GitHub to Cloud in Minutes with the Azure Developer CLI (`azd`)

Building applications that use multiple cloud services, connecting them all together in a secure way, and setting up a CI/CI pipeline can be a confusing and daunting task. Not to mention a time consuming one with many options. Learn how you can use the Microsoft Azure Developer CLI and the associated code templates to quickly get these types of applications up and running in cloud in minutes; build upon them and templatize your own ideas to do the same.

Prerequisites

Azure Account
- Sign up for FREE. You also need contributor role assigned to your Azure subscription.
Install azd
GitHub CLI - brew install gh or choco install gh or winget install github.cli : More options https://cli.github.com/manual/installation
Azure CLI - https://learn.microsoft.com/cli/azure/install-azure-cli

Resources

Documentation: https://aka.ms/azure-dev/devhub
Source Repo: https://github.com/azure/azure-dev
Templates: Find approved azd compatible templates and contribute your own. https://aka.ms/awesome-azd

Quickstart

Create a new directory.

mkdir gh-universe.

Next, change directories,

cd gh-universe and run the following command:

azd up -t spboyer/thecatsaidno

The command clones the template, creates the infrastructure and publishes the application code to Azure.

You will be promted for:

The name to use for this environment. This should be descriptive enough to identify the project and stage i.e. thecatsaidno-dev or workshop-catpaw etc.
Azure subscription to use
Location (eastus, westus, etc) to deploy the application to.

The output provides the url to browse to for the published application.

Step by Step

Create a new directory.

mkdir gh-universe.

Next, change directories,

cd gh-universe and run the following command:

azd init -t spboyer/thecatsaidno

The sample template code is cloned to the current directory.

Next, provision the infrastructure for the application in Azure using the provision command.

azd provision

*** Answer prompts for environment name, subscription, and geographical location.

Once complete, use the deploy command to publish the application code to Azure.

azd deploy

The output provides the url to browse to for the published application.

Configure GitHub Actions

azd pipeline config

Included in the template is a GitHub Action workflow file. To configure and enable the action, azd provides the pipeline configure command/action which performs the following:

Creates and configures the Service Principal on the Azure subscription
If there is not a git repository configured, provides the needed mechanics to create/configure your repository as well as commit the code.
Create a secure connection between Azure and your repository using GitHub secrets.
Upon checking in the workflow file, runs the action.