Creating a Function App With a Full CI/CD Pipeline with VSCode and Jenkins

Before starting this, you’ll need to have a few things on your machine:

• Azure Functions VSCode Extension
• Azure Functions Core Tools (choco install azure-functions-core-tools)
• .NET Core Build Tools (choco install visualstudio2017-workload-netcorebuildtools)
• An Azure subscription
• A Function app created inside of the Azure subscription
• A Jenkins server with the following set up:
  • Azure Function plugin installed
  • A service principal configured (use az ad sp create-for-rbac -n "jenkins" --role contributor --scopes /subscriptions/{SubID} and then add to Jenkins Credentials)

Creating and Locally Running the Function App

Inside VSCode, create a function app project with the following:

• Create a new folder for use
• Language: C#
• Template: HttpTrigger
• Security: Anonymous

After creating, you’ll need to resolve a few dependencies, which VSCode should prompt for.

I ran into issues with getting the function app debugging locally, but I was able to run it without issue by running the following in PowerShell

Once you get it running, you can use the URL provided to test:

Locally Running a TimerTrigger Function

To use a TimerTrigger functions, there are just a few changes:

• You will need to have a Storage Account available to allow for running locally.
• When running, you can invoke the function by making a POST to http://localhost:7071/admin/functions/{FUNCTION_NAME} (make sure to provide an empty JSON body in the payload)

Adding to Git and Deploying via Jenkins

The next step is checking in the example code to Git, so you have a place to get the codebase from for deployment.

After checking in the codebase, create a Multibranch Pipeline project in Jenkins.

Use the following Jenkinsfile as a reference:

After that, check in your codebase and you should have a deployed Function App with the codebase provided. Verify it using the Function App URL provided.