Azure DevOps Q/A

1. What is Azure DevOps?

• Answer: Azure DevOps is a set of development tools and services provided by Microsoft that facilitates the entire DevOps lifecycle. It includes services for version control, build automation, release management, and more.

2. Explain the key components of Azure DevOps.

• Answer: Azure DevOps consists of several key components, including Azure Repos (for version control), Azure Pipelines (for build and release automation), Azure Boards (for work tracking), Azure Test Plans (for testing), and Azure Artifacts (for package management).

3. What is Continuous Integration (CI) and how does Azure Pipelines support it?

• Answer: Continuous Integration is the practice of frequently integrating code changes into a shared repository. Azure Pipelines supports CI by automatically building and testing code changes whenever they are committed to the repository, ensuring early detection of integration issues.

4. Explain the concept of Continuous Deployment (CD).

• Answer: Continuous Deployment is the practice of automatically deploying code changes to production or staging environments after passing automated tests in a Continuous Integration pipeline. Azure Pipelines supports CD by automating the deployment process.

5. How does Azure DevOps support Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

• Answer: Azure DevOps supports IaC through tools like Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. These templates define the infrastructure configuration and can be version-controlled in Azure Repos, ensuring consistency and repeatability in infrastructure deployments.

6. What is YAML in the context of Azure Pipelines?

• Answer: YAML (Yet Another Markup Language) is a human-readable data serialization format used in Azure Pipelines to define build and release pipelines as code. It allows version control and simplifies the management of pipelines.

7. Explain the difference between Git and Azure Repos for version control.

• Answer: Git is a distributed version control system, while Azure Repos is a service built on Git for version control. Azure Repos provides additional features like pull request workflows, branch policies, and integration with other Azure DevOps services.

8. How does Azure DevOps handle security and compliance?

• Answer: Azure DevOps incorporates security features such as role-based access control (RBAC), audit logs, and compliance standards. It also integrates with Azure Policy and Azure Security Center to enforce organizational policies and ensure compliance.

9. What are deployment gates in Azure DevOps Release Pipelines?

• Answer: Deployment gates are conditions set during a release deployment to automatically check and validate certain criteria before progressing to the next stage. This can include approvals, manual interventions, or automated checks like performance testing.

10. Explain the use of service connections in Azure DevOps.

• Answer: Service connections in Azure DevOps are used to connect and authenticate with external services, such as Azure subscriptions, Docker registries, or GitHub repositories. They allow for secure integration and communication between Azure DevOps and these external services.

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Microsoft Azure Q/A

 What is Microsoft Azure?

1. • Answer: Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform provided by Microsoft that offers a wide range of services, including computing power, storage, networking, databases, analytics, and more. It enables businesses to build, deploy, and manage applications and services through Microsoft's global network of data centers.
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2. Explain the key components of Azure.

   • Answer: Azure consists of several key components, including Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) for computing, Azure Blob Storage for scalable object storage, Azure SQL Database for managed relational databases, Azure App Service for web and mobile app hosting, Azure Virtual Network for networking, and Azure Active Directory for identity and access management.
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3. What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM)?

   • Answer: Azure Resource Manager is the deployment and management service for Azure. It enables you to deploy and manage resources in your Azure environment in a consistent and organized manner. ARM uses JSON templates to define and deploy resources as a group, known as an Azure Resource Group.
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4. Explain the difference between Azure Blob Storage and Azure Table Storage.

   • Answer: Azure Blob Storage is used for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as documents, images, videos, and logs. Azure Table Storage, on the other hand, is a NoSQL data store used for storing semi-structured data. It's suitable for scenarios where you need to store and query non-relational data, such as key-value pairs.
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5. What is Azure Active Directory (AAD)?

   • Answer: Azure Active Directory is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service. It allows users to sign in and access various applications and services with a single set of credentials. AAD provides features such as multi-factor authentication, conditional access policies, and integration with thousands of pre-built applications.
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6. Explain the concept of Azure Virtual Network.

