CI/CD service within Azure DevOps that deploys applications and infrastructure as code, with environments, approvals and checks.
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Each book explains Azure Pipelines in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- CI/CD
Pipelines, for example in Azure Pipelines or GitHub Actions, that build, test and deploy code automatically; short for continuous integration and continuous delivery.
- Azure DevOps
Microsoft's suite of DevOps services, among them Azure Boards and Azure Pipelines.
- IaC
Infrastructure as code means deploying resources from declarative files, for example Bicep or ARM templates.
- Approvals and checks
Resource owners configure these in the web portal rather than YAML, on environments, agent pools, repositories, secure files, variable groups and service connections; a stage can't use the resource until all pass. GitHub's equivalent: environment protection rules.
Related terms
- Agent pool
A set of agents for running Azure Pipelines jobs, created for the whole organisation and shared with projects. Pool roles and pipeline permissions govern who manages it and which pipelines may use it; in GitHub, runner groups play this part.
- Branch control
A check in Azure Pipelines that lets only runs from approved branches use a protected resource, with an option to insist those branches are protected.
- Classic pipelines
Azure Pipelines definitions built in a web designer instead of YAML. Microsoft recommends YAML; classic ones remain supported, though new organisations can't create them by default.
- Date-based versioning
Numbering releases by their date instead of by how significant the change is, for example the date tokens in Azure Pipelines run numbers or vcpkg's version-date scheme. Unlike SemVer, it gives consumers no signal about breaking changes.
- Deployment environment
A named target for deployments. Azure Pipelines environments group VMs or Kubernetes namespaces, track deployment history and carry checks and approvals; GitHub environments carry secrets and protection rules. Unrelated to Azure Machine Learning environments.
- Exclusive lock
An Azure Pipelines check, always assessed after the others, that allows just one run at a time to use a protected resource. Its lockBehavior is either runLatest, the default, or sequential.
- GitHub Actions Importer
A GitHub CLI extension, run as gh actions-importer, for planning and carrying out a move to GitHub Actions from systems such as Azure Pipelines: it can audit, forecast, dry-run and migrate.
- GitHub Actions workflow
An automated process, defined in YAML in .github/workflows, that runs one or more jobs when triggered by an event, on a schedule or by hand. It is GitHub's equivalent of a pipeline in Azure Pipelines.