Azure Release Pipeline is CD

Release pipelines in Azure Pipelines help your team continuously deliver software to your customers at a faster pace and with lower risk - from MS

基本上我的認知是 CD 就是 Release 他可以做到:

• 全自動化
• 半自動化
  • 中途可以有gates 去 query 某些status
  • 可以有approval的機制去等待
    

How do release pipelines work?

Azure Pipelines runs the following steps as part of every deployment:

1. Pre-deployment approval: When a new deployment request is triggered, Azure Pipelines checks whether a pre-deployment approval is required before deploying a release to a stage. If it's required, it sends out email notifications to the appropriate approvers. (必須要有設定才會有這個機制)

2. Queue deployment job: Azure Pipelines schedules the deployment job on an available automation agent. An agent is a piece of software that can run tasks in the deployment.

   • 這裡可以再切分成(後面會細談):
     • serverless job (agentless job)
     • agent job
     • deployment group job

3. Agent selection: An automation agent picks up the job. The agents for release pipelines are exactly the same as the agents that run your builds in Azure Pipelines. A release pipeline can contain settings to select an appropriate agent at runtime.

   • 這裡可以再切分成(後面會細談):
     • agent pool agent
       • Self-host
       • MS-host
     • deployment group agent
       • Self-host

4. Download artifacts: The agent downloads all the artifacts specified in that release, provided you haven't opted to skip the download. 把所需要的東西塞進agent job or deployment group job的agent中

5. Run the deployment tasks: The agent then runs all the tasks in the deployment job to deploy the app to the target servers for a stage. 操作agent去run所定義的task

6. Generate progress logs: The agent creates detailed logs for each step while running the deployment, and pushes these logs back to Azure Pipelines.(在release pipeline 可以看到log output)

7. Post-deployment approval: When deployment to a stage is complete, Azure Pipelines checks if there's a post-deployment approval required for that stage. If no approval is required, or upon completion of a required approval, it proceeds to trigger deployment to the next stage.(必須要有設定才會有這個機制)

The unit in an release

Stage

1個stage可以有許多jobs

通常stage代表是一個階段
舉例來說可以是TEST/INT/STAG/PROD 或者是 RUN E2E TESTING/ DATA TRANFER / CLEAN ENV
每一個STAGE的切換都可以設定Gates OR approval 來判斷是否要繼續進行

Job

1個job可以有很多tasks

通常Job就是控制azure agent來幫你做一系列的task 可以分成

延伸閱讀 : 
1. 比較AGENT JOB 和 DEPLOYMENT JOB的差異
2. 何謂AZURE AGENT? 它可以是怎樣的形式? 他可以做到甚麼?

Task

1個task只能做一件事

task就是azure agent要做的待辦事項 可以是:

• az command
• shell script
• python
• arm task
• terraform
• 幾乎是都可以support

How do I use a release pipeline?

For example

如果喜歡這篇觀念文章 請幫我多多推推喔XD
之後希望可以在寫幾篇手把手教學XDDD