| title | description | ms.author | ms.manager | ms.prod | ms.technology | ms.topic | ms.date | author | monikerRange |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deploy your ASP.NET Core App to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with the Azure DevOps Project | VSTS Tutorial |
The DevOps Project makes it easy to get started on Azure. The Azure DevOps project makes it easy to deploy your ASP.NET Core App with the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in a few quick steps. |
mlearned |
douge |
devops |
devops-cicd |
tutorial |
07/09/2018 |
mlearned |
vsts |
Tutorial: Deploy your ASP.NET Core App to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with the Azure DevOps Project
The Azure DevOps Project presents a simplified experience where you bring your existing code and Git repository, or choose from one of the sample applications to create a continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipeline to Azure. The DevOps project automatically creates Azure resources such as AKS, creates and configures a release pipeline in VSTS that includes a build definition for CI, sets up a release definition for CD, and then creates an Azure Application Insights resource for monitoring.
You will:
[!div class="checklist"]
- Create an Azure DevOps project for an ASP.NET Core App and AKS
- Configure VSTS and an Azure subscription
- Examine the AKS cluster
- Examine the VSTS CI Build definition
- Examine the VSTS CD Release Management definition
- Commit changes to VSTS and automatically deploy to Azure
- Clean up resources
- An Azure subscription. You can get one free through Visual Studio Dev Essentials.
The Azure DevOps Project creates a CI/CD pipeline in VSTS. You can create a new VSTS account or use an existing account. The Azure DevOps Project also creates Azure resources such as an AKS cluster in the Azure subscription of your choice.
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Sign into the Microsoft Azure portal.
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Choose the Create a resource icon in the left navigation bar, then search for DevOps project. Choose Create.
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Select .NET, and then choose Next.
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For Choose an application Framework, select ASP.NET Core, and then select Next.
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Select Kubernetes Service, then choose Next.
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Create a new VSTS account or choose an existing account. Choose a name for your VSTS project.
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Select your Azure subscription.
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Select the Change link to see additional Azure configuration settings, and identify the number of nodes for the Kubernetes cluster. There are various options here for configuring the type and location of Azure services.
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Exit the Azure configuration area, and choose Done.
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It will take several minutes for the process to complete. A sample ASP.NET Core application is set up in a repository in your VSTS account, an AKS cluster is created, a build and release executes, and your application deploys to Azure.
Once complete, the Azure DevOps project dashboard loads in the Azure portal. You can also navigate to the Azure DevOps Project Dashboard directly from All resources in the Azure portal.
This dashboard provides visibility into your VSTS code repository, VSTS CI/CD pipeline, and AKS cluster. You can further configure additional options in VSTS. On the right-side of the dashboard, select Browse to view your running application.
The Azure DevOps Project automatically configures an AKS cluster. You can explore and customize the cluster. Follow the steps below to familiarize yourself with the AKS.
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Navigate to the Azure DevOps Project dashboard.
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On the right-side of the DevOps project dashboard, select the Kubernetes service.
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A blade opens for the AKS cluster. From this view you can perform various actions such as monitor container health, search logs, and open the Kubernetes dashboard.
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On the right-side of the screen, select View Kubernetes dashboard. Optionally follow the steps to open the Kubernetes dashboard.
The Azure DevOps Project automatically configures a full VSTS CI/CD pipeline in your VSTS account. You can explore and customize the pipeline. Follow the steps below to familiarize yourself with the VSTS build definition.
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Navigate to the Azure DevOps Project dashboard.
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Select Build Pipelines from the top of the Azure DevOps project dashboard. This link opens a browser tab and opens the VSTS build definition for your new project.
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Move the mouse cursor to the right of the build definition next to the Status field. Select the ellipsis that appears. This action opens a menu where you can perform several activities such as queue a new build, pause a build, and edit the build definition.
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Select Edit.
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From this view, examine the various tasks for your build definition. The build performs various tasks such as fetching sources from the VSTS Git repository, restoring dependencies, and publishing outputs used for deployments.
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At the top of the build definition, select the build definition name.
