Azure Pipeline deploy job with dynamic environment - azure-devops

Question

We have two environments defined, "stage" and "prod". Prod requires approval for deploying, where as stage does not.
What I'm trying to achieve is that if the pipeline runs against the master branch, it should use the prod environment, and all other branches should use the stage environment.
Problem is that I can't seem to be able to change the environment in runtime. I've also tried using templates, which sort of works, except that I can't pass runtime information as parameters to the template.
I also tried using two deployment jobs, one for each environment and then chose job based on conditions, however, as soon as the pipeline involves the prod environment, whether it's going to be used or not, it will ask for approval.

Answer 1

I will start with first last one:
I also tried using two deployment jobs, one for each environment and then chose job based on conditions, however, as soon as the pipeline involves the prod environment, whether it's going to be used or not, it will ask for approval.
Resource restriction are evaluated on stage level so if you put those deployment jobs on the same stage (or you didn't define a stage - then you have implicit stage) - this is the reason why it asks for approval. If you move deployment jobs to seprate stages you won't be asked for approval. Please keep in mind to move condition to a stage level.
Another apporach it would be conditional for envrionment as follows:
jobs:
- deployment: DeployWeb
displayName: deploy Web App
${{ if eq(variables['Build.SourceBranchName'], 'master') }}:
environment: 'Dev'
${{ if ne(variables['Build.SourceBranchName'], 'master') }}:
environment: 'campo-dev'
strategy:
# Default deployment strategy, more coming...
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- checkout: self
- script: echo my first deployment

Answer 2

I do this with an extends yaml. You can define your stages via the environment's parameter (defaulted) and then your calling yaml extends it and passes tasks for build and deploy. The build section is ran once. And the deploy section will loop for each environment.
The approvals comes from the Environment approvals setup in Devops
#Extends Yaml
parameters:
- name: buildSteps
type: stepList
default: []
- name: deploySteps
type: stepList
default: []
- name: environments
type: object
default:
- name: Stage
branch: any
dependsOn:
- Builds
- name: Prod
branch: any
dependsOn:
- Stage
stages:
- stage: Builds
jobs:
- job: Building
steps:
- ${{ each step in parameters.buildSteps }}:
- ${{ each pair in step }}:
${{ pair.key }}: ${{ pair.value }}
- ${{ each env in parameters.environments }}:
- stage: ${{ env.name }}
dependsOn: ${{ env.dependsOn }}
condition: and(succeeded(), or(startsWith(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/${{ env.branch }}'), eq('${{ env.branch }}', 'any')))
jobs:
- deployment: Deploy${{ env.name }}
displayName: Deploy to ${{ env.name }}
variables:
- group: ENV-${{ env.name }}
environment: ${{ env.name }}
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- ${{ each step in parameters.deploySteps }}:
- ${{ each pair in step }}:
${{ pair.key }}: ${{ pair.value }}
#Calling Yaml
#*Trimmed* header stuff
resources:
repositories:
- repository: cicd
type: git
name: SharedRepo
ref: main
extends:
template: extends-deploy.yaml#cicd
parameters:
buildSteps:
- task: PowerShell#2
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: Write-Host 'Build Stuff 1'
- task: PowerShell#2
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: Write-Host 'Build Stuff 2'
deploySteps:
- task: PowerShell#2
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: Write-Host 'Deploy Stuff 1'
- task: PowerShell#2
inputs:
targetType: 'inline'
script: Write-Host 'Deploy Stuff 2'