   • Answer: Azure Virtual Network enables you to create private, isolated networks in the Azure cloud. It allows you to connect Azure resources, such as virtual machines and databases, to each other and to on-premises networks securely. Virtual Network provides features like subnetting, network security groups, and the ability to connect to other networks using VPN or Azure ExpressRoute.

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8. What is Azure App Service and how is it used?

   • Answer: Azure App Service is a fully managed platform for building, deploying, and scaling web apps. It supports multiple programming languages, frameworks, and operating systems. With Azure App Service, you can quickly build, deploy, and scale applications without managing the underlying infrastructure. It includes Web Apps, Mobile Apps, API Apps, and Functions.
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9. Explain Azure Functions.

   • Answer: Azure Functions is a serverless compute service that allows you to run event-triggered code without having to explicitly provision or manage infrastructure. You can write functions in multiple languages, and they can be triggered by various events, such as HTTP requests, changes in data, or messages in a queue. Functions scale automatically based on demand.
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10. What is Azure DevOps?

    • Answer: Azure DevOps is a set of development tools and services that facilitates the entire DevOps lifecycle. It includes features for version control, build automation, release management, and application insights. Azure DevOps helps development and operations teams collaborate and deliver software more efficiently.
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11. Explain Azure SQL Database.

    • Answer: Azure SQL Database is a fully managed relational database service in the Azure cloud. It provides features like automatic backups, scaling based on demand, and high availability. Developers can use Azure SQL Database to build and deploy applications that require a relational database without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure.

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Azure Active Directory

 All employees in an organization need access to some Azure services to perform their tasks. They can access services like SQL database, machine learning, or Azure container services when the administrator assigns them separate user id and password for each service. Employees, as well as administrators, often find it hard to manage multiple user logins at the same time. It creates more of a hassle for administrators working in an organization that involves more than 1000 employees. 

This is where Azure Active Directory (AD) comes into the picture. With Azure AD, the administrators can handle multiple user logins without any issue. Administrators need to assign a single username and password to access all the services they want. 

What is the Azure Active Directory?

Azure Active Directory is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. For an organization, Azure AD helps employees sign up to multiple services and access them anywhere over the cloud with a single set of login credentials.

Windows AD vs. Azure AD

Windows Active Directory (AD) was the previous version of Azure AD. Active Directory (AD) is an OS directory service that facilitates working with interconnected, complex, and different network resources in a unified manner. 

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Azure Key Vault

 Azure Key Vault is a cloud service for securely storing and accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, or cryptographic keys. Key Vault service supports two types of containers: vaults and managed hardware security module(HSM) pools. Vaults support storing software and HSM-backed keys, secrets, and certificates. Managed HSM pools only support HSM-backed keys.

Read more: https://learn.microsoft.com, https://learn.microsoft.com, https://learn.microsoft.com

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Application Insights

Application Insights sends telemetry from your web application to the Azure portal so that you can analyze the performance and usage of your application.  

It provides benefits as:

1. Exceptions and performance diagnostics.
2. Interactive data analysis.
3. Azure diagnostics.
4. Proactive detection.

References: https://azuredevopslabs.com/

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Azure WebJobs

 WebJobs is a feature of Azure App Service that enables you to run a program or script in the same instance as a web app, API app, or mobile app. There's no extra cost to use WebJobs.

Azure WebJobs enable you to run programs or scripts in your website as background processes. It runs and scales as part of Azure Web Sites.  WebJobs aren't supported for App Service on Linux yet. 

What Scheduling Options are supported by Azure WebJobs?

Azure WebJobs can run continuously, on demand or on a schedule.

Supported file types for scripts or programs

The following file types are supported:

• .cmd, .bat, .exe (using Windows cmd)
• .ps1 (using PowerShell)
• .sh (using Bash)
• .php (using PHP)
• .py (using Python)
• .js (using Node.js)
• .jar (using Java)

Read More : https://learn.microsoft.com, https://www.c-sharpcorner.com

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Azure API Management (APIM)

 Azure API Management is a fully managed service that helps developers to securely expose their APIs to external and internal customers. It provides a set of tools and services for creating, publishing, and managing APIs, as well as for enforcing security, scaling, and monitoring API usage.

