How do I reference a different Variable group per stage - stage per environment in environments - Azure Devops, template, variable groups - azure

Question

When I run the pipeline below I get an error within jobs.yml - it commplains about an "unexpected value" for the environment parameter... and within stages.yml "unexpected value: parameters" - what am I doing wrong here? The idea is to get the environments and the associated variableGroup - loop thru the environments array in Stages.yml and create a stage per environment... insert correct variableGroup per stage... use variablesGroup values to perform jobs in jobs.yml - each variable group contains the same vars.. with different values.
This is main.yml
#main.yml
trigger: none
extends:
template: /Build/Stages.yml
parameters:
environments:
- environment: Dev
variableGroup: Project-Dev-VarGrp
- environment: QA
variableGroup: Project-QA-VarGrp
dependsOn: Dev
- environment: UAT
variableGroup: Project-UAT-VarGrp
dependsOn: QA
- environment: UAT2
variableGroup: Project-UAT2-VarGrp
dependsOn: UAT
Then here is the next bit... Stages.yml
parameters:
- name: dataFolder
displayName: 'Data folder to process'
type: string
default: '/DataMigrations/Master_Data/'
- name: dataFiles
displayName: List of Data Files or Folder names
type: string
default: 'Dev_Data.zip'
- name: environments
type: object
default: []
stages:
- ${{ each environment in parameters.environments }}:
- stage: '${{ parameters.environment }}'
jobs:
- template: ./jobs.yml
variables:
- group: ${{ parameters.variableGroup }}
parameters:
environment: '${{ parameters.environment }}'
crmURL: $(crmURL)
oauthAppId: $(ClientID)
ClientPass: $(ClientPass)
dataFolder: '${{ parameters.dataFolder }}'
env: '${{ parameters.environment }}'
and here is jobs.yml
jobs:
- deployment: DeployData
displayName: 'Deploying Data to ${{ parameters.environment }}'
environment: ${{ parameters.environment }}
pool:
vmImage: 'windows-latest'
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- checkout: self
clean: false
- powershell: |
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=crmConnectionString]'AuthType=ClientSecret;Url=$(crmURL);ClientId=$(ClientID);ClientSecret=$(ClientPass)'"
displayName: 'PreDeploy configuration'
- task: PowerShell#2
displayName: 'Powershell: Run update-data.ps1'
inputs:
targetType: 'filePath'
filePath: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/DataMigrations/Scripts/update-data.ps1
arguments: -folderName '${{ parameters.dataFolder }}' -environment '${{ parameters.env }}'
workingDirectory: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/DataMigrations
- task: PowerShell#2
displayName: 'Powershell: Run zip-import-data.ps1'
inputs:
targetType: 'filePath'
filePath: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/DataMigrations/Scripts/zip-import-data.ps1
arguments: -folderName '${{ parameters.dataFolder }}' -dataMigrationFilenames '${{ parameters.dataFiles }}' -connectionString $(crmConnectionString)
workingDirectory: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/DataMigrations

Answer 1

Few things here:
When you're using ${{ each environment in parameters.environments }} then the nested environment and variableGroup are available using this syntax ${{ environment.environment }} and ${{ environment.variableGroup}}
In your Stages.yml file, you're trying to invoke the ./jobs.yml template but the associated parameters are defined after the - group: ${{ parameters.variableGroup }}. A valid syntax should looks like this:
stages:
- ${{ each environment in parameters.environments }}:
- stage: '${{ environment.environment }}'
variables:
- group: ${{ environment.variableGroup }}
jobs:
- template: ./jobs.yml
parameters:
environment: '${{ environment.environment }}'
crmURL: $(crmURL)
oauthAppId: $(ClientID)
ClientPass: $(ClientPass)
dataFolder: '${{ parameters.dataFolder }}'
env: '${{ environment.environment }}'
You also have few space typos. I know it's annoying but you need to have the exact yaml syntax otherwise the files can't be parsed.