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In Cloud, DevOps is the new trend and it is very popular in the industry. And, Azure is the leader in this sector along with the cloud industry. So, in today’s article, we will discuss Azure DevOps. So, let us begin.
About Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps enables teams to organize work, collaborate on code development, and build and deploy apps using developer services. It promotes a collaborative culture and set of practices for developing software by bringing together developers, project managers, and contributors. It enables businesses to create and enhance products more quickly than they could with traditional software development methods.
You can use Azure DevOps Services in the cloud or Azure DevOps Server on-premises.
- Azure DevOps has built-in functionality that you may access via a web browser or an IDE client. Depending on your business needs, you can use one or more of the following stand-alone services
- For source management of your code, Azure Repos offers Git repositories or Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC).
- Build and release services are provided by Azure Pipelines to assist continuous integration and delivery of your apps.
- Using Kanban and Scrum methodologies, Azure Boards provides a set of Agile tools for planning and tracking work, code bugs, and issues.
- Manual/exploratory testing and continuous testing are among the options available in Azure Test Plans for testing your apps.
- Azure Artifacts allows teams to share packages from public and private sources, including Maven, npm, NuGet, and more, and incorporate package sharing into their pipelines.
You can also utilize the collaboration tools listed below:
- Team dashboards that may be customized with configurable widgets to share data, progress, and trends
- Wikis built-in for information sharing
- Notifications that can be customized
- Add extensions and integrate with other popular services like Campfire, Slack, Trello, UserVoice, and more, as well as construct your custom extensions, with Azure DevOps.
- GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server repositories are supported by Azure DevOps Services. GitHub Enterprise Server repositories are supported by Azure DevOps Server.
What year did Azure DevOps debut?
Despite its October 2018 launch, Azure DevOps isn’t a newcomer to the DevOps scene. It may be traced back to the 2006 debut of the Visual Studio Team System. Microsoft has around 80,000 internal users who use this mature product with a wide feature set.
Choosing Azure DevOps Services
Choose Azure DevOps Services if you wish to achieve the following results:
- Setup time is minimal.
- An operation that requires no maintenance
- Collaboration across domains is simple.
- Scale of elasticity
- Exceptional safety
You can also use Azure DevOps Services to access cloud build and deployment servers, as well as application insights. You can use all of Azure DevOps’ services or just the ones you need to supplement your existing workflows.
Choosing Azure DevOps Server
When you need an on-premises Azure DevOps Server, go with Azure DevOps Server. Your data must remain within your network.
The on-premises XML process model meets your work tracking customisation needs better than the inherited process model. Modification of XML definition files is supported in the on-premises model.
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You can additionally configure the following servers or integration points when you deploy Azure DevOps Server:
- On-premises and cloud-hosted builds are supported by the build server.
- SQL Server Reports and the ability to build Excel pivot charts based on the cube are supported by SQL Server and SQL Analysis Server.
- Download Azure DevOps Server Express for free to get started. After that, either distribute or source control your code. Alternatively, start tracking your work with Scrum, Kanban, or a combination of the two.
What does Azure DevOps have to Offer?
Azure DevOps is a collection of services that cover the entire development lifecycle. These are the ones that exist at the time of writing:
Azure Board is a solution for agile planning, task tracking, visualization, and reporting.
Azure Pipelines is a CI/CD platform that supports containers and Kubernetes and is language, platform, and cloud-neutral.
Azure Repos: Azure Repos hosts private git repositories in the cloud.
Azure Artifacts: enables integrated package management for Maven, npm, Python and NuGet package feeds from public and private sources.
Azure Test Plans: An integrated planned and exploratory testing solution is provided by Azure Test Plans.
Third-party technologies can also be orchestrated using Azure DevOps.
What are Azure Boards?
Software development teams can use Azure Boards to manage their software projects with interactive and configurable tools.
It includes native support for Agile, Scrum, and Kanban processes, calendar views, customisable dashboards, and integrated reporting, among other features. These tools will grow with your company, Track work, bugs, and code defects for your project quickly and efficiently.
The Kanban board, as seen in the image below, is one of the various tools for adding, updating, and filtering user stories, problems, features, and epics.
What is Azure Repos?
Azure Repos is a collection of version control tools for managing your code. Using version control as soon as feasible is a smart idea for every software project, big or small.
Version control systems are pieces of software that allow you to keep track of changes to your code over time. You tell the version control system to take a snapshot of your files as you edit them.
The version control system keeps that snapshot indefinitely so you may go back to it if necessary.
To save your work and manage code changes across your team, use version control. Even if you’re only a single developer, version control makes it easier to keep organized while fixing bugs and adding new features. Version control preserves your development history, allowing you to easily review and roll back to any version of your code.
What is the Azure Pipeline?
Azure Pipelines develops and tests code projects automatically before making them available to others. It can be used with almost any language or project type.
To test and build your code and ship it to any target, Azure Pipelines integrates continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). Continuous Integration (CI) is a development process that automates the merging and testing of code.
Code is produced, tested, and deployed to one or more test and production environments using the Continuous Delivery (CD) method. Continuous Testing (CT) is the use of automated build-deploy-test workflows, with a variety of tools and frameworks, to test your changes continuously in a quick, scalable, and efficient manner, whether on-premises or in the cloud.
What are Azure Test Plans?
Azure Test Plans provide a set of sophisticated and powerful tools that can be used by everyone in the team to improve quality and collaboration throughout the development process.
The browser-based test management solution is simple to use and includes all of the features needed for manual testing, user acceptability testing, exploratory testing, and obtaining input from stakeholders.
What are Azure Artifacts?
