I'm setting up a test pipeline using VSTS and now I have my builds working using an Azure VM as a build agent, I want to also deploy to that machine.
I've tried using the Windows File Copy and IIS deploy tasks but understand this isn't a very good solution for security reasons, so wondered what the best task to use would be to get the build/release agent on the machine to copy the artefacts to the Azure based VM and deploy locally to its IIS install?
I'd suggest that you strongly reconsider not deploying your application to your build agent. This will make it extremely difficult to find issues due to missing DLLs or files because the build server has everything. I suggest either creating another VM to deploy to or leverage Azure's PaaS for web applications.
With all of that said, because you are working locally on the same VM, you can simply leverage the Copy Files task to move the files to where they need to be. To "deploy" the application, you can simply copy the output of the website to the IIS directory.
Another option would be to create a PowerShell script that would setup, configure and deploy the application to the local machine. In which case, you could simply leverage the PowerShell task.
The source (Get sources section in build definition) will be download to build agent automatically during the build, so you don’t need to copy the files to that machine through Windows File Copy task, the simple workflow is that:
Add NuGet task to restore packages
Add Visual Studio Build task (MSBuild Arguments: /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\web.zip" /P:PackageTempRootDir="")
Add WinRM-IIS Web App Deployment task: (Web Deploy package: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\web.zip)
As virusstorm said that you can copy files to other path on that machine through Copy Files task.
On the other hand, by default the artifact will be downloaded to the target machine if you are using release and you can consider Deployment groups if the deployment machine is different with the build agent machine.
Related
what I did;
I have my c# windows form application on Azure Repo and I created a build.
I assigned my physical test server to Azure DevOps under the Deployment groups page. And it is online.
I defined a release, I added an artifact that refers to the build pipeline from the Azure repo.
Now I want to transfer my windows form app release files to my physical test server (windows) under the Desktop folder and run. (also stop and delete previous app if it is already running)
For that, I tried to add a stage. But for the stage templates, I don't know which one to choose. There are deployment options for IIS and Azure services.
Bufre, I published my ASP.NET app using IIS website deployment. Worked fine. But how to do it for a desktop application? How to transfer and run?
I see a as a similar issue here, But I am new to YAML files and I could not produce.
Where to mention target physical path, which template to choose? Could you please advise on the steps?
You must install the DevOps agent on this server, then add it to the agent pool and then use any task that allows to install your app (depends on what kind of app you have). All tasks will be executed on the server directly, so you can use PowerShell, cmd or what ever.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-windows?view=azure-devops
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/pools-queues?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml%2Cbrowser
I have a simple executable, that I have build and unittested in a build pipeline.
now I want to install it on some test machines and run some tests on the app, before releasing it to production. (eventually I hope to automate the tests with specflow, but that is the next step)
So basically I have an helloworld.exe build, that I want to be installed from a pipeline to at test agent computer.
I think clickonce is the optimal option, but am unsure how to set it up on azure devops. (we use a server on premises)
Msbuild has Publish target to build and publish the ClickOnce application. It will generate the setup.exe you want. Please check document: Create and build a basic ClickOnce application with MSBuild. In release pipeline you can use msbuild task or Visual Studio Task with Publish target(/t:Publish as argument).
Then you'll get one app.publish folder where the files you want exist there:
This folder can be used for your further deployment.
Here is a ticket you can refer to .
In addition, azure devops Marketplace provides some extension: ClickOnce Packager, ClickOnceMore DevOps Pipeline Task.
I created a simple .net core console app. This app's repository is a Azure DevOps one. I have also created a ubuntu vm which i can successfully connect to, to receive the deploy.
I have managed to deploy my app from my local computer, by cloning, building and pushing it (via scp command).
Now I would like to do this using azure devops pipeline?
I managed to build the app, but now i can't seem to find help regarding how to execute the scp (or a alternative) command...
Edit1:
Ok, this is turning out to be an order of magnitude harder than I expected. I'm giving up for now. I've been trying to figure this out for almost 2 work-days. I can't believe that a task that requires 4-6 commands on a script on my local machine should require this much effort to do on a devops environment...
You can configure a deploy agent to your VM and use a release management to copy and configure your applications:
Deploy an agent on Linux
Define your multi-stage continuous deployment (CD) pipeline
Have a look at the Copy files over SSH pipeline task which supports SCP.
I have TFS 2015 and i was able to automated the build process from the branch and get the files from the drop folder as shown below:
It has release for multiple projects like Web API and Windows Service
I want Azure VM on which i want to automate the deployment process - continuous delivery.
Deploy the Web API on IIS on Azure VM
Deploy the Windows Services On Azure VM.
Run Scripts SQL.
I have credentials of Azure VM. How i can perform the three above steps.
I have worked on a similar problem in the past so can probably help you out (MSFT, if it helps).
Web Api on IIS on Azure VM
This is almost completely automated in the form of WinRM - IIS Web App Deployment task that you can find and add in your release definition. The link provides complete instructions on what parameters to provide and tweaks to be done for Azure VM compared to on-premise ones. There are a few prerequisites to running this task, like installing and configuring IIS on the VM which the documentation discusses in detail. As a necessary input to this task, you need to provide the web deploy package which I am assuming was generated as your build output. If not, you can refer to this SO post to get the required output. If you have parameters like connection strings that you wish to modify at deploy time, using a parameters.xml file in the above task.