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Change the name of your build definition to something more descriptive. Select Save & queue, then select Save.
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Under your build definition name, select History. You see an audit trail of your recent changes for the build. VSTS keeps track of any changes made to the build definition and allows you to compare versions.
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Select Triggers. The Azure DevOps project automatically created a CI trigger, and every commit to the repository starts a new build. You can optionally choose to include or exclude branches from the CI process.
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Select Retention. Based on your scenario, you can specify policies to keep or remove a certain number of builds.
The Azure DevOps Project automatically creates and configures the necessary steps to deploy from your VSTS account to your Azure subscription. These steps include configuring an Azure service connection to authenticate VSTS to your Azure subscription. The automation also creates a VSTS Release Definition, and the Release Definition provides the CD to the Azure. Follow the steps below to examine more about the VSTS Release Definition.
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Select Build and Release, then choose Releases. The Azure DevOps project created a VSTS release definition to manage deployments to Azure.
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On the left-hand side of the browser, select the ellipsis next to your release definition, then choose Edit.
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The release definition contains a pipeline, which defines the release process. Under Artifacts, select Drop. The build definition you examined in the previous steps produces the output used for the artifact.
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To the right-hand side of the Drop icon, select the Continuous deployment trigger icon (which appears as a lightning bolt.) This release definition has an enabled CD trigger. The trigger creates a deployment every time there is a new build artifact available. Optionally, you can disable the trigger, so your deployments will then require manual execution.
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On the right-hand side of the browser, select View releases. This view shows a history of releases.
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Select the ellipsis next to one of your releases, and choose Open. There are several menus to explore from this view such as a release summary, associated work items, and Tests.
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Select Commits. This view shows code commits associated with the specific deployment. You can compare releases to view the commit differences between deployments.
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Select Logs. The logs contain useful information about the deployment process. They can be viewed both during and after deployments.
Note
The steps below test the CI/CD pipeline with a simple text change to your web app.
You're now ready to collaborate with a team on your app with a CI/CD process that automatically deploys your latest work to your web site. Each change to the VSTS git repo starts a build in VSTS, and a VSTS Release Management definition deploys your changes to Azure. Follow the steps below, or use other techniques to commit changes to your repository. For example, you can clone the Git repository in your favorite tool or IDE, and then push changes to this repo.
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Select Code and then Files from the VSTS menu, and navigate to your repository.
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Navigate to the Views\Home directory, then select the ellipsis next to the Index.cshtml file, and then choose Edit.
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Make a change to the file such as some text inside one of the div tags. At the top right, select Commit. Select Commit again to push your change.
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In a few moments, a build starts in VSTS, and then a release executes to deploy the changes. You can monitor the build status with the DevOps project dashboard or in the browser with your VSTS account.
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Once the release completes, refresh your application in the browser to verify you see your changes.
Note
The steps below will permanently delete resources. Only use this functionality after carefully reading the prompts.
If you are testing, you can clean up resources to avoid creating billing charges. When no longer needed, you can delete the Azure Kubernetes cluster and related resources created in this tutorial by using the Delete functionality on the Azure DevOps Project dashboard. Be careful, as the delete functionality destroys the data created by the Azure DevOps Project in both Azure and VSTS, and you will not be able to retrieve it once it's gone.
- From the Azure portal, navigate to the Azure DevOps Project.
- On the top right side of the dashboard, select Delete. After reading the prompt, select Yes to permanently delete the resources.
You can optionally modify these build and release definitions to meet the needs of your team. You can also use this CI/CD pattern as a template for your other projects. You learned how to:
[!div class="checklist"]
- Create an Azure DevOps project for an ASP.NET Core App and AKS
- Configure VSTS and an Azure subscription
- Examine the AKS cluster
- Examine the VSTS CI Build definition
- Examine the VSTS CD Release Management definition
- Commit changes to VSTS and automatically deploy to Azure
- Clean up resources
To learn more about using the Kubernetes dashboard see below:
[!div class="nextstepaction"] Use the Kubernetes dashboard