Invoking MsDeploy.exe manually in a Azure Devops - deployment

Background
As part of our deployment pipeline we are creating our deployment artifact, by running several .xdt transforms on our build artifact as well as adding several additional files.
As the last step before publishing, we would like to invoke msdeploy.exe to build a "custom" webdeploy package from a folder containing the wwwroot-content - (msdeploy command for creating custom package found in this question Web Deploy - How to create a package with selected items)
We are using hosted agents (win 2017).
We wish to deploy to an Azure AppService.
Question
Is there a task in Azure DevOps, that allows you to invoke MsDeploy.exe manually, such that we can create a custom webdeploy package, before we deploy?

Is there a task in Azure DevOps, that allows you to invoke MsDeploy.exe manually, such that we can create a custom webdeploy package, before we deploy?
I am afraid there is no such task to invoke MsDeploy.exe manually. We need invoke it by command line task, just like Daniel comment.
As we know, the default installation will place msdeploy.exe in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\msdeploy.exe
To verify the msdeploy path on the hosted agents, I use a copy task with content **\msdeploy.exe:
Then use the Publish build artifacts to output the msdeploy.exe, I could get the result on the hosted agent vs2017-win2016 and windows-2019:
So, the the msdeploy path on the hosted agents vs2017-win2016 and windows-2019 is C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\msdeploy.exe. We could use command line task to invoke it.
Hope this helps.

Here is the exact CommandLine task that worked for me (without parameters though):

Related

ClickOnce deployment on Azure DevOps release pipeline

I am trying to create ClickOnce deployment on Azure DevOps release pipeline
I create signature, manifest, application, deploy files with certificate
But how can I create the exe and setup file (via Azure DevOps release pipeline)
But how can I create the exe and setup file (via Azure DevOps release
pipeline)
Check document Build ClickOnce applications from the command line: Msbuild has Publish target to build and publish the ClickOnce application. It will generate the setup.exe you want. See similar hint here.
And all above is about doing that in local machine, to do similar job 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.
In addition:
If you meet error like Unable to find manifest signing certificate in the certificate store, please check the suggestions in this issue.

Deploy Azure App Service and Webjobs using Azure Devops in .Net Framework

I have created Azure AppService and added Webjobs console application in a single solution. I'm trying to build the solution through Azure DevOps build pipeline and Deploy the package through Octopus. When I build the solution there files required for Appservice such as Web.config and Global.asax are missing from Artifacts folder. so When deploying that package is breaking the AppService.
I tried to change the MSBuild arguments while building the solution. the current MSBuild arguments are as follows:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true/p:WebPublishMethod=Package
/p:Configuration=$(BuildConfiguration) /p:OutputPath=.\bin\ /p:PackageTempRootDir="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\temp" /p:packageAsSingleFile=true /p:TargetProfile=Cloud
I suspect, while building the Webjobs it is removing the App Service files, so the generated package does not contain all the required files. My Build pipeline looks like below.
My Artifacts folder Creates a Nupkg file which has following files.
If the App Service is deployed alone, It is working fine,Please suggest me the way I can deploy both from single solution and one Build definition on Azure devOps.

Deploying Multiple WebJobs from the Same Project in a Azure DevOps Release Definition?

So the way that we've structured our code is that we've got several projects in our solution that each have multiple webjobs. We've configured a manual way of releasing these multiple webjobs using the run.cmd files and copying over the pertinent run.cmd file to the root folder depending on which webjob we're trying to release.
I'm wondering if there is any way to do this via a build/release definition in Azure DevOps without having to tear apart the multiple webjobs into individual projects. These multiple webjobs also all live in the same App Service.
What you have done is the simplest way at present, you could just clone the process in Azure DevOps Build/Release Pipeline. There is not any way to do this in Azure DevOps without having to tear apart the multiple webjobs into individual projects.
We've configured a manual way of releasing these multiple webjobs
using the run.cmd files and copying over the pertinent run.cmd file to
the root folder depending on which webjob we're trying to release.
For example, in your build solution step define (add some copy file step to copy necessary files) :-
Visual Studio Build (Solution: ***.sln, MSBuild Arguments:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package
/p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true
/p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\")
Publish Build Artifacts (Path to Publish: $(build.artifactstagingdirectory); Artifact Name: drop; Artifact Type: Server)
Create a release definition for this build definition and add a task
Azure App Service Deploy
Select your Azure Subscription and App Service name;
Select your Package or Folder:
$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)**\WebJob1.zip
You can similary create another Azure App Service Deploy task for WebJob2.zip and deploy as many webjobs you want through a single build and release pipeline.

VSTS CI CD for desktop apps

How can I achieve CD (Continuous Delivery) for winform applications in VSTS (Visual Studio Team Services)? Currently this is what I have in my Visual Studio Solution file
1) A winform project
2) A Windows setup and Deployment project
So every time I build a winform project, I do the following steps (and I need CI / CD for exactly these)
1) Build Setup and Deployment project, which takes Build output of Winform project and creates and EXE / MSI
2) I take this MSI file and use NSIS to embed it inside EXE
3) I run SIGNTOOL from command prompt and digital sign the EXE
4) I upload this signed EXE to my website
Now how can I use CI / CD pipeline to automate the above or is it not possible for my case? I am confused. I can't find any material for winforms, all are for web apps.
Thanks
You will obviously need some sort of desktop deployment strategy. The easiest is to be using xcopy. Other alternatives include frameworks like ClickOnce, Windows Installer or Squirrel to name a few. I have a number of corporate apps that use Clickonce that I have deployed using vsts.
Now I am unable to understand how will VSTS help me with this?
Use VSTS to build the software first and include additional tasks to package your app. In my case, I use devenv.exe to generate ClickOnce packages, but you can include custom tasks by using powershell. The artifact of the build should now be the "packaged app".
Then use the VSTS deployment to copy the "package" to some kind of hosting server from where your users can download the package. That could be either a web server or a fileserver or any location appropriate for your deployment strategy.
In this context, VSTS is an orchestration tool. It helps to trigger actions for you.
See Deploy an agent on Windows to see how to setup an on-premise agent.
To build and deploy the way as you used in VSTS, you can use below steps:
Create a repository (Git or TFVC) and push your solution in the repository.
Add build/release definitions.
With CI build, enable the Continuous Integration in Triggers Tab. With CD deploy, enable Continuous deployment trigger in Pipeline Tab. The process for CI build and CD deploy, you can refer CI/CD.
Add related tasks in your build/release definition.
Build VS Installer task: build setup project with msi file.
Nsis Build Task: embedded msi file in exe.
Command Line task: to execute the signtool command. Since Hosted agent has not signtool.exe, so you should use private agent which has the signtool.exe on the machine.
Copy files task, Copy Files Over SSH task or Windows Machine File copy task: upload the file exe to your web server.

How to automate build (.NET Services)

I am trying to automate build process (not Continuous Integration):
Get the code from TFS.
Compile and create build package.
Push the code to a desired shared location.
Should I consider using PowerShell or will msbuild through Command Prompt suffice?
Either will work. We use TFS build definitions to execute MSBuild and MSDeploy.exe commands for our deployments. You can build via the commandline with:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
Then use MSDeploy to package the deployment and deploy:
msdeploy.exe -verb:sync -source:dirPath="C:\source\myProject\bin\Release" -dest:package=c:\package.zip
msdeploy.exe -verb:sync -source:package=C:\package.zip -dest:iisApp="Site1/App1" -enableRule:DoNotDeleteRule