AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions Exam
Venture into the world of Azure Infrastructure, where design meets functionality. Harness your skills and gain mastery over complex cloud structures to ace the AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions exam!
Practice Test
Expert
Practice Test
Expert
Recommend an automated deployment solution for applications
Recommend an Automated Deployment Solution for Applications
CI/CD Orchestration and Deployment Strategies
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines automate the process of building, testing, and delivering applications. In Azure, Azure Pipelines (part of Azure DevOps) and GitHub Actions provide flexible workflows defined in YAML files. These services support integration with any platform, enabling teams to commit code changes and run automated tasks on Microsoft-hosted or self-hosted agents. Automation reduces manual errors and speeds up release cycles, making it easier to maintain code quality and consistency across environments.
To provision and manage infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines often incorporate Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates and Bicep. These declarative files define resources like virtual machines, networks, and services in JSON or Bicep syntax. By embedding these templates in pipeline stages, teams ensure repeatable and consistent deployments across development, test, and production environments. This practice also enables version control of infrastructure, helping to track changes and roll back when necessary.
Secure handling of credentials and configuration settings is critical in automated deployments. Integrating Azure Key Vault into CI/CD pipelines allows developers to retrieve secrets, certificates, and connection strings securely. In Azure Pipelines, you can use variable groups linked to Key Vault, while GitHub Actions supports similar patterns with secrets and contexts. This approach ensures no sensitive information is stored in plain text within code repositories or pipeline definitions.
Choosing the right deployment pattern helps achieve reliability and minimal downtime. Strategies include:
- blue-green deployments
- canary releases
- rolling updates
Implement these patterns with Azure App Service slots, Azure Kubernetes Service, or Azure Spring Apps. These methods provide zero-downtime releases and easy rollback capabilities when issues are detected.
By combining CI/CD orchestration tools, infrastructure-as-code frameworks, secure secret management, and advanced deployment patterns, organizations can meet requirements for high reliability, scalability, and security. Automated pipelines streamline development workflows, reduce risk, and ensure consistent application delivery. Following these practices positions teams to respond rapidly to business needs and maintain robust Azure infrastructure solutions.