Azure DevOps Course: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with BICEP

Azure DevOps is a leading automation and DevOps platform and the students will be taken through the following:

• An in-depth introduction to Infrastructure as Code with the Azure DevOps platform.

• A definition of DevOps and how Azure as a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform facilitates the practice of the DevOps methodology.

• An Introduction to YAML pipelines on the Azure DevOps platform.

• An Introduction to BICEP and ARM templates for developing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) on the Azure DevOps Platform.

• An Overview of Industry DevOps Tools.

Git is an industry-leading distributed version  control system and is a very critical component of Azure DevOps therefore students will be taken through a Git Crash Course that covers the following basic aspects:

• The creation of a local Git Repository.

• Learn how to stage and commit single and multiple files.

• Branching management with Git including Merging.

• Git with Bash and Visual Studio Code.

• Learn how to time travel and undo changes.

Students may find it necessary to learn about how to set up Azure DevOps Pipeline Agents as a Self-Hosted Azure DevOps agent for running CI / CD  pipelines, perhaps the situation could be cost-saving in a work environment or  a cost-effective personal environment, and therefore the students will learn the following:

• Set up Billing for Microsoft and Self Hosted pipeline agents.

• Installation and Set Up for Self Hosted Pipeline agents.

• Setting up a Personal Access Token.

• Configuration of a Self-Hosted Agent.

YAML is a leading configuration management technology for developing CI / CD pipelines, perhaps the best way to learn how to write YAML pipelines is for the student to be taken through how to provision infrastructure with YAML, Powershell, and BICEP. The initial focus will be the provisioning of the resource group and there and therefore the students will learn the following:

• How to Create an Azure Service Connection.

• Cloning an Azure DevOps Repository.

• Writing PowerShell Script to Provision a Resource Group.

• How to Add Stages, Jobs, and Steps in a YAML Pipeline Template.

• Running the YAML pipeline on Azure DevOps.

• How to develop Azure Variables Group and pass them into YAML templates.

• How to override BICEP parameters using YAML.

One aspect of professionalism in coding is how projects are structured for coding efficiency and ease of management, the other aspect is the naming convention of resources. The course will take students on the following:

• Creating Project Structures for a DevOps and BICEP project using Bash and Git.

• Establish a standard naming convention for resources using BICEP and PowerShell.

The heart of provisioning and deploying infrastructure in Azure is the adoption of BICEP, and students will learn the following in terms of developing BICEP professionally.

• Development of a BICEP template to provision Log Analytics and Data Factory.

• How to add Input Parameters to a BICEP template.

• How to create BICEP Modules for Log Analytics and Data Factory.

• How to add Tagging Information to BICEP modules.

• How to structure a naming convention with BICEP.

• How to use run time and compile time variables and parameters.

• How to write a PowerShell Script to Transpile BICEP to an ARM template.

• How to Manage Dependencies between Resources with BICEP.

• How to manage BICEP template errors.