Designing and Implementing DevOps Certification(AZ-400) Training

About Course

The Microsoft AZ-400 certification focuses on designing and implementing DevOps practices using Azure. To prepare, understand prerequisites like Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) and either Azure Administrator (AZ-104) or Azure Developer (AZ-204). Study key domains: instrumentation, SRE, security, source control, CI/CD, and collaboration. Utilize Microsoft Learn, online courses, and hands-on labs. Practical experience with Azure DevOps services and real-world projects is essential. Focus on creating and managing pipelines, monitoring, and secure deployment strategies. Schedule and take the exam, then continue learning to stay current in the evolving DevOps field.

Course Content

Module 1: – Introduction

Slides and Diagrams download
Our course approach
An important note on the course
Section Introduction
Primer to DevOps – Project lifecycle
Primer to DevOps – Agile Methodology
Primer to DevOps – Scrum process
Primer to DevOps – Development and Operations
Primer to DevOps – About DevOps
Azure DevOps Free Account

Module 2: – Configure processes and communications

Section Introduction
Let’s start with planning
Traditional Approach
Our Approach
Getting started with Azure Boards
Creating user stories
Azure Boards
Work item process
Adding tasks to user stories
Now lets create a sprint
Creating users
Using Dashboards
Using Queries
Seeing dashboards as another user
Understanding permissions
Azure DevOps query permissions Azure DevOps Dashboard permissions Azure DevOps – Wiki
Azure DevOps – Delivery plans
Azure Boards – Integration with Microsoft Teams
Trying out another project
Short Quiz

Module 3: – Design and implement source control

What are we going to cover
What is source control
What is Git
Let’s install git
Let’s start working with Git
Adding to the git repository
Making changes to a file
Quick note on the commands
Going back to a previous commit
Un-staging a file
Git branches
Working with branches
Merging the branches
Using a remote repository
Creating a GitHub account
Publishing onto GitHub
Committing changes to GitHub
Note about using Visual Studio
About publishing code from Visual Studio
Installing Visual Studio 2022
Publishing code from Visual Studio
Now let’s clone the repository as another user
Let’s create a merge request
More on merges
A different merge process
Squash Merge
Creating a branch on GitHub
Creating a branch in Visual Studio
Adding a branch protection rule in Github
Tagging in git
Note on data recovery
Note on large files in Git
Branching strategies
Azure Repos – Starting off
Azure Repos – Branches
Azure Repos – Pull request
Azure repos – Importing GitHub repos
Azure Repos – Branch policy
Azure Repos – Branch policy – Work items
Azure repos – Branch security
gitignore file
Azure repos – Publishing from Visual Studio
Deviation – Azure Pipelines
Deviation – Azure Pipelines – Completed
Azure repos – Visual Studio – Cloning a repository
Azure repos – Microsoft Teams
Azure Boards App with GitHub
Team Foundation Version Control
Note on public and private projects
Note on the usage of Slack
Cherry picking changes
Short Quiz

Module 4: – Design and implement build pipelines

Section Resources download
What are we going to cover
What is Continuous Integration
About the build process
About the publish process
Now going back to continuous integration
What are Azure Pipelines
Creating a pipeline
So what exactly is happening
Triggering the pipeline
Microsoft hosted agent
Resolving our issue
Self-hosted agent
Lab – Deploying the self-hosted agent
Lab – Registering the self-hosted agent
Running the pipeline
Exploring the work folder
A couple of notes on our pipeline
Few more aspects
Deleting your resources
Security at every stage
Using the Mend Bolt tool – Setup
Using the Mend Bolt tool – Usage
Going back to our base
Adding unit tests
Running unit tests in the pipeline
Code Coverage – Adding unit test Code Coverage – Implementation
Azure Pipelines – GitHub repository
GitHub status badge
Azure Pipelines – Classic Editor
Using SonarCloud
Parallel jobs
Note on pipeline caching
Azure Pipelines integration with Microsoft Teams
Using GitHub Actions
What have we seen so far
Lab – Installing Jenkins
Jenkins – Creating a build pipeline
Jenkins Integration with Azure repos
Note – Managing agents
Short Quiz

Module 5: – Design and implement release pipelines

Section Resources download
Understanding deployment
Azure Web App – Manual deployment
Azure Web App – Release pipelines
Resolving our issue
Multiple stages in the pipeline
Approvals and gates
Lab – Release pipelines – Approvals
Lab – Azure pipelines – Gates – Query work items
Lab – Azure pipelines – Gates – Azure Monitor alerts
Lab – Azure pipelines – Gates – Azure Policies
Azure Releases – Manual Intervention
Lab – Deployment Groups – Setup
Lab – Deployment Groups – Implementation
Azure Web App – Azure SQL database
Lab – Deploying the Azure Web App
Lab – Azure Pipelines – SQL Database table
Lab – Azure Pipelines – Azure Web App – Connection string Release pipeline – Associate work items
The next step – Containers
Revision – Building a Docker image
Revision – Deploying a container
Azure Pipeline – Azure Container Registry
Azure Pipeline – Azure Container Registry – Implementation
Azure Pipelines – Azure Container Registry – Debugging
Lab – Azure Container Instance – Release pipelines
Revision – Deployment to Azure Kubernetes
Lab – Pipelines – Deployment to Azure Kubernetes
Lab – Release pipelines – Azure Kubernetes
Quick Note – Publish Artifacts
Lab – Multi-stage builds
About Container jobs
Working with Container jobs
Note – Publishing onto Azure Kubernetes.mp4
Quick Note on Technical Debt
Note – When there are multiple builds
Short Quiz

