Using SonarQube in Azure DevOps involves incorporating static code analysis into your CI/CD pipelines. SonarQube is an open-source platform used for continuous inspection of code quality. It can detect bugs, vulnerabilities, and code smells in your codebase. To prepare and integrate SonarQube with Azure DevOps, you typically follow these steps:

1. Set Up a SonarQube Server:

   • If you don’t already have a SonarQube server, you’ll need to set one up. You can either install it on your own server or use a cloud-based instance.
   • Ensure that the SonarQube server is accessible from your Azure DevOps environment.

2. Create a SonarQube Service Endpoint in Azure DevOps:

   • In Azure DevOps, go to “Project settings” > “Service connections”, and add a new service connection of type “SonarQube”.
   • Provide the URL of your SonarQube server and a personal access token or login credentials.

3. Add SonarQube Extension to Azure DevOps:

   • Install the SonarQube extension from the Azure DevOps Marketplace if it’s not already installed.
   • This extension provides tasks to integrate SonarQube analysis into your Azure Pipelines.

4. Configure the Pipeline to Use SonarQube:

   • In your pipeline configuration (YAML or classic UI), add tasks to run SonarQube analysis.
   • Typically, you add the “Prepare analysis on SonarQube” task at the beginning of your pipeline. This task configures all the required settings for the analysis.
   • After the build and before any test tasks, add the “Run Code Analysis” task, which executes the analysis.
   • Finally, add the “Publish Quality Gate Result” task, which publishes the results back to Azure DevOps.

5. Prepare Analysis Configuration:

   • In the “Prepare analysis on SonarQube” task, specify the key details of your project, like the project name, project key, and SonarQube server endpoint.
   • You can also specify advanced settings like additional properties for analysis.

6. Run the Pipeline and Review Results:

   • Run your pipeline. It will execute the SonarQube analysis as part of the build.
   • After the pipeline completes, you can review the results on both the SonarQube dashboard and within Azure DevOps.

7. Integrate with Pull Requests (Optional):

   • You can configure SonarQube to analyze pull requests. This way, you get feedback on code quality and potential issues directly in the context of code reviews.

8. Ongoing Maintenance:

   • Regularly update the SonarQube tasks in your pipelines if new versions are released.
   • Monitor and update the rules and quality profiles in SonarQube to align with your project’s quality standards.