Deployment Automation with Azure Pipelines and Nitric

This guide will illustrate how Nitric can be integrated with Azure Pipelines to establish a continuous deployment pipeline. The example below focuses on Azure, but with minor adjustments, it can be adapted for Google Cloud or AWS.

This guide assumes basic knowledge about Azure Pipelines. If you're unfamiliar, it's recommended to go through Azure Pipelines documentation first.

Pipeline Setup

Firstly, ensure you have a Nitric project prepared for deployment. If not, refer to Nitric's quickstart guide.

Then, you'll need to create an Azure Pipelines YAML file for your project. This will dictate the automated deployment steps. Let's name this file azure-pipelines.yml.

Below is the example content for your pipeline file. We'll explain each segment afterward, allowing you to adjust as needed:

trigger:
  - main

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:
  - script: |
      # Install Pulumi
      curl -fsSL https://get.pulumi.com | sh
      # Export path for pulumi (assuming default installation path)
      export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.pulumi/bin
      pulumi version

      # Install Nitric
      curl -L https://nitric.io/install?version=latest | bash
      export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.nitric/bin

      # Login to Azure (assuming using Service Principal and Certificate)
      az login --service-principal -u $(AZURE_CLIENT_ID) -p $(AZURE_CERTIFICATE_PATH) --tenant $(AZURE_TENANT_ID)

      # Execute the nitric command
      nitric up --ci
    displayName: 'Install Pulumi and Nitric CLI'
    env:
      PULUMI_CONFIG_PASSPHRASE: $(PULUMI_CONFIG_PASSPHRASE)
      PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN: $(PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN)
      AZURE_CLIENT_ID: $(AZURE_CLIENT_ID)
      AZURE_TENANT_ID: $(AZURE_TENANT_ID)
      AZURE_CERTIFICATE_PATH: $(AZURE_CERTIFICATE_PATH)

Breaking it down

Pipeline Triggers

Triggers indicate when the pipeline should execute, in this example the main branch is targeted.

trigger:
  - main

Virtual Machine Image

Define the virtual machine image on which the pipeline runs:

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

Pulumi and Nitric Setup

Install Pulumi and Nitric, which are necessary for deployment and set the relevant environment paths:

The up command can be used to deploy your project. The first argument --ci tells the CLI that we are running in a ci pipeline and should have raw output.

- steps
  - script: |
      # Install Pulumi
      curl -fsSL https://get.pulumi.com | sh
      # Export path for pulumi (assuming default installation path)
      export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.pulumi/bin
      pulumi version

      # Install Nitric
      curl -L https://nitric.io/install?version=latest | bash
      export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.nitric/bin

      # Login to Azure (assuming using Service Principal and Certificate)
      az login --service-principal -u $(AZURE_CLIENT_ID) -p $(AZURE_CERTIFICATE_PATH) --tenant $(AZURE_TENANT_ID)

      # Execute the nitric command
      nitric up --ci
    displayName: 'Install Pulumi and Nitric CLI'
    env:
      PULUMI_CONFIG_PASSPHRASE: $(PULUMI_CONFIG_PASSPHRASE)
      PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN: $(PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN)
      AZURE_CLIENT_ID: $(AZURE_CLIENT_ID)
      AZURE_TENANT_ID: $(AZURE_TENANT_ID)
      AZURE_CERTIFICATE_PATH: $(AZURE_CERTIFICATE_PATH)

To set up these secrets, navigate to the Azure Pipelines dashboard, select your pipeline, and add new secrets under the 'Variables' section.

Environment variables like api keys should be stored securely in Azure Pipelines secrets. These secrets are encrypted and can only be accessed by pipelines running in the same Azure DevOps project.

With the pipeline established, each commit to the main branch will trigger an automated deployment using Nitric.

Adjustments can be made to target different cloud platforms or to integrate additional stages and tools as required.