API management includes a range of features and tools, such as an API gateway, a web-based developer portal, API lifecycle management, monitoring and analytics tools, and security features. 

Azure API Management can be used with a variety of back-end services, such as Azure Functions, Azure Logic Apps, and Azure Virtual Machines, as well as with on-premises and third-party systems. It can help developers to build and manage APIs in a way that is secure, scalable, and easy to use.

Azure API Management architecture and components

Azure API Management consists of an API gateway, a developer portal, and a management plane. These components are fully managed and hosted by Azure. API Management is available in several tiers with differing features and capacity.

APIM system consists of following components,

The API gateway is the endpoint that:

1. Accepts API calls and routes them to your backends.
2. Verifies API keys, JWT tokens, certificates, and other credentials.
3. Enforces usage quotas and rate limits.
4. Transforms your API on the fly without code modifications.
5. Caches backend responses were set up.
6. Logs call metadata for analytics purposes.

The Azure portal is the administrative interface where you set up your API program. Use it to:

1. Define or import API schema.
2. Package APIs into products.
3. Set up policies like quotas or transformations on the APIs.
4. Get insights from analytics.
5. Manage users.

The Developer portal serves as the main web presence for developers, where they can:

1. Read API documentation.
2. Try out an API via the interactive console.
3. Create an account and subscribe to get API keys.
4. Access analytics on their own usage.

How Azure API Management works

Azure API Management works by providing a layer between API clients and the back-end API services that they access. When a client makes a request to an API managed by API Management, the request is first sent to the API Management gateway. The gateway is responsible for enforcing security policies, rate limiting, and other policies on the API.

If the request is allowed by the gateway, it is then forwarded to the back-end API service. The back-end API service processes the request and sends a response back to the API Management gateway, which in turn sends the response back to the client.

API consumers

For API consumers, Azure API Management provides a convenient way to access and use APIs that are managed by the service. When an API consumer wants to use an API managed by API Management, they typically follow these steps:

Find the API: The consumer can discover the API by browsing the developer portal, which is a web-based portal provided by API Management that lists all the available APIs. The consumer can also use the API Management REST API to programmatically discover APIs.

Get API credentials: To use an API, the consumer typically needs to provide some form of credentials, such as an API key or an OAuth token. The consumer can obtain these credentials by signing up for an API Management account and creating an application in the developer portal.

Send a request: The consumer can then send a request to the API by making an HTTP request to the API Management gateway, using the API endpoint and the API credentials. The request is forwarded to the back-end API service, which processes the request and sends a response back to the API Management gateway.

Get a response: The API Management gateway then sends the response back to the consumer. If the request was successful, the response will include the requested data or functionality. If there was an error, the response will include an error code and message.

API providers

For API providers, Azure API Management provides a set of tools and services for building, publishing, and managing APIs. When an API provider wants to use API Management to manage their APIs, they typically follow these steps:

Create an API Management service instance: The API provider needs to create an API Management service instance in the Azure portal. This creates a dedicated API Management environment that the provider can use to manage their APIs.

Define the API: The provider needs to specify the API endpoint, the operations that the API supports, and the request and response formats. The provider can use the API Management portal or the API Management REST API to define the API.

Configure security: The provider configures security for the API by specifying the authentication and authorization methods that the API will use. API Management supports a variety of authentication and authorization methods, including API keys, OAuth, and certificates.

Set up policies: The provider can use policies to specify rules and behaviors for the API. For example, the provider can use policies to set rate limits, transform requests and responses, or cache responses.

Publish the API: The provider can make the API available in the developer portal, which allows developers to discover, learn about, and interact with APIs.

Reference: https://www.solo.io/, https://www.c-sharpcorner.com

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