r/azuredevops

I'm using Sectigo to code sign an app and since a while ago they started issuing certificates exclusively by shipping flash drives (they call them USB tokens) containing an unexportable cert. In the past you would get the PKCS#12 and it would be used in the CI/CD pipeline but they don't provide the cert as a file anymore and it can't be exported from the flash drive. Obfuscating this procedure seems like such a massive oversight on their part but anyway, does anyone have any experience with this particular issue?

Hello everyone! IT/Tech noob here working to dip his toes into the industry. I have been working on a project the past couple months that allow me access to Microsoft Enterprise Applications/Platforms such as Azure, Intune, Entra, etc. Currently done with said project but still have a few more months of access. Are there any beginner projects/excercises/things I can do on Azure or any of the applications or on the VM i have on Azure to help increase my knowledge from a practical perspective? Thank you for your time

We started pretty simple on Azure.

A few app services, SQL, storage, some functions, and a bit of AI/search workload.

Nothing crazy.

Then the product grew, more environments were added, more teams started shipping, and suddenly the Azure bill became hard to explain.

The annoying part is not only that costs went up.

It’s that it’s hard to know what is actually worth optimizing.

Some spend is real production usage.

Some is overprovisioned resources.

Some is old dev/test stuff nobody owns anymore.

Some is data, logs, networking, or managed services quietly getting expensive in the background.

Azure Cost Management helps, but I’m wondering how far people take it before using dedicated FinOps tools.

For teams running serious workloads on Azure, what actually helped?

Did you build your own tagging and dashboards?

Use Azure-native tools only?

Try FinOps platforms?

Set budgets and alerts?

Force teams to own their cloud spend?

Curious what worked in practice before Azure costs became a monthly surprise.

i am working on an ADF pipeline that runs every 15 minutes copying a tiny snapshot from Azure SQL into Azure Postgres. Around 1.2K rows in the main table and 12K in a related detail table. Two copy activities into staging, then a stored function does the insert, update, delete merge in one transaction, with guards so an empty source never wipes live data. So far it seems to work.

What bugs me is the cost and overhead. Each copy bills 4 DIU and a one minute minimum even though the transfer takes seconds, plus another minute of managed VNet queue time per copy. Every 15 minutes that adds up and starts to feel like I am paying for far more than the job actually needs.

If you were building this today, would you go with Functions on a timer, a Container Apps job, Logic Apps Standard, or pg_cron with a foreign data wrapper? Genuinely open to hearing if there is a leaner approach I am missing.

Need to grab a file thats on a NAS to agent folder, but cant seem to find a way yet. Ive done agent - NAS,its easy with built in expression,but not other way around. I have thought about publishing to artifact,but lets just say im not going to that route. Maybe theres another method?

I saw a page online,but they use WinRM,useless for me that is using a NAS. God just let this day end,im sleepy now, brain less than 5% power

Hi Redditors, I am new to Azure Web App scene. For whole my life I have been using AWS EC2 to deploy Django apps and so far have never faced any challenges.

One of our recent clients has a company-level policy to use Microsoft Azure infrastructure, hence we are exploring the choice between recommending Web App Containers for Docker based deployment or a Virtual Machine.

I have scanned through Microsoft documentation, and on the surface Web Apps are being recommended as the better option, but I want to know in the real-world, on the field, what works and what not. And how do the DevOps ninjas manage these challenges with Web App deployments and monitoring.

Any insights from your experiences will help me tremendously in preparing a correct and complete recommendation for my client and ensure a robust infrastructure going forward.

Thank you very much.

Hi everyone,

​I have recently taken over the administration of an Azure DevOps Server 2020 (on-premises) environment. The previous administrator is no longer with the company, and unfortunately, there is no existing documentation regarding the backup strategy. It appears that no automated backups have been configured via the Administration Console so far.

​Environment Details:

​Version: Azure DevOps Server 2020.

​Scope: Single server instance containing one Collection with two active projects.

​Content: Includes source code (TFVC/Git) and several CI/CD YAML/Classic pipelines.

​Status: The environment is live and business-critical.

​My Goal:

I want to use the built-in Scheduled Backups tool within the Azure DevOps Administration Console to create a backup plan, including an initial full backup and subsequent scheduled increments.

​My Concerns:

Since I am new to this specific instance, I want to ensure that enabling the backup plan won't inadvertently disrupt the production services or lock any databases in a way that affects the pipelines or developer access.

​Specific Questions:

​Impact on Live Environment: Does the initial full backup via the Admin Console trigger any significant downtime or "Read-Only" states for the collections?

