Exercise - Set up your Azure DevOps environment - Training

20 minutes

In this section, you make sure that your Azure DevOps organization is set up to complete the rest of this module. You also create the Azure App Service environments that you'll deploy to.

To accomplish these goals, you:

Add a user to ensure Azure DevOps can connect to your Azure subscription.
Fork the GitHub repo for this module.
Create the Azure App Service using the Azure CLI in Azure Cloud Shell.

Add a user to Azure DevOps

To complete this module, you need your own Azure subscription. You can get started with Azure for free.

You don't need an Azure subscription to work with Azure DevOps, but here you'll use Azure DevOps to deploy to Azure resources that exist in your Azure subscription. To simplify the process, use the same Microsoft account to sign in to both your Azure subscription and your Azure DevOps organization.

If you use different Microsoft accounts to sign in to Azure and Azure DevOps, add a user to your DevOps organization under the Microsoft account that you use to sign in to Azure. For more information, see Add users to your organization or project. When you add the user, choose the Basic access level.

Then sign out of Azure DevOps and sign in. Use the Microsoft account that you use to sign in to your Azure subscription.

Fork the GitHub repo

Here you fork the GitHub repo required for this project. It's a basic Java web app designed to be built and deployed as a Docker container.

Go to the Java Containers repo.
Select Fork and select an account to fork into.

Create the Azure App Service environment

Here you create the App Service resources required to deploy the Java container app.

In this module, you use the Azure CLI to spin up the Azure App Service that will host the Java container app, which includes an Azure Container Registry and an Azure Database for MySQL instance. You can access the Azure CLI from a terminal or through Visual Studio Code. Here you access the Azure CLI from Azure Cloud Shell. This browser-based shell experience is hosted in the cloud. In Cloud Shell, the Azure CLI is configured for use with your Azure subscription.

Important

You need your own Azure subscription to complete the exercises in this module.

Bring up Cloud Shell through the Azure portal

Go to the Azure portal and sign in.
From the menu, select Cloud Shell. When prompted, select the Bash experience.

Note

Cloud Shell requires an Azure storage resource to persist any files that you create in Cloud Shell. When you first open Cloud Shell, you're prompted to create a resource group, storage account, and Azure Files share. This setup is automatically used for all future Cloud Shell sessions.

Select an Azure region

A region is one or more Azure datacenters within a geographic location. East US, West US, and North Europe are examples of regions. Every Azure resource, including an App Service instance, is assigned a region.

To make commands easier to run, start by selecting a default region. After you specify the default region, later commands use that region unless you specify a different region.

From Cloud Shell, run the following az account list-locations command to list the regions that are available from your Azure subscription.
```
az account list-locations \
  --query "[].{Name: name, DisplayName: displayName}" \
  --output table
```
From the Name column in the output, choose a region that's close to you. For example, choose eastasia or westus2.
Run az configure to set your default region. Replace <REGION> with the name of the region you chose.
```
az configure --defaults location=<REGION>
```
This example sets westus2 as the default region:
```
az configure --defaults location=westus2
```

Create Bash variables

Here, create Bash variables to make the setup process more convenient and less error-prone. Using variables for shared text strings helps avoid accidental typos.

From Cloud Shell, generate a random number, which makes it easier to create globally unique names for certain services in the next step.
```
resourceSuffix=$RANDOM
```
Create globally unique names for your App Service Web App, Azure Container Registry, and Azure Database for MySQL server. These commands use double quotes, which instruct Bash to interpolate the variables using the inline syntax.
```
webName="java-container-cicd-${resourceSuffix}"
registryName="javacontainercicd${resourceSuffix}"
dbServerName="java-container-cicd-${resourceSuffix}"
```
Create two more Bash variables to store the names of your resource group and service plan.
```
rgName='java-containers-cicd-rg'
planName='java-container-cicd-asp'
```

Create the Azure resources

This solution requires several Azure resources for deployment, which you create now.

Note

For learning purposes, here you use the default network settings. These settings make your site accessible from the Internet. In practice, you could configure an Azure virtual network that places your website in a network that's not Internet routable and that only you and your team can access. Later, you could reconfigure your network to make the website available to your users.

Run the following az group create command to create a resource group using the name defined earlier.
```
az group create --name $rgName
```
Run the following az mysql server create command to create an Azure Database for MySQL server using the name defined earlier. You can change the administrator username and password shown here; just remember them for later reference.
```
az mysql server create \
  --name $dbServerName \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --admin-user sysadmin \
  --admin-password P@ssw0rd \
  --sku-name GP_Gen5_2 \
  --version 5.7
```
The deployment can take several minutes to complete.
By default, all incoming connections to the MySQL server are blocked, so it's necessary to add at least one rule for it to be accessible. Run the following az mysql server firewall-rule create command to create a firewall rule to allow services hosted in Azure (like the one you're deploying) to access the server.
```
az mysql server firewall-rule create \
  --name AllowAzureServices \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --server-name $dbServerName \
  --start-ip-address 0.0.0.0 \
  --end-ip-address 0.0.0.0
```

Run the following az acr create command to create an Azure Container Registry by using the name defined earlier.

az acr create \
  --name $registryName \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --sku Standard \
  --admin-enabled true

Run the following az appservice plan create command to create an App Service plan using the name defined earlier.
```
az appservice plan create \
  --name $planName \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --sku B1 \
  --is-linux
```
The --sku argument specifies the B1 plan. This plan runs on the Basic tier. The --is-linux argument specifies to use Linux workers.

Important

If the B1 SKU isn't available in your Azure subscription, choose a different plan, such as S1 (Standard).

Run the following az webapp create command to create the App Service instance.

az webapp create \
  --name $webName \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --plan $planName \
  --deployment-container-image-name $registryName.azurecr.io/web:latest

Run the following az webapp list command to show the host name and state of the App Service instance.

az webapp list \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --query "[].{hostName: defaultHostName, state: state}" \
  --output table

Note the host name for the running service. You'll need it later when you verify your work. Here's an example:

HostName                                        State
----------------------------------------------  -------
java-container-cicd-18116.azurewebsites.net     Running

Run the following az acr list command to list the login server of the Azure Container Registry instance. You'll need this server name when creating pipeline variables later.
```
az acr list \
  --resource-group $rgName \
  --query "[].{loginServer: loginServer}" \
  --output table
```
Note the login server. You'll need it later when you configure the pipeline. Here's an example:
```
LoginServer
---------------------------------
javacontainercicd18116.azurecr.io    
```

Important

The Clean up your Azure DevOps environment page in this module contains important cleanup steps. Cleaning up helps ensure that you're not charged for Azure resources after you complete this module. Be sure to perform the cleanup steps even if you don't complete this module.

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