L17. Azure DevOps and Developer Tools
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Azure provides a full set of developer tools for managing code, pipelines, and deployments. The AZ-900 exam tests Azure DevOps services, GitHub integration, and infrastructure-as-code tools.
Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps is a set of development services for teams to plan, develop, deliver, and operate software. Five main services:
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Azure Boards | Agile planning: work items, sprints, backlogs |
| Azure Repos | Git version control hosting (public and private) |
| Azure Pipelines | CI/CD pipelines: build, test, deploy |
| Azure Test Plans | Manual and automated testing |
| Azure Artifacts | Package management: NuGet, npm, Maven feeds |
GitHub and GitHub Actions
GitHub is now owned by Microsoft. GitHub Actions provides CI/CD workflows directly in GitHub repositories.
- GitHub Actions: event-driven workflows for build, test, and deploy; tight integration with Azure
- GitHub Copilot: AI-powered code completion tool
- GitHub Advanced Security: code scanning, secret scanning, dependency review
Azure DevTest Labs
Azure DevTest Labs lets developers quickly create environments with pre-approved configurations and manage costs by automatically shutting down VMs. Use when: providing development and test environments to teams while controlling costs.
Infrastructure as Code
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates: JSON-based templates for declaring Azure resources. Idempotent: applying the same template multiple times produces the same result. Bicep: a domain-specific language that compiles to ARM JSON. Cleaner syntax, better readability than raw ARM JSON. Both are natively supported by Azure. Terraform: open-source IaC tool by HashiCorp that supports Azure (and other clouds) via the AzureRM provider. Multi-cloud.Azure Cloud Shell
Azure Cloud Shell is a browser-accessible, authenticated shell environment (Bash or PowerShell) with Azure tools pre-installed.
Key tools available in Cloud Shell: Azure CLI (az), Azure PowerShell (Az module), Terraform, kubectl, git, and more.
Exam tip: Azure Pipelines is the CI/CD service in Azure DevOps. GitHub Actions is CI/CD integrated directly with GitHub. Bicep and ARM templates are both IaC tools for Azure resources.
- ✓Azure DevOps includes Boards (planning), Repos (code), Pipelines (CI/CD), Test Plans, and Artifacts (packages)
- ✓GitHub Actions provides CI/CD directly in GitHub repositories with deep Azure integration
- ✓ARM templates are JSON-based IaC for Azure; Bicep is a cleaner DSL that compiles to ARM JSON
- ✓Azure DevTest Labs creates cost-controlled developer/test environments with auto-shutdown
- ✓Azure Cloud Shell is a browser-based authenticated shell with Azure tools pre-installed
1. A team wants to automate the build and deployment of a web application to Azure App Service whenever code is pushed to a GitHub repository. Which service should they use?
2. Which infrastructure-as-code language is native to Azure and provides a cleaner syntax than ARM JSON while compiling down to ARM templates?
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