Module 6: – Design and Implement Infrastructure as Code

Section Resources download
About managing infrastructure
About ARM templates
Lab – ARM Templates – Azure Web App
Lab – ARM Templates – Azure SQL database
Lab – ARM Templates – Azure virtual machines
Modularize templates
Lab – Nested template
Lab – Linked template
Lab – Release pipelines – ARM Templates
What happens if we run the pipeline again
Lab – Release pipelines – Deleting resources
Quick note on deployment to multiple environments
Lab – Release pipelines – ARM Templates Artifacts
Lab – ARM Templates – Dynamic Resource creation
Lab – Release pipelines – Dynamic Resources
Lab – Deploying resources via Azure CLI
Lab – Release Pipelines – Azure CLI
About Terraform
Installing Terraform
Lab – Creating resources via Terraform
Lab – Release pipelines – Terraform
Lab – Azure Release Pipelines – YAML
Azure Release Pipelines – YAML – ARM Templates
Desired State Configuration
Desired State Configuration
Lab – Azure Automation DSC
Note – File DSC resource
Using VM extensions
Lab – Team Services Agent
Lab – Custom Script Extension
Virtual Machine Scale Sets
ARM Template – Virtual Machine Scale Set
ARM Template – Virtual machine scale set extension
Note – VMSS – Application Health Extension
Short Quiz

Module 7: – Deployments, Packages and Test Plans

Section Resources download
The fear of changes
Blue-Green Deployments
Azure Web App – Deployment Slots
Lab – Azure Web App – Deployment Slots
Lab – Azure Pipelines – Deployment Slots
Canary deployments
Azure Traffic Manager
Lab – Azure Traffic Manager
Lab – Azure Pipelines – Azure Traffic Manager
Using a rolling deployment
Using a Load Balancer
Lab – Azure Load Balancer – VM Setup
Lab – Azure Load Balancer – Configuration
Using the Load Balancer in a pipeline
Package Management
Lab – Creating and publishing a package
Lab – Consuming the package
Azure Artifacts – Other aspects
Azure Artifacts – Upstream sources
Lab – Azure Pipelines – Package Publish
Pipeline reports
Note – Flaky tests
Azure App Config
Lab – Using Selenium
Azure Test Plans
Subscribe to Test Plans Trial
Creating Test cases
Running the test cases
Test and Feedback extension
Short Quiz

Module 8: – Develop a security and compliance plan

Section Resources download
Quick overview of the section
Understanding variables
Lab – More on working with variables
Defining variables in the pipeline
Lab – Variable groups – YAML pipelines
Variable groups – Classic pipelines
Lab – Azure Key Vault
Lab – Azure Key Vault – Pipelines
Azure Key Vault – Variable groups
Lab – Azure Key Vault – ARM Templates – Static reference
Lab – Azure Key Vault – ARM Templates – Dynamic reference
Using OWASP Tool – Build pipeline
Using OWASP Tool – Release pipeline
Review of service connections
Review of personal access tokens
Note on secure files
GitHub Code Scanning
Short Quiz

Module 9: – Implement an instrumentation strategy

About this section
Quick look at the Azure Monitor service
Azure Monitor – Setting up alerts
Azure Monitor – Dynamic thresholds
Log Analytics workspace
Using a Log Analytics workspace
Service Map solution
Virtual Machine Scale Sets Notification
What is Application Insights
Example on using Application Insights
Application Insights – Availability test
Application Insights – Other features
Important note on Application Insights
Note – Azure Container Instances probes
Note – Azure DevOps notifications
Note on IT Service Management Connector
Short Quiz

Module 10: UPDATED – Practice Section

Add this certificate to your resume to demonstrate your skills & increase your chances of getting noticed.

About Course

What Will You Learn?

Course Content

Module 1: – Introduction

Slides and Diagrams download

Our course approach

An important note on the course

Section Introduction

Primer to DevOps – Project lifecycle

Primer to DevOps – Agile Methodology

Primer to DevOps – Scrum process

Primer to DevOps – Development and Operations

Primer to DevOps – About DevOps

Azure DevOps Free Account

Module 2: – Configure processes and communications

Section Introduction

Let’s start with planning

Traditional Approach

Our Approach

Getting started with Azure Boards

Creating user stories

Azure Boards

Work item process

Adding tasks to user stories

Now lets create a sprint

Creating users

Using Dashboards

Using Queries

Seeing dashboards as another user

Understanding permissions

Azure DevOps query permissions Azure DevOps Dashboard permissions Azure DevOps – Wiki

Azure DevOps – Delivery plans

Azure Boards – Integration with Microsoft Teams

Trying out another project

Short Quiz

Module 3: – Design and implement source control

What are we going to cover

What is source control

What is Git

Let’s install git

Let’s start working with Git

Adding to the git repository

Making changes to a file

Quick note on the commands

Going back to a previous commit

Un-staging a file

Git branches

Working with branches

Merging the branches

Using a remote repository

Creating a GitHub account

Publishing onto GitHub

Committing changes to GitHub

Note about using Visual Studio

About publishing code from Visual Studio

Installing Visual Studio 2022

Publishing code from Visual Studio

Now let’s clone the repository as another user

Let’s create a merge request

More on merges

A different merge process

Squash Merge

Creating a branch on GitHub

Creating a branch in Visual Studio

Adding a branch protection rule in Github

Tagging in git

Note on data recovery

Note on large files in Git

Branching strategies

Azure Repos – Starting off

Azure Repos – Branches

Azure Repos – Pull request

Azure repos – Importing GitHub repos

Azure Repos – Branch policy

Azure Repos – Branch policy – Work items

Azure repos – Branch security

gitignore file

Azure repos – Publishing from Visual Studio

Deviation – Azure Pipelines

Deviation – Azure Pipelines – Completed