Automate Azure App Service setup using Ansible and Azure DevOps pipeline | How to integrate Ansible with Azure DevOps | How to Create WebApp in Azure Cloud using Ansible

Ansible is an open-source, configuration management tool that automates cloud provisioning, configuration management, and application deployments. 

Ansible Playbooks
Ansible playbooks allow you to direct Ansible to configure your environment. Playbooks are coded using YAML so as to be human-readable. 

Automate Azure Web App setup using Ansible and Azure pipeline

Integrate Ansible with Azure Cloud

Integrating Ansible with Microsoft Azure allows you to automate and manage your Azure infrastructure using Ansible playbooks and modules. Ansible provides a collection of Azure-specific modules that enable you to provision and configure resources in Azure.

To configure Azure credentials, you need the following information:

• Your Azure subscription ID and tenant ID
• The service principal application ID and secret

Pre-requisites:

• Azure account subscription, click here if you don't have one.
• Azure CLI needs to be installed.
• Service principal to create any resources in Azure cloud using Azure cloud shell or Azure CLI

Login to Azure

az login

Enter Microsoft credentials

Create Azure Service Principal

Run the following commands to create an Azure Service Principal:

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name my-ansible-azure-sp \ 

--role Contributor \ 

--scopes /subscriptions/<subscription_id>

Save the above output in a file as you will not be able retrieve later.

Create an Ansible playbook - create-linux-app-svc.yml

Create a simple playbook to create resource group in Azure and also a Azure App Service. Make sure you modify the name of the resource group, Azure WebApp and location below.

- hosts: localhost

connection: local

vars:

resource_group: myResourceGroup

webapp_name: myfirstAwesomeWebApp

plan_name: myAppServicePlan

location: eastus

tasks:

- name: Ensure resource group exists

azure_rm_resourcegroup:

name: myResourceGroup

location: East US

register: rg_result

- debug:

var: rg_result

- name: Create App Service on Linux with Java Runtime

azure_rm_webapp:

resource_group: "{{ resource_group }}"

name: "{{ webapp_name }}"

plan:

resource_group: "{{ resource_group }}"

name: "{{ plan_name }}"

is_linux: true

sku: S1

number_of_workers: 1

frameworks:

- name: "java"

version: "8"

settings:

java_container: tomcat

java_container_version: 9.0

Create Azure YAML build pipeline:

Login to Azure Devops --> https://dev.azure.com

Select project dashboard.

Go to Pipelines -> New pipeline --> Click on Azure Repos Git or any SCM where you have playbooks stored. Select repo, click on Starter pipeline.

Add below four pipeline variables with value received from service principal creation.

AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID

AZURE_CLIENT_ID

AZURE_SECRET

AZURE_TENANT

Add below tasks:

• Install Ansible on build agent
• Install Ansible rm module on build agent
• Execute Ansible playbook for creating resource group in Azure cloud.

trigger:

- main

pr: none # Disable PR triggers, can be adjusted as needed

pool:

vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:

- script: |

# Install Ansible

pip3 install "ansible==2.9.17"

displayName: 'Install Ansible'

- script: |

# Install Ansible rm module

pip3 install ansible[azure]

displayName: 'Install Ansible rm module'

- script: |

# Run Ansible playbook to create Azure App Service

ansible-playbook create-linux-app-svc.yml

displayName: 'Run Ansible Playbook'

env:

AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID: $(AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID)

AZURE_CLIENT_ID: $(AZURE_CLIENT_ID)

AZURE_SECRET: $(AZURE_SECRET)

AZURE_TENANT: $(AZURE_TENANT)

Save the pipeline and run it.

Now Login to Azure cloud to see if the App Service have been created.

