Extend a pipeline to use multiple templates

In this lab, explore the importance of extending a pipeline to multiple templates and how to do it using Azure DevOps. This lab covers fundamental concepts and best practices for creating a multi-stage pipeline, creating a variables template, creating a job template, and creating a stage template.

These exercises take approximately 20 minutes.

Before you start

You’ll need an Azure subscription, Azure DevOps organization, and the eShopOnWeb application to follow the labs.

• Follow the steps to validate your lab environment.

Instructions

Exercise 1: Create a multi-stage YAML pipeline

In this exercise, you will create a multi-stage YAML pipeline in Azure DevOps.

Task 1: Create a multi-stage main YAML pipeline

1. Navigate to the Azure DevOps portal at https://aex.dev.azure.com and open your organization.

2. Open the eShopOnWeb project.

3. Go to Pipelines > Pipelines.

4. Click on the New Pipeline button.

5. Select Azure Repos Git (Yaml).

6. Select the eShopOnWeb repository.

7. Select Starter pipeline.

8. Replace the content of the azure-pipelines.yml file with the following code:

   trigger:
   - main
   
   pool:
     vmImage: 'windows-latest'
   
   stages:
   - stage: Dev
     jobs:
     - job: Build
       steps:
       - script: echo Build
   - stage: Test
     jobs:
     - job: Test
       steps:
       - script: echo Test
   - stage: Production
     jobs:
     - job: Deploy
       steps:
       - script: echo Deploy
   

9. Select Save and run. Choose to commit directly to the main branch and select Save and run again.

10. You will see the pipeline running with the three stages (Dev, Test, and Production) and the corresponding jobs. Wait until the pipeline finishes and navigate back to the Pipelines page.

    

11. Select … (More options) on the right side of the pipeline you just created and select Rename/move.

12. Rename the pipeline to eShopOnWeb-MultiStage-Main and select Save.

Task 2: Create a variables template

1. Go to Repos > Files.

2. Expand the .ado folder and click on New file.

3. Name the file eshoponweb-variables.yml and click on Create.

4. Add the following code to the file:

   variables:
     resource-group: 'YOUR-RESOURCE-GROUP-NAME'
     location: 'centralus'
     templateFile: 'infra/webapp.bicep'
     subscriptionid: 'YOUR-SUBSCRIPTION-ID'
     azureserviceconnection: 'YOUR-AZURE-SERVICE-CONNECTION-NAME'
     webappname: 'YOUR-WEB-APP-NAME'
   

5. Replace the values of the variables with the values of your environment:

   • Replace YOUR-RESOURCE-GROUP-NAME with the name of the resource group you want to use in this lab, for example, rg-eshoponweb-secure.
   • Set the value of the location variable to the name of the Azure region you want to deploy your resources, for example, centralus.
   • Replace YOUR-SUBSCRIPTION-ID with your Azure subscription id.
   • Replace YOUR-AZURE-SERVICE-CONNECTION-NAME with azure subs
   • Replace YOUR-WEB-APP-NAME with a globally unique name of the web app to be deployed, for example, the string eshoponweb-lab-multi-123456 followed by a random six-digit number.

6. Select Commit, in the commit comment text box, enter [skip ci], and then select Commit.

   Note: By adding the [skip ci] comment to the commit, you will prevent automatic pipeline execution, which, at this point, runs by default following every change to the repo.

Task 3: Prepare the pipeline to use templates

1. In the Azure DevOps portal, on the eShopOnWeb project page, go to Repos.

2. In the root directory of the repo, select azure-pipelines.yml which contains the definition of the eShopOnWeb-MultiStage-Main pipeline.

3. Click on the Edit button.

4. Replace the content of the azure-pipelines.yml file with the following code:

   trigger:
   - main
   variables:
   - template: .ado/eshoponweb-variables.yml
      
   stages:
   - stage: Dev
     jobs:
     - template: .ado/eshoponweb-ci.yml
   - stage: Test
     jobs:
     - template: .ado/eshoponweb-cd-webapp-code.yml
   - stage: Production
     jobs:
     - job: Deploy
       steps:
       - script: echo Deploy to Production or Swap
   

5. Select Commit, in the commit comment text box, enter [skip ci], and then select Commit.

Task 4: Updating CI/CD templates

1. In the Repos of the eShopOnWeb project, select the .ado directory and select the eshoponweb-ci.yml file.

2. Click on the Edit button.

3. Remove everything above the jobs section.

   #NAME THE PIPELINE SAME AS FILE (WITHOUT ".yml")
   # trigger:
   # - main
      
   resources:
     repositories:
       - repository: self
         trigger: none
      
   stages:
   - stage: Build
     displayName: Build .Net Core Solution
   

4. Select Commit, in the commit comment text box, enter [skip ci], and then select Commit.

5. In the Repos of the eShopOnWeb project, select the .ado directory and select the eshoponweb-cd-webapp-code.yml file.

6. Click on the Edit button.

7. Remove everything above the jobs section.

    # NAME THE PIPELINE SAME AS FILE (WITHOUT ".yml") #
    # Trigger CD when CI executed successfully
       
    resources:
      pipelines:
        - pipeline: eshoponweb-ci
          source: eshoponweb-ci # given pipeline name
          trigger: true
       
    repositories:
      - repository: eShopSecurity
        type: git
        name: eShopSecurity/eShopSecurity # name of the project and repository
       
    variables:
      - template: eshoponweb-secure-variables.yml@eShopSecurity # name of the template and repository
       
    stages:
      - stage: Test
        displayName: Testing WebApp
        jobs:
          - deployment: Test
            pool: eShopOnWebSelfPool
            environment: Test
            strategy:
              runOnce:
                deploy:
                  steps:
                    - script: echo Hello world! Testing environments!
       
      - stage: Deploy
        displayName: Deploy to WebApp
   

8. Replace the existing content of the #download artifacts step with:

       - download: current
         artifact: Website
       - download: current
         artifact: Bicep
   

9. Select Commit, in the commit comment text box, enter [skip ci], and then select Commit.

Task 5: Run the main pipeline

1. Go to Pipelines > Pipelines.

2. Open the eShopOnWeb-MultiStage-Main pipeline.

3. Select Run pipeline.

   Note: If you receive a message that the pipeline needs permission to access a resource before this run can continue, select View and then select Permit and Permit again to allow the pipeline to run.

   Note: If any jobs in the Deploy stage fail, navigate to the pipeline run page and select Rerun failed jobs*.

4. Wait until the pipeline finishes and check the results.

   

[!IMPORTANT] Remember to delete the resources created in the Azure portal to avoid unnecessary charges.

Review

In this lab, you learned how to extend a pipeline into multiple templates by using Azure DevOps. This lab covered fundamental concepts and best practices for creating a multi-stage pipeline, creating a variables template, a job template, and a stage template.