I am trying to look for a solution where our developers want to deploy a different version of their build. My train of thought was to add an env variable to our cicd configs, and then in our cd playbook evaluate if that var is None, and if so override the version we normally get from the package or pom file.
This is turn will grab that XXX version from our helm and docker container registry allowing them to roll back without or redeploy an older version quickly and efficiently.
I see that Azdo provides environment variables, but I wanted something that would only set or store the env variable for the run from the pipelines and would not be persistant.
You can configure so-called queue time variables. The idea is that you set a default value, like latest, and check the for to change the value at queue time:
If a variable appears in the variables block of a YAML file, its value is fixed and can't be overridden at queue time. Best practice is to define your variables in a YAML file but there are times when this doesn't make sense. For example, you may want to define a secret variable and not have the variable exposed in your YAML. Or, you may need to manually set a variable value during the pipeline run.
You have two options for defining queue-time values. You can define a variable in the UI and select the option to Let users override this value when running this pipeline or you can use runtime parameters instead. If your variable is not a secret, the best practice is to use runtime parameters.
To set a variable at queue time, add a new variable within your pipeline and select the override option.
Set a variable at queue time.
To allow a variable to be set at queue time, make sure the variable doesn't also appear in the variables block of a pipeline or job. If you define a variable in both the variables block of a YAML and in the UI, the value in the YAML will have priority.
See:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/variables?WT.mc_id=DOP-MVP-5001511&view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml%2cbatch#allow-at-queue-time
Related
In my tests I'm using environmental variable. Due to security reasons, when setting it in azure devops pipeline I need to mark it as secret. Is it possible to pass it as argument, within vstest task?
Apparently lacking enough reputation to comment on the answer by #daniel-mann, I need to follow-up through an answer myself.
Regarding the use of a runsettings file;
Yes, I'm sure you can do it like this, but there's a much simpler way. In the task definition, you have the option to override test run parameters.
For a non-YAML pipeline, you do this in the "Override test run parameters" option (the tooltip says "Override parameters defined in the TestRunParameters section of runsettings file or Properties section of testsettings file. For example: -key1 value1 -key2 value2."), so like this then:
-SomeSecret $(SomeSecret)
For a YAML-pipeline, you can do this:
overrideTestrunParameters: '-SomeSecret $(SomeSecret)'
The nice thing is that the test run parameter that you'd like to override DOES NOT need to exist in your runsettings file. In fact, there's not even need for a runsettings file at all!
The bad thing about this approach in general is that you'll have to access your secrets through the "TestContext.Properties" collection (for NUnit), which really sucks if you want a transparent solution that works equally well both for local development (using "user secrets") and in an Azure pipeline.
Another potentially bad thing about this is that these "overridden" test run parameters are just that - parameters for THAT test run only. If you happen to have a mixture of .NET Framework and .NET Core tests, you would want to execute those in two different test runs (for it to work at all...), and then you'd need to duplicate those overrides (given that some of the same secrets are needed, that is).
Regarding adding an additional task in your pipeline to set the appropriate environment variables;
Absolutely. Using the "Batch script" task is well suited for this, where you just pass your secret-based variables as parameters to the script and pick them up inside the script file.
For this to work as expected, though, you will need to allow the task to modify the environment.
For a non-YAML pipeline, this is done by ticking off the "Modify Environment" checkbox.
For a YAML pipeline, you could do it like this:
- task: BatchScript#1
displayName: 'Export key vault vars as env. vars (for tests)'
inputs:
filename: 'ExportKeyVaultEnvironmentVariables.cmd'
arguments: '$(SomeSecret)'
modifyEnvironment: true
Where in the "ExportKeyVaultEnvironmentVariables.cmd" script, you just do this:
set SomeSecret=%1
Note: If your secret by chance has some funny characters, especially having a trailing "=" character, you might experience that what you get when collecting the parameter inside the script is NOT what you sent in.
You can avoid this problem by enclosing the parameters in double quotes, like this:
arguments: '"$(SomeSecret)"'
And then collect the parameter by removing those surrounding quotes by using the "~" parameter modifier, like this:
set SomeSecret=%~1
A nice bonus effect of this approach is that your shiny new full-blown environment variables persist for the remainder of your pipeline. Referencing back to my "bad thing" about having to potentially duplicate the test run parameter overrides, that would not be needed here.
Regarding the additional option mentioned by the OP;
Absolutely, in which case you wouldn't need a "Batch script" task (that needs to call a script file), but just a "Command line" task.
BUT, be aware of a possible gotcha! Yes, this will create an environment variable for your test code to pick up, if you access it through "Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable".
In my case, I was building an "IConfigurationRoot" instance, like this:
/// <summary>
/// Gets a configuration instance, based on user secrets (for local test execution) and environment variables (for Azure pipeline execution).
