| title | description | author | ms.author | ms.date | ms.topic | ms.service | services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Continuous integration and continuous deployment to Azure IoT Edge devices (classic editor) - Azure IoT Edge |
Set up continuous integration and continuous deployment using the classic editor - Azure IoT Edge with Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines |
PatAltimore |
patricka |
08/26/2021 |
conceptual |
iot-edge |
iot-edge |
[!INCLUDE iot-edge-version-all-supported]
Azure Pipelines includes a built-in Azure IoT Edge task that helps you adopt DevOps with your Azure IoT Edge applications. This article demonstrates how to use the continuous integration and continuous deployment features of Azure Pipelines to build, test, and deploy applications quickly and efficiently to your Azure IoT Edge using the classic editor. Alternatively, you can use YAML.
In this article, you learn how to use the built-in Azure IoT Edge tasks for Azure Pipelines to create build and release pipelines for your IoT Edge solution. Each Azure IoT Edge task added to your pipeline implements one of the following four actions:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Build module images | Takes your IoT Edge solution code and builds the container images. |
| Push module images | Pushes module images to the container registry you specified. |
| Generate deployment manifest | Takes a deployment.template.json file and the variables, then generates the final IoT Edge deployment manifest file. |
| Deploy to IoT Edge devices | Creates IoT Edge deployments to one or more IoT Edge devices. |
Unless otherwise specified, the procedures in this article do not explore all the functionality available through task parameters. For more information, see the following resources:
- Task version
- Advanced - If applicable, specify modules that you do not want built.
- Control Options
- Environment Variables
- Output variables
-
An Azure Repos repository. If you don't have one, you can Create a new Git repo in your project. For this article, we created a repository called IoTEdgeRepo.
-
An IoT Edge solution committed and pushed to your repository. If you want to create a new sample solution for testing this article, follow the steps in Develop and debug modules in Visual Studio Code or Develop and debug C# modules in Visual Studio. For this article, we created a solution in our repository called IoTEdgeSolution, which has the code for a module named filtermodule.
For this article, all you need is the solution folder created by the IoT Edge templates in either Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio. You don't need to build, push, deploy, or debug this code before proceeding. You'll set up those processes in Azure Pipelines.
Know the path to the deployment.template.json file in your solution, which is used in several steps. If you're unfamiliar with the role of the deployment template, see Learn how to deploy modules and establish routes.
[!TIP] If you're creating a new solution, clone your repository locally first. Then, when you create the solution you can choose to create it directly in the repository folder. You can easily commit and push the new files from there.
-
A container registry where you can push module images. You can use Azure Container Registry or a third-party registry.
-
An active Azure IoT hub with at least two IoT Edge devices for testing the separate test and production deployment stages. You can follow the quickstart articles to create an IoT Edge device on Linux or Windows
In this section, you create a new build pipeline. You configure the pipeline to run automatically and publish build logs whenever you check in changes to the IoT Edge solution.
-
Sign in to your Azure DevOps organization (
https://dev.azure.com/{your organization}) and open the project that contains your IoT Edge solution repository.
-
From the left pane menu in your project, select Pipelines. Select Create Pipeline at the center of the page. Or, if you already have build pipelines, select the New pipeline button in the top right.
-
At the bottom of the Where is your code? page, select Use the classic editor. If you wish to use YAML to create your project's build pipelines, see the YAML guide.
-
Follow the prompts to create your pipeline.
-
Provide the source information for your new build pipeline. Select Azure Repos Git as the source, then select the project, repository, and branch where your IoT Edge solution code is located. Then, select Continue.
-
Select Empty job instead of a template.
-
-
Once your pipeline is created, you are taken to the pipeline editor. Here, you can change the pipeline's name, agent pool, and agent specification.
You can select a Microsoft-hosted pool, or a self-hosted pool that you manage.
In your pipeline description, choose the correct agent specification based on your target platform:
-
If you would like to build your modules in platform amd64 for Linux containers, choose ubuntu-18.04
-
If you would like to build your modules in platform amd64 for Windows 1809 containers, you need to set up self-hosted agent on Windows.
-
If you would like to build your modules in platform arm32v7 or arm64 for Linux containers, you need to set up self-hosted agent on Linux.
:::image type="content" source="./media/how-to-continuous-integration-continuous-deployment-classic/configure-env.png" alt-text="Configure build agent specification.":::
-
-
Your pipeline comes preconfigured with a job called Agent job 1. Select the plus sign (+) to add four tasks to the job: Azure IoT Edge twice, Copy Files once, and Publish Build Artifacts once. Search for each task and hover over the task's name to see the Add button.
