Deploying and running .exe files using Azure Pipelines - azure

Question

I´m struggling to make my MultiStage pipelines to run a .exe file in a hosted agent running in a Azure VM.
My .yaml file is:
trigger:
- develop
stages:
- stage: build
displayName: Build
jobs:
- job: buildJob
pool:
vmImage: 'ubuntu-16.04'
variables:
buildConfiguration: 'Release'
steps:
- task: NuGetToolInstaller#1
inputs:
versionSpec: '5.5.0'
- task: DotNetCoreCLI#2
displayName: 'Dotnet Build $(buildConfiguration)'
inputs:
command: 'build'
arguments: '--configuration $(buildConfiguration)'
projects: '**/TestProj.csproj'
- task: DotNetCoreCLI#2
displayName: "Publish"
inputs:
command: 'publish'
publishWebProjects: false
projects: '**/TestProj.csproj'
arguments: '--no-restore --configuration $(BuildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
zipAfterPublish: false
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts#1
inputs:
PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
ArtifactName: 'drop'
publishLocation: Container
- stage: Release
displayName: Release
dependsOn: build
jobs:
- deployment: AzureVMDeploy
displayName: agentDeploy
environment:
name: AzureDeploy
resourceName: vmName
resourceType: VirtualMachine
tags: develop
This VM is on the azure pipelines Environment. After I run this pipeline, the folder is downloaded into the VM, but I cannot find how to automate the execution of the output .exe file in this folder.
I think the way is to create a job with a task to do it, but I cannot figure out how to set the agent installed on the VM to run this task.
How can I do that?

Answer 1

If I understood you correctly, you want to execute your artifact file which was deployed to VM.
I think that PowerShell on Target Machines task should do the job for you. Yoy can write simple inline script to exeute your file. However, you need to have remoting confogured on VM. This article may help you with this.

Answer 2

You could specify tasks in strategy: Deployment job For example:
YAML
stages:
- stage: build
jobs:
- job: buildJob
pool:
vmImage: 'Ubuntu-16.04'
steps:
- task: PublishPipelineArtifact#1
inputs:
targetPath: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)'
publishLocation: 'pipeline'
- stage: deploy
dependsOn: build
jobs:
- deployment: DeployWeb
displayName: deploy Web App
environment:
name: vm1
resourceType: virtualmachine
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- script: echo my first deployment
- task: CmdLine#2
inputs:
script: 'more README.md'
workingDirectory: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/build.buildJob/s'
For this YAML pipeline, I publish all files in pipeline workspace to artifact in build stage, then this artifact will be download to target virtual machine of vm1 environment in deploy stage (folder name will be {stage name}.{job name}), then run command line task to get a file's content. (The script and command line tasks will be run on that virtual machine)