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of the class that represents the "runtime" (and thus is able to get hold of any configuration).</typeparam>
/// <returns>An <see cref="IConfigurationRoot"/> instance.</returns>
public static IConfigurationRoot GetConfigurationRoot<T>()
where T : class =>
new ConfigurationBuilder()
//// Note: The "AddUserSecrets" method requires the "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.UserSecrets" package
.AddUserSecrets<T>()
//// Note: The "AddEnvironmentVariables" method requires the "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.EnvironmentVariables" package
.AddEnvironmentVariables()
.Build();
This works by adding various "configuration providers", which eventually allows you to access them all seamlessly through "configuration["SomeSecret"]".
What I found, though, if I'm not seriously mistaken, is that "SomeSecret" was still not available in the "EnvironmentVariablesConfigurationProvider" that's added, even though I could perfectly fine access it directly with the above mentioned method. Go figure (but I might be mistaken...).
Possible alternative approach (but for YAML pipelines only?);
It seems that for a YAML pipeline, you can explicitly set environment variables for a task, like this:
- task: VSTest#2
env:
SomeSecret: $(SomeSecret)
[...]
I haven't tested this myself, but seen a colleague do it (myself, I currently don't have a YAML pipeline). At least this variable can be picked up with "Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable", but I don't know if this can be picked up through an "IConfigurationRoot" instance.
I haven't seen any option to achieve the same in a non-YAML pipeline.
But again, this also suffers from the same possible "having to duplicate the environment variables across several test runs" problem.
See also my solution to my own question over at the Azure DevOps guys
I've been through this. There's no way to pass variables to VSTest on the command line, which means you have to jump through a few hoops.
You have a few options:
Use a runsettings file with a TestRunParameters section, then access it via TestContext.Properties["variableName"] within the tests themselves. You can use standard token replacement patterns to transform the XML file.
Use an app.config or appsettings.json (depending on your platform). This works pretty much the same as above, except, of course, you use the standard configuration classes to retrieve the values.
Add a step to your pipeline that sets the appropriate environment variables. Secrets don't get automatically mapped to environment variables for security purposes, but there's nothing that's stopping you from doing it yourself.
Move the secret values into a keyvault or some other sort of external secret storage and configure the test to pull the secrets at runtime.
I have a release pipeline with a variable, but there doesn't seem to be any way to set the value of that variable to something that's evaluated at release time. For example, another variable.
Here's a real example:
All I want to do is set the value of MyExpressionBasedVariable to the value of MyOtherVariable.
All the docs and examples online seem to suggest it's possible, but I can't get it to work. I always end up with the literal string rather than the evaluated value.
I've tried using these different syntaxes:
$(MyOtherVariable)
$[variables['MyOtherVariable']]
${{variables['MyOtherVariable']}}
I've seen that you can define custom tasks to set variable names as part of the pipeline but this seems massively overkill.
Essentially all I want to do is rename a key vault secret to a different variable name for convention-based XML variable replacement in config files.
E.g. I have a secret called this-is-a-secret-name-which-is-a-different-naming-convention-to-my-connectionstrings but I need it in a variable called MySecret-ConnectionString.
How do I use the value of another variable in a release pipeline variable?
How do I use the value of another variable in a release pipeline variable?
As I test, what you set should be work. You can try to follow below steps to check if you still have this issue:
Create a new release pipeline without link any variable group.
Set the Variable like following:
Add a Run Inline Powershell task to output the value of the Variable:
Write-Output 'The value of MyExpressionBasedVariable is $(MyExpressionBasedVariable)'
Write-Output 'The value of $(MyOtherVariable) is $(MyOtherVariable)'
Then we could get the log:
So, what you set should be work, if this still does not work for you, then you need to make sure that the variable you describe in the question is the variable your actual test.
Besides, at this moment, the value of nested variables (like $(TestVar_$(Release.Reason))) are not yet supported in the build/release pipelines, check this thread for some details, so make sure there are no such nested variables in your project.
Hope this helps.
With designer/class build pipeline, you can define pipeline variables with default values to be passed into the tasks. How do I do the same for a YAML-based pipeline?
I want to create three build pipelines, each would have a single variable set to a different value. All three point to a single YAML file. The documentation states:
You can choose which variables are allowed to be set at queue time and which are fixed by the pipeline author. If a variable appears in the variables block of a YAML file, it is fixed and cannot be overridden at queue time. To allow a variable to be set at queue time, make sure it doesn't appear in the variables block of a pipeline or job. You can set a default value in the editor, and that value can be overridden by the person queuing the pipeline.
It's not clear how to do this for YAML file.
I can create a template YAML file, and an individual YAML file for each config value that calls the template file, but then I can't set configuration value at run-time.
when you edit the build definition (not when you create it, at least with default experience). you'd need to click on 3 dots and pick variables from the list:
and there you would be able to define variables, and they would have a checkbox - Settable at queue time.
