I am learning TFS 2010 from scratch and no doubt making every mistake in the book.
I have created a web.testing.config for my build to the test server.
In my build process I click the plus sign for "Items to Build" in "1. Required" and I specify "Any CPU | Testing".
The build clean compiles but ... I still seem to be using the web.config file I use in development rather than the one I want in testing.
The first line in web.testing.config is
This should ensure that any differences in this file are implemented.
So I am not sure I am configuring the build properly, or if the web.testing.config is set properly.
What you are looking for is a feature called web.config transforms, and it works slightly differently.
In Visual Studio right click on web.config and choose option Create Tranforms -- if you have not done this already.
Read samples on using tranform syntax, the link is in the web..config created for you. You will need it.
In TFS team build, create a separate step in your build template to build deployment package. The command is in this thread. This will create a deployment package -- a file with .zip extension.
To deploy the package, use WebDeploy tool. It has both UI and command line if you want to make it completely automated.
Related
Following this Microsoft tutorial (Run unit tests with your builds), I was expecting to be able to run my unit-tests automatically when a build is triggered, such as a Pull request.
However, when I look in the Pipeline / Builds tab and try to edit my pipeline, there is nothing that allows me to add a new task (see screenshot below).
However, there doesn't appear to be any way of adding a task. I can't even switch to the YMAL without navigating to the source via the Repo. I was hoping to use the GUI though as my YMAL is non-existent.
I have created a test solution with the following structure, which is held in the repo:
Core Solution
|_ Class Library Project (.NET Core)
|_ MSTest Test Project (.NET Core)
I was hoping to have a build step followed by a Unit Test step using the tests in my MSTest Test Project (.NET Core) project once they were built.
There appears to be a Tasks option in the Releases tab by the way, but I was expecting to be able to add tasks for builds as well, especially Unit Tests.
Being new at this, perhaps I have missed or misunderstood something. I would be grateful for any help and to be pointed in the right direction.
It seems that there is an obscure link that takes you through to the correct process, found it quite by accident, see screenshot below:
It turns out that there is a little link titled Use the visual designer that I'd missed. Seems a little odd that most of the tutorials discuss this process and yet it's partially obscured. I guess that this shows that the platform is a work in process and still being added to and improved.
Another few caveats for those descending this little rabbit hole, after selecting the Use the visual designer link, be sure to select the Empty pipeline template, or whatever is appropriate to your project/solution type, and not the YAML option at the top of the list, otherwise you'll be back where you started.
Finally, it seems that automated Unit Tests don't work on Agents other than Hosted VS2017 Agents (that said, I haven't tried the Hosted option). This is set in the very next screen by selecting the Pipeline and selecting the Agent pool from the drop-down.
One last thing... The pipeline won't run automatically unless you check the Enable continuous integration checkbox on the Triggers tab.
Once this is all done, I simply chose the tasks needed for the build by clicking the plus symbol on the Agent job 1 item.
Good luck
Kaine
You have created a new YAML style of build configuration. Currently Azure DevOps does not support of having YAML & GUI editor at the same time (this is upcoming feature in Q1/2019).
To get a GUI editor, create new build pipeline.
In this selection click "Use the visual designer".
Then at template phase, don't select YAML. Any other template will do. You can easily delete all the build steps after selecting template, so don't be afraid to choose any.
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.
I've seen similar questions and answers but found them not really what I want.
I have a large solution with several web projects in it. All the web projects share some common code so they are all part of the same solution (there is a common project that is referenced by all of them).
I've been running on Team Foundation Server 2008 and we are upgrading to TFS 2010 to be ready for our move to visual studio 2010 and .net 4.0.
I've got the build working with a 2010 build by creating a new build because we only had one customization I'm trying to reproduce.
Once the build is done I have the files dumped at
\\SERVER\tfsdump\devel2010 build\devel2010 build_20101008.3\_PublishedWebsites
by using the dump folder option but the build location is
C:\Builds\1\Web Applications\devel2010 build\Binaries\_PublishedWebsites
All I want to do is after the build is finished I want to copy _PublishedWebsites\SiteA to \ServerA\ShareA
and copy _PublishedWebsites\SiteB to \ServerB\ShareB
Because there is only one build agent all I need is to call a batch file to run the copy but for easy of use for my developers I need this batch file to be called after every build. Is this possible or is there a better solution?
