Exercise - Publish a template spec

• 4 minutes

Your team has some security-hardened Bicep files that are compliant with your company's new governance model. One of the hardened Bicep files deploys a Linux-based Azure App Service app. In this exercise, you use a deployment pipeline to publish the Bicep file as a template spec.

During the process, you'll:

Add a lint stage to your pipeline

Your repository contains a draft of a pipeline definition that you can use as a starting point.

1. In Visual Studio Code, expand the template-specs/linux-app-service folder in the root of the repository.

2. Open the pipeline.yml file.

   

3. At the bottom of the file, replace # To be added with the following lint stage definition:

   stages:
   
   - stage: Lint
     jobs:
     - job: LintCode
       displayName: Lint code
       steps:
         - script: |
             az bicep build --file $(TemplateSpecFilePath)
           name: LintBicepCode
           displayName: Run Bicep linter
   

   Your repository has a bicepconfig.json file that configures the linter to emit errors instead of warnings. Any failures during the lint stage will cause the pipeline to fail.

   Tip

   YAML files are sensitive to indentation. Whether you type or paste this code, make sure your indentation is correct. Later in this exercise, you'll see the complete YAML pipeline definition so that you can verify that your file matches.

Add a publish stage to your pipeline

Now, you can add a second stage to publish the template spec to Azure.

1. Add the following code at the end of the pipeline.yml file:

   - stage: Publish
     jobs:
     - job: Publish
       steps:
         - task: AzureCLI@2
           name: Publish
           displayName: Publish template spec
           inputs:
             azureSubscription: $(ServiceConnectionName)
             scriptType: 'bash'
             scriptLocation: 'inlineScript'
             inlineScript: |
               az ts create \
                 --resource-group $(AzureResourceGroupName) \
                 --name $(TemplateSpecName) \
                 --version $(Build.BuildNumber) \
                 --template-file $(TemplateSpecFilePath) \
                 --location $(AzureRegion) \
                 --yes
   

   This stage checks out the code from your repository and signs in to Azure using the service connection that you created. It then runs the az ts create command to publish the template spec to Azure.

   Tip

   To keep things simple, your pipeline uses the pipeline's build number as the template spec's version number. In the next unit, you'll learn about a more complex versioning scheme.

2. Save your changes to the file.

Verify and commit your pipeline definition

1. Verify that your pipeline.yml file looks like the following example:

   trigger:
     batch: true
     branches:
       include:
       - main
     paths:
       include:
       - 'template-specs/linux-app-service/**'
   
   variables:
   - name: ServiceConnectionName
     value: ToyReusable
   - name: AzureResourceGroupName
     value: ToyReusable
   - name: AzureRegion
     value: westus3
   - name: TemplateSpecName
     value: linux-app-service
   - name: TemplateSpecFilePath
     value: template-specs/linux-app-service/main.bicep
   
   pool:
     vmImage: ubuntu-latest
   
   stages:
   
   - stage: Lint
     jobs:
     - job: LintCode
       displayName: Lint code
       steps:
         - script: |
             az bicep build --file $(TemplateSpecFilePath)
           name: LintBicepCode
           displayName: Run Bicep linter
   
   - stage: Publish
     jobs:
     - job: Publish
       steps:
         - task: AzureCLI@2
           name: Publish
           displayName: Publish template spec
           inputs:
             azureSubscription: $(ServiceConnectionName)
             scriptType: 'bash'
             scriptLocation: 'inlineScript'
             inlineScript: |
               az ts create \
                 --resource-group $(AzureResourceGroupName) \
                 --name $(TemplateSpecName) \
                 --version $(Build.BuildNumber) \
                 --template-file $(TemplateSpecFilePath) \
                 --location $(AzureRegion) \
                 --yes
   

   If it doesn't, update it to match this example, and then save it.

2. Commit and push your changes to your Git repository by running the following commands in the Visual Studio Code terminal:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Add lint and publish stages to Linux App Service template spec pipeline"
   git push
   

   Immediately after you push, Azure Pipelines starts a new pipeline run.

Monitor the pipeline

1. In your browser, select Pipelines > Pipelines.

   

2. Select the active pipeline run.

3. The pipeline run is displayed.

   Wait for the pipeline run to finish. When it does, the template spec is published to Azure.

   

4. Note the pipeline's build number, which includes today's date and a unique revision number. In the example screenshot, the build number is 20230407.1.

Review the template spec in Azure

You can also view the published template spec in the Azure portal.

1. In your browser, go to the Azure portal.

2. Go to the ToyReusable resource group, and select the linux-app-service template spec.

   

3. Examine the details of the template spec.

   

   Notice that the Latest version and Version number is the same as the pipeline's build number. Your pipeline uses the build number for the template spec's version number.