Week 5 - Containers & CI/CD

Introduction to Containers and CI/CD

Dependency Management

Docker Fundamentals

Azure Container Registry

Python CI Pipeline

Week 5 Gotchas & Pitfalls

Practice

Week 5 Assignment: Containerize and Ship a Data Pipeline

Week 5 Lesson Plan

Week 5 Lesson Plan

This week moves students from local scripts to deployable artifacts. The focus is on reproducibility, containerization, and CI automation.

Goals

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

Explain* why containers solve the "works on my machine" problem.

Write* a basic Dockerfile for a Python pipeline.

Run* a container locally with environment variables.

Read* a GitHub Actions workflow and identify its steps.

Push* a container image to Azure Container Registry.

Schedule

Total: 2 hours

Preparation (before class)

• Create a shared ACR instance for the class:

az acr create --resource-group rg-data --name hyfregistry --sku Basic

• Create service principals for each team with the AcrPush role. Share the JSON credentials during the mini-lab or CI walkthrough.

az ad sp create-for-rbac \\
  --name "github-ci-team-1" \\
  --role AcrPush \\
  --scope $(az acr show --name hyfregistry --query id --output tsv)

• Grant students pull/push access so they can use az acr login locally. Assign the AcrPush role to their Azure accounts:

az role assignment create \\
  --assignee <student-email> \\
  --role AcrPush \\
  --scope $(az acr show --name hyfregistry --query id --output tsv)

• Ensure students have Docker Desktop installed and az login working.

Live Demo: Docker Fundamentals

Goal: Show a reproducible build.

1. Create a minimal Python script.
2. Write a Dockerfile.
3. Build and run the container.
4. Pass an env var at runtime.

Workshop: Dockerfile Authoring

Goal: Students write a Dockerfile in pairs.

1. Provide a starter requirements.txt.
2. Require correct ordering for caching.
3. Add a .dockerignore.

CI Walkthrough

Goal: Connect tests to automation.

1. Show .github/workflows/ci.yml.
2. Explain triggers and jobs.
3. Run a failing test to show CI feedback.

Assignment Overview

Goal: Map the chapters to assignment steps.

• Choose a pipeline from Week 3 or Week 4.
• Containerize and run locally.
• Push the image to ACR via CI.

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