Azure DevOps Pipeline

The pipeline will automate provisioning and updating the core infrastructure in Azure. This page assumes you have already completed the steps on the core infrastructure page.

The Azure infrastructure source code can be found here.

Pipeline Diagram

Feature branch -> Non-Prod sequence

Main branch -> Prod sequence

Setting up Azure DevOps

Variable groups

Variable groups will need creating for storing Azure Credentials to be used with the pipeline. Instructions for creating a variable group can be found here.

Create a variable group called azure-sp-creds, add a description and make sure the Allow access to all pipelines option is checked. Add the following variables using the Service Connection details from bootstrapping the Azure tenant:

Add the following variables:

Variable Name	Description	Required for
ARM_CLIENT_ID	Azure Service Principal Client ID	Terraform and Helm deployments
ARM_CLIENT_SECRET	Azure Service Principal Client Secret	Terraform and Helm deployments
ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID	Azure Subscription ID	Terraform and Helm deployments
ARM_TENANT_ID	Azure Tenant ID	Terraform and Helm deployments

Update pipeline template placeholders

Where possible, the Stacks CLI will have populated the correct values in the pipeline template file build/azDevOps/azure/pipeline-vars.yml. We very much recommend that you go through the whole template to make sure that values are correct for your project. Once you are happy with the template, commit the changes to your repository.

Create the pipeline

Follow the steps below to create the pipeline and trigger the initial run.

Please note that pipeline will create DNS zones for both nonprod and prod (by default, nonprod.${BASE_DOMAIN} and prod.${BASE_DOMAIN}). These will need NS records adding to the base domain and will cause the pipeline to fail on the initial run.

1. In the pipelines section of Azure DevOps, select New Pipeline.
2. Select your repository.
3. Select the Existing Azure Pipelines YAML files option and enter the path build/azDevops/azure/infra-pipeline.yml
4. Click run and wait for the pipeline to run. The Terraform: Apply step is expected to fail with an error containing: One or more domains had a problem.
5. In the Azure Portal, located the DNS zone created and make note of the NS values.
6. Add an NS record set to the base domain DNS using the same name as the newly created DNS zone and the NS values noted.
7. Re-run the pipeline in Azure DevOps.
8. Repeat steps 5, 6 & 7 for the prod DNS zone.