Sensitive Data in Azure Pipelines - Azure Variable Groups (Benefits and Real-World Examples)

 

Secret variables are variables that are encrypted and can be used in pipelines without having their value revealed. You can use secret variables to store confidential information like passwords, identification numbers, and other identifying information that you wouldn't want to be exposed in a pipeline. Secret variables are accessible to tasks and scripts on the agent and are encrypted at rest with a 2048-bit RSA key.

Secret variables specified in a pipeline's pipeline settings UI are only applicable to that pipeline. To share confidential variables between pipelines, utilize variable groups.

What are Azure Variable Groups? Key-value pairs, or variables, can be used in many pipelines and stages of an Azure DevOps project and are managed centrally by Azure Variable Groups. These variables can be used to store configuration values that may change depending on the environment (such as development, staging, or production), as well as private data like connection strings or API keys. Through the deployment pipeline, Variable Groups make it easier to manage these variables consistently.

How to Create a Variable Group?

How to add a variable with encrypted value to a Variable Group?

How to link a variable from a Variable Group to a pipeline and define its scope?

 

Managing Secrets in Azure Variable Groups:

Benefits of Azure Variable Groups:

1. Reusability: Variable Groups let you declare variables once and use them again across several pipelines, encouraging uniformity and lowering the possibility of human entry errors.

2. Centralised Management: By managing variables in a single area with Variable Groups, you may update values and transmit changes more quickly throughout your pipelines.

3. Security: To protect sensitive data, Azure Variable Groups support secret variables, which are encrypted and can only be viewed during pipeline execution.

4. Versioning is supported through variable groups, enabling you to follow changes over time. When debugging or auditing deployments, this functionality is helpful.

5. Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: Azure Variable Groups and other CI/CD technologies are smoothly integrated with Azure Pipelines. It is simple to retrieve and use variables during the build and release processes since they are simply referred to within pipeline specifications.

Real-World Examples:

1.      API Keys and Secrets: It's typical to have API keys or secrets for each environment when working with third-party APIs. You can construct variables like "API_KEY_DEV," "API_KEY_STAGING," and "API_KEY_PROD" and safely store the appropriate keys or secrets using Azure Variable Groups. This makes it possible for you to migrate between environments without having to manually change your pipelines or reveal sensitive data.

2.      Database Connection Strings: Assume that one of your applications connects to a database and that the connection string differs depending on the environment. You can construct environment-specific variables like "DB_CONNECTION_STRING_DEV," "DB_CONNECTION_STRING_STAGING," and "DB_CONNECTION_STRING_PROD" by building a Variable Group for connection strings. Your deployment pipeline can then make use of these variables to make sure the appropriate connection string is utilized based on the destination environment.

3.      Feature flags and configuration settings: Environments frequently have different feature flags and configuration settings. By using Variable Groups, you can quickly manage the behavior and settings of your application during deployment by defining environment-specific variables like "FEATURE_FLAG_DEV" or "CONFIG_SETTING_STAGING".

 

Summary:

Azure Variable Groups offer centralized configuration management, reuse, improved security, versioning, and connection with CI/CD pipelines. By utilizing these advantages, you may increase consistency, accelerate the deployment of your applications, and manage variables and configurations in Azure DevOps more easily.