Obtaining the DistributedTaskContext in a custom TFS Build/Release Script - powershell

I'm using TFS 2015 Update 2 along with the new Build/Release system. I have a powershell script I'm executing via the Powershell Task. This task executes a powershell script that needs access to the $distributedExecutionContext magic variable I see in many different VSTS Task code samples.
This script in question is not technically a task, but instead is being executed by the Powershell task that comes delivered with TFS.
No matter what I do, I can't see to obtain the $distributedExecutionContext variable. It's always null. Here is an example:
Import-Module "Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.Task.Internal"
if($distributedTaskContext)
{
#... this never happens
}
Is this variable only available if the powershell being run is being run inside an actual task?

The default powershell task that you are using runs the script entirely as a different process and the $distributedTaskContext variable is not available to the script.
It is only available only to the task's powershell script.
If you are going to write a custom task, I would like you to use the new vsts-task-lib SDK which improves a lot over old SDK.

Related

VSTS build definition - prevent PowerShell exit behavior causing processes termination

I have a PowerShell task in my definition that calls another script file on its own which takes care of running several things on my build agent (starts several different processes) - emulators, node.js applications, etc.
Everything is fine up until the moment this step is done and the run continues. All of the above mentioned stuff gets closed with most of the underlying processes killed, thus, any further execution (e.g. tests run) is doomed to fail.
My assumption is that these processes are somehow dependent on the outermost (temporary) script that VSTS generates to process the step.
I tried with the -NoExit switch specified in the arguments list of my script, but to no avail. I've also read somewhere a suggestion to set this by default with a registry key for powershell.exe - still nothing.
The very same workflow was okay in Jenkins. How can I fix this?
These are the tasks I have:
The last PowerShell task calls a specified PowerShell file which calls several others on its own. They ensure some local dependencies and processes needed to start executing the tests, e.g. a running Node.js application (started in a separate console for example and running fine).
When the task is done and it is successful, the last one with the tests would fail because the Node.js application has been shut down as well as anything else that was started within the previous step. It just stops everything. That's why I'm currently running the tests within the same task itself until I find out how to overcome this behavior.
I am not sure how you call the dependencies and applications in your PowerShell script. But I tried with the following command in PowerShell script task to run a Node.js application:
invoke-expression 'cmd /c start powershell -Command {node main.js}'
The application keeps running after the PowerShell script task is passed and finished which should meet your requirement. Refer to this question for details: PowerShell launch script in new instance.
But you need to remember to close the process after the test is finished.
There is the Continue on error option (Control Options section). The build process will be continued if it is true (checked), but the build result will be partially succeeded.
You also can output the error or warning by using PowerShell or VSTS task commands (uncheck Fail on Standard Error option in the Advanced section) and terminate the current PowerShell process by using the exit keyword, for example:
Write-Warning “warning”
Write-Error “error”
Write-Host " ##vso[task.logissue type=warning;]this is the warning"
Write-Host " ##vso[task.logissue type=error;sourcepath=consoleapp/main.cs;linenumber=1;columnnumber=1;code=100;]this is an error "
More information about the VSTS task command, you can refer to: Logging Commands

Powershell in an SSIS Job

I am trying to run a powershell to create a .csv file. I have executed the script several times in powershell but I am having difficulty executing it in SSIS. I have an Execute Process Task control. The executable is pointing to my powershell .exe, and the arguments are the path and filename. When it executes I get an error:
[Execute Process Task] Error: In Executing
"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe"
"-ExecutionPolicy ByPass -command".
'c:\MIMPasswordImport\PowerShellScript\MIMImport.ps1'" " at "", The
process exit code was "1" while the expected was "0".
Any help would be appreciated.
Is this the only thing in the SSIS package? If so you don't need a package to create a SQL Agent job to use powershell you can do that directly. If you want to use the code as it exists you can also adapt your powershell script to a script task in an SSIS Package. Of if you just want to populate and create a csv how about using SSIS itself for the purpose. And if you want to run it exactly how it is you likely have an issue in your script that is returning information when it shouldn't as SSIS interprets the returned data differently than you think and has a specific success code that it will expect when used in a process task.

How to create and schedule a task in windows task scheduler using powershell commands?

I want to create and run task in windows task scheduler using powershell commands.
I have a script and want to schedule task for this script only by using powershell commands not by gui interface.
Please provide a solution as soon as possible......
I would use schtasks.exe. No need to reinvent the wheel. You can either import from an XML file or create it from the command line.
Just because you're using Powershell doesn't mean everything you're doing must be with a cmdlet or .NET objects. Indeed, many things you'll want to do aren't even exposed in .NET. You'll need to use Win32 or COM objects to get them done.