Clean up service principal

az ad sp list --display-name ansible-sp --output table

az ad sp delete --id <pass_the_id>

Delete Azure App Service: delete-linux-app-svc.yml

- name: Delete Azure App Service
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  vars:
    resource_group: myResourceGroup
    webapp_name: myfirstAwesomeWebApp
  tasks:
  - name:
    azure_rm_webapp:
      name: "{{ webapp_name }}"
      resource_group: "{{ resource_group }}"
      state: absent

Fix for Jenkins slowness when Running in AWS EC2 instance | Jenkins Very Slow Upon Starting EC2 Instance after Stopping

Let's say that you have configured Jenkins in AWS EC2 instance and you are using AWS free tier and you are NOT using Elastic IP, so when ever you start EC2 instance after stopping, you would have noticed Jenkins UI is taking a lot of time to come up. You try to access any page in Jenkins, it will be really slow.

What is the root cause of the issue?

Because EC2 configured in AWS free tier account would have new IP after every restart, Jenkins was trying to use old IP address when you are trying to start Jenkins. Due to this issue, Jenkins will be very slow.

Pre-requisites:

• Jenkins is setup in AWS cloud using free-tier account.

There are two ways you can fix this issue:

First option using command line

Make changes in the xml file by logging into EC2 instance through command line using Git bash or any SSH tool.

Connect to Jenkins EC2 instance using Git bash or iTerm:

Navigate to Jenkins installation directory:

cd /var/lib/jenkins/

Modify jenkins.model.JenkinsLocationConfiguration.xml file by executing below command:

sudo nano jenkins.model.JenkinsLocationConfiguration.xml

Make sure you provide Jenkins current URL in below location and restart Jenkins.

sudo service jenkins restart

Now try accessing Jenkins through UI, it will be really performing well.

Second option us using Jenkins UI

Change public URL under Manage Jenkins->System

Change Jenkins URL to current Jenkins URL:

Click on Apply-> Save.

that's it. You will notice Jenkins is performing well now.

Watch steps in YouTube channel:

GitHub Actions CICD Pipeline to Deploy Java WebApp into Azure App Service | Integration GitHub Actions with Azure App Service

Pre-requisites:

• Make sure Java web app is setup in GitHub
• Azure subscription to create web app

What are we going to do in this lab?

1. Create a Web App in Azure Cloud

2. Configure WebApp to Deploy using gitHub Actions

3. Create workflow yaml

4. Add steps/tasks in the yaml file

5. Run the workflow yaml

6. Check if Java Web App is deployed in Azure App Service

How to Create WebApp in Azure Portal?

1. Login portal.azure.com
2. Click on App services

3.Click on + Add or click on Create app service


Click on Web App. Choose your Azure subscription, usually Pay as you Go or Free trial subscription
Create a new resource group or you can use existing resource group)

Enter App service name(it should be unique)
Publish as Code
Run time stack as Java 17

Java Web Server stack --> Tomcat 10.0
Operating System as Linux
Region as Central US or where ever you are based at

Enter LinuxPlan name
Choose pricing plan

Now go to Deployment tab:

Enable basic authentication

and enable Continuous Deployment 

Click on GitHub account, Authorize.

Authorize AzureappService

now select organization, repo, branch

You can also click on preview file to get pipeline YAML code 

Click on Review and Create

Create Web App

Now make sure AzureAppService_PublishProfile secret is automatically created in GitHub repo you selected.

Create GitHub Actions CICD workflow yaml:

name: Build and deploy WAR app to Azure Web App
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Java version
        uses: actions/setup-java@v2
        with:
          java-version: '11'
          distribution: 'adopt'
      - name: Build with Maven
        run: mvn clean install -f MyWebApp/pom.xml
      - name: Upload artifact for deployment job
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: MyWebApp
          path: '${{ github.workspace }}'
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    environment:
      name: 'Production'
      url: ${{ steps.deploy-to-webapp.outputs.webapp-url }}
    steps:
      - name: Download artifact from build job
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: MyWebApp
      - name: Deploy to Azure Web App
        id: deploy-to-webapp
        uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v2
        with:
          app-name: 'spingbootwebapp'
          slot-name: 'Production'
          publish-profile: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_PUBLISHPROFILE_76B948D486E54ED7B06775D572207D40 }}
          package: '*.war'

