How to Setup Self-Hosted Linux Docker Build Agent in Azure DevOps | How to configure Self-Hosted Linux Docker Agents in Azure Pipelines | Create Custom Build Agents in Azure DevOps

 Let us learn how to configure a self-hosted agent using Docker in Azure DevOps pipelines.

What is an Agent?

An agent is computing infrastructure with installed agent software that runs one job at a time.To build your code or deploy your software using Azure Pipelines, you need at least one agent. As you add more code and people, you'll eventually need more.

When your pipeline runs, the system begins one or more jobs. 

In Azure pipelines, there are two types of build agents:

1. Microsoft-hosted agents - This is a service totally managed by Microsoft and it's cleared on every execution of the pipeline (on each pipeline execution, you have a fresh new environment).
2. Self-hosted agents - This is a service that you can to set up and manage by yourself. This can be a custom virtual machine on Azure or a custom on-premise machine inside your infrastructure. In a self-hosted agent, you can install all the software you need for your builds, and this is persisted on every pipeline execution. A self-hosted agent can be on Windows, Linux, macOS, or in a Docker container.

You can set up a self-hosted agent in Azure Pipelines to run inside a Windows Server Core (for Windows hosts), or Ubuntu container (for Linux hosts) with Docker. We will learn in this article on how to host Ubuntu Docker container on Linux machines.

Pre-requisites:

• Microsoft account setup
• Azure account and subscription setup
• Create a VM(Ubuntu 20.0.4) in Azure Cloud
• Create Personal Access Token in Azure DevOps
• Dockerfile created for docker build agent, please refer this repo

How to configure Self-hosted docker build agent?

1. Go to Azure DevOps dashboard - https://dev.azure.com/

2. Select your project dashboard

3. Go to your project settings

4. Click on Agent pools

Create a new Agent pool name

Enter name as myAgentPool or any name

Make sure you select Grant access permission to all pipelines

Login to Azure VM where the docker build agents will be running.

Step #1 - Install Docker CLI so we can build docker image

sudo apt update && sudo apt install docker.io -y

Step #2 - Add logged in user to docker group

sudo usermod -a -G docker $USER

Step #3 - Clone repo which has Dockerfile

git clone https://github.com/akannan1087/ado-docker-agent-repo.git

Sample dockerfile is here.. please feel free to add any software in the docker agent.

FROM ubuntu:22.04

RUN apt update -y && apt upgrade -y && apt install curl git jq libicu70 maven -y

# Also can be "linux-arm", "linux-arm64".

ENV TARGETARCH="linux-x64"

WORKDIR /azp/

COPY ./start.sh ./

RUN chmod +x ./start.sh

# Create agent user and set up home directory

RUN useradd -m -d /home/agent agent

RUN chown -R agent:agent /azp /home/agent

USER agent

# Another option is to run the agent as root.

# ENV AGENT_ALLOW_RUNASROOT="true"

ENTRYPOINT ./start.sh

Step #4 - change directory

cd ado-docker-agent-repo/azp-agent-in-docker/

Step #5 - Build the Docker image

sudo docker build --tag "azp-agent:linux" --file Dockerfile .

Step #6: Run the agent as a container

Run the below command:

sudo docker run -e AZP_URL="https://dev.azure.com/your_org_name" -e AZP_TOKEN="XXXX" -e AZP_POOL=myAgentPool -e AZP_AGENT_NAME="myLinuxDockerBuildAgent" --name "azp-agent" azp-agent:linux

that's it, docker agent is successfully started.

Step #7: Verify if docker agent is running or not

Run the below command:

sudo docker ps

Check the status of build Agent

Click on agentPool name, click on Agents

This confirms that Build agent is successfully configured in Azure DevOps and is available to run builds.

How to use the Docker build agent in your pipelines?

Please use the docker agent in the classic pipeline like below: select the agentPool

run the job. now you can see the jobs under myAgentPool--> Jobs

 

Here is the sample pipeline YAML code for automating Maven build for a Java project:

trigger:

- main

pool:

name: myAgentPool

stages:

- stage: Build

displayName: Build stage

jobs:

- job: MavenPackageAndPublishArtifacts

displayName: Maven Package and Publish Artifacts

steps:

- task: Maven@3

displayName: 'Maven Package'

inputs:

mavenPomFile: 'MyWebApp/pom.xml'

References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/docker?view=azure-devops

Watch steps in YouTube channel:

How to Create Quality Gate in SonarQube and integrate with GitHub Actions | SonarQube Integration with GitHub Actions | Automate Code Scan using SonarQube In GitHub Actions and Force build to Fail or Pass

 

Pre-requisites:

• Make sure SonarQube is up and running
• Make sure Java Project is setup in GitHub
• SonarQube is already integrated with GitHub Actions
• SONAR_HOST_URL and SONAR_TOKEN configured as secrets in GitHub Repo

How to Create Quality gate in SonarQube and integrate with GitHub Actions?

