Getting Started with Azure TFS and DevOps

Azure Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a powerful tool for managing your software development projects. It's an all-in-one solution for version control, project planning, and continuous integration and delivery.

Azure TFS is cloud-based, which means you can access it from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have an internet connection. This makes it ideal for distributed teams or those who need to collaborate with others remotely.

To get started with Azure TFS, you'll need to create an account and set up a project. This involves selecting a project type, such as Agile or Scrum, and configuring your version control settings.

With Azure TFS, you can manage your code, track work items, and monitor your project's progress all in one place. This helps to streamline your development process and improves collaboration among team members.

You can integrate Azure DevOps Server/TFS with Jira Data Center/Server using the Git Integration for Jira app. This app supports Azure Repos and allows you to connect multiple repositories from your Azure DevOps Server/TFS.

To integrate Azure DevOps Server/TFS with Jira Data Center/Server, you can use either the Full feature integration or the Single repository integration method. The Full feature integration requires at least an existing Contributor user access to Azure DevOps Server/TFS git projects, while the Single repository integration requires an existing Azure DevOps Server/TFS git repository.

The Git Integration for Jira app lists available git repositories from Azure DevOps Server/TFS, allowing you to enable or disable repositories for use with Jira. You can also use the Add new integration panel to connect multiple repositories from your Azure DevOps Server/TFS. To connect a single repository, you can paste the repository URL from the Azure DevOps Server/TFS web portal into the provided box.

To link commits of Azure DevOps Server/TFS projects to Jira Data Center/Server, you need to mention the Jira issue key along with the commit message in Visual Studio. For example, "PRJ-123 Fix null code" would link the commit to the Jira issue PRJ-123.

Here are the steps to integrate Azure DevOps Server/TFS with Jira Data Center/Server:

To connect multiple repositories from your Azure DevOps Server/TFS, use the Add new integration panel. This setup uses full feature integration offering functions and features not found on single repository connections.

A Contributor user access to Azure DevOps Server/TFS git projects is required for this process. This is also known as the former Auto-connect integration.

On the Jira Data Center/Server dashboard menu, go to Git ➜ Manage repositories. The git configuration page for connecting repositories is displayed.

To connect, click Microsoft on the Add new integration panel. This will list available git repositories from Azure DevOps Server/TFS. You can enable or disable repositories for use with Jira by ticking or unticking the checkbox for the selected repositories.

After importing the repositories, the Settings dialog is displayed. Click Finish to complete the setup. For now, only git projects are supported from Azure DevOps Server/TFS.

Here's a step-by-step guide to connect multiple repositories from Azure DevOps Server/TFS:

1. Go to Git ➜ Manage repositories on the Jira Data Center/Server dashboard menu.

2. Click Microsoft on the Add new integration panel.

3. Click Connect to continue.

4. Enable or disable repositories for use with Jira by ticking or unticking the checkbox for the selected repositories.

5. Click Import repositories.

6. Click Finish to complete the setup.

Process customization is a powerful feature in Azure DevOps Services that lets you tailor your work-tracking experience to fit your team's unique needs. You can customize work item types, states, and fields directly through the user interface without needing to edit XML files.

Azure DevOps Services uses the Inheritance process model, which supports WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) customization, making it easy to manage and adapt to changes in your development process.

This approach simplifies the customization process and ensures that changes are immediately reflected in your projects. You can create and modify processes to fit your team's workflow, ensuring that the tools align with your specific project requirements.

You can choose between the Inheritance process model and the On-premises XML process model with Azure DevOps Server. The Inheritance process model supports WYSIWYG customization, while the On-premises XML process model supports customization through the import or export of XML definition files for work-tracking objects.

Custom process templates and the witadmin.exe tool are always disabled to ensure that all projects are automatically updated with each Azure DevOps Services upgrade. This approach helps avoid issues caused by manual customization.

If you prefer to customize your processes programmatically, you can use REST endpoints. This ensures that your projects are automatically updated when new versions of their base processes are released with Azure DevOps Services upgrades.

Using OM with Net Standard 2.0 is a great option for Azure DevOps Server 2019 RTW.

Version 16.143.1 of our NuGet packages supports NetStandard 2.0.

These packages are fully compatible with Azure DevOps.

This means you can use them with Azure DevOps Server 2019 RTW without any issues.

Azure TFS Integration is a powerful tool for teams, allowing them to streamline their development and deployment processes.

It's a collaboration platform that integrates with Azure DevOps, enabling teams to work more efficiently and effectively.

Azure TFS Integration supports a wide range of development methodologies, including Agile and Scrum.

With this integration, teams can manage their work items, track progress, and collaborate with ease.

The integration also enables seamless version control, allowing teams to manage their code and collaborate on projects.

This means teams can focus on writing code, rather than managing the infrastructure.

Azure TFS Integration is a game-changer for teams, enabling them to work more efficiently and effectively.

To merge a branch in Azure TFS, start by navigating to the Team Explorer and clicking on Branches. From there, click Merge to initiate the merge process.

