GitLab CI/CD for DevOps Beginners : Azure IaC With Terraform

In this 3-minute lecture, you’ll get a concise overview of GitLab — a powerful DevOps platform that combines source code management, CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, and collaboration tools. Learn the difference between GitLab SaaS and self-managed options, explore its key features like repositories, pipelines, and merge requests, and understand how GitLab helps teams streamline software development from code commit to deployment. This lecture sets the foundation for hands-on labs later in the course.

In this lecture, discover why GitLab is a leading DevOps platform. Learn how it unifies source control, CI/CD, and collaboration, streamlines workflows, enhances team productivity, and simplifies automation — making it ideal for building efficient, end-to-end DevOps pipelines. This session explains GitLab’s advantages over other tools and why mastering it is essential for modern DevOps engineers.

In this lecture, you’ll get a clear understanding of CI/CD — Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Continuous Deployment. Learn how CI/CD automates code testing, building, and deployment, reduces errors, speeds up software releases, and ensures consistent, reliable delivery of applications. This session lays the foundation for building practical GitLab pipelines in later hands-on labs.

In this lecture, learn about Continuous Integration (CI) — the practice of automatically building and testing code whenever changes are committed. Discover how CI helps catch errors early, improves code quality, and streamlines collaboration among developers, forming a critical part of modern DevOps workflows. This session prepares you for creating CI pipelines in GitLab.

In this lecture, you’ll learn about Continuous Delivery (CD) — the process of automatically preparing code changes for deployment after passing CI. Understand how CD ensures that software is always in a deployable state, reduces manual errors, and accelerates release cycles, enabling teams to deliver updates quickly and reliably. This session sets the stage for implementing full CI/CD pipelines in GitLab.

In this lecture, learn about Continuous Deployment — the practice of automatically deploying every code change that passes tests directly to production. Discover how it accelerates delivery, reduces manual intervention, ensures consistent releases, and helps teams respond quickly to business needs. This session explains how CI/CD pipelines in GitLab enable seamless end-to-end automation.

In this lecture, you’ll explore GitLab CI/CD pipelines — the core of automating build, test, and deployment processes. Learn how pipelines are structured with stages, jobs, and runners, and see how GitLab orchestrates Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery to streamline software development. This session lays the groundwork for hands-on pipeline creation in the course labs.

In this lecture, you’ll learn about GitLab’s architecture and how its components work together. Explore GitLab Server, Runners, Repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and how they interact to enable seamless code management, automated testing, and deployment. Understand the flow of data and processes within GitLab, providing a solid foundation for building and managing efficient DevOps workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll explore the key components of GitLab, including Repositories, Issues, Merge Requests, Runners, CI/CD pipelines, and the Web UI. Learn how each component supports collaboration, version control, and automation, and understand their roles in creating efficient, end-to-end DevOps workflows. This knowledge prepares you for hands-on GitLab labs later in the course

In this lecture, you’ll learn about GitLab Jobs — the individual tasks defined in a CI/CD pipeline. Understand how jobs are configured, executed by runners, and organized within stages. Discover how they automate building, testing, and deploying code, and see how proper job setup ensures efficient, reliable DevOps workflows in GitLab.

In this lecture, you’ll learn about GitLab Runners — the agents that execute CI/CD jobs. Explore different types of runners (shared, specific, and group), how they process pipeline jobs, and their role in automating builds, tests, and deployments. Understand how configuring runners correctly ensures smooth and efficient DevOps workflows in GitLab.

In this lecture, you’ll learn about the different GitLab setup options, including GitLab SaaS (cloud) and self-managed (on-premises). Understand the advantages, use cases, and considerations for each setup, helping you choose the best deployment model for your team or organization while preparing for hands-on CI/CD labs.

