Nov 1, 2019Meta-pipelines — Part 5 — Automating the Host EnvironmentLooking back at the previous parts of this series, we have been able to manually setup two hosts, a Windows one and a Linux one, and a simple pipeline to automatically deploy new Azure DevOps/TFS Agents in Docker containers on such hosts and even update them. In this post we…Dev Ops7 min readDev Ops7 min read
Oct 11, 2019Meta-pipelines — Part 2 — Dockerize the agentIn the previous instalment we setup a couple of machines to run Docker and host docker containers. In this post, we will explore the structure of a Dockerfile for Azure Pipelines/TFS Agent. There is a notable difference between Azure DevOps Service and Server in terms of handling agent updates. …Docker9 min readDocker9 min read
Oct 4, 2019Meta-pipelines — Part 1 — Docker HostsThe first step will be to setup an environment where we can run Docker and is the topic for this instalment. We need at least two kinds of hosts: a Windows and a Linux machines. Simple reason: you cannot run Windows containers on a Linux host, also running Linux containers…Docker5 min readDocker5 min read
Sep 27, 2019Meta-pipelines — IntroductionWelcome. This series of articles will go in details of automating Azure Pipelines infrastructure itself. Publishing happens on early Friday morning (Europe time). The text is accompanied by a source code repository publicly available on GitHub. Scenario and Problems Imagine yourself in the scenario of an independent team responsible of maintaining its own…Docker3 min readDocker3 min read
Sep 24, 2019Using GitVersion in GitHub Actions betaI was lucky to enter the GitHub Actions beta program so I wondered about the best way to test it. Finally, I decided to port Aggregator CLI build scripts to GitHub Actions. A critical step of those scripts is to run GitVersion to generate the version for Aggregator. GitVersion, in…Github Actions4 min readGithub Actions4 min read
Sep 13, 2019Meta-pipelines — Part 4 — Deploy and RunIn the previous instalment we built custom Docker images for Azure Pipelines/TFS Agents. In this post, we will explore the lifecycle of Docker containers running such images. Container Deploy Pipeline This pipeline is more complex than the previous requiring 4 actions: checking if the agent (rectius the container running the agent) is running …Docker5 min readDocker5 min read
Sep 9, 2019Build once, deploy everywhere — part 2In the previous instalment we saw that embedding configuration data in code is a bad practice that heavily impacts testing and operation practices. In this second part, we will see an example how to properly manage configuration data in a Single Page Application talking to a backend API. A solution In a…Dev Ops3 min readDev Ops3 min read
Sep 6, 2019Build once, deploy everywhere — part 1In the DevOps community, there is common agreement on avoiding environment-specific builds. One aims to build the deployment package once, for any environment, and set configuration data at deploy time. …Dev Ops5 min readDev Ops5 min read
Sep 6, 2019Meta-pipelines — Part 3 — Build and RegistryIn the previous instalments we examined a possible Dockerfile for an Azure Pipelines/TFS Agent. In this post, we will explore the pipeline that can automatically build such custom agent images. Docker Registry To automate properly we need a Docker Registry where storing the Docker images we build. …Docker3 min readDocker3 min read
