Chapter 11: Real-World CI/CD Scenarios with Azure DevOps

In this chapter, we'll show you some sample projects where the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) processes are handled by using Azure DevOps. We'll be taking sample applications and setting up a CI/CD pipeline using Azure DevOps for managing the software development, deployment, and upgrade life cycle.

We'll be covering the following topics in this chapter:

• Setting up a CI/CD pipeline for .NET-based applications
• Setting up a CI/CD pipeline for a container-based infrastructure
• Azure Architecture Center for DevOps

Technical requirements

To follow along with this chapter, you need to have an active Azure DevOps organization and an Azure subscription.

You can sign up for a test Azure DevOps organization at https://dev.azure.com. You can get a trial for an Azure subscription at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/free/ if you do not have one already.

The code for this chapter is available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Learning-Azure-DevOps---B16392/tree/master/Chapter11.

Setting up a CI/CD pipeline for .NET-based applications

A typical .NET-based application includes applications developed using Microsoft's .NET Framework and uses a SQL database in the backend. You may have multiple layers of applications, such as a frontend, backend (also known as the middle tier or API tier), and data tier (SQL Server).

Azure Pipelines, which is part of Azure DevOps, provides a comprehensive solution to build, deploy, and manage your .NET-based infrastructure deployments. In this section, we'll look at the steps to configure CI/CD for a sample .NET-based application.

We will be creating two environments, named staging and production, for the application and setup of a CI/CD pipeline.

Introduction to the sample application

We'll be using a simple ToDo application for this walkthrough. It's a web-based application that uses a SQL database in the backend.

It is built using Microsoft ASP.NET, targeted for .NET Framework version 4...

Setting up a CI/CD pipeline for a container-based application

In this example, we'll take a container-based application and build an end-to-end CI/CD pipeline. We'll take a Python and Redis-based sample application for the purpose of this demonstration.

In this example, we'll be using various Azure resources in the overall solution architecture. This includes the following:

• Azure DevOps: CI/CD pipeline
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): For hosting the containers
• Azure Container Registry (ACR): Container image storage and management

Introduction to the sample app

In this section, we'll be using a sample application called Azure Voting App. It is a standard multi-container-based application that uses the following components:

• The Azure Voting App backend: This will be running on Redis.
• The Azure Voting App frontend: Web application built with Python.

You can review the application code here: https://github.com/Azure...

Azure Architecture Center for DevOps

Azure Architecture Center is a centralized place to take guidance for architecting solutions on Azure using established patterns and practices. There are several sample architectures available around DevOps.

You can access Azure Architecture Center here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/.

Refer to the following links to learn more about planning the right architecture for DevOps across various infrastructure and application scenarios:

• Azure DevOps: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/example-scenario/apps/devops-dotnet-webapp
• DevOps with containers: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/example-scenario/apps/devops-with-aks
• Microservices with AKS and Azure DevOps: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/solution-ideas/articles/microservices-with-aks
• Secure DevOps for AKS: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/solution-ideas/articles/secure-devops...

Summary

In this chapter, we looked at a .NET and SQL-based application and set up a CI/CD pipeline for it using Azure DevOps. We looked at how you manage your production and staging environments through approval workflows.

Similarly, we also looked at a container-based application and did a walkthrough of setting up an end-to-end CI/CD pipeline for the application using ACR and AKS.

In the end, we talked about Azure Architecture Center, which can be referred to while planning your DevOps architecture.

This was the final chapter, and we hope you have enjoyed reading this book!