Building a Static website on Azure with CI-CD pipeline

Mohit — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 06:44:51 +0000

Lately, I have cleared some of the Azure certifications, but I feel my knowledge of Azure is more theoretical. Being in a project management role, I get less time to be around the coding and scripting aspect of technology, so I wanted to get my hands dirty. After seeing this challenge on LinkedIn, I felt there was no better way to sharpen my skills in DevOps while working on a real project.

It is recommended that participants have at least the AZ-900 Microsoft certification before taking the challenge. Azure Fundamentals Certification (or another,more advanced Azure cert—your choice—to set a knowledge baseline. Additional rules can be seen in the Cloud Resume Challenge (Azure).

So I create the static site, which is hosted on Microsoft Azure, and leverage the following services:

Azure Blob Storage
Content Delivery Network
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Functions
GitHub Actions for CI/CD
Terraform for IaC

I have mainly used this challenge as a guide for myself and made some modifications along the way. E.g., instead of using Python for the Azure Function, I have used C#. I also used styleshout's HTML template.

Below is a brief description of my journey in order to complete this cloud resume challenge.

HTML & CSS website

In order to build a website, I brushed up on my skills in HTML and CSS by going through a course from Brad Hussey on Udemy and also built a basic website on my own; it didn’t look very impressive, but it worked just fine. So instead of using that plain, simple design, I got the resume HTML template from this website and customised the text to put some information about myself, certifications, and previous experience.

Static Website

The HTML resume was then deployed online as an Azure Storage static website on Azure Blob Storage, which I created using the Azure Portal (later using Terraform to automate).

PS D:\Learning\CloudResumeChallenge\my_resume> az storage blob upload-batch -s "D:\Learning\CloudResumeChallenge\my_resume\StaticWebsite" -d '$web' --account-name resumechallengeaz1234

Deploying the static website using PowerShell also ensured that the website uses HTTPS for security by configuring a CDN.

Azure Function & Cosmos DB

The resume webpage also includes a visitor counter that displays how many people have accessed the site. I wrote an Azure function with an HTTP trigger to make this happen.
I created the CosmosDB database using Core (SQL) as the API. I created the container to store my one record of the visitor count. The record has an id equal to "1" and a visitorCount property, which will be read and updated by an Azure function. Setting up CosmosDB was the most difficult part of this challenge because I was unfamiliar with this service, and it took a long time just to get CosmosDB to talk to the Azure function, but it finally worked after much struggle and googling :).

Source Control & CI-CD pipeline

I have created a GitHub repository for my code and created GitHub Actions such that when I push new website code, the Azure Storage blob, the Azure Function, etc. automatically get updated.

Infrastructure as Code

Lastly, as I created all the Azure resources—the static website (Blog Storage, CDN), the Azure Function, and the CosmosDB—manually, by clicking around in the Azure console, I automated the infrastructure creation using Terraform.

In the end

That completes the Azure Resume Challenge! I found this to be a fun challenge that forced me to try a few different things that I had not worked with before, and I was surprised by how many services were necessary. It was good to use some PowerShell and Terraform, which I feel I will continue to use in the future.

Here is the link to my resume.

Do certification really matters..?

Mohit — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 14:18:52 +0000

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn- Benjamin Franklin.

Something very apt to what I feel whenever I take up any certification. Generally, most people in the software industry either love or hate IT certifications. Some take this as proof that they are experts. For some, it is a money-making machine for companies, and these certifications don't hold any true value for them.

The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.

Certifications, in my opinion, are useful to validate your knowledge on the topic, not so that you can display the badges on LinkedIn (though I do this on occasion), but rather so that you can pursue targeted learning. It provides the fundamental knowledge needed to get experience, gives you a road map and organizes your learning.

I just passed the AZ-104(Azure Administrator Associate) and AZ-305(Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions) exams. Does that imply I have extensive knowledge of Azure? Not at all, no. I have never managed Azure for a full-fledged production project; I have only ever done it for my own personal projects. But I have discovered the fundamentals of the service by working toward the certifications, and I have demonstrated this through the tests. Am I going to present myself as an Azure expert or start consulting as one right away? No, but if I were looking for a new position, I would gladly highlight this achievement to demonstrate to a hiring manager that, despite my lack of experience, I do grasp the basics and have the motivation to move up. Your career is revitalized, which is sometimes necessary.

Consider pursuing a certification to start your educational journey if you feel trapped, overburdened, or unsure of where to focus your time to sharpen your saw.

We must never be too busy to take time to sharpen the saw- Stephen Covey

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