task.

   Note: The packageForLinux parameter is misleading in the context of this lab, but it is valid for Windows or Linux.

   Note: By default, these two stages run independently. As a result, the build output from the first stage might not be available to the second stage without additional changes. To implement these changes, we will use one task to publish the build output at the end of the build stage and another to download it in the beginning of the deploy stage.

9. Place the cursor on a blank line at the end of the build stage to add another task. (right below task: VSTest@2 )

10. On the Tasks pane, search for and select the Publish build artifacts task.

11. On the Publish build artifacts pane, accept the default settings and click Add.

    Note: This will publish the build artifacts to a location that will be downloadable under the alias drop.

12. With the added task still selected in the editor, press the Tab key twice to indent it four spaces (or press the Tab until task is indented as the ones above).

    Note: You may also want to add an empty line before and after to make it easier to read.

13. Place the cursor on the first line under the steps node of the deploy stage.

14. On the Tasks pane, search for and select the Download build artifacts task.

15. Click Add.

16. With the added task still selected in the editor, press the Tab key twice to indent it four spaces.

    Note: Here as well you may also want to add an empty line before and after to make it easier to read.

17. Add a property to the download task specifying the artifactName of drop (make sure to match the spacing):

    artifactName: 'drop'

18. Click Save, on the Save pane, click Save again to commit the change directly into the master branch.

    Note: This will automatically trigger a new build.

19. The pipeline will look similar to this example (Reference your own subscription and webapp on last task):

    trigger:
    - master
    
    stages:
    - stage: Build
      jobs:
      - job: Build
        pool:
            vmImage: 'vs2017-win2016'
    
        variables:
            solution: '**/*.sln'
            buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
            buildConfiguration: 'Release'
    
        steps:
        - task: NuGetToolInstaller@1
    
        - task: NuGetCommand@2
          inputs:
            restoreSolution: '$(solution)'
    
        - task: VSBuild@1
          inputs:
            solution: '$(solution)'
            msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactStagingDirectory)"'
            platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
            configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
    
        - task: VSTest@2
          inputs:
            platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
            configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
    
        - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
          inputs:
            PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
            ArtifactName: 'drop'
            publishLocation: 'Container'
    
    - stage: Deploy
      jobs:
      - job: Deploy
        pool:
            vmImage: 'vs2017-win2016'
        steps:
        - task: DownloadBuildArtifacts@0
          inputs:
            buildType: 'current'
            downloadType: 'single'
            downloadPath: '$(System.ArtifactsDirectory)'
            artifactName: 'drop'
        - task: AzureRmWebAppDeployment@4
          inputs:
            ConnectionType: 'AzureRM'
            azureSubscription: 'YOUR-AZURE-SUBSCRIPTION'
            appType: 'webApp'
            WebAppName: 'YOUR-WEBAPP-NAME'
            packageForLinux: '$(System.ArtifactsDirectory)/drop/*.zip'

20. In the web browser window displaying the Azure DevOps portal, in the vertical navigational pane, select the Pipelines.

21. On the Pipelines pane, click the entry representing the newly configured pipeline.

22. Click on the most recent run (automatically started).

23. On the Summary pane, monitor the progress of the pipeline run.

24. If you notice a message stating that This pipeline needs permissions to access a resource before this run can continue to Deploy, click View, in the Waiting for review dialog box, click Permit, and, in the Permit access? pane, click Permit again.

25. At the bottom of the Summary pane, click the Deploy stage to view details of the deployment.

    Note: Once the task completes, your app will be deployed to an Azure web app.

Task 4: Review the deployed site

1. Switch back to web browser window displaying the Azure portal and navigate to the blade displaying the properties of the Azure web app.

2. On the Azure web app blade, in the Settings section, select Configuration.

3. On the Azure web app configuration blade, in the Connection strings section, click the defaultConnection entry.

4. On the Add/Edit connection string blade, in the Name textbox, change the current value to DefaultConnectionString, which is the key expected by the application, and click OK.

   Note: This will enable the application to connect to the database created for the app service.

5. Back on the Azure web app configuration blade, click Save to apply the changes and, when prompted, click Continue

6. On the Azure web app blade, click Overview and, on the overview blade, click Browse to open your site in a new web browser tab.

7. Verify that the deployed site loads as expected in the new browser tab.

Exercise 2: Remove the Azure lab resources

In this exercise, you will remove the Azure resources provisione in this lab to eliminate unexpected charges.

Note: Remember to remove any newly created Azure resources that you no longer use. Removing unused resources ensures you will not see unexpected charges.

Task 1: Remove the Azure lab resources

In this task, you will use Azure Cloud Shell to remove the Azure resources provisioned in this lab to eliminate unnecessary charges.

1. In the Azure portal, open the Bash shell session within the Cloud Shell pane.

2. List all resource groups created throughout the labs of this module by running the following command:

   az group list --query "[?starts_with(name,'az400m11l01-RG')].name" --output tsv

3. Delete all resource groups you created throughout the labs of this module by running the following command:

   az group list --query "[?starts_with(name,'az400m11l01-RG')].[name]" --output tsv | xargs -L1 bash -c 'az group delete --name $0 --no-wait --yes'

   Note: The command executes asynchronously (as determined by the --nowait parameter), so while you will be able to run another Azure CLI command immediately afterwards within the same Bash session, it will take a few minutes before the resource groups are actually removed.

Review

In this lab, you configured CI/CD pipelines as code with YAML in Azure DevOps.