How to Deploy Springboot App into AKS cluster using Jenkins Pipeline and Kubectl CLI Plug-in | Deploy Microservices into AKS cluster using Jenkins Pipeline

We are going to learn how to Automate build and deployment of Springboot Microservices App into Azure Kubernetes Cluster(AKS) using Jenkins pipeline. 

Sample springboot App Code:

I have created a sample Springboot App setup in GitHub. Click here to access code base in GitHub. 

Jenkins pipeline will:

- Automate maven build(jar) using Jenkins
- Automate Docker image creation
- Automate Docker image upload into Azure container registry
- Automate Deployments to Azure Kubernetes Cluster

Watch Steps in YouTube Channel:

Pre-requisites:

1. AKS cluster needs to be up running. You can create AKS cluster using any of one of the below options:

• Create AKS cluster in Azure portal directly
• Create AKS cluster using Azure CLI
• Create AKS cluster using Terraform

2. Jenkins instance is setup and running

3. Make sure to Install Docker, Docker pipeline and Kubectl CLI plug-ins are installed in Jenkins

4.  Install Docker in Jenkins and Jenkins have proper permission to perform Docker builds

5. Install Kubectl on Jenkins instance

6. ACR is also setup in Azure cloud. 

7. Make sure AKS has pull access from ACR

8. Dockerfile created along with the application source code for springboot App.

9. Modify K8S manifest file per acr, image name for AKS Deployment.

10. Install Azure CLI on your local machine. (We will be creating the AKS cluster from our local machine)

The Code for this video is here:

Make sure you fork my repo https://github.com/akannan1087/springboot-app

and make necessary changes in jenkins-aks-deploy-from-acr.yaml file after you fork into your account.

Step # 1 - Create Credentials to connect to ACR from Jenkins

Go to Azure Portal console, go to container registry

Settings--> Access keys

Get the username and password 

Go to Jenkins-> Manage Jenkins. Create credentials.

Enter ID as ACR and enter some text for description and Save

Step #2 - Create Credentials for connecting to AKS cluster using Kubeconfig

Go to Jenkins UI, click on Credentials -->

Click on Global credentials

Click on Add Credentials

use secret file from drop down.

you should see the nodes running in EKS cluster.

kubectl get nodes

Execute the below command to get kubeconfig info, copy the entire content of the file:

cat ~/.kube/config

Open your text editor or notepad, copy and paste the entire content and save in a file.

We will upload this file.

Enter ID as K8S and choose File and upload the file and save.

Step # 3 - Create a pipeline in Jenkins

Create a new pipeline job.

Step # 4 - Copy the pipeline code from below
Make sure you change values as per your settings highlighted in yellow below:

pipeline {

  tools {

        maven 'Maven3'

    }

    agent any

        environment {

        //once you create ACR in Azure cloud, use that here

        registryName = "myacrrepo3210"

        //- update your credentials ID after creating credentials for connecting to ACR

        registryCredential = 'ACR'

        dockerImage = ''

        registryUrl = 'myacrrepo3210.azurecr.io'

    }

    

    stages {

        stage('checkout') {

            steps {

                checkout([$class: 'GitSCM', branches: [[name: '*/main']], extensions: [], userRemoteConfigs: [[url: 'check_out_from_your_repo_after_forking_my_repo']]])

            }

        }

        

        stage ('Build') {

        steps {

            sh 'mvn clean install'           

        }

     }

     

    stage ('Build Docker image') {

        steps {

                script {

                    dockerImage = docker.build registryName

                }

            }

        }

        

    // Uploading Docker images into ACR

        stage('Upload Image to ACR') {

         steps{   

             script {

                docker.withRegistry( "http://${registryUrl}", registryCredential ) {

                dockerImage.push()

                }

            }

          }

        }

        

        stage ('K8S Deploy') {

          steps {

            script {

                withKubeConfig([credentialsId: 'K8S', serverUrl: '']) {

                sh ('kubectl apply -f  jenkins-aks-deploy-from-acr.yaml')

                }

            }

        }

     }

    }

}

Step # 5 - Build the pipeline

Step # 6 - Verify deployments to AKS

kubectl get pods

kubectl get services

Steps # 7 - Access Springboot App Deployed in AKS cluster

Once deployment is successful, go to browser and enter above load balancer URL mentioned above

You should see page like below:

Clean up the Cluster:

To avoid charges from Azure, you should clean up unneeded resources. When the cluster is no longer needed, use the az group delete command to remove the resource group, container service, and all related resources. 

az group delete --name myResourceGroup --yes --no-wait

How to Enable Web hooks in Azure Pipeline in Azure DevOps | Enable Web hooks in Azure Pipeline in Azure DevOps | Enable Automate Build in ADO

Webhooks allows developers to triggers jobs in CI server (such as Jenkins or Azure DevOps) for every code changes in SCM. In this article, we will learn how to trigger Azure Pipeline build jobs instantly for every code change in SCM.

