AZ400 Lab | Configure agent pools and understanding pipeline styles | Self-Hosted Agents + YAML Pipelines | Azure DevOps Tutorial 2025 Want to truly understand how Azure Pipelines work under the hood? This lab is your deep dive into one of the most important — and most misunderstood — building blocks of Azure DevOps: Agent Pools. You'll learn the difference between Microsoft-hosted and self-hosted agents, implement your own self-hosted agent, and connect it to a YAML-based pipeline — all skills directly tested in the AZ-400 exam. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📚 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - What Azure Pipeline agents are and why they matter - The difference between Microsoft-hosted and self-hosted agents - When to choose self-hosted agents over Microsoft-hosted agents - How YAML-based pipelines implement CI/CD as code - How YAML pipelines compare to Classic pipelines in Azure DevOps - How to configure and register a self-hosted agent in an agent pool - How to connect a self-hosted agent to a YAML pipeline - Best practices for agent pool management in enterprise DevOps ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧪 HANDS-ON LAB INCLUDES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ Setting up prerequisites — Git, Visual Studio Code ✅ Creating and configuring an Azure DevOps organization ✅ Creating a self-hosted agent pool in Azure DevOps ✅ Downloading, installing, and registering a self-hosted agent ✅ Configuring agent capabilities and permissions ✅ Writing a YAML pipeline definition from scratch ✅ Targeting the self-hosted agent pool in your YAML pipeline ✅ Running and monitoring pipeline jobs on the self-hosted agent ✅ Comparing YAML pipeline execution vs Classic pipeline style ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎯 AZ-400 CERTIFICATION RELEVANCE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ This lab directly maps to the AZ-400 exam domain: ➡ "Design and implement pipelines" ➡ "Design and implement an agent infrastructure" The AZ-400 exam tests your ability to recommend the right agent strategy, configure agent pools, and implement YAML pipelines as code. Understanding when to use self-hosted vs Microsoft-hosted agents — and how to set them up — is a scenario that appears repeatedly in both the exam and real-world enterprise DevOps projects. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔑 KEY CONCEPTS COVERED ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ → Azure Pipeline Agent Architecture → Microsoft-Hosted vs Self-Hosted Agents → Agent Pools and Agent Queues → YAML Pipelines as Code (Pipeline-as-Code) → Classic Pipelines vs YAML Pipelines → Agent Capabilities & Demands → Pipeline Jobs running on Host vs Container → CI/CD as Code with YAML in Azure DevOps ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚙️ PREREQUISITES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Before starting this lab, ensure you have: - Microsoft Edge or an Azure DevOps-supported browser - An active Azure DevOps organization (free to create) - Git for Windows → https://git-scm.com/downloads - Visual Studio Code → https://code.visualstudio.com/download - Completion of Lab 01 (Azure Boards) and Lab 02 (Git & Azure Repos) is recommended but not required ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 IMPORTANT LINKS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📋 Full Playlist (All AZ-400 Labs): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9BWcEhV1pxgqJmzrX5PhGLqvLR0eRlpv 📖 Microsoft Learn – AZ-400 Certification: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exams/az-400/ 🧪 Official Lab Instructions: https://microsoftlearning.github.io/AZ400-DesigningandImplementingMicrosoftDevOpsSolutions/ 💻 GitHub – Lab Source Files: https://github.com/MicrosoftLearning/AZ400-DesigningandImplementingMicrosoftDevOpsSolutions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱ TIMESTAMPS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎯 PART 1 — CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW 00:00 – Introduction 🧪 PART 2 — HANDS-ON LAB 07:58 – Lab Walkthrough ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 SUPPORT THE SERIES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If this lab helped you, please: 👍 LIKE the video — it helps more learners find this content 🔔 SUBSCRIBE & hit the bell for every new lab in the series 💬 COMMENT your questions — I respond to every one 📤 SHARE with your study group or DevOps team #AZ400 #AzureDevOps #AgentPools #SelfHostedAgent #YAMLPipelines #AzurePipelines #PipelineAsCode #DevOpsCertification #MicrosoftAzure #AZ400Lab #CICD #DevOpsEngineer #CloudCertification #AzurePipelinesYAML
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