:::image type="content" source="./media/how-to-continuous-integration-continuous-deployment-classic/add-iot-edge-task.png" alt-text="Add Azure IoT Edge task.":::
When all four tasks are added, your Agent job looks like the following example:
:::image type="content" source="./media/how-to-continuous-integration-continuous-deployment-classic/add-tasks.png" alt-text="Four tasks in the build pipeline.":::
-
Select the first Azure IoT Edge task to edit it. This task builds all modules in the solution with the target platform that you specify. Edit the task with the following values:
Parameter Description Display name The display name is automatically updated when the Action field changes. Action Select Build module images. .template.json file Select the ellipsis (...) and navigate to the deployment.template.json file in the repository that contains your IoT Edge solution. Default platform Select the appropriate operating system for your modules based on your targeted IoT Edge device. Output variables Provide a reference name to associate with the file path where your deployment.json file generates, such as edge. For more information about this task and its parameters, see Azure IoT Edge task.
These configurations use the image repository and tag that are defined in the
module.jsonfile to name and tag the module image. Build module images also helps replace the variables with the exact value you define in themodule.jsonfile. In Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code, you specify the actual value in a.envfile. In Azure Pipelines, you set the value on the Pipeline Variables tab. Select the Variables tab on the pipeline editor menu and configure the name and value as following:- ACR_ADDRESS: Your Azure Container Registry Login server value. You can find the login server value on the container registry's overview page in the Azure portal.
If you have other variables in your project, you can specify the name and value on this tab. Build module images recognizes only variables that are in
${VARIABLE}format. Make sure you use this format in your**/module.jsonfiles. -
Select the second Azure IoT Edge task to edit it. This task pushes all module images to the container registry that you select.
Parameter Description Display name The display name is automatically updated when the Action field changes. Action Select Push module images. Container registry type Use the default type: Azure Container Registry.Azure subscription Choose your subscription. Azure Container Registry Select the type of container registry that you use to store your module images. Depending on which registry type you choose, the form changes. If you choose Azure Container Registry, use the dropdown lists to select the Azure subscription and the name of your container registry. If you choose Generic Container Registry, select New to create a registry service connection. .template.json file Select the ellipsis (...) and navigate to the deployment.template.json file in the repository that contains your IoT Edge solution. Default platform Select the appropriate operating system for your modules based on your targeted IoT Edge device. Add registry credential to deployment manifest Specify true to add the registry credential for pushing docker images to deployment manifest. For more information about this task and its parameters, see Azure IoT Edge task.
If you have multiple container registries to host your module images, you need to duplicate this task, select different container registry, and use Bypass module(s) in the Advanced settings to bypass the images that are not for this specific registry.
-
Select the Copy Files task to edit it. Use this task to copy files to the artifact staging directory.
Parameter Description Display name Use the default name or customize Source folder The folder with the files to be copied. Contents Add two lines: deployment.template.jsonand**/module.json. These two files serve as inputs to generate the IoT Edge deployment manifest.Target Folder Specify the variable $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory). See Build variables to learn about the description.For more information about this task and its parameters, see Copy files task.
-
Select the Publish Build Artifacts task to edit it. Provide artifact staging directory path to the task so that the path can be published to release pipeline.
Parameter Description Display name Use the default name or customize. Path to publish Specify the variable $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory). See Build variables to learn more.Artifact name Use the default name: drop Artifact publish location Use the default location: Azure Pipelines For more information about this task and its parameters, see Publish build artifacts task.
-
Open the Triggers tab and check the box to Enable continuous integration. Make sure the branch containing your code is included.
-
Select Save from the Save & queue dropdown.
This pipeline is now configured to run automatically when you push new code to your repo. The last task, publishing the pipeline artifacts, triggers a release pipeline. Continue to the next section to build the release pipeline.
[!INCLUDE iot-edge-create-release-pipeline-for-continuous-deployment]
Note
Layered deployments are not yet supported in Azure IoT Edge tasks in Azure DevOps.
However, you can use an Azure CLI task in Azure DevOps to create your deployment as a layered deployment. For the Inline Script value, you can use the az iot edge deployment create command:
az iot edge deployment create -d {deployment_name} -n {hub_name} --content modules_content.json --layered true
[!INCLUDE iot-edge-verify-iot-edge-continuous-integration-continuous-deployment]
- Understand the IoT Edge deployment in Understand IoT Edge deployments for single devices or at scale
- Walk through the steps to create, update, or delete a deployment in Deploy and monitor IoT Edge modules at scale.