Azure Artifacts allows developers to easily exchange code and manage all of their packages in one place. Developers can publish packages to their feeds and share them within their teams, across organizations, and even publicly using Azure Artifacts.
Developers can also use NuGet.org or npmjs.com to download packages from various feeds and public registries.
NuGet, npm, Python, Maven, and Universal Packages are among the package types supported by Azure Artifacts.
What about the CI/CD tools which I already have?
One of our favorite features of Azure DevOps is how adaptable it is. It’s expandable (through a Marketplace) and adaptable enough to work with your current tools.
You can use Azure Resource Manager for infrastructure as code, for example, but you can also utilize third-party tools like Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and Terraform to provide and manage Azure infrastructure.
What if the company isn’t a Microsoft or .Net shop?
Azure DevOps is not designed for organizations that use Microsoft or Windows end-to-end.
It is a platform that allows you to:
- You don’t have to go all-in on Azure DevOps if you don’t want to.
- Each of the services can be used independently and integrated into your existing toolchain; the majority of popular tools are supported. Platform agnostic: built to run on any platform (Linux, macOS, and Windows) and in any language (including Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, C/C++,.Net, Android, and iOS apps).
- Azure DevOps isn’t just for companies that produce and deploy software. Code for the internet.
- Continuous delivery is supported on AWS, GCP, and Azure, and is cloud-agnostic.
Building DevOps Practices with Tools and Services
1. GitHub
With enhanced features, you can improve collaboration, automate your code-to-cloud procedures, and assist safeguard your code.
2. Azure Pipelines
Use CI/CD to develop, test, and deploy to any platform or cloud continuously.
3. Azure Boards
Kanban boards, backlogs, team dashboards, and custom reporting can help you plan, track, and discuss work across your teams.
4. Azure Monitor
Observe your applications, infrastructure, and network in real-time.
5. Visual Studio
Observe your applications, infrastructure, and network in real-time.
6. Azure Kubernetes Service
Using a fully-managed Kubernetes service, you can ship containerized apps faster and operate them more easily.
DevOps Solution Architectures
1. CI/CD for Azure Virtual Machines
Azure is a world-class cloud for hosting Windows and Linux virtual machines. Whether you develop applications in ASP.NET, Java, Node.js, or PHP, you’ll need a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline to automatically push changes to these virtual machines.
2. Java CI/CD using Jenkins and Azure Web Apps
Azure App Service is a quick and easy method to build online apps in Java, Node.js, PHP, or ASP.NET, with Docker support for custom language runtimes. Use Azure App Service with a CI/CD pipeline to automatically push each of your changes to Azure App Service, allowing you to quickly deliver value to your customers.
3. DevOps for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Azure App Service is a quick and easy method to build online apps in Java, Node.js, PHP, or ASP.NET, with Docker support for custom language runtimes. Use Azure App Service with a CI/CD pipeline to automatically push each of your changes to Azure App Service, allowing you to quickly deliver value to your customers.
Azure DevOps Pricing
Azure DevOps Services For Individual Services
| Azure Pipeline | Azure Artifacts |
| 1 Free Microsoft-hosted CI/CD | 2 GiB free, |
| 1 Free Self-Hosted CI/CD | Then starting at $2 per GiB |
| 1 Microsoft-hosted CI/CD job with 1,800 monthly minutes and 1 self-hosted job with unlimited monthly minutes | NuGet Server support for Maven, npm, and Python packages is unrivaled in the industry.
Upstream sources can assist in the protection of open-source dependencies. Azure Pipelines is integrated. Sophisticated access controls |
| Extra Microsoft-hosted CI/CD parallel jobs cost $40, while self-hosted CI/CD parallel jobs cost $15 for infinite minutes. | – |
Azure DevOps Services For User Licenses
| Basic Plans | Basic + Test Plans |
| The First 5 users are free,
then $6 per user per month |
$52 per user
per month |
| Individual Services’ free offer is included in Azure Pipelines.
Work item tracking and Kanban boards are available on Azure Boards. Azure Repos: Create an unlimited number of private Git repositories. Azure Artifacts: Each organization gets 2 GB of free storage. |
All of the features of the Basic plan are included.
Planning, tracking, and executing tests Annotated testing in the browser Execution of rich-client tests Acceptance testing for users Reporting that is centralized |
Rate Card
| 0 – 2 GiB | Free |
| 2 – 10 GiB | $2 per GiB |
| 10 – 100 GiB | $1 per GiB |
| 100 – 1000 GiB | $0.50 per GiB |
| 1000 GiB + | $0.25 per GiB |
Azure DevOps Server 2019 licensing
You can pay for Azure DevOps Server 2019 on a month-to-month basis through Azure or purchase traditional software licenses, which need a three-year commitment.
When you buy through Azure, you get the added benefit of being able to use our cloud service, allowing you to go to the cloud at your speed. For the servers running Azure DevOps Server 2019, you’ll need Windows or Windows Server licenses in either case.
Benefits of Azure DevOps
1. Reliability
Azure DevOps is a stable, scalable, and globally available SaaS product. It also comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and round-the-clock assistance.
2. Accessing Latest Features
Every three weeks, Azure DevOps users have access to new features. Microsoft is open and transparent, with a public product roadmap and a commitment to iterating on the feature set quickly.
3. Termination of Upgrade Cycle
Upgrades are a common annoyance for organizations using on-premises CI/CD tools. You won’t have to worry about patching and upgrading the toolchain if you go to a SaaS model.
Conclusion
Azure DevOps is a sophisticated platform with a lot of features. It is a feasible alternative for a wide range of organizations.
Due to the versatility of supported languages, platforms, and cloud vendors.
If you’re currently using an on-premises Team Foundation Server, however, migrating to Azure DevOps is a sensible next step.