DevOps & Cloud

Azure DevOps Pipeline for .NET Microservices

Designed and implemented a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline for a .NET microservices architecture deployed to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Built automated testing gates, container scanning, blue-green deployments, and integrated monitoring reducing deployment time from 30 minutes to 8 minutes.

DevOps Platform Engineer Cloud Engineer

Azure DevOps Azure Pipelines YAML .NET Core Docker Azure Container Registry AKS Helm Flyway SonarQube Aqua Security PowerShell

Azure DevOps Pipeline for .NET Microservices

The Problem

Our enterprise .NET microservices architecture was deployed using a legacy Jenkins setup with brittle PowerShell scripts. The deployment process was fragile, failing 25% of the time due to race conditions and environment-specific issues. Each microservice had its own independent pipeline configuration with massive code duplication, making updates painful across 12 services. Build times averaged 35 minutes per service, and we had no visibility into deployment progress or test results. The team struggled with Azure-specific authentication in CI/CD, manual environment configuration, and zero integration with Azure Container Registry. Developers waited hours for feedback on pull requests, and production deployments required manual approval via email chains. Database migrations were run manually via RDP, creating deployment bottlenecks and occasional data corruption.

The Solution

**Azure DevOps Pipeline Architecture**: Designed YAML-based multi-stage pipelines with reusable templates for build, test, and deploy stages shared across all 12 microservices. Configured Azure Pipeline library for centralized variable management and secret storage. Implemented branch policies with automated PR builds and required code review approvals. Set up hosted agents with custom Docker images pre-installed with build tools, reducing agent preparation time from 8 minutes to 30 seconds.

**Container & Registry Integration**: Built comprehensive Docker image workflow: build multi-stage Dockerfiles, scan with Aqua Security, tag with semantic versioning, and push to Azure Container Registry (ACR). Configured ACR geo-replication across three regions for performance and disaster recovery. Implemented image retention policies to automatically clean up old images.

**Deployment Strategy**: Integrated with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using Helm charts for microservice deployments. Configured blue-green deployment slots in Azure App Service for zero-downtime releases. Implemented automated database migrations using Flyway integrated into the pipeline with rollback capabilities. Created environment-specific deployment gates requiring manual approval for production with stakeholder notifications.

**Testing & Quality Gates**: Configured parallel test execution reducing test time by 60%. Integrated SonarQube for code quality analysis with quality gates failing builds below 80% coverage. Set up automated load testing in staging using Azure Load Testing before production promotion.

Key Highlights

Reduced build time from 35 minutes to 11 minutes per microservice (68% improvement)
Increased deployment success rate from 75% to 98%
Achieved zero-downtime deployments across all 12 microservices
Reduced feedback time on PRs from 3 hours to 12 minutes
Eliminated 2,400+ lines of duplicated pipeline code with templates
Automated database migrations with zero incidents over 6 months
Configured parallel builds reducing total release time by 70%
Integrated security scanning blocking 34 vulnerable dependencies
Implemented automated rollback on health check failures
Created deployment dashboards showing real-time pipeline status
Reduced ACR storage costs by 40% with image lifecycle policies
Passed compliance audit with complete audit trail of all deployments