Course Overview
Instructor-led Online Training from IPSR
Microsoft Azure DevOps Training (AZ-400) equips you with the knowledge and hands-on skills required for the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification. Over 40-45 guided hours (3 days per week), you’ll work on real-world projects to build pipelines, manage repositories, deploy applications, and monitor systems.
Prerequisites
Prior knowledge of Microsoft Azure Administration (AZ-104) is required.
What you’ll learn
- Kickstart your Azure DevOps journey with strong fundamentals in DevOps and Agile
- Set up and manage Git repositories with Azure Repos
- Automate builds and deployments using Azure Pipelines
- Manage dependencies and artifacts securely with Azure Artifacts
- Deploy infrastructure using Terraform and ARM templates
- Containerize applications with Docker and orchestrate with Kubernetes
- Implement secure DevOps practices with Azure Key Vault integration
- Monitor applications and pipelines with Azure Monitor and Application Insights
- Prepare for Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400)
What is DevOps and why it matters - Define DevOps culture, practices and outcomes — collaboration, automation, fast feedback and continuous delivery to shorten time to market.
Introduction to Azure DevOps Services - Overview of Azure DevOps components (Repos, Pipelines, Boards, Artifacts, Test Plans) and how they integrate to form a toolchain.
Waterfall vs Agile methodologies - Compare predictive (Waterfall) and iterative (Agile) delivery models and map DevOps practices to Agile workflows.
Azure Boards: Agile planning and portfolio management - Use Azure Boards for work items, backlogs, sprints and reporting to manage team delivery and traceability.
Migration to Azure DevOps - High-level approach to migrating projects and CI/CD from legacy systems into Azure DevOps with minimal disruption.
Git authentication in Azure Repos - Authentication options (PAT, SSH, OAuth) and best practices for secure repo access and branch protection.
DevOps pipeline fundamentals - Core concepts of CI pipelines: source triggers, build agents, artifact creation and pipeline stages.
Azure Pipelines architecture - How pipeline orchestration works in Azure Pipelines, including agents, pools, jobs and deployment targets.
YAML vs Classic pipelines - Trade-offs between declarative YAML pipelines (code-as-config) and the visual Classic editor; when to use each.
Hosted and private agents - Differences between Microsoft-hosted and self-hosted agents, sizing, security considerations and when to choose either.
Build strategy implementation - Strategies for deterministic builds, caching, parallelization, and artifact versioning to speed up CI.
Integrating external source control (GitHub, GitLab) - Connecting Azure Pipelines to external Git providers, webhook triggers and cross-system security implications.
Introduction to containers and Docker - Container basics, Dockerfile patterns, image layering, and guidelines for small, secure images.
Container orchestration with Kubernetes - Kubernetes core concepts: pods, deployments, services, namespaces and how they support scalable apps.
Azure Container Registry (ACR) - Using ACR to store and manage container images, image signing, retention policies and integration with pipelines.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) setup and deployment - Provisioning AKS, networking options, cluster scaling and patterns for deploying via Helm or manifests.
Package dependencies and feeds - Create and manage feeds for NuGet, npm, Maven, and Python packages to control dependency distribution.
Version control for artifacts - Versioning schemes, retention policies and semantic versioning practices for reproducible deployments.
Package security and open-source license management - Scan dependencies for vulnerabilities and enforce license policies before release.
Integration with vulnerability scanning tools - Connect SCA tools and pipelines to block or flag vulnerable artifacts during CI/CD.
Continuous Delivery (CD) lifecycle - Stages of CD: release candidates, promotion, approvals and production rollout patterns.
YAML-based release pipelines - Author multi-stage YAML pipelines for consistent releases and environment-specific configurations.
Deployment strategies: Blue-Green, Canary, and Rolling - Implement progressive delivery patterns to reduce risk and enable quick rollbacks.
Integrating secrets and approvals - Secure secret management with Key Vault, pipeline approvals and gated deployments.
Release gates using Azure Monitor - Use telemetry-driven gates to automate deployment decisions based on health metrics.
Deployment options in Azure (VMs, App Services, Functions) - Compare VMs, App Services, and Functions for cost, scalability and operational overhead.
Azure IaaS and PaaS services overview - Key Azure platform services and their fit in modern application deployment architectures.
Azure Service Fabric - When Service Fabric is appropriate and how it differs from AKS and App Services.
Feature flag management and deployment options - Use feature flags to decouple deployment from release and enable safer rollouts and experiments.
Infrastructure as Code principles - Idempotency, declarative definitions and state management concepts that make IaC reliable.
Configuration Management: DSC, Chef, Puppet, Ansible - Role of configuration management tools and where they fit alongside IaC for system state enforcement.
Terraform for Azure (variables, modules, remote state) - Author modular Terraform, manage remote state, and structure workspaces for team collaboration.
Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates - ARM template basics, parameterization and best practices for repeatable Azure resource deployments.
Security and compliance policies - Define guardrails via policies, role-based access control and compliance automation in the pipeline.
SonarCloud for code quality analysis - Integrate SonarCloud to measure bugs, vulnerabilities and maintainability before merging code.
Azure Key Vault integration - Store and retrieve secrets securely using Key Vault and integrate it into CI/CD workflows.
Managing technical debt and application config data - Techniques to track technical debt, manage config safely and reduce long-term maintenance cost.
Azure Monitor and Application Insights - Collect telemetry, create alerts and use App Insights for tracing and diagnosing production issues.
Dashboards and telemetry - Design dashboards to surface key SLOs, error budgets and deployment health to stakeholders.
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices - Apply SRE concepts such as SLOs, error budgets and runbooks to drive reliability-focused work.
Feedback and analytics automation - Close the loop with automated feedback from monitoring into backlog and pipeline controls.
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Frequently Asked Questions
This course is ideal for developers, system administrators, DevOps engineers, and IT professionals who want to kickstart their Azure DevOps journey and accelerate their career with AZ-400 certification.
Yes. Knowledge of Microsoft Azure Administration (AZ-104) is a prerequisite. Basic DevOps understanding is helpful but not mandatory.
Yes, the course includes multiple hands-on labs, guided exercises, and real-world projects delivered live by IPSR trainers.
Yes, this training is aligned with Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400).
5hr
2hr