Pause TFS build definition via powershell - powershell

I would like to create a powershell script that pauses a TFS build definition programmatically. So far, tf.exe doesn't seem to offer any kind of functionality for that. Is there any library or api I can use to achieve this?

There is no easy way known to do that in TFS build. Perhaps stop the build service(the build will hang up ) can be easily executed when the scheduled scripts are running.

Related

Queuing a build using Powershell

I want to use a powershell script to queue a TFS build( prompting the user to enter the custom build defination) and wait until the build completes and check the status of that build and do a copy if it succeeds or exit if it fails. I would like to thank you in advance for taking time to answer my question
The simplest way is to use tfsbuild.exe command. This tool is located in Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio xx\Common7\IDE. More detail info to use start command: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181742(v=vs.100).aspx
You can also use a script using the APIs, How to queue another TFS (2012) Build from a TFS Build AND pass process parameters?
Which things your want to copy? In the build definition, you can specify a drop folder to copy your build outputs in it.

Visual Studio Online / Azure stopping and starting web applications using Powershell

I'm using Visual Studio Online's build tools to deploy web applications from a single solution. I've occasionally been running into file locking issues.
Error: Web Deploy cannot modify the file 'Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.dll' on the destination because it is locked by an external process.
After some Googling, I believe the "fix" is to stop the web applications before deployment on Azure and start it back up after. Sounds legit.
However, there does not seem to be a straight forward way to do this directly on VSO's build definitions. I've created an "Azure Powershell" build task, but it wants a PS1 file from the repository. It doesn't seem to let me just run Azure Powershell commands (e.g. Stop-AzureWebsite) from here. My team has created a work-around where we have a "run.ps1" that just executes the command you pass as a parameter, but none of us are satisfied by that.
What are we missing? There has got to be an easier way to do this without having a PS1 script checked into source control.
I solved this by installing Azure App Services - Start and Stop extension from Visual Studio Marketplace.
When installed, it will allow you to wrap the Deploy Website to Azure task in your Release definition with Azure AppServices Stop and Azure AppServices Start tasks, effectively eliminating the lock issues.
Check if you are using "/" on the "Web Deploy Package" path for folder separators instead of "\".
i.e. change
$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/My Project/drop/MyFolder/MyFile.zip
for
$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\My Project\drop\MyFolder\MyFile.zip
I noticed that was the only difference between the one I was getting the error and the others (the Restart step I added was not helping). Once I modified the path, I got it working.
Sounds crappy, but fixed my issue.
Did you use the Build Deployment Template that sets the correct msbuild parameters for you for your package? You can see how here. I would create a build using that template and see if you have the same issues. If so ping me on Twitter #DonovanBrown and I will see if I can figure what is going on.
As a rule it is good practice to have any scripts or commands required to deploy your software to be checked into source control as part of your build. They can then be easily run repeatedly with little configuration at the build level. This provides consistency and transparency.
Even better is to have deployment scripts output as part of the build and use a Release Management tool to control the actual deployment.
Regardless having configuration as code is a mantra that all Dev and Ops teams should live by.

Get Build Version in automated build deployment using TFS

I am deploying web application to azure using TFS CI automated build deployment.
In our config maintain build version like 2014.05.19.1 which is $(Date).$(rev) format.
All I want to update config each time build is deployed.For that I am passing value to 'BuildVersion' parameter in template to powershell script which actually performs publishing to azure.
I tried using $(Date:yyyyMMdd)$(Rev:.r) but it is considered string as it is.
I want to get current build version just like IBuildDetail.BuildNumber
within template.
My question is how to get the build version?
If you are using Invoke Process, instead of passing value for BuildVersion parameter you can directly use 'BuildDetail.BuildNumber' in parameters for process like
String.Format("-BuildNumber ""{0}""",BuildDetail.BuildNumber)
This would give the required build number.
If your PowerShell script is being executed from your TFS build, it should have access to the environment variables specific to the TFS context of the build. If that is the case, you actually don't need to pass the $(BuildVersion) parameter to the script, as it already is accessible to the PS script in the $env:TF_BUILD_BUILDNUMBER environment variable. Try testing something like $env:TF_BUILD_BUILDNUMBER | Out-File "D:\Dev\BuildNumber.txt" in your script. You should hopefully see the file containing your build number after running your build.
(I am assuming you are using a relatively new build process template...one that contains the "Post-Build script path" parameter, such as TfvcTemplate.12.xaml)
Hope this is helpful.
I would recommend that you use the right tool for the right job. The build system, is really only for building (compile & test). We have been using it for other things for years coz we did not have another integrated solution. However Microsoft recently bought InRelease and rebranded as Release Management for Visual Studio 2013. I have successfully integrated this with TFS 2012 as well.

TFS Build with TAP

We are attempting to introduce continuous integration into our MATLAB environment. Now that MATLAB supports testing and TAPPlugin I am hoping to run all of my tests from command line and output to a tap file, but I am a little confused about how to make TFS Build consume the file and fail the check in if the tests did not pass.
Has anyone attempted to integrate TAP output with TFS?
We have decided to investigate TFS extensibility and are working to write our own TAP parser to work with TFS.
Inspiration found here:

Automatic installer deploy to remote server using TeamCity and MSBuild

I'm having a .net WPF project that compiles to a bunch of dlls. I also have another project that compiles all the dlls and creates an installator exe.
I am also using TeamCity to automatically do those tasks for me with a press of a button.
The problem is that I want to have a separate TeamCity build configuration intended to automatically copy the result installator exe to a number of remote machines, each having specific credentials. But, unfortunately, I don't get how do I do this.
I have found some articles on automatic deploying (like this http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/11/you-deploying-it-wrong-teamcity.html), but, obviously, they are very specific for web projects.
So, how should I correctly deploy my installator on build?
Your best bet is to research NAnt and make a simple task that will copy the TeamCity artifact (installer) out to the specified location.
All you would need to do is have TeamCity execute the specified NAnt task after the installer has been built.
http://nant.sourceforge.net/release/0.85/help/tasks/copy.html
Update
Also, check out this question for solutions on specifying the credentials for the copy task.
OK, I've found out that it's pretty easy to do this using the FtpUpload MSBuild community task. There, one can set up the credentials and all other stuff needed for uploading a file (or a set of files) via ftp.