In this lecture, you’ll learn the differences between Git, GitHub, and GitLab. Understand Git as a version control system, GitHub as a cloud-based repository platform, and GitLab as a complete DevOps solution. Explore their roles, use cases, and how they fit into modern software development and CI/CD workflows. This knowledge helps you choose the right tool for different stages of your DevOps pipeline.

In this lecture, you’ll learn the difference between Git and GitHub. Understand Git as a distributed version control system for tracking code changes, and GitHub as a cloud platform that hosts Git repositories, enables collaboration, and supports basic CI/CD workflows. This session clarifies their distinct roles and how they work together in software development.

In this lecture, you’ll explore the differences between GitHub and GitLab. Learn how both platforms host Git repositories, but GitLab provides a full DevOps lifecycle with integrated CI/CD, issue tracking, and automation, while GitHub focuses more on collaboration and source code management. Understand their unique features, use cases, and when to choose one over the other for DevOps workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to create and access a GitLab SaaS account. Explore the GitLab web interface, navigate key menus, and understand essential features to prepare your environment for hands-on CI/CD labs and DevOps projects.

In this lecture, you’ll get an overview of GitLab project capabilities. Learn how to create and manage projects, organize repositories, track issues, use merge requests, and leverage built-in CI/CD pipelines. Understand how these features enable collaboration, version control, and automation, providing a solid foundation for building real-world DevOps workflows in GitLab.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to clone a GitLab repository directly into VSCode. Understand the steps to connect VSCode with GitLab, authenticate, and bring the repository locally for development. This hands-on session prepares you to manage code, make changes, and commit updates efficiently as part of CI/CD workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to make code changes in VSCode and commit them to your GitLab repository. Understand staging, committing, writing clear commit messages, and pushing changes to GitLab. This hands-on session teaches best practices for version control and prepares you for CI/CD pipeline automation.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to create and manage branches in GitLab repositories. Understand the importance of branching for parallel development, feature isolation, and collaboration. Learn best practices for naming branches, switching between them, and preparing your code for merge requests and CI/CD workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll learn about GitLab CI/CD variables — key-value pairs used to store configuration, secrets, and environment-specific data. Understand how to create, manage, and use variables securely in pipelines to automate builds, tests, and deployments efficiently, enabling flexible and secure DevOps workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll learn how to configure a Terraform backend in Azure for GitLab CI/CD pipelines. Understand how remote state management works, why it’s important for collaboration, and how to securely store and share Terraform state across multiple pipeline runs. This session ensures your infrastructure deployments are consistent, reliable, and production-ready.

In this lecture, you’ll explore the Terraform source code used to provision Azure resources. Understand the folder structure, modules, variables, and resource definitions. Learn how the code is organized for reusability, scalability, and integration with GitLab CI/CD pipelines, preparing you for hands-on infrastructure deployment labs.

In this lecture, you’ll take a detailed walkthrough of a GitLab CI/CD pipeline. Learn how stages, jobs, and runners work together to automate builds, tests, and deployments. See how pipelines integrate with Terraform for Azure infrastructure, understand execution flow, and explore best practices for efficient, reliable, and scalable DevOps workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll watch a live demo of destroying Azure resources using Terraform via a GitLab CI/CD pipeline. Learn how to safely remove infrastructure, manage state, and ensure clean, automated teardown of environments. This session demonstrates best practices for lifecycle management in Infrastructure as Code and DevOps workflows.

In this lecture, you’ll learn why GitLab is a preferred DevOps platform. Explore its all-in-one capabilities for source code management, CI/CD, collaboration, and automation. Understand how GitLab simplifies workflows, enhances team productivity, and supports end-to-end DevOps pipelines, making it an ideal choice for both small teams and enterprise environments.

In this final lecture, we’ll recap everything you’ve learned — GitLab fundamentals, CI/CD pipelines, Azure Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, and hands-on lab exercises. You’ll see how to apply these skills in real-world DevOps workflows, best practices to follow, and next steps to continue building expertise in GitLab, Azure, and Terraform automation.