Learn About Azure DevOps Server

• In the next step, you will be prompted to choose between the basic setup where the default configurations will be used or choose the Advanced setup where the user will have the power to set up the configuration which will suit your infrastructure or firewalls and also, set up the SQL Server Reporting Service for the DevOps server. For this demo, we went ahead and worked with the basic setup.
  
  
  
  
  
• Please choose the language in the next step from the drop down and click the Next button. You will be moved to setting up the SQL Server instance. Here also you have the option to set up the new SQL Server Express or use an existing one. I went ahead with Installing a Fresh instance of SQL Server Express.
  
  
  
  
  
• Setup the Application Tier or the UI of the application. It will be running on the port 8080 and can be visited by the DNSName : 8080/tfs from other machines.
  
  
  
  
  
• Setup the Search (not mandatory) by setting up a search store and adding a User for the search. You also need to set up a service account for the search. It also requires the dependencies like Java Runtime to set up the search. I have skipped this part and went ahead.
  
  
  
  
  
• Review the configurations before the setup configures it in your server.
  
  
  

• The system will check for the configuration and dependencies and will tell you to fix the issue before configuring the server. If everything is correct, just click on the Configure button and the system will configure everything your settings.
  
  
  

• Click on Next and Finish once the configuration is completed. It took around 17-18 Minutes for me to configure the server and the website will be automatically opened once the whole setup is completed.
  
  
  

• Create your first project from the UI and you’re good to go with Azure DevOps on your Server.
  
  
  

You can go through my article on Azure DevOps to understand how to set up your CI/CD pipeline for the Open Source Projects. All the steps are the same in the on-prem version as well.

Summary

Setting up the Azure DevOps Server 2019 on your system is quite simple and straightforward. You can download the express edition if your users are less than 5 and set it up on your laptop/desktop as well. However, for more production level scenarios with more users, you need a dedicated Server for hosting DevOps Server. Once the setup is completed you can reach out to the localhost:8080 or DNS:8080 to access the Azure DevOps UI and start working on it immediately.