​Permissions: Besides the service account having sysadmin rights on SQL Server, are there any easily overlooked folder permissions required for the backup network share?

​TFS Integration: As there is still legacy source code on the instance, are there specific metadata files outside of the SQL databases that I need to manually include, or does the wizard cover all necessary components (databases + reporting + encryption keys)?

​Common Pitfalls: Are there any known issues when running the backup wizard for the first time on a "neglected" 2020 instance?

​I want to avoid breaking anything while securing the data. Any advice or checklists from experienced Azure DevOps admins would be greatly appreciated.

​Thanks in advance!

​

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to create my first Microsoft Azure account for learning cloud and DevOps technologies, but I’m stuck at the payment verification step and need some advice from experienced users.

I’m from India, and here’s my exact situation.

Background:

- My personal SBI card is RuPay, so I learned that RuPay cards often do not work properly for international verification on Azure.

- Because of that, I used my relative’s SBI MasterCard debit card instead.

- It is NOT a credit card — it is a debit card.

- International transactions are enabled.

- Online/e-commerce transactions are enabled.

- Sufficient balance is available.

- Card is active and usable for normal online payments.

The problem:

When I enter the card details during Azure signup, I do NOT receive any OTP from the bank.

Instead, Azure immediately shows this error:

“We’re unable to validate the credit card information you provided.”

So the process fails before even reaching the OTP authentication stage.

This made me wonder whether:

- Azure internally rejects some debit cards before bank authorization.

- Microsoft’s risk/fraud system blocks certain account/card combinations.

- Azure prefers credit cards over debit cards in India.

- The issue happens because the Azure account is in my name while the debit card belongs to my relative.

- Multiple failed attempts may have temporarily flagged the account.

Additional details:

- No OTP comes at all.

- No visible transaction attempt occurs.

- I retried several times while troubleshooting.

- I’m using genuine identity/details.

- I’m only trying to create a learning account for Azure/cloud/DevOps practice.

Questions:

1. Has anyone from India successfully created an Azure account recently using an SBI MasterCard debit card?

2. Does Azure reject some debit cards before OTP verification?

3. Does mismatch between account holder and debit card holder matter?

4. Is Azure significantly more reliable with credit cards only?

5. Could repeated failed attempts temporarily block verification?

6. Would waiting 24–48 hours before retrying help?

7. Should I contact SBI or Microsoft billing support first?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently setting up a GitHub Action to deploy to a Function App deployment slot instead of directly to the production slot. The idea is to warm up the Function App before swapping it into production.

However, I'm running into an issue with environment variables that are pulled from an Azure Key Vault. The deployment reports that the Key Vault cannot be found within the subscription, even though the name and ID are an exact match (I copied them directly and verified with ctrl + f).

Because of this, I suspect the Function App isn’t picking up the configuration correctly, which might explain why no functions are showing up in the overview page after deployment.

What’s strange is that deploying via the same GitHub Action directly to the production slot works perfectly fine.

Has anyone encountered something similar or have an idea of what might be causing this? Any tips or things I should check would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I’ve been using Azure App Service slots for a long time to avoid cold starts during deployment. My typical process involves deploying to a staging slot (which is already running), testing to ensure it's running properly, and then swapping with the production slot when I'm ready. This setup has allowed me to achieve zero-downtime deployments.

However, recently I’ve noticed that after the swap, I’m experiencing cold starts of around 30 to 35 seconds, which is something new. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Is there anything else I can do to avoid cold starts?

I also added to the app settings in Azure

WEBSITE_SWAP_WARMUP_PING_PATH=/api/health
WEBSITE_SWAP_WARMUP_PING_STATUSES=200-299

Hi, some advices here. How do you usually run the daily standup in the last week of the sprint as scrum master?
What are the main things to check? Do you usually follow a different approach compared to the execution weeks?

Many thanks

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring how to use Copilot to work with internal wiki pages that describe solutions using sequence diagrams, flows, and other technical artifacts.

My goal is to prompt Copilot to read a given wiki page and automatically generate feature-level PBIs (Product Backlog Items) from that content.

I’m aware that there are existing tools that can separately:

• Read and summarize wiki documentation, and
• Create PBIs or work items

However, I’m trying to understand how to combine these capabilities into a single, smoother workflow using Copilot. Ideally, this would be a streamlined process where context flows naturally from documentation to backlog creation.

Has anyone tried something similar, or can suggest an effective approach or architecture for this?