Using ARM Templates from external repository - azure-devops

Question

I'm working with azure multistage pipelines, using deployment jobs with templates in a separate repo. I'm currently starting to use ARM templates in my deployment process and want to run ARM templates that are located in a different repository as well. This is where I get a little stuck, any help/advice appreciated.
To illustrate my setup:
Repo A -> Source code that has to be build and deployed to azure
Repo B -> Azure pipeline templates (only consists of yml files)
Repo C -> ARM templates
So what I want to accomplish: A uses B uses C.
REPO A: Documentation build and release yml
resources:
repositories:
- repository: templates
type: git
name: <ACCOUNT>/Azure.Pipelines.Templates
ref: refs/tags/2.2.40
stages:
- stage: Build
jobs:
- template: src/jobs/doc-build.yml#templates
- stage: DEV
jobs:
- template: src/deployment-jobs/doc.yml#templates
....
REPO B: Documentation deployment
parameters:
webAppName: ''
connectedServiceName: 'DEV'
jobs:
- deployment: doc_deploy
pool:
name: 'DOC'
environment: 'doc'
strategy:
runOnce:
deploy:
steps:
- template: ../deployment/arm-template.yml
parameters:
connectedServiceName: ${{ parameters.connectedServiceName }}
resourceGroupName: 'documentation'
templateFile: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/Azure.ARM.Templates/src/web-app/documentation.jsonc
paramFile: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/Azure.ARM.Templates/src/web-app/documentation-params.json
parameters: -name ${{ parameters.webAppName }}
...
REPO C: contains arm template + param file
The issue I'm facing is that I can't seem to be able to get to the files of repo c. I tried adding another repository entry on multiple levels but it does not seem to clone the dependent repo at all.
My current workaround/solution:
Use a powershell script to manually clone repo C and directly reference the file on disk.
Related github issue: https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-yaml/issues/103

Answer 1

I've also stumbled upon this issue, having to load arm templates from another repo into the current build. What I did was setting up a build on the arm-template-containing repo, producing a build artifact with following azure-pipelines.yml: (this would be your repo c)
trigger:
- master
steps:
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts#1
inputs:
PathtoPublish: '$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/templates'
ArtifactName: 'templates'
publishLocation: 'Container'
Afterwards I could add following step into the actual pipeline:
- task: DownloadPipelineArtifact#2
displayName: 'Get ARM Templates'
inputs:
buildType: 'specific'
project: <YOUR-PROJECT-ID>'
definition: '<ARM-BUILD-DEFINITION-ID>'
buildVersionToDownload: 'latest'
artifactName: 'scripts'
targetPath: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/templates'
and I was able to access the files as follows:
- task: AzureResourceGroupDeployment#2
displayName: 'Create Queues $(ResourceGroup.Name) '
inputs:
azureSubscription: '<YOUR-SUBSCRIPTION>'
resourceGroupName: '$(ResourceGroup.Name)'
location: '$(ResourceGroup.Location)'
csmFile: '$(Pipeline.Workspace)/templates/servicebus.json'
For more information about the Download Pipeline Artifact task check out following link:
Download Pipeline Artifact task