Check the output after running the pipeline:

Verify if WebApp has been deployed into Azure App Service by browsing Web App url.

https://mysuperjavaapp.azurewebsites.net/MyWebApp/

Watch here all the steps in YouTube channel:

GitHub Actions CICD Pipeline to Create Docker Image and Push Docker Image into Amazon ECR | Integration GitHub Actions with AWS ECR

Please find steps for integrating AWS ECR with GitHub Actions:

Pre-requisites:

• Make sure a Project is setup in GitHub with Dockerfile
• Create access keys in AWS
• Create AWS ECR repo if you don't have one.

What are we going to do in this lab?

1. Create a Repository in AWS ECR

2. Create AWS secret keys + access keys

3. Create secrets in GitHub Actions

4. Create workflow yaml

5. Add steps/tasks in the yaml file

6. Run the workflow yaml

7. Check if docker image is been stored in AWS ECR

How to Create a repo in ECR ?

Go to AWS console and search for ECR

Click on Create Repository

Enter name for your repo - all lower case and Click create repository

Once repo is created, choose the repo and click on view push commands. Note down the account ID

Add Access keys and Secret keys as Secrets in GitHub Actions

Go to your GitHub Repo --> Settings --> 

Click on Secrets and Variables under Security in left nav 

Click new Repository Secret

Create secrets in GitHub for AWS_REGION,  REPO_NAME,  AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY and AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID

Create GitHub Actions CICD workflow yaml:

Go to GitHub repo where your Java project is, create a new file:

.github/workflows/cicd.yml

The below file have four steps(tasks) 

    - Checkout

    - Install Java on runner

    - Build springboot Jar file using Maven

    - Build docker image and tag it

    - Upload docker image into AWS ECR

Copy the content from below:

name: cicd-workflow to create docker image and upload into AWS ECR
on:
  push:
    branches: [ "master" ]
jobs:
  job1:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - name: Set up JDK 17
      uses: actions/setup-java@v2
      with:
        distribution: 'adopt'
        java-version: '17'
    - name: Build with Maven
      run: mvn clean install
    - name: Setup AWS ECR Details
      uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
      with:
        aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
        aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
        aws-region: ${{secrets.AWS_REGION}}
    - name: Login to Amazon ECR
      id: login-pf-aws-ecr
      uses: aws-actions/amazon-ecr-login@v1
    - name: Build and push Docker image
      env:
        ECR_REGISTRY: ${{ steps.login-pf-aws-ecr.outputs.registry }}
        ECR_REPOSITORY: ${{secrets.REPO_NAME}}
        IMAGE_TAG: ${{ github.sha }}
      run: |
        docker build -t $ECR_REGISTRY/$ECR_REPOSITORY:$IMAGE_TAG .
        docker push $ECR_REGISTRY/$ECR_REPOSITORY:$IMAGE_TAG

Commit the file.

As soon as you commit, build will run immediately in GitHub Actions. 

Now you can see the output of build in Actions tab.

Please login to AWS console --> ECR and verify if image have been uploaded successfully.

Watch Steps in YouTube channel:

GitHub Actions Pipeline to Create Docker Image and Push Docker Image into DockerHub | GitHub Actions Integration with DockerHub

 Please find steps for integrating DockerHub with GitHub Actions:

Implementation steps:

• Create access token in DockerHub
• Add access token, docker hub user name as secrets in GitHub Actions
• Create GitHub Actions workflow yaml in your repo
• Add tasks for Maven build, docker image creation, tagging and docker push 
• Run the workflow/build in GitHub hosted runner(e.g. Ubuntu)
• Verify docker image have been uploaded into DockerHub

Pre-requisites:

