create-multistage-pipeline.md

title	description	ms.topic	ms.date	ms.custom
Tutorial: Create a multistage pipeline with Azure DevOps	Build an app pipeline for development and staging.	tutorial	07/12/2023	template-how-to-pattern

Tutorial: Create a multistage pipeline with Azure DevOps

[!INCLUDE version-lt-eq-azure-devops]

You can use an Azure DevOps multistage pipeline to divide your CI/CD process into stages that represent different parts of your development cycle. Using a multistage pipeline gives you more visibility into your deployment process and makes it easier to integrate approvals and checks.

In this article, you'll create two App Service instances and build a YAML pipeline with three stages:

[!div class="checklist"]

• Build: build the source code and produce a package
• Dev: deploy your package to a development site for testing
• Staging: deploy to a staging Azure App Service instance with a manual approval check

In a real-world scenario, you may have another stage for deploying to production depending on your DevOps process.

The example code in this exercise is for a .NET web application for a pretend space game that includes a leaderboard to show high scores. You'll deploy to both development and staging instances of Azure Web App for Linux.

Prerequisites

• A GitHub account where you can create a repository. Create one for free.
• An Azure account with an active subscription. Create an account for free.
• An Azure DevOps organization and project. Create one for free.
• An ability to run pipelines on Microsoft-hosted agents. You can either purchase a parallel job or you can request a free tier.

Fork the project

Fork the following sample repository at GitHub.

https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/mslearn-tailspin-spacegame-web-deploy

Create the App Service instances

Before you can deploy your pipeline, you need to first create an App Service instance to deploy to. You'll use Azure CLI to create the instance.

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. From the menu, select Cloud Shell and the Bash experience.

3. Generate a random number that makes your web app's domain name unique. The advantage of having a unique value is that your App Service instance won't have a name conflict with other learners completing this tutorial.

   webappsuffix=$RANDOM    
   

4. Open a command prompt and use a az group create command to create a resource group named tailspin-space-game-rg that contains all of your App Service instances. Update the location value to use your closest region.

   az group create --location eastus --name tailspin-space-game-rg
   

5. Use the command prompt to create an App Service plan.

   az appservice plan create \
     --name tailspin-space-game-asp \
     --resource-group tailspin-space-game-rg \
     --sku B1 \
     --is-linux
   

6. In the command prompt, create two App Service instances, one for each instance (Dev and Staging) with the az webapp create command.

   az webapp create \
     --name tailspin-space-game-web-dev-$webappsuffix \
     --resource-group tailspin-space-game-rg \
     --plan tailspin-space-game-asp \
     --runtime "DOTNET|6.0"
   
   az webapp create \
     --name tailspin-space-game-web-staging-$webappsuffix \
     --resource-group tailspin-space-game-rg \
     --plan tailspin-space-game-asp \
     --runtime "DOTNET|6.0"
   

7. With the command prompt, list both App Service instances to verify that they're running with the az webapp list command.

   az webapp list \
     --resource-group tailspin-space-game-rg \
     --query "[].{hostName: defaultHostName, state: state}" \
     --output table
   

8. Copy the names of the App Service instances to use as variables in the next section.

Create your Azure DevOps project and variables

Set up your Azure DevOps project and a build pipeline. You'll also add variables for your development and staging instances.

Your build pipeline:

• Includes a trigger that runs when there's a code change to branch
• Defines two variables, buildConfiguration and releaseBranchName
• Includes a stage named Build that builds the web application
• Publishes an artifact you'll use in a later stage

Add the Build stage

[!INCLUDE include]

7. When the Configure tab appears, select Starter pipeline.

8. Replace the contents of azure-pipelines.yml with this code.

   :::code language="yml" source="~/../snippets/pipelines/multistage/multistage-example.yml" range="1-67":::

9. When you're ready, select Save and run.

Add instance variables

1. In Azure DevOps, go to Pipelines > Library.

2. Select + Variable group.

3. Under Properties, add Release for the variable group name.

4. Create a two variables to refer to your development and staging host names. Replace the value 1234 with the correct value for your instance.