Once you click Merge, you'll need to confirm the merge by clicking Merge to continue. This will trigger the reviewer's approval process, which typically takes place in the Azure DevOps Server/TFS server web UI.

The updated code is reviewed in the web UI, and once approved, the team leader or reviewer can complete the merge.

Authentication and security are crucial aspects of Azure TFS. You can authenticate using either Microsoft account credentials or Microsoft Entra ID credentials, depending on your organization setup.

If you choose to use Microsoft Entra ID, you can enable features such as multifactor authentication, IP address restrictions, and more. This approach provides a better experience in many scenarios and offers more options for enhanced security.

In Azure DevOps Server, you connect to an intranet server and authenticate using Windows Authentication and your Active Directory (AD) domain credentials. This process is seamless, and you never encounter a sign-in experience.

To manage users and groups in Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server, you can add Microsoft Entra groups to Azure DevOps Services groups or Active Directory (AD) groups to various Azure DevOps groups. This allows you to grant users access to deployments and manage access levels for users based on their licenses.

Here's a comparison of access levels in Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server:

Azure DevOps Services handles authentication differently than Azure DevOps Server. You connect to Azure DevOps Services over the public internet, while Azure DevOps Server connects to an intranet server.

To authenticate with Azure DevOps Services, you can use either Microsoft account credentials or Microsoft Entra ID credentials. Microsoft Entra ID offers features like multifactor authentication, IP address restrictions, and more. It's recommended to configure your organization to use Microsoft Entra rather than Microsoft accounts.

With Azure DevOps Server, you authenticate using Windows Authentication and your Active Directory (AD) domain credentials. This process is seamless, and you don't encounter a sign-in experience.

You can use Microsoft Entra groups to provide access to groups of users in Azure DevOps Services. If you use Microsoft Accounts instead, you must add users individually.

Classic pipelines lack global environment security controls, which can lead to security issues. This is because security rules are applied to each release pipeline individually, making it difficult to manage security for multiple pipelines.

In Azure DevOps, environments are defined as stages, but these stages are specific to each release pipeline and must be secured separately. This means security teams must individually implement or verify permissions for each production stage.

Security rules can be applied to deployment groups, but there are no permissions or approvals that can be applied to control who initiates a deployment. This can lead to unwieldy security processes for multiple pipelines.

In contrast, Octopus environments provide a global security boundary with cross-cutting permissions applied at a global level. This ensures that security rules are applied consistently across all environments.

Octopus permissions can be scoped to environments and projects at a global level, providing certainty that deployments are secure. This eliminates the need for individual security rules on each release pipeline.

Here's a comparison of security controls in Azure DevOps and Octopus:

Azure DevOps offers two primary options: Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server. Azure DevOps Services supports integration with GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server repositories, providing quick set-up, maintenance-free operations, and easy collaboration across domains.

You can choose between Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server based on your specific needs. Azure DevOps Services gives you access to cloud build and deployment servers, and application insights. Azure DevOps Server, on the other hand, supports integration with GitHub Enterprise Server repositories and allows you to configure servers or integration points such as build servers and SQL Server.

Here are the key differences between Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server:

If you're looking for a cloud-based solution, Azure DevOps Services is a great choice. It offers quick set-up, maintenance-free operations, and easy collaboration across domains.

Azure DevOps Services supports integration with GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server repositories. It provides access to cloud build and deployment servers, and application insights.

One of the key benefits of Azure DevOps Services is its scalability. You can access it from anywhere with an internet connection, and it's highly scalable. However, if you need complete control over your data and infrastructure, Azure DevOps Server might be a better fit.

Azure DevOps Services also offers two options for scoping and scaling data: organizations and projects. Organizations get their own URLs and can have many projects within a collection.

Here are some key differences between Azure DevOps Services and Azure DevOps Server:

Azure DevOps Services is a great option if you need a cloud-based solution with quick set-up and maintenance-free operations. However, if you need complete control over your data and infrastructure, Azure DevOps Server might be a better fit.

Using Octopus Deploy can be a game-changer for your deployment process. With Azure DevOps, you get source control, build/CI, and bug tracking, but with Octopus, you get powerful release management, deployment, and runbook automation capabilities.

Octopus can be integrated with Azure DevOps to create a seamless deployment experience. You can deploy an ASP.NET Core application to Azure websites using Octopus and Azure DevOps/TFS.

The official extension for Azure DevOps Pipelines allows you to push packages, create releases, and trigger deployments from Azure DevOps. This extension is a must-have for anyone looking to streamline their deployment process.

You can connect your Azure DevOps dashboard to Octopus and use the dashboard widget to display the status of your Octopus deployments. This provides a clear overview of your deployment process.

All the tasks you need to perform a deployment in Octopus are available in Azure DevOps. Each task provides a number of options, including which instance to deploy to and options for channels and tenanted deployments.

The Octopus tasks can be called either directly from Team Build or from Pipelines within Azure DevOps. This makes it possible to use Azure Pipelines for high-level release approvals, but gets all the benefits of Octopus at deployment time.