PowerShell script called from within the Jenkins PowerShell build step hangs indefinitely

I have a Jenkins (1.493) project that uses the Jenkins PowerShell build step to execute a PowerShell script. Inside that script I want to invoke another script that is stored inside a file. I have now reduced it to the following:
Script inside Jenkins PowerShell build step:
& "\\stemmer.local\sidevelopment\cvdev\devbase\jenkins\PowerShell\Test.ps1"
Content of Test.ps1:
write-host 'Hello world!'
Whenever this Jenkins project executes, the PowerShell build step hangs indefinitely.
Things I have tried/verified so far:
Adding some output before the invocation of Test.ps1 shows me that the Jenkins PowerShell script is being execute normally up to the point where Test.ps1 is called.
The file Test.ps1 exists and is reachable from the build slave that executes the script. If I alter the file's name, I get the expected error message from PowerShell...
Exchanging the " for ' in the 1st script does not change anything. Also, using dot-sourcing rather than & does not help.
The file Test.ps1 can be executed properly from the powershell itself using the same command line that is being used in the Jenkins PowerShell script.
The execution policy for PowerShell has been set to unrestricted on my development host as well as on the Jenkins build slave.
I've tried replacing the PowerShell build step with a Windows batch command build step that looks like this:powershell.exe -InputFormat None -File "\\stemmer.local\sidevelopment\cvdev\devbase\jenkins\PowerShell\Test.ps1"and played around a little with the parameters of powershell.exe, but the results were - in those cases that were syntactically and otherwise correct as far as I can tell - always the same.
I only found few references to problems that sounded similar, but none of the approaches mentioned elsewhere did help me fix this. I am absolutely puzzled, and wondering whether someone encountered this issue before (and maybe even got a scenario like the one I have in mind running).
Thanks a lot for any input!
Volker
have you tried to set execution policy to bypass ?
Copy the script file locally, then invoke it from within the Jenkins PowerShell plugin - that way it works as expected.

Is there a way to access TeamCity system properties in a Powershell script?

I'm trying to set up a new build configuration in TeamCity using the Powershell runner. However, I can't seem to find a way to access the TeamCity System Properties in the build script. I've seen hints that it is possible, but cannot find documentation on how to do it.
I have tried accessing the system properties using Powershell variable syntax, $variable. I have also printed out all variables in memory and see no teamcity variables to use.
Is this possible with the Powershell runner, and if so what is the syntax necessary to get it working?
TeamCity will set up environment variables, such as build.number (you can see a list of these within TeamCity).
In Powershell you can access environment variables using the env "provider", e.g.
$env:PATH
TeamCity variables are accessible by replacing the . with a _, so the build.number variable can be accessed as
$env:build_number
As it says in the TeamCity documentation, the system parameters are passed to the build script runner, but not all build script runners know what to do with them. In the case of the Powershell script runner, when using a script file, they don't propagate down to your scripts.
It's occurred to me to write a psake-optimized build runner that does, but in the meantime you can do one of the following:
explicitly map any of the TeamCity build properties to script parameters using the parameter expansion that's available within the Script Source box. eg .\build.ps1 -someParam:%build.name%
use environment parameters, which can be accessed explicitly within PowerShell using $env:NAME_IN_TEAMCITY syntax, eg $env:TEAMCITY_VERSION, or looped over and pushed into variable scope
access the build properties file that TeamCity makes available during the build. The file is available at $env:TEAMCITY_BUILD_PROPERTIES_FILE, and if you load the XML version it's fairly easy to loop through and push them all into scope (though you do get everything as a string of course). I posted a gist on how to do this (https://gist.github.com/piers7/6432985). Or, if using Psake, modify the script above to return you a hashtable which you can pass directly to Psake's -properties argument.
It is posible. Here is example how to pass system properties into PSake script:
& .\psake.ps1 -parameters #{build_number=%build.number%; personal_build=%build.is.personal%}
If you don't use Psake, you can define your variables like this:
$build_number = %build.number%
The %build.number% part will be replaced with TeamCity provided data. I think, it works only in Source code script input mode.
I created a meta-runner that will pass through System parameters to parameters declared in the Powershell script. It's not perfect (if you put '# in your source it will break) but it works for what I needed, you can find it here: https://gist.github.com/anonymous/ef60ada3f48f0fb25093