   Variable name	Example value
   WebAppNameDev	tailspin-space-game-web-dev-1234
   WebAppNameStaging	tailspin-space-game-web-staging-1234

5. Select Save to save your variables.

Add the Dev stage

Next, you'll update your pipeline to promote your build to the Dev stage.

1. In Azure Pipelines, go to Pipelines > Pipelines.

2. Select Edit in the contextual menu to edit your pipeline.

   :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/multistage-pipeline-edit-contextual-menu.png" alt-text="Screenshot of select Edit menu item. ":::

3. Update azure-pipelines.yml to include a Dev stage. In the Dev stage, your pipeline will:

   • Run when the Build stage succeeds because of a condition

   • Download an artifact from drop

   • Deploy to Azure App Service with an Azure Resource Manager service connection

     :::code language="yml" source="~/../snippets/pipelines/multistage/multistage-example.yml" range="1-92" highlight="69-92":::

4. Change the AzureWebApp@1 task to use your subscription.

   1. Select Settings for the task.

      :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/select-settings-azurewebapptask.png" alt-text="Screenshot of settings option in YAML editor task. ":::

   2. Update the your-subscription value for Azure Subscription to use your own subscription. You may need to authorize access as part of this process. If you run into a problem authorizing your resource within the YAML editor, an alternate approach is to create a service connection.

      :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/edit-your-subscription-value.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Azure subscription menu item. ":::

   3. Set the App type to Web App on Linux.

   4. Select Add to update the task.

5. Save and run your pipeline.

Add the Staging stage

Last, you'll promote the Dev stage to Staging. Unlike the Dev environment, you want to have more control in the staging environment you'll add a manual approval.

Create staging environment

1. From Azure Pipelines, select Environments.

2. Select New environment.

3. Create a new environment with the name staging and Resource set to None.

4. On the staging environment page, select Approvals and checks.

   :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/pipeline-add-check-to-environment.png" alt-text="Screenshot of approvals and checks menu option. ":::

5. Select Approvals.

6. In Approvers, select Add users and groups, and then select your account.

7. In Instructions to approvers, write Approve this change when it's ready for staging.

8. Select Save.

Add new stage to pipeline

You'll add new stage, Staging to the pipeline that includes a manual approval.

1. Edit your pipeline file and add the Staging section.

   :::code language="yml" source="~/../snippets/pipelines/multistage/multistage-example.yml" range="1-116" highlight="94-116":::

2. Change the AzureWebApp@1 task in the Staging stage to use your subscription.

   1. Select Settings for the task.

      :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/select-settings-azurewebapptask.png" alt-text="Screenshot of settings option in YAML editor task. ":::

   2. Update the your-subscription value for Azure Subscription to use your own subscription. You may need to authorize access as part of this process.

      :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/edit-your-subscription-value.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Azure subscription menu item. ":::

   3. Set the App type to Web App on Linux.

   4. Select Add to update the task.

3. Go to the pipeline run. Watch the build as it runs. When it reaches Staging, the pipeline waits for manual release approval. You'll also receive an email that you have a pipeline pending approval.

   :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/pipeline-wait-approval.png" alt-text="Screenshot of wait for pipeline approval.":::

4. Review the approval and allow the pipeline to run.

   :::image type="content" source="media/mutistage-pipeline/pipeline-check-manual-validation.png" alt-text="Screenshot of manual validation check.":::

Clean up resources

If you're not going to continue to use this application, delete the resource group in Azure portal and the project in Azure DevOps with the following steps:

To clean up your resource group:

1. Go to the Azure portal and sign in.

2. From the menu bar, select Cloud Shell. When prompted, select the Bash experience.

   :::image type="content" source="../apps/cd/azure/media/azure-portal-menu-cloud-shell.png" alt-text="A screenshot of the Azure portal showing selecting the Cloud Shell menu item. ":::

3. Run the following az group delete command to delete the resource group that you used, tailspin-space-game-rg.

   az group delete --name tailspin-space-game-rg
   

To delete your Azure DevOps project, including the build pipeline:

1. In Azure DevOps, navigate to your project.

2. Select Project settings.

3. In the Project details, select Delete.

Related content

• Key concepts for new Azure Pipelines users
• Deploy to App Service using Azure Pipelines