• DockerHub Account
• Make sure a Project is setup in GitHub with Dockerfile
• Create access token in Docker Hub for authenticating with DockerHub

Steps below to create access token in DockerHub:

Login to --> https://hub.docker.com/settings/security

Click on new access token:

    Copy on Generate

 

Add Docker Hub user name and token as Secrets in GitHub Actions

Go to your GitHub Repo --> Settings --> 

Click on Secrets and Variables under Security in left nav 

Click new Repository Secret

Enter DOCKERHUB_USERNAME as secret name and 

Enter your docker hub user name

Enter DOCKERHUB_TOKEN as secret name and 

Enter your token as secret

Create GitHub Actions CICD workflow yaml:

Go to GitHub repo where your Java project is, create a new file:

.github/workflows/cicd.yml

The below file have four steps(tasks) 

    - Checkout

    - Install Java on runner

    - Build using Maven

    - Build docker image and tag it

    - Upload docker image into DockerHub

Copy below YAML code:

name: cicd-workflow to create docker image and upload into Dockerhub

on:

  push:

    branches: [ "master" ]

jobs:

  job1:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

    - uses: actions/checkout@v3

    - name: Set up JDK 17

      uses: actions/setup-java@v2

      with:

        distribution: 'adopt'

        java-version: '17'

    - name: Build with Maven

      run: mvn clean install

    - name: Login to Docker Hub

      uses: docker/login-action@v3

      with:

        username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}

        password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}

    - name: Build and push Docker image

      env:

        IMAGE_TAG: ${{ github.sha }}

      run: |

        docker build -t ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}/myspringbootapp:${IMAGE_TAG} .

        docker push ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}/myspringbootapp:${IMAGE_TAG}

Commit the file.

As soon as you commit, build will run immediately in GitHub Actions. 

Now you can see the output of build in Actions tab.

Login to DockerHub to verify if docker image have been uploaded successfully.

Watch steps in YouTube channel:

DevOps Bootcamp April 2024 Schedule | DevOps & AWS Azure Cloud Coaching by Coach AK | DevOps and Cloud Computing Online Classes

 (Lot of new topics covered like GitHub Actions, Helm and Monitoring..)

The DevOps requirements in the IT market space is expected to grow by 35% by 2024. Getting a DevOps education now is a great investment into your future, which will pay off very fast!

You are in the right place to kick start your career in DevOps. DevOps is one of the top and hot IT skills right now. Currently almost all the employers are struggling to get right resources in their teams who can do the DevOps and automation work..You could be that person by attending this coaching program.

DevOps Coaching schedule Apr 2024 (promotions are available, pls contact Coach AK)

Date	Time	Type	When?
April 22nd	6:00 to 8:00 PM CST	Weekdays	Mondays/Wednesdays
May 4th	11:35 AM CST - 01:30 PM CST on Saturdays 02:00 PM CST - 04:00 PM CST on Sundays	Weekends	Sat/Sundays

DevOps Coaching Highlights:

Comprehensive hands on knowledge on Git, GitHub, Jenkins, Maven, SonarQube, Nexus, Terraform, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Prometheus, Docker registry, AWS and Azure cloud platform.

To join DevOps Coaching classes, please contact Coach AK below:

Contact no# : +1 (469)733-5248

WhatsApp #: +1 (469)733-5248

Email id: contact.devopscoaching@gmail.com
Contact Name: Coach AK

How to Setup Self-Hosted Linux Docker Build Agent in Azure DevOps | How to configure Self-Hosted Linux Docker Agents in Azure Pipelines | Create Custom Build Agents in Azure DevOps

 Let us learn how to configure a self-hosted agent using Docker in Azure DevOps pipelines.

What is an Agent?

An agent is computing infrastructure with installed agent software that runs one job at a time.To build your code or deploy your software using Azure Pipelines, you need at least one agent. As you add more code and people, you'll eventually need more.