To make things harder the site is still a 2008 project and it is requested that it stays that way until we can fully test it under VS 2010.
Use a CopyDirectory build activity, set Source property equal to BuildDetail.DropLocation + "\_PublishedWebsites\SiteA" and set Destination property to your desired location. I have put this activity as the last activity in build process and it works properly.
Taking a cue from Afshar's answer, for people directly editing XAML template file, create a new sequence after copy to the Drop location is successful:
DisplayName="Something" Source="[BuildDetail.DropLocation + "_PublishedWebsites\SiteA " ]" />
The quotes inside should be written as " and semicolon.
I've been trying to figure this out and so far haven't found a simple solution. Is it really that hard to deploy a database project (and a web site) using TFS 2010 as part of the build process?
I've found one example that involved lots of complicated checks and editing the workflow (which is a giant workflow btw).
I've even purchased the book "professional application lifecycle management with VS 2010", but apparently professionals don't deploy their applications since it isn't even mentioned in the book.
I know I'm retarded when it comes to TFS, but it seems like there should be any easy way to do this. Is there?
I can't speak for the database portion, but I just went through this on the web portion, the magic part is not very well documented component, namely the MSBuild Parameters.
In your build definition:
Process on the Left
Required > Items to Build > Configurations to Build
Edit, add a new one, for this example
Configuration: Dev (I cover how to create a configuration below)
Platform: Any CPU
Advanced > MSBuild Process
Use the following arguments (at least for me, your publish method may vary).
MsBuild Params:
/p:MSDeployServiceURL="http://myserver"
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:username=aduser
/p:password=adpassword
Requirements:
You need to install the MS Deploy Remote Agent Service on the destination web server, MSDeploy needs to be on the Build/Deployer server as well, but this should be the case by default.
The account you use in the params above needs admin access, at least to IIS...I'm not sure what the minimum permission requirements are.
You configure which WebSite/Virtual Directory the site goes to in the Web project you're deploying. Personally I have a build configuration for each environment, this makes the builds very easy to handle and organize. For example we have Release, Debug and Dev (there are more but for this example that's it). Only the Web project has a Dev configuration.
To do this, right click the solution, Configuration Manager..., On the web project click the configuration drop down, click New.... Give it a name, "Dev" for this example, copy settings from debug or release, whatever matches closest to what your deployment server environment should be. Make sure "Create new solution configurations" is checked, it is by default. After creating this, change the configuration dropdown on the solution to the new Dev one, and Any CPU...make sure your projects are all correct, I had some flipping to x86 and x64 randomly, not sure of the exact cause of that).
In your web project, right click, properties. On the left, click Package/Publish Web (you'll also want to mess with the other Package/Publish SQL tab, but I can't speak to that). In the options on the right click Create deployment package as a zip file. The default location is fine, the next textbox I didn't find documented anywhere. The format is this: WebSite/Virtual Directory, so if you have a site called "BuildSite" in IIS with no virtual directory (app == site root), you would have BuildSite only in this box. If it was in a virtual directory, you might have Default Web Site/BuildVirtualDirectory.
After you set all that, make sure to check-in the solution and web project so the build server has the configuration changes you made, then kick off a build :)
If you have more questions, I recommend you watch this video by Vishal Joshi, specifically around 22 and 59 minutes in, he covers the database portion as well...but I have no actual experience trying it since we're on top of a non MSSQL database.
Following a MSDN web page, I am trying to manually run mstest within my tfsbuild.proj and put the results into the pass/fail logic so the build will fail if this particular test fails. It's kind of like running a FxCop or something else from CMD and capturing a "0" or "1" and force-fail the build.
MSTest /testcontainer:test.dll /publish:http://ourtfsmachine:8080 /teamproject:ProjectName /publishbuild:BuildNumber01 /platform:AnyCpu /flavor:Release
I could understand running this inside an Exec task, butI don't know what the BuildNumber is, for example.
Help?
Instructions for getting the Build Number from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms243151%28VS.100%29.aspx:
Open Visual Studio and connect to a Team Foundation Server.
Open Team Explorer.
Open your team project and expand the team project node.
Under the build, double-click All Build Types or a specific build type to see its builds. Build names that you can use are in the Name column.