Azure ARM template GEN_PASSWORD placeholder not working - azure

Question

I'm trying to deploy simple resource group to Azure with ARM template. It consist of single virtual machine with public IP and nsg allowing accessing it via SSH. To secure access I'm setting admin user and password for VM, which are passed to template with parameters json. VM definition looks like this:
{
"type": "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines",
"apiVersion": "2018-10-01",
"name": "[variables('vmName')]",
"location": "[parameters('location')]",
"dependsOn": [
"[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces', variables('networkInterfaceName'))]"
],
"properties": {
"hardwareProfile": {
"vmSize": "Standard_D2s_v3"
},
"osProfile": {
"computerName": "[variables('vmName')]",
"adminUsername": "[parameters('adminUsername')]",
"adminPassword": "[parameters('adminPassword')]",
"linuxConfiguration": {
"disablePasswordAuthentication": false
}
},
// ...
},
// ...
}
According to Azure quickstart templates repository for generating password I can use GEN-PASSWORD placeholder and GEN-UNIQUE to get unique alphanumeric string. That's why my parameters json looks like this:
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentParameters.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
// ...
"adminUsername": {
"value": "GEN_UNIQUE"
},
"adminPassword": {
"value": "GEN_PASSWORD"
}
}
}
However, whenever I try to deploy it (via Azure DevOps Pipeline) I got error that password is invalid:
2020-06-29T21:27:40.5401781Z ##[error]At least one resource deployment operation failed. Please list deployment operations for details. Please see https://aka.ms/DeployOperations for usage details.
2020-06-29T21:27:40.5416217Z ##[error]Details:
2020-06-29T21:27:40.5419655Z ##[error]InvalidParameter: The supplied password must be between 6-72 characters long and must satisfy at least 3 of password complexity requirements from the following:
1) Contains an uppercase character
2) Contains a lowercase character
3) Contains a numeric digit
4) Contains a special character
5) Control characters are not allowed
Can anyone help? I tried to find more info about these placeholders, but Azure GitHub repository that I linked above seems to be the only source.

Answer 1

The GEN* values are special placeholders that only work in the context of the Azure Resource Manager QuickStart Templates repository and its automated template validation.
I am afraid you cannot use these placeholders in your own custom Azure DevOps pipelines.