How to Automate Infra setup in Azure Cloud using Terraform and Azure DevOps | Automate App Service or Web App creation in Azure cloud using Terraform and Azure DevOps and store Terraform state remotely

Automating infrastructure setup in Azure Cloud using Terraform and Azure DevOps is a powerful approach to managing your infrastructure as code (IaC). This allows you to define and manage your Azure resources programmatically, version control your infrastructure configurations, and automate the deployment process. 

We will be creating a Java based WebApp(app service) in Azure cloud using Terraform and automate the process using Azure Devops Pipelines.

Watch Steps in YouTube channel:

Prerequistes:

• Azure subscription
• Azure DevOps organization and project
• Terraform Build & Release Tasks extension in Azure DevOps
• Terraform files created and stored in SCM for creating resources in Azure cloud

Implementation Steps:

• Create a resource group first in Azure cloud
• Create storage account, container for Terraform to store state information in Azure cloud remotely.
• Create pipeline and add Terraform tasks
• Execute pipeline to deploy resources(App service plan and WebApp) in Azure cloud
• Verify resources are created in Azure cloud
• Confirm if the terraform.tfstate file is updated

Create Resource Group in Azure cloud

Login to Azure portal, Create a new RG, or you can skip this step if you already have existing group.

Create Storage Account in Azure cloud

Create a new resource, type storage account

Click on create

select RG, enter unique account name, select standard as performance, select locally redundant storage

Click on create

Create a container inside the storage account

Select the storage account you just created, click on containers under Data storage

enter a name for the container

Create a pipeline in Azure DevOps

Login to Azure Devops, select Pipelines, select use the classic editor to create a pipeline

Configure Pipeline with tasks

Add Terraform installer task to install Terraform on build agent

Add Terraform task 

Configure the task

enter storage account, container, key information as below:

Add terraform tasks to plan, apply

Add Terraform task for plan

change the command to plan from drop down and also select azure subscription from drop down

Add Terraform task for apply

change the command to apply from drop down and also select azure subscription from drop down

Now verify to make sure if we have correct values in each/every task. Now click on Save + Queue.

Click on Save and Run

This confirms that pipeline have successfully created resources in Azure cloud. You can login to Azure portal to see the resources - app service plan and web app.

You can also verify terraform state info which has resources entry for all the resources created

Click on Containers, mytfstatecontainer

Click on terraform.tfstate

Click on Edit to view the content of terraform state file

Clean up resources created in Azure using the pipeline - destroy command

change the command to destroy instead of apply from the drop down

You can either add a new task for destroy or modify to destroy from apply in the existing task.

Now save the pipeline and run the pipeline. check the output of destroy task

Check terraform.tfstate file after destroy.

How to connect to Azure Virtual Machine from your local machine? | Connect to Azure VM from your local machine | Connect to Azure VM from your local machine

Let's learn how to connect to a Virtual machine running in Azure cloud from your local machine. Your local machine can be a Windows laptop or MacBook laptop.

Pre-requisites:

1. Keys(for e.g., yourkey.pem) already downloaded in your local machine, preferably in downloads folder.
2. Azure VM is up and running
3. SSH client - for Windows laptop, you need to install an SSH client such as Git bash or putty. You can download Git from this URL - https://git-scm.com/downloads. For Apple laptop you need to download iTerm from here.

Steps to connect to your Azure VM instance:

1. Go to Azure console --> https://portal.azure.com

2. Click on Virtual machines, click on VM

3. Click on connect

Choose Native SSH

Enter SSH key name in step # 3 in the screen

4. copy the values from step # 4

 

Copy the url from SSH which looks like below:

For e.g.

ssh -i myAzVMKey.pem azureuser@104.43.214.12

Watch steps in YouTube channel:

Windows Laptop instructions
5. Go to your local machine, Open Git Bash in Windows

make sure you are in downloads directory where your keys got downloaded. Type the below commands:

type below commands: 

pwd

this should tell you which directory you are and then navigate to downloads dir.

cd  ~/downloads 

Now copy the value from Example in the above screen

ssh -i myAzVMKey.pem azureuser@104.43.214.12

and then type enter, say yes and enter

now you should be in Azure cloud, screen should show something like this, It means you are successfully connected to VM instance running on Azure cloud. 

Mac Book Laptop or iMac Instructions

Open iTerm window, type the below command to go to downloads directory.

cd downloads

For few Mac laptops, it may add .txt in the end of pem file. in that case you need to remove .txt in the end

ssh -i myAzVMKey.pem azureuser@104.43.214.12

pwd
and then execute below command to make sure the keys have only read permissions.

chmod 400 *.pem

6. Paste the url from example highlighted above in step # 4.

ssh -i myAzVMKey.pem azureuser@104.43.214.12

7. type yes when it is asking to connect.

8. now you should be in Azure cloud, screen should show something like this, It means you are successfully connected to VM instance running on Azure cloud.