Disable AzureFileCopy#2 pre job? - azure-devops

Question

I am using Azure Devops Pipelines (YAML).
I have a AzureFileCopy#2 task which copies file from the source into a Storage Account. The Storage Account is created dynamically by an earlier ARM deploy task (the ARM task outputs the SA name which is then parsed into a variable for later consumption).
The AzureFileCopy#2 task works perfectly and copies all the files into the Storage Account. But, I notice in the run that the AzureFileCopy#2 task actually runs twice - once by me and once as a "pre-job". The pre-job of course fails with a warning that it can't reference the Storage Account (because by that stage I haven't created the variable).
Fortunately, it's only a warning but it is rather annoying to have that warning in every run.
I believe that pre-jobs can't be disabled (though I could drop that is a a feature enhancement) so is there a better way of handing this presumably common scenario?
Thanks in advance
EDIT: Obfuscated YAML added:
variables:
My.Configuration: 'Release'
My.SQLProject: 'contoso.api'
My.ARMProject: 'contoso.azure.templates'
My.IntEnvironment: 'i'
My.ResourceGroupNumber: 66
My.ArtifactLocation: 'drop'
# BUILD STAGES ARE HERE
- stage: 'Stage_Deploy'
displayName: 'Stage Deploy'
jobs:
- deployment: 'Job_Deploy'
pool:
vmImage: 'windows-2019'
displayName: 'Job Deploy'
environment: 'env1'
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- download: none
- task: DownloadPipelineArtifact#2
displayName: 'Download Pipeline Artifacts from Drop'
inputs:
buildType: 'current'
targetPath: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)'
- task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment#3
displayName: 'ARM Deployment'
inputs:
deploymentScope: 'Resource Group'
azureResourceManagerConnection: 'CONTOSO CONNECTION'
subscriptionId: 'aaaaaaaa-0000-0000-00000-aaaaaaaaaaaaa'
action: 'Create Or Update Resource Group'
resourceGroupName: 'contoso-$(My.IntEnvironment)-eun-core-$(My.ResourceGroupNumber)-rg'
location: 'North Europe'
templateLocation: 'Linked artifact'
csmFile: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/$(My.ArtifactLocation)/$(My.ARMProject)/azuredeploy.json'
csmParametersFile: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/$(My.ArtifactLocation)/$(My.ARMProject)/azuredeploy.parameters.json'
overrideParameters: '-environment $(My.IntEnvironment)'
deploymentMode: 'Incremental'
deploymentOutputs: 'ARMOutput'
- task: PowerShell#2
condition: true
displayName: 'Parse ARM Template Outputs'
inputs:
targetType: filePath
filePath: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/$(My.ArtifactLocation)/$(My.ARMProject)/Parse-ARMOutput.ps1'
arguments: '-ARMOutput ''$(ARMOutput)'''
- task: AzureFileCopy#2
condition: true
displayName: 'Copy Static Web Content to SA'
inputs:
SourcePath: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/$(My.ArtifactLocation)'
azureSubscription: 'CONTOSO CONNECTION'
Destination: AzureBlob
storage: '$(ARM.AppDataStorageName)'
ContainerName: static
Then, when I run it, the following stages happen:
1. Initialize job
2. Pre-job: Copy Static Web Content to SA
It is this pre-job that, in the debugging shows this:
##[debug]StorageAccountRM=$(ARM.AppDataStorageName)
<other debug lines followed by...>
##[warning]Can\'t find loc string for key: StorageAccountDoesNotExist
Later on the task "Copy Static Web Content to SA" runs as a normal task and it runs fine.

Answer 1

Fortunately, it's only a warning but it is rather annoying to have
that warning in every run. I believe that pre-jobs can't be disabled
(though I could drop that is a a feature enhancement) so is there a
better way of handing this presumably common scenario?
Sorry but I'm afraid it's not supported to disable the warning. The warning occurs because it's by design.
(The source code of AzureFileCopyV2 task causes this behavior.)
More details:
We can find source of that task here. It contains one task.json file in which defines content like this:
"instanceNameFormat": "$(Destination) File Copy",
"prejobexecution": {
"Node": {
"target": "PreJobExecutionAzureFileCopy.js"
}
},
The task.json file describes the build or release task and is what the build/release system uses to render configuration options to the user and to know which scripts to execute at build/release time. Since the task.json has definition like prejobexecution, the predefined pre-job task will do the check about the inputs defined in PreJobExecutionAzureFileCopy.js file. Including the Storage Account.
So this is something by design of the code of AzureFileCopyV2 task, we can't disable the warning in pre-job task. If you do want to resolve that warning, you can consider using AzureFileCopyV1 in which doesn't define the prejobexecution, but this is not recommended. Compared with Version1, Version2 has some improvement and fixes some old issues.