I'm trying to setup continuous deployment via the Aure Portal.
When doing this via the VSTS account (let's call it "VSTS Account A") which is owned by the same account owner as Azure, everything works fine.
In this case I'm trying to configure continuous deploymenet from source code held in another VSTS account (let's go with Account B).
The Azure account owner is not the Account B owner but is an admin (member of Organization Administrators) for Account B. The owner is also listed explicitly as a member of at least one project within Account B.
The problem is that when it commes to configuring "Deployment source" within the app service section, Account B is not listed as an option to choose from.
I've followed various links (e.g. part 4 of this page) about linking the VSTS account with an Azure account but still no joy. There are a couple of problems here:
The Azure classic portal has a New button within the Visual Studio Team Services section but when I choose Link To Existing, I get the following message:
Make sure you’re the account owner. If you are, maybe your account is
linked to another Azure subscription or connected to another Azure
Active Directory
Account B is not linked to another Azure Subscription or Azure AD.
The new portal doesn't even have an option to attempt to link a different account, plus the menu link says "Team Services Account Preview" so whether the Preview status has something to do with it, I don't know.
I'd have thought this would be a relatively common use case, has anyone had any joy setting up something similar?
I was finally able to choose the relevant account by making the VSTS principal a co-admin in the Azure account which contains the web app, signing in as that user and changing the directory to use from the the user dropdown menu (top-right). Note, the user account in question is already an administrator for a different Azure account, just to complicate matters further. I only had the option to change the directory once the user was a member of multiple directories.
So I finally got it configured and committing code to the specified branch was triggering a deploy. However, it transpires that setting up continuous deployment from within Azure gives you limited scope and I got constant errors which were not straightforward to fix.
I ended up getting it working properly by following these instructions:
Build: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/build/apps/aspnet/ci/build-aspnet-4
Deploy: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/build/apps/cd/deploy-webdeploy-webapps
Configuring it all from within VSO gives you a lot more clarity about what's actually happening.
When doing the initial setup, I had to go through an authentication step with the Azure account I was trying to deploy to and that process launches a pop-up window which was getting blocked so I missed it at first.
The initial build and deploy were fine but I was getting a build error when being triggered from a code commmit. This is because the Build Definition --> Variables --> BuildConfiguration value was set back to Release even though I set it to the correct value for my project when doing the initial configuration. Once I updated that, the next commit triggered the build which in turn created the artifact which in turn triggered the deploy which went through fine.
Googler from the future here, I had the same problem and came across a really good article called "DevOps: Connecting VSTS to Azure by Ken Muse" enter link description here
This worked like a charm for me from the first try!
Since we had moved TFS Application Tier to a different server the TFS builds have stopped working. Whenever I try to start a build it fails with the following error:
TF215097: An error occurred while initializing a build for build
definition \My\Build: TF214007: No build was found with the URI
vstfs:///Build/Build/8320. Either the URI does not exist, or NT
AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE does not have permission to access it.
The set up is following:
Server TFSAT contains the TFS Application Tier and a build controller. Server TFSBUILD contains a build agent and a build service running under NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService account. The build agent uses build controller on server TFSAT.
I have already triple-checked that the network service account TFSBUILD$ belongs to the team project collection's group Project Collection Build Service Accounts.
Also I have already tried to open the URL vstfs:///Build/Build/8320 on the server TFSBUILD which results in starting a Visual Studio instance and giving the error: The provided argument vstfs:///Build/Build/8320 must contain a query parameter named url which contains the full qualified URL to the Team Project Collection.
I have also tried to create a fresh new build and run this one - the same issue.
Has anyone got a clue what might be set up wrongly? I could not find any additional permission that should be granted to the build service account (standard network service account in my case).
Please notice that I am quite a newbie when it comes to setting up TFS. Thank you in advance for any hints.
First, please make sure you have followed the correct operation in Move Team Foundation Server from one environment to another.
To narrow down the issue you can:
Try to restart the build service on the build controller and
agent and queue another build.
Use another build account not NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE and try
again.
