Introduction

Those are days where we manually build the code, move the build files to different environments causing data/file conflicts and identifying issues consumes more amount of time. Those manual efforts are replaced with Build Automation and Auto Deployment through DevOps Model.

DevOps model is an enterprise capability that enables Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Deployment and Continuous Monitoring of a Software. It will help to identify issues easily at any point of time and able to resolve it in early stage.

In this article, you will know about

1.       What is Continuous Integration?

2.       What is Continuous Deployment?

3.       What is Continuous Delivery?

4.       How to set up Jenkins to do Continuous Integration with GIT and Continuous Deployment to Environments.

Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice where developer will integrate (checkin/commit) the code into code shared repository (like TFS, GIT). Each code integration will trigger the build process to check if there are any issues in the code and followed by running the Unit Tests using Unit Test Frameworks (NUnit, Junit, MSUnit).

Key Advantage of enabling the build process in each code integration will help developers to identify the defects easily and the reason for the issues (i.e. faster feedback on the code quality)

Continuous Integration has below principles,

1.       Code versioning Control

2.       Build Automation

3.       Automated Unit Testing

Continuous Deployment

Continuous Deployment is a Practice to keep the code deployable at any point of time. During this process, build will be automatically deployed in to destination environment if there are no issues in the “Automated Build and Automated Unit Testing Execution” phases.

Continuous Delivery

Continuous Delivery is a Practice which also impose to keep the code deployable at any point of time. However, one level of manual intervention may be present to ensure all the artifacts and configuration are valid before moving the build to Test/Production environments. After verifying the configurations, team/project lead can push the build (certified) to Production environments.

Below are the best DevOps tools available in the market, you can choose one based on your application needs and goals.

1.       Gradle

2.       GIT

3.       Jenkins

4.       Bamboo

5.       Docker

6.       Kubernetes

7.       Puppet Enterprise

8.       Ansible

9.       Nagios

10.   Raygun

In this article, we can use Jenkins integrating with GIT Repo and enable the Continuous Integration and Deployment in simple steps,

Prerequisites

1.       Jenkins installed on your machine

2.       .Net Code on GIT Repository

Step 1:

To create new CI & CD task, click on "New Item"

Step 3: Git Path Configuration and Manage Password

Configure Git.exe

Go to --> Manage Jenkins --> Global Tool Configuration

Find Git Path on your system and map it in the Configuration section as mentioned below.

Manage Password

Step 4:

Enter GIT code repository and select the appropriate credentials which we have configured in the Step3,

Additional Info:

If GIT exe is not able to connect to GIT Repository, you may get the below error.

Step 5: Build Triggers

"cron" expression is used to schedule the build. you can read about "cron" expression from this link and modify it based on your need.

Step 6: Add Windows batch Command to Create Build directory

Modify the below code snippet based on your need

set rootPub=D:\JenkinsBuild\build

REM Pub = location of this file\MMDDYYYY

set pub=%rootPub%\MyBuildDirectory

REM Create the publish directory

mkdir "%pub%"

REM The location of the Jenkins “Build” (actually a GIT get latest)

set rootBuild=D:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\CICD

REM Copy all of the Jenkins build files (Source files from GIT) into the publish directory (copy of latest build)

xcopy "%rootBuild%" "%pub%" /E /Y /C /J /Q

Step 7: Build the Project

To configure the MSBuild Path, Go to --> Global Configuration and map the Msbuild exe as mentioned below

Step 8: To test the Unit Test Project

On successful completion of "Step 7" will generate "tests dll" in the release path. In this step we will evaluate the tests.

Add Windows Batch Command

Modify the below code snippet based on your need,

del "D:\JenkinsBuild\build\MyBuildDirectory\CICD\CICD.Tests\TestResults.trx"

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe" /testcontainer:"D:\JenkinsBuild\build\MyBuildDirectory\CICD\CICD.Tests\bin\Release\CICD.Tests.dll" /resultsfile:"D:\JenkinsBuild\build\MyBuildDirectory\CICD\CICD.Tests\TestResults.trx"

Step 9: Continuous Deployment

Add "MsBuild" step and add command Line Arguments.

Below mentioned the command Line Arguments that will tell the "MsBuild" to deploy the build to the given address. You can modify it based on your need.

/P:LaunchSiteAfterPublish=True

/P:PrecompileBeforePublish=Custom

/P:EnableUpdateable=True

/P:DebugSymbols=False

/P:DeployOnBuild=True

/P:PublishProfile=mybuildprofile

/P:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://mydeploymentUrl.com:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=mydeploymentUrl.com

/P:DeployIisAppPath=mydeploymentUrl.com

/P:Configuration=Release

/P:UserName=${username}

/P:Password=${password}

/P:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC

/P:WebPublishMethod=MSDeploy

/P:ADUsesOwinOrOpenIdConnect=False

/P:PrecompileBeforePublish=True

/P:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True

That’s it!! Build will get deployed to the destination environment if the provided credentials/command line arguments are correct. Like Jenkins there are many tools to automate the build, test and deployment process. However, we need to choose the tools based on the application need.