Pre-requisites:

1. Azure Build pipeline is already configured. If you dont know how to create Azure build pipeline, click on this link.

2. SCM repo have been setup, either in GitHub or Bitbucket or any SCM

Watch Steps in YouTube

Steps to Enable Webhooks in Azure Build Pipeline

Go to Azure DevOps project dash board.

Go to Pipelines

Click on Pipelines

Click on Edit

Click on Triggers tab, Click Continuous Integration checkbox to enable Webhooks.

Click on Save the Job. You don't have to Queue the job.

Now go to your SCM and make a code change, you will see pipeline job will trigger immediately.

How to solve No hosted parallelism has been purchased or granted in Azure Devops Pipeline | Azure DevOps Pipeline Error Resolution

 

Root cause and Fix:

Microsoft has temporarily disabled the free grant of parallel jobs for public projects and for certain private projects in new organizations. However, you can request this grant by submitting a request. Submit a ticket using below url to request increased parallelism in Azure DevOps. 

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=v4j5cvGGr0GRqy180BHbR63mUWPlq7NEsFZhkyH8jChUMlM3QzdDMFZOMkVBWU5BWFM3SDI2QlRBSC4u

Manual Process vs Automation | CICD Process Flow Diagram | How to Implement CICD using Jenkins and Other DevOps tools

Agile Development - Manual Process with No Automation

The key challenges in the above diagram revolve around manual processes that slow down development, introduce human errors, and reduce efficiency. Here are the main issues:

1. Manual Build & Deployment Process

• Developers must manually push code and trigger builds, leading to delays and inconsistencies.
• No automated CI/CD pipeline, which means every deployment requires manual effort.

2. Lack of Automated Testing

• Unit tests are executed manually, which is time-consuming and error-prone.
• No automated quality checks (e.g., linting, static code analysis), increasing the risk of bugs in production.

3. No Feedback Loops

• Developers do not receive immediate feedback on code quality, test results, or deployment status.
• Bugs might be detected late in the cycle, leading to longer resolution times.

4. No Binary Repository Management

• Builds are not stored in a binary repository like Nexus or Artifactory, leading to dependency management issues.
• Reproducing previous builds is difficult.

5. Infrastructure Setup is Manual

• The Infra team manually sets up environments (DEV, QA, UAT, PROD), leading to delays and inconsistencies.
• No Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or Ansible, making scaling difficult.

6. Risk of Deployment Failures

• Lack of consistent, repeatable deployment processes increases the risk of failures.
• No automated rollback mechanism, making recovery from failures slower.

7. Slower Time to Market

• Since every step is manual, the overall development and release cycle is slow, reducing agility.
• Difficult to keep up with rapid business requirements.

CICD Process Flow Diagram - How to Implement CICD (Automation) in Agile Development?

What is Continuous Integration?

Continuous integration is a DevOps software development practice where developers regularly merge their code changes into a central repository, after which automated builds and tests are run.

The key goals of continuous integration are to find and address bugs quicker, improve software quality, and reduce the time it takes to validate and release new software updates.

Jenkins is a popular continuous integration tool. Jenkins can integrate with other tools using plug-ins.

How does Continuous Integration Work?

Developers frequently commit to a shared repository using a version control system such as Git. Prior to each commit, developers may choose to run local unit tests on their code as an extra verification layer before integrating. A continuous integration service automatically builds and runs unit tests on the new code changes to immediately surface any errors.

Benefits of Continuous Integration

• Improve Developers productivity 
• Find bugs early in the software development stage
• Deliver products into market place sooner
• Improve the feedback loop

What is Continuous Delivery?

Continuous delivery is a software development practice where code changes are automatically prepared for a release to production. Continuous delivery is the next extension of continuous integration. The delivery phase is responsible for packaging an artifact together to be delivered to end-users. This phase runs automated building tools to generate this artifact.

Benefits of Continuous Delivery

• Automate the Software Release Process
• Improve Developer Productivity
• Find bugs early in the software development stage
• Deliver updates faster

Enhanced Security and Compliance:

• Integrate Security Early: Incorporate automated security tools like GitHub Advanced Security and Trivy Scanner into the pipeline to perform vulnerability scans and enforce compliance from the start.
• Shift-Left Security: Embed security checks within the CI/CD process to catch issues before they move to production.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC):

• Consistency Across Environments: Use IaC tools such as Terraform or Ansible to automate environment setup and configuration, ensuring consistency across deployments.
• Version-Controlled Infrastructure: Manage infrastructure changes in the same way as code, enabling traceability and rollback if needed.

Continuous Monitoring & Feedback:

• Real-Time Monitoring: Implement monitoring tools (such as Prometheus) to track the performance and health of applications in production.
• Feedback Loops: Ensure that monitoring and logs feed back into the development process to enable rapid iteration and improvement.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Integrated Communication Tools: Use platforms like Slack to notify teams about pipeline status, build failures, or deployments, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
• Cultural Shift: Encourage a DevOps culture where development, testing, operations, and security teams collaborate closely.

