Deployment Pipelines

1. Deployment Pipelines

Welcome back. We have already introduced the three Deployment Stages: development, testing, and production. Today, we'll explore how we move items between these stages using deployment pipelines.

2. Pipelines like a conveyor belt

Think of a deployment pipeline like a sophisticated conveyor belt in a factory. Just as a product moves through quality checks before reaching customers, our fabric items flow through stages: from development through testing to production. While this kind of pipeline can be complex, Fabric makes this process straightforward by automating movement between workspaces.

3. Why Pipelines Matter

The value of deployment pipelines becomes clear when we look at their impact. They ensure all changes follow a structured order, leaving a clear trail of who did what and when. Every deployment is logged, making it easy to track changes. Automation removes human error from the process. And perhaps most importantly, they bring consistency and reliability to your deployment process.

4. Example of a Deploy

Let's look at a typical scenario. You've finished testing your changes, beta users have given their thumbs up, and no bugs have surfaced. It's time to move to production! Without pipelines, this could be a risky process of manual file transfers, comparisons to make, and potential overwrites. With pipelines, it's a simple click of a deploy button. The system handles everything, maintaining logs and ensuring nothing gets lost or overwritten. This becomes especially valuable when you're handling dozens of Fabric items in a single deployment.

5. Understanding Pairing

When you deploy items between stages, Fabric needs to know which items correspond to each other. It happens automatically when you set up stages or perform your first deployment. When you initiate the deployment, paired items that have a file with the same type and name in the target stage will overwrite their counterparts. Unpaired items, as they are new, will create a new copy in the new stage. This make sure you always update the expected items during a deploy.

6. Let's practice!

Now that you know the principles behind Deployment Pipelines, let's do some exercises.

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