CI And CD Automation Design

This document captures the intended automation approach for Hybrid Infrastructure Toolkit.

Goals

• validate early and consistently
• separate preflight checks from deployment execution
• support multiple deployment categories without creating pipeline chaos
• keep automation aligned to the same platform model and standards

Pipeline Principles

• validation before deployment
• narrowly scoped stages with clear ownership
• explicit prerequisites and environment requirements
• reusable pipeline components where practical
• auditable behavior with useful logs and summaries

Early Pipeline Shape

The initial pipeline design should emphasize:

• documentation validation where practical
• script and infrastructure validation
• reference implementation preflight validation
• deployment category specific execution only for supported implementations

Expected Automation Layers

Repository Validation

• docs build validation
• script parsing and linting
• infrastructure compilation or validation where supported
• configuration sanity checks

Reference Implementation Validation

• preflight validation for the migrated Hyper-V reference implementation
• workflow sequencing checks where practical
• deployment readiness verification before execution

Future Category Validation

• Bicep validation
• Terraform validation and formatting checks
• DSC compilation or configuration validation
• Ansible linting and syntax validation
• ARM template validation

Secret And Variable Handling

• use secure secret sources rather than checked-in secret values
• separate environment-specific values from portable configuration defaults
• document variable precedence and injection patterns
• keep local-only secret-bearing files out of source control

CI Or CD Design Guardrails

• do not add a deployment stage for a category that has only placeholders
• do not let pipeline structure imply support that the codebase does not yet provide
• keep category-specific pipelines aligned to the same standards and naming patterns
• prefer composable workflows over monolithic all-in-one automation

Microsoft Guidance Alignment

Automation should align with Microsoft guidance where it materially improves design quality, especially:

• Cloud Adoption Framework guidance related to governance, standardization, and repeatable platform operations
• Well-Architected Framework guidance related to operational excellence, reliability, and security