Windows Containers with Azure DevOps CI/CD Pipeline

Docker containers standardize software delivery with a container image, delivering consistent packaging across environments and enabling faster deployment, improved utilization, and lower costs.

Learn to automate containerized apps with Dockerfile instructions and Docker builds, push images to registries, orchestrate with Kubernetes and Docker Compose, and implement CI/CD pipelines for staging and production.

Compare dot net core and dot net framework for docker deployments, highlighting core's suitability for greenfield microservices and cross-platform environments.

Azure DevOps provides an integrated platform with Git repositories, pipelines for CI/CD, and test plans, offering artifact management and agile work boards for end-to-end software delivery.

Explore the Docker story and the evolution of Windows containers, showing how dot net applications are packaged and run in isolated environments within a ci/cd pipeline.

Compare containers and virtual machines to show how containers share the host kernel and lightweight isolation, boosting utilization and reducing overhead versus bare metal and VMs.

Compare Hyper-V containers and Windows containers (silos) on Windows, noting that Hyper-V runs a lightweight VM with a kernel while Windows containers share the host kernel, offering portability.

Explore Linux namespaces and Windows us object namespaces for container isolation, and examine cgroups or job objects for resource control, plus the union filesystem that layers images.

Explore docker architecture, including the client and daemon, RESTful API communication, and how images from Docker Hub launch containers. Learn how orchestration stitches nodes into scalable clusters.

Install Docker Desktop on Windows and configure it to run Windows containers by switching from Linux to Windows containers, then validate the setup with Docker commands and client/server versions.

Discover how container images originate and are retrieved from registries such as Docker Hub, and how repositories, namespaces, and tags organize image versions on the host.

Learn to pull a Docker image from a registry, inspect its metadata and layers, and understand image fields (registry, namespace, repository, tag) to prepare for running a Windows container.

Launch a container with interactive (-i) and TTY (-t) options to interact with the running process, then inspect container IP, hostname, and Windows Server Core capabilities via PowerShell.

Learn to debug Windows containers in an Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline by inspecting logs with Docker logs, connecting to containers for commands, and forwarding logs to Fluentd and Splunk.

Map container ports to the host with docker run -p, exposing container port 80 to a host port to access the app remotely, and open firewall rules.

Learn container lifecycle events from created to started, stopped, and removed, using a two-step create and start, with graceful stop via signal 15 after 10 seconds.

Engage in a hands-on lab by following the updated lab guide, run and list Windows containers, and replay lessons to master operating Windows containers.

Learn to set up a container-based development environment, clone the dotnet core app source, build and test a docker image, and run it locally.

Copy the source code into the dev container, then restore, publish, and run a dotnet core app, exposing port 80 on all interfaces and accessing it via the host IP.

Learn how to capture container changes by committing them into a new image, tag it for Docker Hub, and inspect layers with Docker history to support CI/CD pipelines.

Learn how a multi-stage Dockerfile removes build tools and source code from the final image by using a build stage and a runtime stage.

Refactor the existing Dockerfile for the sb darknet application into a multi-stage Docker image, producing a runtime-only final image with the application and its runtime, while separating build tools.

Refactor a Linux multi-stage Dockerfile into a Windows build, using a build stage, .NET runtime image, and copy from build to publish, then test with docker run.

Dockerize a legacy ASP.NET framework app on Windows containers with IIS and Microsoft SQL Server, using a multi-stage dockerfile with NuGet restore and MSBuild.

Launch a docker dev environment with a SQL Server container and a dotnet framework SDK image, copy source, restore NuGet packages, and build the app with MSBuild.

Package a dot net framework web app with IIS into a container. Update web.config with the database connection string and test run against a SQL Server backend.

Build a multi-stage Dockerfile for a .NET framework app, automate image building with a build stage and runtime copy, then test, configure, and publish the image.

Explore a two-tier album viewer web app built with dotnet core and docker. Build a multi-stage image and run containers for the app and an IDB database.

Learn to locate the database IP with docker inspect, set environment variables, and run the album viewer container on port 80, highlighting manual setup challenges and image-name mistakes.

Explore docker compose commands to manage an app stack: pause and resume services, exec into containers, and stop or bring down the stack, with state preserved or removed.

Explore how Docker Compose service discovery uses the Docker daemon DNS to resolve service hostnames, so apps connect to the database by hostname instead of IP or localhost.

Understand how a Dockerfile builds images from source code and how Docker Compose runs containers to form a stack, linking them with a build context.

Sign up for an Azure DevOps account, start a free plan, and create a public project. Explore boards, repositories, pipelines, and artifacts for ci/cd pipelines.

Trigger the pipeline manually and edit the yaml to see how changes affect runs, branches, and variables in the Azure DevOps ci/cd workflow.

Explore building a Docker-based pipeline in Azure DevOps to build a Docker image using a multi-stage Dockerfile, select Windows Server images, and publish the artifact to a container registry.

Create your own private Azure container registry in the Azure portal, configure registry name and region, review settings, and begin working with repositories and images.

Learn to configure your docker host to talk to an Azure container registry, authenticate with the Azure CLI, retag images for ACR, and push them to repositories.

Create a docker build and acr publish pipeline in Azure DevOps that builds an image from your Dockerfile, tags it (dev, latest, v-<build>), and publishes to your ACR registry.

Configure the docker host to accept remote connections by exposing the docker daemon to a port and securing it with generated ssl certificates for remote access.

Sync git remotes between GitHub and Azure DevOps, commit a Docker Compose file, and extend pipelines to publish images to ACR and deploy to a dev environment.

Add a deploy to dev stage in the azure devops pipeline using docker compose to run services from the container registry after building and publishing to ACR.

Learn to troubleshoot connectivity between your CI/CD pipeline and VM by verifying the host IP, confirming the Docker daemon listens on port 2376, and using Nmap to diagnose firewall blocks.

Diagnose and fix firewall issues by opening port 2376 with inbound rules on zero cloud and Windows Defender firewall; validate with nmap and confirm deployment.