I have a web application that I build and release using TFS. The release definition contains a task group with all the necesarry steps for the deployment of the web application.
What I want to do is to determine a certain value and store it in a variable to use later on in the release proccess in the other release tasks.
At this moment, the first step in de task group is a Powershell task that determines the necessary value and stores it in an environment variable using:
Write-Output ("##vso[task.setvariable variable=MyVar;]$var")
When I use this environment variable in the next Task (Again, a PowerShell task), it runs perfectly as expected using:
Write-Host "Doing stuf for: $env:MyVar"
It's when I want to use the variable as a parameter for (multiple) different task(s) when it gets weird. When the environment variable has no default value, the calculated value from the first PowerShell task is used and all is well. But TFS doesn't like it when environment variables have no default value and forces to provide one before being able to save the release definition again. When I provide a default value, the task that uses the variable as Task parameter uses the default value, instead of the calculated value. I would expect that the calculated value should be used, as the second PowerShell task ensures that the calculated value is properly stored.
So, the symptoms I see:
When not providing a default value, the code in scripts as wel as the task parameters use the calculated value
When providing a default value, the code in scripts use the calculated value and the task parameters use the default value
Is there something I do wrong, or am I using environment variables wrong and should I use a different method?
As I understand it, you want to define your variable in a powershell-task within the task group, but you are also being forced to provide a value in the environment variable, causing the variable sometimes to have the value set in the powershell, sometimes to have the value defined in the environment variable.
The solution is to just provide the name of the environment variable itself, so it always gets overwritten by the value you set in the powershell task.
Source: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/harshillodhi/2016/11/29/vststfs-understanding-task-groups-and-its-various-use-cases-with-setvariable-logging-command/
Under the header "What is a setvariable logging command and how to use it with Task Groups?", three scenario's are referenced. It sounds like the second scenario may fit your needs.
I'm moving my configuration from using web.config transforms to being based on VSTS variables. I get process variables, you define a variable, pick an environment, and you're good to go. I also see "Variable Groups", these seem great, have KeyVault integration, and overall seem like a much better option.
But...I don't see a way to bind a Variable Group to a specific environment in my VSTS release process. I can't honestly see how these would be any use to me without this feature.
I've experimented with one workaround, but it didn't work. I tried:
Naming my variable group & variables with an environment prefix e.g.
Variable Group Name="Production ConnectionStrings"
Variable name="Production_LoggingConnectionString"
I thought once I linked the "Production_ConnectionStrings" variable, I could reference $(Production_LoggingConnectionString) from within a standard Process variable, but this didn't work.
I think I could come up with some powershell that would do something like the above and set variables, but this seems a bit too custom for me.
Does anyone else have an idea that I can use variable groups per environment, easily, without waiting around for VSTS to build this feature (if ever). Btw, if you want this feature, there is a suggestion here you can upvote: Make it possible to link a variable group to a specific environment in a release definition
This has now been implemented in VSTS variable groups as scopes. Go to your release definition -> Variables -> Variable Groups -> Link variable group, and you get the link window as below, where you can choose the scope to be either release or one or more of your environments!
I did not manage to find any release information on this feature, I just stumbled upon it as I was tweaking my releases.
I ended up using a powershell script to define my process variable based on the variable groups, it works great.
Let's say I want a variable named "LoggingConnectionString" and this has different values per environment
Steps:
Define a Variable group, e.g. "SharedLoggingVariables"
Inside this Variable group, define a variable/value for each environment, e.g. "LoggingConnectionStringDev", "LoggingConnectionStringProduction"
Back in your Process Variables for the Build/Release, make SURE you don't have a variable named "LoggingConnectionString", otherwise this will overwrite the value coming from the variable group
In your Release process, create a Powershell inline script at the beginning of the Agent with the following code
Param(
[string]$LoggingConnectionString
)
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=LoggingConnectionString]$LoggingConnectionString"
Pass your variable group as an argument to this inline powershell, e.g.
-LoggingConnectionString "$(LoggingConnectionStringDev)"
The final powershell step should look something like this:
During release, the powershell will set your process variable from the variable groups. If powershell isn't an option for you, there are other options
No, there is no way to use variable Groups per environment.
As the user voice you linked, you can vote and follow up for the suggested feature.
The work around for now is using environment variables to overwrite the variables in variable Group.
Assume the variable LoggingConnectionString with the value Server=myDB in variable group need to be used both for Dev environment and staging environment. But for staging environment, it needs to use another value (such as Server=stageDB) from the variable LoggingConnectionString. So you can add the an environment variable LoggingConnectionString with the value Server=stageDB for staging environment.
When the variable $(LoggingConnectionString) is used in Dev environment, it will use the value (Server=myDB) defined in variable group.
When the variable $(LoggingConnectionString) is used in staging environment, since the variables both defined in environment variable and variable group, it will use the value (Server=stageDB) defined in environment variable.