How to Automate the Deployment Pipeline in Azure DevOps?

Azure DevOps is a leading tool by Microsoft Azure. It aids in automating the CI/ CD process, which turn promotes automatic builds and code projects. Thus, making it all available to others. Azure pipelines brings together CI (continuous integration) and CD (continuous delivery). The aim is to continuously test and build the code to be shipped to the target environment.

There are a thousand things to learn about Azure DevOps. And you can learn all about it only with the best Azure DevOps training and certification course. With this blog, we are going to give you an insight on how to automate the deployment pipeline in Azure DevOps.

Deployment automation is a compilation of capabilities. The facilitate in driving higher organizational performance and software delivery. With deployment automation, the user can deploy the Azure DevOps software to production and testing environment with a single push of a button.

To be able to get to that point, we need to take things stepwise. So, the first thing we are going to do is to learn more about Azure DevOps and pipeline. Without any further ado, let us begin to uncover each topic at a time.

What is CI/CD Pipeline?

CI/CD pipelines aid in achieving deployment automation. It is a method that introduces automation in the early stages of app development. Thus, frequently delivering apps to the customers. Continuous integration, continuous deployment, and continuous delivery are the central concepts attributed with CI/CD.

Such pipelines aid the user in building, testing, and deploying high-quality applications quickly and efficiently. There are four primary stages of the CI/CD pipeline. Knowledge of them is needed to get started in the field. Here is what you should know about each –

Source Stage – In most cases, a pipeline run gets triggered when someone attempts a change to the central repository. The CI/CD pipeline tools that are a part of the course stage set these triggers.
Build Stage – The coming together of the source code along with its dependencies during building. Built-in application languages such as Java need a compilation too. That happens in this stage. If one fails here, it indicates a serious error in either the code or its dependencies.
Test Stage – The test stage is about running automated tests to validate the code as well as its behaviour. This stage is what we call a sieve. As it prevents any bugs from reaching to the end-user. There are various stages to this one ranging from smoke test to end-to-end integration tests. Errors in coding will be exposed if any failure is met with in this stage.
Deploy Stage – We go the deploy stage when we get a runnable code from the previous tests. There is also a production stage for the end-users.

The CI/CD process can be turned into a more automated one by adding more steps. The ones mentioned above are just the primary ones. There are quite a lot of reasons why incorporating a CI/CD pipeline into a project might prove beneficial. Here are some you should know about –

Superior code quality
Accelerated release cycles
Enhanced test reliability
Cost deduction
Streamlined communication
Boosted customer satisfaction
Reduced review time and changes
Fault detection and isolation
Reduced backlog
Enhanced accountability and transparency
Improved MTTR (Mean Time To Resolution)
Frequent updates and maintenance

What is Azure DevOps?

Azure DevOps is basically an accumulation of services offered by Microsoft Azure. It offers a variety of development services that a team can use for supporting, collaborating, deploying, planning, and building applications on.

It holds a lot of benefits and here are some of them –

Azure Repos – It offers TFVC (Team Foundation Version Control) or Git repositories for source control of the code
Azure Boards – It delivers a wide range of Agile tools to facilitate tracking and planning code defects, issues, and work by using Scrum and Kanban methods
Azure Artifacts – It gives teams the chance to share NuGet, Maven, npm, and other packages from private and public sources. User is also facilitated in integrating the package sharing into the pipeline.
Pipelines – It offers release and builds services for supporting continuous integration and continuous delivery of the application
Test Plans – Offers multiple tools for testing the app such as continuous testing and exploratory/manual testing

We have been hearing quite a lot of about Azure pipeline till here. What exactly are those? Let us get to know about them a bit.

What are Azure Pipelines?

In the app development process, Azure CI/CD pipeline is all about simplifying continuous integration and continuous delivery. The Azure Repos aid in maintaining a central repository. Azure pipelines builds, releases, and maintains pipelines for the project.

The Azure DevOps CI/CD process is an integral process consisting of all necessary development services.

These Azure pipelines are used for constructing build-deploy-testing workflows that are used mainly in CT pr continuous testing. This test aids in bringing a change in a scalable and fast routine.

Automating the Deployment Pipeline in Azure DevOps

Navigate the team project on Azure DevOps in a different browser tab
Move to Pipelines
Click on New Pipeline
Select GitHub. Since the code is in Git Hub Repo, GitHub should be selected as the source hosting platform
Click on the required repo
Select ASP.NET template. This is the starting point for the pipeline
At the end of the YAML file, add a ‘Publish Build Artifact’
A new file will be saved in the repository’s roots called azure-pipe. It consists of all that is needed for building and testing a typical ASP.NET solution
Click Save and Run
Keep tracking the build till it finishes
Click on Job to see the logs

What are the Advantages of Azure Pipelines?

The Azure pipelines have often been referred to as multifactored. When talking about the Azure DevOps CI/CD practice, they offer quite a lot of advantages to the user. Here are some of them.

Version Control Systems – The primary step of building an Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline is getting the code into the version control system. This helps in managing the Subversion, Bitbucket, GitHub, and all other Git repositories. TFVC (Team Foundation Version Control) is also supported.
Pricing – Azure Pipelines is absolutely free for public projects. Yes, anyone who wishes to use it for private projects has to pay after consuming their 1800 minutes of free pipeline jobs per month. Anyway, it is still a good pricing range because of all the benefits that tag along.
Deployment Targets – The applications build with Azure CI/CD pipelines have the potential to be deployed to various target environments. The environments include on-premises platform, virtual machines, cloud platform, or containers.
Programming Languages & Application Types – Various languages can be used with Azure pipelines. Some of the top ones are PHP, C, JavaScript, C++, Go, Java, Ruby, and Python.

Choosing the Right Path

Whenever we talk about the tech world, the one thing that you should keep in your mind is to pick the right course. But along with this, you need to choose a reliable institute too.

We are living is a highly competitive world. Nothing is guaranteed. However, one can only do their best and wait for the results. Thus, you should not be shying away from doing your best too. And it all begins with the right step.

If you have already decided that the tech sector is the one for you, then we are going to help you out. Finding the right institute is crucial here and thus, we are going to give you a nudge in the direction that will yield the finest results for you.

Talking about Azure DevOps, it all begins by enrolling with an institute that is going to provide you quality training and certification. for that purpose, you should get started with Grras Solutions.

Grras Solutions is one of the top institutes in India for IT training and certifications. Whether you talk about now common courses such as digital marketing or still undercover courses such as Azure DevOps, this is the place for it all. Now is your chance to get trained under the expertise of industry professionals.

Beginning your journey with Grras Solutions is going to ensure you find success. This place has 14+ years of experience in aiding students in finding a place in the tech world. And you can be the one who benefits incredibly from their experience and expertise too. All you need to do is learn more about Azure DevOps training and certification program and enroll.

Start your tread towards success by getting started with Grras Solutions. You are going to gain a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, skill, and confidence. Great subject knowledge, incredible practical skills, and the confidence of having learnt from the best will take you to great places in life and career.

So, what are you waiting for? Begin your career now with Grras Solutions!