I've got release pipelines defined that have worked. I've got a config transform that will write a API url to a config file (currently with a hardcoded api url).
What I'd like to do is be able to have the config be re-written based on the agent its being deployed on.
eg. if the machine being deployed to is TEST-1, I'd like to write https://TEST-1.somedomain.com/api into a config using that transform step.
The .somedomain.com/api can be static.
I've tried modifying the pipeline variable's value to be https://${{Environment.Name}}.somedomain.com/api, but it just replaces the API_URL in the config with that literal string (does not populate machine name in that variable).
Being that variables are the source of value that is being written to configs during the transform, I'm struggling to see another way to do this.
some gotchas
Using non yaml pipeline definitions (I know I saw people put logic in variable definitions within yaml pipelines)
Can't just use localhost, as the configuration is being read into a javascript rich app that would have js trying to connect to localhost vs trying to connect to the server.
I'm interested in any ways I could solve this problem
${{Environment.Name}} is not valid syntax for either YAML or classic pipelines.
In classic pipelines it would be $(Environment.Name).
In YAML, $(Environment.Name) or ${{ variables['Environment.Name'] }} would work.
Related
I have an Azure DevOps pipeline which is failing to run because it seems to be using an old connection string.
The pipeline is for a C# project, where a FileTransform task updates an appsettings.json file with variables set on the pipeline.
The variables were recently updated to use a new connection string, however, when running a Console.PrintLn before using it and viewing it on the pipeline, it shows an outdated value.
Many updates similar to this have been run in the past without issue.
I've also recently added a Powershell task to echo what the value is in the variables loaded while the pipeline is running, which does display the new value.
I've checked the order of precedence of variables and there shouldn't be any other variables being used.
There is no CacheTask being used in this pipeline.
Does anyone have any advice to remedy this? It seems that the pipeline itself is just ignoring the variables set on the pipeline.
There is a problem with the recent File transform task version v1.208.0.
It will shows the warning message and not update the variable value correctly.
Warning example:
Resource file haven't been set, can't find loc string for key: JSONvariableSubstitution
Refer to this ticket: File transform task failing to transform files, emitting "Resource file haven't been set" warnings
The issue is from Task itself instead of the Pipeline configuration. Many users have the same issue.
Workaround:
You can change to use the File Transform task Version 2 to update the appsettings.json file.
Here is an example: Please remove the content in XML Transformation rules field and set the JSON file path
I would like to only build my static web app and not deploy it. I saw there is a env setting "skip_deploy_on_missing_secrets' but after setting that in the pipeline it just gets ignored and the pipeline fails with error saying the deployment token is not set. How exactly should I use this env setting? Does it actually work?
There's not much info on the internet about this parameter. However, at least Dapr docs suggest that it should work, and I doubt they'd put it in their docs if it didn't (here).
However, I had problems getting it working as well.
One thing to notice there is that Dapr docs actually show a GitHub Action, and they work a little bit differently than Azure CICD YAML Pipelines, which I was using.
Finally I stumbled upon this comment on a similar issue on GitHub which hints that this magic undocumented parameter should be passed as an environment variable. I was passing it as an input. Maybe GitHubActions forward these params to envs automatically?
So I tried setting it as ENV and it worked!
- task: AzureStaticWebApp#0
inputs:
app_location: ...blahblahblah
....
#skip_deploy_on_missing_secrets: true
# ABOVE: this one is documented in few places, but it's expected to be a ENV var!
#see https://github.com/Azure/static-web-apps/issues/679
env:
SKIP_DEPLOY_ON_MISSING_SECRETS: true
Is there any way to explicitly print the value of a variable in a pipeline step? All my attempts only display "***".
Tried with Bash, Command-Line, and Powershell. Same result for everyone.
The first variable comes from the previous step. The other two are settled in the "Variables" menu.
EDIT 1 ----------------
Variables definition. Not defined as Secret:
Where the IP Address comes from. An ARM Template:
DevOps will not output variables defined as "Secret" in the log.
You would have to go a somewhat roundabout way as described here: Get Azure Devops Secret Variable as Plain Text using Powershell
But: If you want to output the "Secrets" anyway in the log of your pipeline, then you don't need to define the variables as Secret but you can just use PlainText (simplest solution, screenshot).