Implementing these key points can help transition your workflow from manual processes to a streamlined, automated, and resilient DevOps model, as depicted in the diagram.

How to Recover SonarQube Admin password | How to unlock SonarQube admin password in Postgres SQL

Let's say you have setup SonarQube using Docker or Docker Compose, you have forgotten the admin password for SonarQube. This article helps you to reset/recover the admin password. If you changed and then lost the admin password, you can reset it using the following steps.

Watch Steps in YouTube channel:

Pre-requisites:

• SonarQube is up and running using Docker image
• Database is either MSSQL or PostgreSQL

As we have configured SonarQube using Docker compose, We need to login to PostgreSQL running inside postgres docker container and execute update command to reset to default password.

Step 1: Login to PostgreSQL docker container

type below command to see the list of containers running in your SonarQube instance.

sudo docker ps

Copy the container ID from above command. 

Now login into PostgresSQL docker container

sudo docker exec -it <container_id> /bin/bash

Step 2:  Connect to PostgreSQL database by executing below command:

psql -p 5432 -d sonar -U sonar -h <container_id>

now enter the password for sonarqube database:

from my lab exercise, password for sonar user is sonar

Make sure it shows sonarqube which is your database schema inside PostgresSQL db.

Step 3: Execute the below query to change admin password to default password which is also admin

update users set crypted_password='100000$t2h8AtNs1AlCHuLobDjHQTn9XppwTIx88UjqUm4s8RsfTuXQHSd/fpFexAnewwPsO6jGFQUv/24DnO55hY6Xew==', salt='k9x9eN127/3e/hf38iNiKwVfaVk=', hash_method='PBKDF2', reset_password='true', user_local='true' where login='admin';

Step 4: Login to SonarQube UI and login as admin/admin

Login as admin/admin

Now it will immediately ask you to change the default admin password to something else:

That's it! That is how you recover SonarQube admin password.

References:

https://docs.sonarqube.org/latest/instance-administration/security/

Create Freestyle job in Jenkins | How to create build job in Jenkins to automate Java build and deployment of WAR into Tomcat | Bitbucket Jenkins Integration

Jenkins is popular open source Continuous integration tool. It was written entirely in Java. Jenkins is a self-contained automation server used for automating builds, tests and deployment.

See below the steps for configuring Jenkins to automate the build and deployment for the Java Web project we already set up in BitBucket into 

pre-requisites:

• Java WebApp setup in BitBucket
• Jenkins is up and running
• Tomcat is up and running
• Make sure you configure maven installation under Jenkins-->manage Jenkins-> Global Tool Configuration. under maven installation. enter Maven3 as name and check install automatically option.

• Also install deploy to container,  Jacoco plugins under Jenkins --> Manage Jenkins --> Manage plug-ins

Click on Available, type Deploy to container, select it. enter Jacoco, select it. Click on Install without restart.

Deploy to container

JaCoCo

Click on without restart.

steps to automate MyWebApp project in Jenkins:

1. Login to Jenkins. Click on New item.

2. Enter an item name --> select Free style project.
enter name as myFirstAutomateJob. click OK.

3. under source code mgmt, click git. enter Bitbucket URL
Click on your repo, Copy the url from the browser. Paste the url as Repository URL below.

under credentials --> click Add- > select Jenkins -->  enter your Bitbucket username and App password. DO NOT use BitBucket password as it is removed from March 1st, 2022. Click to here to learn how to generate App Password in Bitbucket. Add description as my SCM credentials.

4. select that from drop down.

5. Enter main as branch specifier or which ever branch you want to check out.

6. under build trigger click on poll scm, enter this value to check

for every 2 mins --> H/02 * * * *

7. Build --> Add build step --> invoke top level maven targets -->

select Maven3 from drop down and goal as clean install

8. Click on advanced, enter the path of POM file as --> MyWebApp/pom.xml

9. click on Add post build action, select Record Jacoco Code coverage report

  

10. click on Add post build action, select deploy war/ear to container.

 

      for WAR/EAR files enter as 
          **/*.war

in WAR/EAR files, leave context path empty

   11. click on Add container , select Tomcat 9.x

   12. click on add credentials, enter tomcat as user name and password as password.

      select it from drop down.

 

13. tomcat url should be --> http://your_public_dns_name:8080

click Apply, click Save

click on build now..It should build.

if there is any error, please check the console output. Most of the common error would be checking the path of Maven installation, valid credentials for GitHub or Tomcat. Also make sure you install the plug-ins.

After successful deployment, please make sure you check the output in Tomcat by going to browser and enter below URL

http://please_change_per_public_dns_name_of_EC2:8080/MyWebApp

This is how you automate the builds and deployments using Jenkins. 

Code Coverage Report can be seen in Jenkins as well. Click on Job name.

Please watch the steps in YouTube channel: