on Azure in repo's script of CI/CD what is the best practices to use the code: JSON or PowerShell or CLI ?

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on Azure in repo's script of CI/CD what is the best practices to use the code: JSON or PowerShell or CLI ?

Michael P 41

which code from above is the best and professional way to use ?

Thank you.

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Answer 1

Michael Taylor 60,326

Can you be more specific in your ask. I don't know what you mean by "repo's script of CI/CD", "use code" and "JSON , PowerShell, CLI"?

Are you asking about how you should store your CI/CD scripts? If so then it is up to you. If you're using a CI/CD tool like Azure DevOps then they will basically tell you how to do it. For Azure DevOps you'll likely be using YAML as a file in your solution.

If you're using Visual Studio's publish feature then when you set up publishing it'll ask you for info and then store that in files in a publishing folder of your app that would also be in source control.

If you're sticking solely with Azure and trying to CI/CD from it then I don't think it needs anything other than your repo and it'll figure things out from there. Any configuration would have in Azure Portal.

Michael P 41 Reputation points

2022-03-08T16:03:25.797+00:00

for example: I need to create bunch of VMs or AKSs by CI/CD, so in repo I can setup the script to create them, that is why I am asking , for the best practices which language to use professionally: JSON, PowerShell, or CLI

I have some doubts about PowerShell: some time ago all commands in PowerShell was starting with azure, then Azure made the modification and now all commands in PoweShell start with az, meaning all scrips need to be changed or thy will not work
Mohammad, Jafar Z 31 Reputation points

2022-03-08T16:36:03.687+00:00

use terraform. thats widely used.
Michael P 41 Reputation points

2022-03-08T16:51:25.913+00:00

I used CLI, but not sure if it is best and professional way
Mohammad, Jafar Z 31 Reputation points

2022-03-08T17:14:33.517+00:00

explore terraform, its json based config files for infrastructure deployment. kind of an industry standard.
Michael Taylor 60,326 Reputation points

2022-03-08T17:43:40.327+00:00

There are no "best practices", it depends upon your needs. It sounds like you're looking into Infrastructure as Code so you can focus on those tools. It ultimately depends upon what your deployment toolset is. YAML is pretty standard for defining the configurations but deploying can be different. If you're using Azure DevOps for example then you could use its task library to do your configuration and it would store that in YAML.

But if your deployments are complex then a more IaC solution might be better and there are a lot of them. For example Pulumi is one such source. Ultimately they are going to end up doing the same thing so you should look at different solutions to see which one fits your needs best.

Note that irrelevant of the tooling you use (or format) then ultimately you'll likely run into things that you need to customize. That is where Powershell will come in. Even in our heavily YAML-based deployments we have lots of custom PS scripts that handle the specifics of our needs. It is pretty much inevitable. At that point if you need to do Azure stuff then you'll be using the Azure commands. That is perfectly fine. So it really isn't a decision of YAML vs Powershell vs Azure CLI but rather the software you want to use for your configuration in combination with Powershell and Azure commands to customize the deployment.
Michael P 41 Reputation points

2022-03-08T18:03:56.84+00:00

yes, I will use my code as IaC, like in the examples I used (to build the VMs or AKSs) or any other builds, so azure CLI can be used if it can accomplish all my needs, right ?
Michael Taylor 60,326 Reputation points

2022-03-08T18:11:04.97+00:00

Personally I would just use regular Powershell and not worry about Azure CLI. Honestly I don't see the benefit if you're running on Windows and are comfortable with PS. Here's a comparison page from MS about the differences. My goal is to work with what is already on the build server when possible.

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on Azure in repo's script of CI/CD what is the best practices to use the code: JSON or PowerShell or CLI ?

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