Azure DevOps Automation

Skill: Azure DevOps Automation

CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and deployment automation for Azure workloads.

Metadata

Overview

DevOps automation bridges development and operations, enabling rapid, reliable deployments. This skill covers Azure DevOps Services, GitHub Actions, and infrastructure as code patterns.

Core Principles

Module 1: CI/CD Pipeline Fundamentals

Pipeline Anatomy

# Azure DevOps YAML Pipeline
trigger:
  branches:
    include:
      - main
      - release/*

stages:
  - stage: Build
    jobs:
      - job: BuildJob
        steps:
          - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
            inputs:
              command: 'build'
              
  - stage: Test
    dependsOn: Build
    jobs:
      - job: TestJob
        steps:
          - task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
            inputs:
              command: 'test'
              
  - stage: Deploy
    dependsOn: Test
    condition: succeeded()
    jobs:
      - deployment: DeployToDev
        environment: 'dev'

Key Concepts

Trigger Types

Module 2: GitHub Actions

Workflow Structure

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Setup Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
        
      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test
        
      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

Useful Actions

Secrets and Variables

env:
  AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME: my-app
  
steps:
  - name: Deploy to Azure
    uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v2
    with:
      app-name: ${{ env.AZURE_WEBAPP_NAME }}
      publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZURE_WEBAPP_PUBLISH_PROFILE }}

Module 3: Infrastructure as Code

Bicep Fundamentals

// main.bicep
targetScope = 'resourceGroup'

@description('The environment name')
@allowed(['dev', 'staging', 'prod'])
param environment string

@description('The Azure region')
param location string = resourceGroup().location

var appServicePlanName = 'asp-${environment}'
var webAppName = 'app-${environment}-${uniqueString(resourceGroup().id)}'

resource appServicePlan 'Microsoft.Web/serverfarms@2023-01-01' = {
  name: appServicePlanName
  location: location
  sku: {
    name: environment == 'prod' ? 'P1v3' : 'B1'
  }
}

resource webApp 'Microsoft.Web/sites@2023-01-01' = {
  name: webAppName
  location: location
  properties: {
    serverFarmId: appServicePlan.id
    httpsOnly: true
  }
}

output webAppUrl string = 'https://${webApp.properties.defaultHostName}'

Bicep Best Practices

Deployment Command

# What-if preview
az deployment group what-if `
  --resource-group rg-myapp-dev `
  --template-file main.bicep `
  --parameters environment=dev

# Actual deployment
az deployment group create `
  --resource-group rg-myapp-dev `
  --template-file main.bicep `
  --parameters environment=dev

Module 4: Environment Strategy

Environment Progression

Dev → Staging → Production
 ↓       ↓          ↓
Auto   Manual    Approval
Deploy  Deploy    Required

Azure DevOps Environments

# With approval gates
- stage: DeployProd
  jobs:
    - deployment: DeployProduction
      environment: 'production'  # Configured with approvers
      strategy:
        runOnce:
          deploy:
            steps:
              - script: echo Deploying to production

Feature Flags

Decouple deployment from release:

// Azure App Configuration feature flags
if (await _featureManager.IsEnabledAsync("NewFeature"))
{
    // New code path
}
else
{
    // Existing behavior
}

Module 5: Testing in Pipelines

Test Pyramid

        /   E2E   \      (Few, slow, expensive)
       /───────────\
      /  Integration \   (Some, medium speed)
     /─────────────────\
    /     Unit Tests    \  (Many, fast, cheap)
   /─────────────────────\

Test Tasks

# .NET test with coverage
- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: 'test'
    arguments: '--collect:"XPlat Code Coverage"'
    
- task: PublishCodeCoverageResults@1
  inputs:
    codeCoverageTool: 'Cobertura'
    summaryFileLocation: '$(Agent.TempDirectory)/**/coverage.cobertura.xml'

Quality Gates

Module 6: Secrets and Security

Secret Management

Key Vault Integration

# Azure DevOps
- task: AzureKeyVault@2
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: 'Production'
    KeyVaultName: 'kv-myapp-prod'
    SecretsFilter: 'DatabaseConnectionString,ApiKey'

- script: |
    echo "Using secret from Key Vault"
    # Secret available as $(DatabaseConnectionString)

Security Scanning

# GitHub CodeQL
- name: Initialize CodeQL
  uses: github/codeql-action/init@v2
  with:
    languages: csharp, javascript

- name: Perform CodeQL Analysis
  uses: github/codeql-action/analyze@v2

Module 7: Monitoring and Rollback

Deployment Monitoring

# Health check after deployment
- script: |
    for i in {1..30}; do
      response=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://myapp.azurewebsites.net/health)
      if [ "$response" = "200" ]; then
        echo "Health check passed"
        exit 0
      fi
      sleep 10
    done
    echo "Health check failed"
    exit 1

Rollback Strategies

Blue-Green Deployment

# Deploy to staging slot
- task: AzureWebApp@1
  inputs:
    appName: 'my-app'
    slotName: 'staging'
    
# Swap slots after validation
- task: AzureAppServiceManage@0
  inputs:
    Action: 'Swap Slots'
    SourceSlot: 'staging'

Quick Reference

Pipeline Checklist

• Triggers configured (push, PR, schedule)
• Build artifacts created
• Unit tests run with coverage
• Integration tests included
• Security scanning enabled
• Environment approvals configured
• Secrets in Key Vault (not pipeline)
• Health checks post-deployment
• Rollback plan documented

Common Commands

# Azure CLI
az login
az account set --subscription "Production"
az deployment group create --resource-group rg --template-file main.bicep

# Azure DevOps CLI
az pipelines run --name "CI-Pipeline" --branch main
az pipelines build list --top 5

# GitHub CLI
gh workflow run ci.yml
gh run list --limit 5

Troubleshooting

Activation Patterns

Skill created: 2026-02-10 | Category: Cloud/Infrastructure | Status: Active