Mastering Infrastructure as Code

Introduction to GitOps

GitOps is a way of implementing continuous deployment for cloud native applications. It focuses on a developer-centric experience when operating infrastructure, by using tools developers are already familiar with, including Git and Continuous Deployment tools.

• What is GitOps?
• Why should you use GitOps?
• How does GitOps work?
• GitOps Services and Tooling: Git(Hub), Azure DevOps, Kubernetes, Terraform, Flux, ...

Azure Resource Manager Templates

To implement infrastructure as code for your Azure resources, ARM templates can be used. The template is a JSON file that defines the infrastructure and configuration for your project using a declarative syntax.

• Infrastructure as Code
• Authoring ARM Templates
• Parameters, Variables, Resources, Output
• Nested Templates
• Validating ARM Templates: Test Toolkit, Pester
• LAB: Deploy Azure Resource with ARM Templates

Terraform

Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code tool that allows you to manage many different cloud services. It uses a simplified syntax which allows for concise descriptions of your resources.

• Terraform Features
• Configuration and Providers
• Variables, Resources, Secrets
• Terraform State
• LAB: Deploy Azure Resources with Terraform

The Bicep Language

Bicep is a transparent abstraction over ARM template JSON that significantly reduces the complexity of your templates. During deployment, the Bicep CLI converts a Bicep file into an ARM template.

• Benefits of Bicep Versus Other Tools
• Install Bicep Tools
• Author Resources
• Parameters, Variables, Outputs
• Validate Files with Bicep Linter
• Migrate from ARM Templates to Bicep
• LAB: Deploy Azure Resources with Bicep

Desired State Configuration (DSC)

Automate the configuration of your VMs.

• Benefits of Desired State Configuration
• DSC Components: Configuration, Resources, Compilation
• Enact Your Configuration: Push or Pull mode
• Using Azure Automation for DSC
• LAB: Configure a Virtual Machine with PowerShell DSC

Using Git

Sources are probably the most important part in any software project and we need a way to keep track of all sources and all changes. Here you will learn to use Git to store the assets, such as templates (ARM, Terraform, ...), needed to deploy your infrastructure.

• Version Control concepts
• Distributed Source Control with Git
• Creating a local repository
• Cloning a remote repository
• Staging files
• Committing files
• Branching Strategies
• Using Forks
• Merge vs. Rebase
• Synchronizing with a remote repository
• Pull Requests
• LAB: Working with Git

Continuous Integration

To build quality software, and to limit nasty integration problems at the end of the project, doing a daily integration build is long regarded as a best practice. You'll learn how to manage the build, and how you can setup a continuous integration environment. You'll then learn how to customize the build process to perform all your build steps including running tests, creating custom build actions, generating setup programs and deploying to staging servers.

• What is GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps pipelines?
• Doing Continuous integration
• Understanding YAML
• Triggering workflows
• What are jobs and steps?
• Using variables
• Defining and using secrets
• Integrating with Azure using Service Principals
• LAB: Setting up a build definition to build and test your deployment target
• LAB: Using CI to deploy a SQL Server database using ARM templates

Continuous Deployment

With continuous deployment you can automatically setup a machine in a consistent state, whenever you want. Not only can you deploy your application, but you can also setup your infrastructure.

• Release management and Continuous Deployment
• Deploying Artifacts
• Caching Dependencies
• Using environments during deployment
• LAB: Deploying a web site to an Azure WebApp
• LAB: Deploying a virtual machine using Terraform
• LAB: CI/CD using Bicep to manage infrastructure in Azure

GitHub Workflow Runners and Azure DevOps Agents

With GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps pipelines someone needs to do the work of building and deploying code and infrastructure. These are known as agents/runners. Here we will look at these and how to setup your own.

• Running on DevOps Agents and GitHub Runners
• Using DevOps hosted agents and GitHub hosted runners
• Setting up a Windows hosted runner