However, I would recommend you to set up a KeyVault, store the secrets there and include a link to the secret in the log, so that the user can retrieve the access data via the link after the deployment.
Regarding the IP:
If you define a variable inside the pipeline (like with the IP) you have to make sure that you don't use "issecret" for
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=secretVariable;issecret=true] ...".
Microsoft - SetVariable: Initialize or modify the value of a variable
I found the "problem". I don't know why, but the third (Parse ARM Deployment Outputs into variables) step was doing this with the variables.
After removing it, the values were shown as expected.
I am using ASP.NET Core 5.0 and I have a Web API app deployed to internal cloud where few settings like DB are controlled via environment variables on the host cloud. In my Startup.cs I have the below code
string projectDbConnection = Configuration.GetSection("ProjectDatabaseSettings").GetValue<string>("PROJECT_DB_CONNECTION");
string projectDbName = Configuration.GetSection("ProjectDatabaseSettings").GetValue<string>("PROJECT_DB_NAME");
Here as I understand, when running locally in IIS Express it looks for appsettings.<Environment>.json and they take precedence over appsettings.json values.
But this app is always connecting to the wrong DB when I deployed to Cloud where I mentioned the PROJECT_DB_CONNECTION & PROJECT_DB_NAME as Environment variables for the app.
To make the app read from the Environment variables I had to change the above Code in Startup.cs as
string projectDbConnection = Configuration.GetValue<string>("PROJECT_DB_CONNECTION");
string projectDbName = Configuration.GetValue<string>("PROJECT_DB_NAME");
I am unable to understand the difference between the GetSection.GetValue and just GetValue and why I should use Configuration.GetValue() to direct app to read from Env variables.
what am I missing and when should we use what?
Naming of environment variables
There is kind of a naming convention in the environment variables for nested appsettings to env vars, see naming of environment variables.
Each element in the hierarchy is separated by a double underscore.
In your case it would work if you name the env variable: ProjectDatabaseSettings__PROJECT_DB_CONNECTION.
Config Order
Regarding to Microsoft Documentation there is a order in which the config sources are checked.
ChainedConfigurationProvider : Adds an existing IConfiguration as a source. In the default configuration case, adds the host configuration and setting it as the first source for the app configuration.
appsettings.json using the JSON configuration provider.
appsettings.Environment.json using the JSON configuration provider. For example, appsettings.Production.json and appsettings.Development.json.
App secrets when the app runs in the Development environment.
Environment variables using the Environment Variables configuration provider.
Command-line arguments using the Command-line configuration provider.
The usecase
This is useful when you are developing local using appsettings.json, but run in a cluster or cloud in production where it is more convenient to use environment variables (f.e.: in kubernetes environment variables are set via config maps).
I have configured a webhook between github and terraform enterprise correctly, so each time I push a commit, the terraform module gets executed. Why I want to achieve is to use part of the branch name where the push was made and pass it as a variable in the terraform module.
I have read that the value of a variable can be a HCL code, but I am unable to find the correct object to access the payload (or at least, the branch name), so at this moment I think it is not possible to get that value directly from the workspace configuration.
if you get a workaround for this, it may also work from me.
At this point the only idea I get is to call the terraform we hook using an API Call
Thanks in advance
Ok, after several try and error I found out that it is not possible to get any information in the terraform module if you are using the VCS mode. So, in order to be able to get the branch, I got these options:
Use several workspaces
You can configure a workspace for each branch, so you may create a variable a select that branch in each workspace. The problem is you will be repeating yourself with this option
Use Terraform CLI and a GitHub action
I used these fine tutorial from Hashicorp for creating a Github action that uses Terraform Cloud. It gets you done the 99% of the job. For passing a varible you must be aware that there are two methods, using a file or using an enviromental variable (check that information on the Hashicorp site here). So using a:
terraform apply -var="branch=value"
won't work. In my case I used the tfvars approach, so in my Github Action I put this snippet:
- name: Setup Terraform variables
id: vars
run: |-
cat > terraform.auto.tfvars <<EOF
branch = "${GITHUB_REF#refs/*/}"
EOF
I defined a variable within terraform called branch, I was able to get and work with this value