If you still get the error, try to use below workaround: delete the old build control and agent. Create a new one. Note: you may have to edit all build definitions to point to the new control and agent.
I have deployed web applications using web deploy on to iis7.5 without issues, the preview works and It updates only the necessary files when publishing again. We have designers who like to change the css files with FTP and I thought the Replace fileName from server commands in Visual Studio would be great to pull their changes into TFS.
Every time I run it it comes up with the error :
The synchronization is being stopped because the maximum number of sync passes '5' has been exceeded even though all the changes could not be applied. This could occur if there are external changes being made to the destination.
If anyone could shine some light on the error or some documentation regarding this feature, that would be great.
Web Deploy does at least 2 passes to do a remote sync (when either the client or server is remote which is in your case too). At the end of these passes, web deploy does a metadata check to see if all the files are in sync.
If by then other changes have happened (such as someone else started a web deploy sync to the same destination, or a few files were edited via the web or via ftp or any other means) then web deploy will attempt a 3rd pass to get them in sync with the source. If the changes keep happening the passes will keep happening.
But since we dont want to sync the content for ever we placed a max retry limit of 5. You can actually override to something higher but its not recommended.
Update:
You can set this in two ways:
pass in a flag -retryAttempts=7 (or any number) to msdeploy from command line
Set RetryAttemptsForDeployment in VS targets or use it as an MSBuild property. Its described here
I have the problem with failing TFS build if my drop location is in domain different from TFS server. The error I get is
Results file: C:\TestResults\CPU_Release.trx
Test Settings: Default Test Settings
Waiting to publish...
Publishing results of test run buildAgent#computername 2011-01-03 15:31:38_Any CPU_Release to http://tfsserver:8080/...
.....................The drop share directory "\\computername\Builds\projectName\CI_1.0.193.0" could not be accessed.
The drop share directory "\\computername\Builds\projectName\CI_1.0.193.0" could not be accessed.
1:6>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(1403,5): error MSB6006: "MSTest.exe" exited with code 1. [C:\Users\BuildType\TFSBuild.proj]
How can at least I skip publishing test results? I tried to set up property
<PublishTestResults>false</PublishTestResults>
but it does not help. I use TFS server 2008.
This workaround finally helped me.
Wish I could speak to the PublishTestResults setting, but what appears to be happening is the tool is trying to authenticate across domains or doesn't have the appropriate permissions on the network drop location.
Two things you can do:
Add the username and password needed to access the droplocation to the Credential Manager of the build agent machine.
Verify that this credential has the correct permissions to this network resource.
The Credential Manager was introduced in XP and beyond.
There is an excellent PDC talk available here from Vishal Joshi which describes the new MSDEPLOY features in Visual Studio 2010 - as well as how to deploy an application within TFS. (There's also a great talk from Scott Hanselman but he doesn't go into TFS).
You can use MSBUILD within TFS2010 to call through to MSDEPLOY to deploy your package to IIS. This is done by means of parameters to MSBUILD.
The talk explains some of the command line parameters such as :
/p:DeployOnBuild
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=InProc
/p:MSDeployServiceURL=localhost
/p:DeployIISAppPath="Default Web Site"
But where is the documentation for this - I can't find any?
I've been spending all day trying to get this to work and can't quite get it right and keep ending up with various errors. If I run the package's cmd file it deploys perfectly. If I run WebDeploy through Visual Studio it also works perfectly.
But I want to get the whole deployment running through msbuild using these arguments and not a separate call to msdeploy or running the package .cmd file. How can I do this?
PS. Yes I do have the Web Deployment Agent Service running. I also have the management service running under IIS. I've tried using both.
Args I'm using :
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:Configuration=Release
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:DeployIisAppPath=staging.example.com
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://staging.example.com:8172/msdeploy.axd
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
giving me :
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets (2660): VsMsdeploy failed.(Remote agent (URL https://staging.example.com:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=staging.example.com) could not be contacted. Make sure the remote agent service is installed and started on the target computer.) Error detail: Remote agent (URL https://staging.example.com:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=staging.example.com) could not be contacted. Make sure the remote agent service is installed and started on the target computer. An unsupported response was received. The response header 'MSDeploy.Response' was '' but 'v1' was expected. The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.
