How does Azure DevOps Pipelines Work?

Azure Pipelines automatically builds as well as tests code projects. Powered by Microsoft, it is a cloud-based solution that supports all leading project types and languages. Continuous delivery (CD) and continuous integration (CI) is combined in Azure Pipelines to build, deliver, and test the code to any intended destination. Azure Pipelines is also considered a safe, secure, and efficient way of automating builds and making it all available to the end-users.

Azure DevOps incorporate a lot of services and Azure Pipelines is one of them.

There are quite of lot of things you need to know about Azure DevOps Pipelines. However, you will only be able to get to know them once you enroll with the right Azure DevOps training and certification course. Summing it all up in a blog is not possible.

With this blog, we will try to give you an insight into this field. Since it all begins with companies having felt the need to incorporate Azure DevOps Pipelines, let’s begin there. Let us first learn about the advantages of using Azure DevOps Pipelines.

 

Advantages of Using Azure DevOps Pipelines

While there are quite a lot of advantages of using Azure DevOps Pipelines, we will only give you a brief about the ones that truly stand out.

 

• Version Control System

Azure DevOps Pipelines holds the capability to integrate with Azure Repos Git & TVFC, Subversion, GitHub Enterprise, Bitbucket Cloud, and GitHub.

• Deployment Target

Azure Pipelines can be used to deploy the code to various targets. These targets may include Azure services, virtual machines, container registries, or any cloud or on-premises target.

• Language and Application Types

Azure DevOps Pipelines can be made use of with most languages and application types. These may include .Net, Xcode, Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, Node.js, and PHP.

• Progressive Deployment

During the development & testing phase, the developer can set as many stages as they wish with the aid of Azure DevOps Pipelines. This aids in controlling the quality of the project prior to moving to the next stage. This will help you understand where the bugs are occurring and how can you solve them.

• Pricing

If you are a developer working on a public project, you will be able to use Azure DevOps Pipelines for free. However, when working on private projects, you will get 1800 minutes of free pipeline jobs every month, before you will be asked to subscribe them.

 

Continuous Integration (CI)

Continuous Integration comes in handy when catching issues and bugs in the very early stages of the development cycle. This is the best time to know about them because here, fixing errors is faster and simpler. At this point, developers can check-in their code for testing and locating errors. Also, they can check their codes in a version-controlled repository.

Amongst the many benefits of continuous integration, these are the ones you should know about.

• This makes it easier for big teams to know what each of the member has been working on so far.
• It facilitates continuous code compilation as well as testing.
• It is easier to merge minor changes in large codes.
• It improves productivity by making the integration process smoother.
• Helps locate bugs and makes fixing them easier.

 

Continuous Delivery (CD)

Continuous Delivery (CD) is the process which entails integrating code with infrastructure. This ensures that all the policies are followed and the tests are performed, and then finally aids in deploying the code across the desired environment.

Continuous delivery aids developers in delivering new features, configuring any changes, and fixing bugs in a quick and reliable manner. When we talk about CD pipeline, we understand that the routine deliveries are provided both on-demand or as per configuration.

As in the case of continuous integration, the benefits of the continuous delivery pipeline are various too. Here is a quick look into a few of them.

• The CD pipeline facilitates faster delivery of issue and bug fixes.
• It is known to aid in decreasing the risks related to releases.
• It also ensures that that delivery is feasible at any given scale.

 

Azure DevOps Pipelines Concepts

Moving on from the advantages of using Azure DevOps Pipelines, let us explore the concepts of Azure DevOps Pipelines.

 

• Azure Pipeline Tasks

Tasks refer to the building blocks which define pipeline automation. A task can be said to be a procedure or a packaged script that is abstracted as a pack of inputs.

When tasks are integrates to a pipeline, specific demands can be added by them. When a job is set to be executed, all the tasks that are defined within it happen to get executed sequentially. When we say demand, we refer to the prerequisites it defines that need to be installed. When Azure runs the deployment or the build, agents that meet those requirements are selected.

• Azure Pipeline Parameters

With runtime parameters, the user gets enhanced control over the values that can be passed to the pipeline. The user can dynamically select stages and jobs, while providing varied values for actions and scripts at runtime. You also get the advantage of setting acceptable vales or ranges, specifying the default values, and controlling parameter data types.

With Azure Pipelines, you can specify the parameters, both in pipelines and templates.

• Azure Pipeline Variables

With variables, the user can place integral pieces of data in various different parts of the pipeline. Usually, a variable is used to define a value which is set to be used in a pipeline. Variables can be used in expressions to customize the pipeline and conditionally assign values.

• Azure Pipeline Templates

Templates facilitate the user to define reusable parameters, logic, and content that can further be used in a pipeline. Templates are known to work in two ways –

• Control the contents that are allowed in the pipeline
• Inject reusable content into a pipeline
  
  2. Azure Pipeline Secrets

Secret variables come encrypted. This means that the user may use them in a pipeline without having to expose their values. Such variables can also be used for sensitive information that one does not want to expose in the pipeline. The information can be related to IDs, passwords, access tokens, etc.

Variable groups can be used for sharing multiple secrets between pipelines.

3. Azure Pipeline Triggers

With triggers, the user can automatically run pipelines in the case of certain events. The following types of triggers are supported by Azure DevOps Pipelines –

• Event-based triggers
• Scheduled triggers
• Pipeline triggers

 

Features of Azure DevOps Pipelines

Azure DevOps Pipelines is full of features. In this blog, we are going to explore the top three features of Azure DevOps Pipelines.

 

• Free Software

This is a free software that renders the user the opportunity to deliver a majority of open-source projects. This can be done via CI/CD or continuous integration/ continuous delivery pipelines.

• Language & Platform Independent

Though we have already mentioned it above, we are going to focus on it again. The user can pick the operating system (OS) of their choice. This is along with the programming language(s) that you wish to use for creating your application. You can take a pick from Python, Ruby, Node.js, Java, etc.

• Extending Options

Azure DevOps Pipelines will offer you multiple community-built tasks. These will help you in better customization and assist you in deployment, testing, and development tasks.

 

Conclusion

The discussion related to Azure DevOps Pipelines can turn out to be a lengthy one. That said, with this blog, we have intended to give you a tour of the main things you should have knowledge about, even if you are just starting out in this field.

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