Make sure SonarQube is up and running and integrated with GitHub Actions. Please click here if you would like to setup SonarQube and integrate with GitHub Actions.

We will be executing below steps:

• Login to SonarQube
• Create Quality Gate in SonarQube
• Add conditions in Quality Gate
• Make quality gate as Default
• Create GitHub Actions CICD workflow yaml
• Add tasks for Maven build and Sonar Scan
• Add tasks for integrating Quality gate 
• pass/fail the builds in SonarQube

What is Quality gate?

In SonarQube a quality gate is a set of conditions that must be met in order for a project to be marked as passed.

Create Quality Gate

Login to SonarQube, Click on Quality gate, enter some name

Once you create the quality gate. Click on Add condition. 

Select new issues from the drop down and enter 2 

Select new bugs from the drop down and enter 1 as error

Setup a Default Gate

Create GitHub Actions CICD workflow yaml:

Go to GitHub repo where your Java project is, create a new file:

.github/workflows/cicd.yml

The below file have four steps(tasks) 

    - Checkout

    - Install Java on runner

    - Build using Maven

    - run Sonar Scan (this task need to have projectKey defined, otherwise build will fail)

    - run quality gate check

    - pass/fail the build

Copy the the whole yellow color marked content from below:

name: CI/CD workflow for Maven Build, Sonar Code scan and Quality gate check
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v3
    - name: Set up JDK 11
      uses: actions/setup-java@v2
      with:
        distribution: 'adopt'
        java-version: '11'
    - name: Build with Maven
      run: mvn install -f MyWebApp/pom.xml
    - name: SonarQube Scan
      uses: sonarsource/sonarqube-scan-action@master
      with:
        projectBaseDir: .
        args: >
          -Dsonar.organization=my-org
          -Dsonar.projectKey=my-Java-web-app
      env:
        SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
        SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ secrets.SONAR_HOST_URL }}
    # Check the Quality Gate status.
    - name: SonarQube Quality Gate check
      id: sonarqube-quality-gate-check
      uses: sonarsource/sonarqube-quality-gate-action@master
      # Force to fail step after specific time.
      timeout-minutes: 5
      env:
       SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
       SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ secrets.SONAR_HOST_URL }} #OPTIONAL
    # Show the output from the Quality Gate.
    # The possible outputs of the `quality-gate-status` variable are `PASSED`, `WARN` or `FAILED`.
    - name: "Here is SonarQube Quality Gate Status value.."
      run: echo "The Quality Gate status is ${{ steps.sonarqube-quality-gate-check.outputs.quality-gate-status }}"

Commit the file.

As soon as you commit, build will run immediately in GitHub Actions. 

Now you can see the output of build in Actions tab.

Now login to SonarQube to see the Scan report

If your code have any defects, you can see some build fails.

SonarQube Quality gate failed:

Watch Steps in YouTube channel:

Notes:

You can also refer the documentation below from below websites.

https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube/latest/devops-platform-integration/github-integration/

https://github.com/marketplace/actions/official-sonarqube-scan

https://github.com/marketplace/actions/sonarqube-quality-gate-check

How to Integrate Slack with GitHub Actions | Slack Integration with GitHub Actions| Send Push notifications to Slack GitHub Actions

Integrating Slack with GitHub Actions for sending Notifications

Pre-requisites:

• Slack workspace is configured and channel created
• Make sure your Project is setup in GitHub

How to integrate Slack with GitHub Actions

We will be using slack GitHub Action Slack integration action for posting messages to Slack channel from GitHub Actions.

We will be following below steps:

1. Create a new App in https://api.slack.com/apps

2. Select workspace in the app

3.Select incoming webhooks

4. Activate incoming webhook

5. Add new webhook integration

6. Select channel, Allow

7. Copy the webhook url

Create App from scratch

Enter App name and pick a workspace

Click on incoming webhooks

Activate incoming webhooks, click on Add new webhook to workspace

Select the channel where you want to send notfications

Copy webhook url

Add Slack Webhook URL as Secret in GitHub Actions

Go to your GitHub Repo --> Settings --> 

Click on Secrets and Variables under Security in left nav 

Click new Repository Secret

Add SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL with value

Create GitHub Actions CICD workflow yaml:

Go to GitHub repo where your Java project is, create a new file:

.github/workflows/cicd.yml

name: cicd-workflow with slack integration

on:

  push:

    branches: [ "master" ]

jobs:

  job1:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    env:

      SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}

    steps:

    - uses: act10ns/slack@v2

      with:

        status: starting

        channel: '#mar-2024-weekend-batch'

        message: Starting Docker Build image...

      if: always()

    - uses: actions/checkout@v3

    - name: Build Docker image

      run: |

        docker build -t my-docker-repo .

    - uses: act10ns/slack@v2

      with:

        channel: '#mar-2024-weekday-batch'

        status: ${{ job.status }}

        steps: ${{ toJson(steps) }}

      if: always()

Watch Steps in YouTube channel: