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DotNet Core, VS 2015, VSTS and Docker
I unashamedly love Docker. Late last year I posted some thoughts I had on Docker DevOps. In this post I’m going to take a look at Docker DevOps using DotNet Core 1.0.0, Docker Tools for Visual Studio,...
View ArticleRunning the New DotNet Core VSTS Agent in a Docker Container
This week I finally got around to updating my VSTS extension (which bundle x-plat VersionAssembly and ReplaceTokens tasks) to use the new vsts-task-lib, which is used by the new DotNet Core vsts-agent....
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Parallel Testing in a Selenium Grid with VSTS
There are several different types of test – unit tests, functional test, load tests and so on. Generally, unit tests are the easiest to implement and have a high return on investment. Conversely, UI...
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DacPac Change Report Task for VSTS Builds
Most development requires working against some kind of database. Some teams choose to use Object Relational Mappers (ORMs) like Entity Framework. I think that should be the preferred method of dealing...
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Load Balancing DotNet Core Docker Containers with nginx
Yes, I’ve been playing with Docker again – no big surprise there. This time I decided to take a look at scaling an application that’s in a Docker container. Scaling and load balancing are concepts you...
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Using Release Management to Manage Ad-Hoc Deployments
Release Management (RM) is awesome – mostly because it works off the amazing cross platform build engine. Also, now that pricing is announced, we know that it won’t cost an arm and a leg!When I work...
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End to End Walkthrough: Deploying Web Applications Using Team Build and...
I’ve posted previously about deploying web applications using Team Build and Release Management (see Config Per Environment vs Tokenization in Release Management and WebDeploy, Configs and Web Release...
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Managing Config for .NET Core Web App Deployments with Tokenizer and...
Last week I posted an end-to-end walkthrough about how to build and deploy web apps using Team Build and Release Management – including config management. The post certainly helps you if you’re on the...
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You Suck: Or, How to Process Criticism
Recently I received some criticism from a customer. Sometimes I find it difficult to process criticism – I justify or argue or dismiss. Some of that is my personality – I like to be right! Part of that...
View ArticleDevOps Drives Better Architecture–Part 1 of 2
(Read part 2 here)I haven’t blogged for a long while – it’s been a busy few months!One of the things I love about being a DevOps consultant is that I have to be technically proficient – I can’t help...
View ArticleDevOps Drives Better Architecture–Part 2 of 2
In part 1 I introduced some thoughts as to how good architecture makes DevOps easier. And how good DevOps drives better architecture – a symbiotic relationship. I discussed how good source control...
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Running Selenium Tests in Docker using VSTS Release Management
The other day I was doing a POC to run some Selenium tests in a Release. I came across some Selenium docker images that I thought would be perfect – you can spin up a Selenium grid (or hub) container...
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Easy Config Management when Deploying Azure Web Apps from VSTS
A good DevOps pipeline should utilize the principle of build once, deploy many times. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s essential for a good DevOps pipeline. That means that you have to have a way...
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New Task: Tag Build or Release
I have a build/release task pack in the marketplace. I’ve just added a new task that allows you to add tags to builds or releases in the pipeline, inspired by my friend and fellow MVP Rene van...
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Testing in Production: Routing Traffic During a Release
DevOps is a journey that every team should at least have started by now. Most of the engagements I have been on in the last year or so have been in the build/release automation space. There are still...
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Aurelia, Azure and VSTS
I am a huge fan of Aurelia– and that was even when I was working with it in the beta days. I recently had to do some development to display d3 graphs, and needed a simple SPA app. Of course I decided...
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DevOps with Kubernetes and VSTS: Part 1
If you've read my blog before, you'll probably know that I am huge fan of Docker and containers. When was the last time you installed software onto bare metal? Other than your laptop, chances are you...
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DevOps with Kubernetes and VSTS: Part 2
In Part 1 I looked at how to develop multi-container apps using Kubernetes (k8s) - and more specifically, minikube, which is a full k8s environment that runs a single node on a VM on your laptop. In...
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Protecting a VSTS Web Hook with Basic Authentication
VSTS supports service hooks like Slack, AppVeyor, Bamboo and a host of other ALM tools. You can also create your own hooks using a simple WebHooks API. There's an example here. However, one thing that...
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Configuring AAD Authentication to Azure SQL Databases
Azure SQL is a great service - you get your databases into the cloud without having to manage all that nasty server stuff. However, one of the problems with Azure SQL is that you have to authenticate...
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