Windows Service on Azure VM
There is no completely automated task for this requirement, but it is pretty straight-forward. It can be achieved by using the PowerShell on Target Machines task along with Azure File Copy task. For the first task, all that is required as input is the .exe of the windows service that you wish to deploy, which should be generated as the output of your build process (build artifacts). Much of the remote machine inputs for this task is similar to the previous one so you should not have any problem there. You will need to check-in the Powershell script that does the actual windows service installation, in your source code as part of the same windows service project (copy local = True). This will ensure that as the build output, you will have access to the powershell script which you can use in the second task. Azure File Copy is required to copy your powershell script to the Azure VM so that the Powershell task can execute it. Let's assume you copied the powershell script to a folder C:\Data\ on the Azure VM.
$serviceName = "MyWindowsService"
$exeFullName = "path\\to\\your\\service.exe"
$serviceDisplayName = "MyWindowsService"
$pss = New-Service $serviceName $exeFullName -DisplayName $serviceDisplayName
-StartupType Automatic
Add this content to the checked in powershell file and name it installWindowsService.ps1. Then in the powershell task provide the path of the powershell file to execute as C:\Data\installWindowsService.ps1.
Run SQL Scripts on Azure VM
I haven't personally worked on this so the best I can do is point you in the right direction. If you are using DACPAC for your SQL deployment, you can use the WinRM - SQL Server Database Deployment task. If you just intend to execute scripts, use the remote powershell task from above and refer this post that will help you with running SQL commands through powershell script
Seems you want the CD release process picks up the artifacts published by your CI build and then deploys them to your IIS servers/Windows Services on Azure VM.
If you've just completed a CI build, then you should create a new release definition that's automatically linked to the build definition.
Open the Releases tab of the Build & Release hub, open the + drop-down in the list of release definitions, and choose Create release definition.
For 2, write a powershell script to handle this, ensure build outputs
were available to copy from the ‘Drop’ folder on the build and that
they are copied to C:\xxx\ on the target VM(s). More detail steps
please refer this blog.
For 3, you could use Azure SQL Database Deployment task. Either
select the SQL Script file on the automation agent or on a UNC path
that is accessible to the automation agent. Or directly enter the
InLine SQL Script to run against the Azure SQL Server Database. Also take a look at the tutorial.
Maybe not all the task is fully Compatible with TFS2015 version, you could upgrade your TFS version to get more new features or customize your own build/release task to handle it.
Is there a way of having my Azure WebJob automatically deploy without needing to right click and select "Publish as Azure WebJob" every time? i.e. when I check-in my solution it is automatically deploy to the Azure Portal webjob section
While I tried to accomplish this, I found out that there is no tooling support for dotnet core projects as of now. The proposed webjobs.props/ msbuild solutions are all dotnet framework specific.
However I also found out that a webjob can be anything that's executable on the local machine (could be node.js or just a batch command).
The key is to understand how WebJobs are recognized by the host:
A WebJob on a Windows host is (by what I gathered from experimenting with it) just a run.cmd file that contains instructions on how to start the webJob. For dotnet core that would be dotnet MyDll.dll %* (%* to pass arguments for output redirection etc. down from the host).
Now depending on wether the job is continuous or triggered the run.cmd file needs to be located either at app_data/jobs/continuous/[NameOfJob] or app_data/jobs/triggered/[NameOfJob]. For the triggered job you could also add a schedule using a settings.job file like described here.
If there is a run.cmd at the proper location it will be recognized as a WebJob
Now to deploy a webjob using VSTS regardless of the runtime framework follow these steps:
Build/Publish your WebJob if necessary to get the executables
Add a run.cmd file next to your webjob executables that contains the proper startup instructions. You could also add settings.job here if needed.
Create the folder hierarchy app_data/jobs/[triggered/continuous]/[nameOfJob] and copy your executables into the lowest folder. Make sure run.cmd is directly under the [nameOfJob]/ directory
Zip the app_data folder so that the zip-package contains the entire hierarchy
Publish your zip file using the normal Azure App Service Deployment task (just like deploying the web app)
And that's it.
Yes you can.
Brady Gaster has written about this on a blog post (haven't tried it myself).
From what I gather, the TL;DR; summary is the following:
add a file named webjobs.props to the properties folder of the Web Application Project or Console Application you’re publishing
After that, edit the file so the ManagementCertificate, SubscriptionId and PublishSettingsPath are filled with correct data.
Now you should be able to publish the files using the command
msbuild WebJobDemo.Web.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=WebJobDemo /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0 /p:Password=asdfasdf
(Note, post is written for VS2013)
Afterwards you should see something like this.
You could of course automate this in VSTS (or any other build/deployment tool for that matter) whenever something is checked in to your repository.
A (rather complete) answer on how to do this in VSTS via the command-line can be found in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/45703975/352640
You can do it through Continuous Integration Build (trigger the build once check in).
Regarding deploy WebJob, you can generate a package through Visual Studio Build task with /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.stagingDirectory)" argument.
Then deploy it through Azure App Deployment task.
More information: Deploying and Schedule Azure WebJobs from VSTS to Azure Web App
In Visual Studio in order to enable automatic WebJobs deployment together with a Web project right-click the Web project in Solution Explorer, and then click: Add > Existing Project as Azure WebJob and create your WebJob.
More details can be found in an article by MS - webjobs-dotnet-deploy-vs