Need an expert advice in Implementing continuous delivery across environments

Question

Hi All,
I need an expert advice/solution in implementing continuous delivery in our project. (PF Screenshot)
Deployment goes like this.. 
Dev checks in -> TFS Builds - > RM Invokes -> using PS/DSC -> Copies the binaries to DIT environemnt's IIS virtual dir -> Manual replacement of Web.config files (since we have many environments)- > App runs
PS/DSC does following things : Copies binaries using X copy , Uploads SP excel reports , Executing Dacpac scripts etc ..
Now the chanllenge earlier faced was wrt Web.Config files was, for every DIT environment many configurations, conn strings would change. In order to overcome this , Implemented Web.config transformations( like Web.DIT1.Config .... Web.DIT6.config in my solution
explorer. 
Added a custom MSBuild script in my .csproj file and before triggerig the build defination I 'd change in Process tab- > Basic - > Configuration = DIT1 (based on requirement) and triggers . )
It perfectly deploys to the DIT 1 without manually replacing WEb.config files. 
1) Now the blocker for me, Can we achieve this without Web.config transformations ? Since I don't want to expose the sensitive date in config files is there any way to implementing the same ?
2) I wanted to have continuous deployments from DIT to SIT and from SIT to UAT etc , How can we achevive the same ?
   I m planning to implement the same with web.config tokenizing in RM?
Looking for some expert advice in achieving the same?
Many Thanks ,
Abraham Dhanyaraj

Answer 1

HI Abraham,
Instead of having web config transformations to set config values for each environment do the following.
1. Have one transformation config say for example web.release.config which will contain tokens understood by RM (starting and ending with double underscore) for each config value.
<log4net>
<appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender">
<file value="__log4netLogFile__" xdt:Transform="Replace" />
</appender>
</log4net>
<ClientsSection>
<Clients xdt:Transform="Replace">
<add Id="__ClientId1__" Secret="__SecretCode1__" RedirectUrl="__RedirectUrl1__"></add>
<add Id="__ClientId2__" Secret="__SecretCode2__" RedirectUrl="__RedirectUrl2__"></add>
</Clients>
</ClientsSection>
<appSettings xdt:Transform="Replace">
<add key="MinCaps" value="2" />
<add key="MinSymbols" value="1" />
<add key="MinNumerics" value="1" />
<add key="MinLength" value="6" />
<add key="MaxLength" value="" />
<add key="webpages:Version" value="3.0.0.0" />
<add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
<add key="PreserveLoginUrl" value="true" />
<add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
<add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
<add key="WebPortalName" value="__WebPortalName__" />
<add key="TimeZoneFrom" value="Pacific Standard Time"/>
<add key="TimeZoneTo" value="Mountain Standard Time"/>
</appSettings>
The TFS builds can generate output with above formatted configs with web config transformation.
2. Then in RM server templates change the config files to have values depending on the environment. You can do this using a custom deployment component or default xcopy deployment component to set parameters.
3. Then in the release template set the config values.
Cheers!
Chaminda