Creating a Service Connection on Azure DevOps to Authenticate Azure

Introduction

Integrating Azure with Azure DevOps allows you to leverage the powerful CI/CD capabilities of Azure DevOps while managing your infrastructure and applications on Microsoft Azure. To enable this integration, you need to create a service connection in Azure DevOps that authenticates with Azure. This blog post will guide you through the steps to set up this service connection.

Prerequisites

• Azure Subscription: Ensure you have an active Azure subscription.
• Azure DevOps Account: Ensure you have an active Azure DevOps organization and project.
• Service Principal in Azure: Create a service principal in Azure with the necessary permissions.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Create a Service Principal in Azure

• Open the Azure Portal.
• Navigate to Azure Active Directory > App registrations.
• Click New registration.
• Provide a name for the application (e.g., “AzureDevOpsServicePrincipal”).
• Select the supported account types (e.g., “Accounts in this organizational directory only”).
• Click Register.

2. Generate a Client Secret for the Service Principal

• In the App registrations page, select the application you just created.
• Navigate to Certificates & secrets.
• Click New client secret.
• Provide a description and set an expiration period.
• Click Add.
• Copy the client secret value and save it securely. You will need it later.

3. Assign Roles to the Service Principal

• Navigate to your subscription or resource group where you want to grant access.
• Click Access control (IAM).
• Click Add > Add role assignment.
• Select the appropriate role (e.g., Contributor).
• Search for your service principal by name and select it.
• Click Save.

4. Create a Service Connection in Azure DevOps

• Go to your Azure DevOps project.
• Navigate to Project Settings > Service connections.
• Click New service connection.
• Select Azure Resource Manager from the list of service connection types.
• Click Next.

5. Configure the Service Connection

• In the New Azure service connection window, provide the following details:

• Scope level: Select Subscription.
• Subscription: Select your Azure subscription.
• Resource Group: Optionally, specify a resource group.
• Service principal (manual): Select this option.
• Subscription ID: Enter your Azure subscription ID.
• Service principal ID: Enter the application (client) ID of your service principal.
• Service principal key: Enter the client secret value you saved earlier.
• Tenant ID: Enter your Azure Active Directory tenant ID.
• Service connection name: Provide a name for your service connection.

• Click Verify and save to test the connection and save it.

6. Use the Service Connection in Pipelines

• In your Azure DevOps pipeline YAML file, reference the service connection to authenticate with Azure.
• Example:

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- task: AzureCLI@2
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: '<Your Service Connection>'
    scriptType: 'bash'
    scriptLocation: 'inlineScript'
    inlineScript: |
      az login --service-principal -u $(servicePrincipalId) -p $(servicePrincipalKey) --tenant $(tenantId)
      az account set --subscription $(subscriptionId)
      # Add your Azure commands here

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can create a service connection in Azure DevOps to authenticate with Azure. This setup allows you to seamlessly integrate Azure with your Azure DevOps pipelines, enabling efficient CI/CD processes for your applications and infrastructure.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need further assistance! Happy deploying! 

I hope this helps! Let me know if you need any more details or have other questions.