When your pipeline runs, the system begins one or more jobs. 

In Azure pipelines, there are two types of build agents:

1. Microsoft-hosted agents - This is a service totally managed by Microsoft and it's cleared on every execution of the pipeline (on each pipeline execution, you have a fresh new environment).
2. Self-hosted agents - This is a service that you can to set up and manage by yourself. This can be a custom virtual machine on Azure or a custom on-premise machine inside your infrastructure. In a self-hosted agent, you can install all the software you need for your builds, and this is persisted on every pipeline execution. A self-hosted agent can be on Windows, Linux, macOS, or in a Docker container.

You can set up a self-hosted agent in Azure Pipelines to run inside a Windows Server Core (for Windows hosts), or Ubuntu container (for Linux hosts) with Docker. We will learn in this article on how to host Ubuntu Docker container on Linux machines.

Pre-requisites:

• Microsoft account setup
• Azure account and subscription setup
• Create a VM(Ubuntu 20.0.4) in Azure Cloud
• Create Personal Access Token in Azure DevOps
• Dockerfile created for docker build agent, please refer this repo

How to configure Self-hosted docker build agent?

1. Go to Azure DevOps dashboard - https://dev.azure.com/

2. Select your project dashboard

3. Go to your project settings

4. Click on Agent pools

Create a new Agent pool name

Enter name as myAgentPool or any name

Make sure you select Grant access permission to all pipelines

Login to Azure VM where the docker build agents will be running.

Step #1 - Install Docker CLI so we can build docker image

sudo apt update && sudo apt install docker.io -y

Step #2 - Add logged in user to docker group

sudo usermod -a -G docker $USER

Step #3 - Clone repo which has Dockerfile

git clone https://github.com/akannan1087/ado-docker-agent-repo.git

Sample dockerfile is here.. please feel free to add any software in the docker agent.

FROM ubuntu:22.04

RUN apt update -y && apt upgrade -y && apt install curl git jq libicu70 maven -y

# Also can be "linux-arm", "linux-arm64".

ENV TARGETARCH="linux-x64"

WORKDIR /azp/

COPY ./start.sh ./

RUN chmod +x ./start.sh

# Create agent user and set up home directory

RUN useradd -m -d /home/agent agent

RUN chown -R agent:agent /azp /home/agent

USER agent

# Another option is to run the agent as root.

# ENV AGENT_ALLOW_RUNASROOT="true"

ENTRYPOINT ./start.sh

Step #4 - change directory

cd ado-docker-agent-repo/azp-agent-in-docker/

Step #5 - Build the Docker image

sudo docker build --tag "azp-agent:linux" --file Dockerfile .

Step #6: Run the agent as a container

Run the below command:

sudo docker run -e AZP_URL="https://dev.azure.com/your_org_name" -e AZP_TOKEN="XXXX" -e AZP_POOL=myAgentPool -e AZP_AGENT_NAME="myLinuxDockerBuildAgent" --name "azp-agent" azp-agent:linux

that's it, docker agent is successfully started.

Step #7: Verify if docker agent is running or not

Run the below command:

sudo docker ps

Check the status of build Agent

Click on agentPool name, click on Agents

This confirms that Build agent is successfully configured in Azure DevOps and is available to run builds.

How to use the Docker build agent in your pipelines?

Please use the docker agent in the classic pipeline like below: select the agentPool

run the job. now you can see the jobs under myAgentPool--> Jobs

 

Here is the sample pipeline YAML code for automating Maven build for a Java project:

trigger:

- main

pool:

name: myAgentPool

stages:

- stage: Build

displayName: Build stage

jobs:

- job: MavenPackageAndPublishArtifacts

displayName: Maven Package and Publish Artifacts

steps:

- task: Maven@3

displayName: 'Maven Package'

inputs:

mavenPomFile: 'MyWebApp/pom.xml'

References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/docker?view=azure-devops

Watch steps in YouTube channel: