{"id":9781,"date":"2015-07-31T04:46:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/visualstudioalm\/2015\/07\/31\/continuous-deployment-devtest-in-azure-and-deploy-to-production-on-premises\/"},"modified":"2022-08-02T01:00:14","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T09:00:14","slug":"continuous-deployment-devtest-in-azure-and-deploy-to-production-on-premises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/continuous-deployment-devtest-in-azure-and-deploy-to-production-on-premises\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuous Deployment: Dev\/Test in Azure and Deploy to Production On-premises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easily provision the required resources in Microsoft Azure<\/a> using the Azure Resource Manager templates<\/a>, and deploy Web applications and SQL Server Databases to the Azure Virtual Machines (VMs), and run tests that are automatically distributed across VMs using the Visual Studio Test Agent. Once the application’s functionality is verified, deploy the application to on-premises machines using the same IIS\/SQL tasks\u00a0that were used to deploy the app to the Azure VMs. The tasks provide an easy way to override the database connection strings,\u00a0and any of the parameters that are changing\u00a0between development, testing, staging\u00a0and production.<\/p>\n

The blog explains how to build the app and deploy it to the Azure VMs using Build and Release Definitions in Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) and Team Foundation Server (TFS), and then to deploy the app to production on-premises.<\/p>\n

Service Endpoints<\/h2>\n

To deploy to Azure, an Azure subscription has to be linked to the VSTS\/TFS account using the Services tab in the Account Administration section.\u00a0The sample app is in the FabrikamFiber<\/a> GitHub repository. Using the Services tab we will link the GitHub repo to the VSTS\/TFS account.<\/p>\n

Add Azure Resource Manager Subscription<\/h4>\n

Add the Azure subscription to use in the Build tasks by opening the Account Administration<\/strong> screen (gear icon on the top-right of the screen) and then click on the Services<\/strong> tab. Select** Azure Resource Manager** from the Add New Service Endpoint<\/strong>\u00a0drop-down. Create a Service Principal as per the steps provided here<\/a>. Also, note the GitHub<\/strong> in the **New Service Endpoint **drop-down, as this will be used to setup a GitHub repository connection in the section below.<\/p>\n

\"Services\"<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0Figure: Opening the Account Administration Screen.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"AzureRMEndpoint\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Figure: Selecting an Azure connection from the Add New Service Connection.\n<\/p>\n

\n Fill in the required details in the Add Azure Resource Manager Subscription<\/strong> dialog. Note that the Create New SPN functionality is coming soon <\/strong>and will ease the process of creating Service Principals.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"AzureRMSPNConnection\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Figure: Adding the details of the\u00a0Service Principal in the\u00a0Add Azure Resource Manager Subscription dialog box.\n<\/p>\n

\n Add New GitHub Service Connection\n<\/h4>\n

Select** GitHub\u00a0from the Add **New Service Endpoint<\/strong>\u00a0drop-down, and fill in the parameters as shown below. Note that the Connection Name can be anything that you like but the token has to be as listed below. After entering the parameters click on OK.<\/p>\n

Choose Authorization:<\/strong> Personal access token<\/p>\n

Token:<\/strong> 13b56d00b0b78d1c26ab359df7a44014085efa37<\/p>\n

Connection Name:<\/strong> FabrikamFiber GitHub<\/p>\n

\n \"GitHubEndpoint\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Figure: Adding the\u00a0GitHub repo details in the Add New GitHub Service Connection dialog box.\n<\/p>\n

Automation\u00a0Agent<\/h2>\n

An automation\u00a0agent, also called as build agent, has to be deployed on a machine to build the code and to run the tasks. The agent is xcopy deployable, and does not need any installation. The agent can be deployed on machines behind the Firewall and also on Azure VMs. The agent uses the HTTPS protocol to communicate with VSTS\/TFS and can work across proxies and firewalls. VSTS also provides Hosted automation\u00a0agents<\/a> that can be used to build code and to deploy the application. The Hosted agents are made available on-demand and run on Azure.<\/p>\n

Deploy the Windows build agent as per the instructions in the Build docs<\/a>. The following are some of the issues that one should keep in mind while deploying the build agent:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. As described in the Build docs, either use the default queue or create a new queue.<\/li>\n
  2. Provide the rights to the account, under which the Build agent is running, in the VSTS\u2019s or TFS’s Control Panel named Agent Pools. This account should be added to the Agent Pool Service Accounts group.<\/li>\n
  3. Download and configure the agent by following the instructions.<\/li>\n
  4. The tasks described in the blog needs Visual Studio 2015<\/a>\u00a0and Azure PowerShell to be installed on the build agent.\u00a0Visual Studio 2015 is needed\u00a0for building the code and Azure PowerShell is needed to deploy\u00a0Azure Resource Groups. Azure PowerShell can be installed from Azure PowerShell Installer v1.3.0<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    IIS Web App Deployment \u00a0Using WinRM Extension<\/h2>\n

    The extension is needed because it has the tasks to deploy IIS Wweb apps and to deploy SQL Server database. Install the extension<\/a> from the VSTS marketplace. For TFS, download the extension and install it.<\/p>\n

    Dev\/Test Applications on Azure<\/h2>\n

    Follow the directions below to build the app in \u00a0the Build<\/strong>\u00a0hub and to deploy it to Azure VMs from the Release<\/strong> hub.<\/p>\n

    Create Build Definition & Link the GitHub Repository<\/h4>\n

    Open the BUILD<\/strong> hub and choose the \"plus\" icon to create a new build definition.<\/p>\n

    \n \"CreateBD\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure: Creating a new Build Definition.\n<\/p>\n

    \n In the Build<\/strong>\u00a0tab of the Create new build definition<\/strong> dialog, select an\u00a0Empty<\/strong>\u00a0definition and choose Next<\/strong>.\n<\/p>\n

    \n \"NewBD\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure: Selecting the\u00a0Build Definition template.\n<\/p>\n

    \n Select GitHub<\/strong>\u00a0as the Repository Source, <\/strong>and then click on the\u00a0Create<\/strong> button.\n<\/p>\n

    \n \"SelectingRepo\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure: Selecting the\u00a0Build Definition template.\n<\/p>\n

    \n In the Build Definition, click on the Repository tab and select the fabrikamfiber\/customerservice Repository<\/strong>.\n<\/p>\n

    \n \"SetRepo\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure:\u00a0Setting the repository.\n<\/p>\n

    \n In the Definition, click on the Build tab, and then on \u00a0Add Build Step button\u00a0to add tasks to the Definition.\n<\/p>\n

    \n \"AddBuildStep\"\n<\/p>\n

    \n In the Add Tasks<\/strong> dialog, click on the hyperlink\u00a0All<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>and then add the\u00a0tasks – NuGet Installer, Visual Studio Build & Copy and Publish Build Artifacts<\/strong>. The tasks are sorted alphabetically, and the Add<\/strong> button in front of the task, has to be clicked to add the task to the definition.\n<\/p>\n

    \n \"AddBuildTasks\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure:\u00a0Add\u00a0the tasks to the Build Definition.\n<\/p>\n

    \n Leave the NuGet Installer task<\/strong> with it’s default values. Select the Visual Studio Build task<\/strong> in the Definition, and in the MSBuild Arguments<\/strong> parameter, enter the value as shown below in a single line. This will build the zip file that can be deployed using Web Deploy later on in a release definition. Leave everything else at their default values:\n<\/p>\n

    \n \/p:DeployOnBuild=true \/p:WebPublishMethod=Package \/p:PackageAsSingleFile=true \/p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true \u00a0\/p:PackageLocation=”$(build.sourcesDirectory)pkg”<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

    \n \u00a0\"VisualStudioBuildTask1\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure: Defining the parameters for the Visual Studio Build task.\n<\/p>\n

    \n Select the Copy and Publish Build Artifacts task<\/strong>\u00a0in the Definition and enter or select the following values for the parameters. The built app code has to be published as an artifact to use in the release definitions:\n<\/p>\n

    \n Copy Root<\/strong>: $(build.sourcesDirectory)\n<\/p>\n

    \n Contents<\/strong>: Note that these are multi-line values.\n<\/p>\n

    \n **pkg **FabrikamDBbinRelease **FabrikamFiber.Web.TestsbinRelease **DeployTemplate\n<\/p>\n

    \n Artifact Name<\/strong>:\u00a0FabrikamCustomerService\n<\/p>\n

    \n Artifact Type<\/strong>: Server\n<\/p>\n

    \n \"CopyAndPublishArtifactsTask\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure: Defining the parameters for the Copy and Publish Build Artifacts task.\n<\/p>\n

    Click on the Save button in the Definition<\/strong>, and in the Save dialog<\/strong>, enter the name of the definition as\u00a0Fabrikam.CustomerService.CI, and then click the OK<\/strong> button.<\/p>\n

    \"SaveButton\"<\/p>\n

    After saving the definition, click on the Queue Build button in the Definition<\/strong>, and then click OK<\/strong> in the Queue Build<\/strong> dilaog, to build the app, and to publish the artifacts<\/p>\n

    \"QueueBuild\".<\/p>\n

    Create Release\u00a0Definition\u00a0to Deploy and Test the App<\/h4>\n

    The Azure Resource Group Deployment task is used to deploy Resource Groups in Azure using the Azure Resource Manager templates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n \"\"<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

    \n Figure: Azure Resource Group Deployment task in the Build Definition to deploy a Resource Group on Azure.\n<\/p>\n

    The different parameters of the task are as described below:<\/p>\n

    Azure Subscription<\/strong>: Select the Azure Subscription where the Resource Group will be deployed. This is a dropdown of the subscriptions that have been added in the Services tab.<\/p>\n

    Resource Group, Location<\/strong>: The name of the Resource Group and its location. If this is an existing Resource Group then the task will update the Resource Group with the Resources specified in the Azure template. If no Resource Group with the name exists in the Subscription then a new one will be created.<\/p>\n

    Template and its Parameters<\/strong>: The templates and the templates parameters file are the Azure templates available at GitHub<\/a>\u00a0and in the Azure gallery<\/a>. To get started immediately, use this<\/a> template that is available on GitHub. These files can be either checked in the Version Control of they can be part of the build itself. If the files are part of the Build, use the pre-defined system variables<\/a> provided by the Build to specify their location. The variables to use are $(Build.Repository.LocalPath), if the templates are checked-in but are not built, or $(Agent.BuildDirectory), if the templates are built as part of the solution. Be sure to specify the full path like $(Build.Repository.LocalPath)Azure TemplatesAzureRGDeploy.json. Wildcards like ***.json or ***.param.json are also supported and there needs to be only file that matches the search pattern at the location. If more than one file matches the search pattern then the task will error out.<\/p>\n

    Override Template Parameters<\/strong>: The Override template parameters is used to override the parameters, like \u2013storageAccountName azurerg \u2013adminUsername $(vmusername) \u2013azureKeyVaultName $(fabrikamFibre).<\/p>\n

    Advanced Deployment Options<\/strong>: This section can be confusing if one does not understand the rationale behind the options. The following information will help in understanding the parameters and the proper use of them:<\/p>\n