IIS7 + related answer ....
Ok - here's what I ended up doing. More or less, following the post by Simon Weaver in this thread/question.
But when it comes to the MSBuild settings .. most people here are using following setting: /p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent which is NOT RIGHT for IIS7. Using this setting means TFS tries to connect to the url: https://your-server-name/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE But to access that url, the user to authenticate needs to be an Admin. Which is fraked. (And you need to have the Admin-override rule thingy ticked). This url is for IIS6 I think.
Here's the standard error message when you try to connect using RemoteAgent :-
Standard 401 Frak Off u suck RemoteAgent, error
C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets
(3588): Web deployment task
failed.(Remote agent (URL
http://your-web-server/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE)
could not be contacted. Make sure the
remote agent service is installed and
started on the target computer.) Make
sure the site name, user name, and
password are correct. If the issue is
not resolved, please contact your
local or server administrator. Error
details: Remote agent (URL
http://your-web-server/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE)
could not be contacted. Make sure the
remote agent service is installed and
started on the target computer. An
unsupported response was received. The
response header 'MSDeploy.Response'
was 'V1' but 'v1' was expected. The
remote server returned an error: (401)
Unauthorized.
So .. you need to change your MSDeployPublishMethod to this:
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC
The WMSVC stands for Windows Manager Service. It's basically a newer wrapper over the Remote Agent but now allows us to correct provide a user name and password .. where the user does NOT have to be an admin! (joy!) So now you can correct set which users u want to have access to .. per WebSite ..
It also now tries to hit the the url: https://your-web-server:8172/MsDeploy.axd <-- which is EXACTLY what the Visual Studio 2010 Publish window does! (OMG -> PENNY DROPS!! BOOM!)
And here's my final MSBuild settings:
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=your-server-name
/p:DeployIISAppPath=name-of-the-website-in-iis7
/p:username=AppianMedia\some-domain-user
/p:password=JonSkeet<3<3<3
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
Notice the username has the domain name in it? Ya need that, there. Also, in my picture, I've allowed our DOMAIN USERS access to the website for managament. As such, my new user account i added (TFSBuildService) has Membership to the Domain Users group ... so that's how it all works.
Now - if u've read all this, have a lolcat (cause they are SOOOOOOOO 2007)....
Here's the steps that finally worked for me.
I wanted to get the working with RemoteAgent, but couldn't get that working no matter what I tried.
You don't have to do exactly like this, but this is how I got it working
Configure WMSVC
Make sure the service is started
Configure an IIS user (click on the TOP MOST SERVERNAME in IIS) and go to 'IIS Manager Users'. I suggest making it different to your windows name.
Make sure the user account for WMSVC (LOCAL SERVICE for me) has write permissions to the IIS directory you're using
In my case I'm using an SSL certificate (even though it is hitting localhost).
Remember these are all arguments to MSBUILD added within the TFS Build definition
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://staging.example.com:8172/msdeploy.axd
/p:username=sweaveriis
/p:password=abcd1234
/p:DeployIisAppPath=staging.example.com/virtual_directory_name
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
Note: staging.example.com is actually the local box with a hosts file entry pointing to 127.0.0.1. Localhost would probably work here too.
Useful articles:
Troubleshooting MSDeploy issues
More troubleshooting
Unfortunately there is not a lot of info on this at this time. I'll give you some hints at the end of this message though.
About your problem, I've seen this before when I was trying to deploy using MSDeploy and the account that I was running on didn't have the permissions to execute the deployment on the target machine. So you need to take a look at the account that your builds are running under, and see if this account has the rights to deploy to the target machine. If not then you have a few options; grant the build user the rights, or pass the username/password in.
If you want to pass the values in then you will have to define an item named MsDeployDestinationProviderSetting and its metadata will have to contain the necessary values.
So in your project file (or via properties passed in) define something like the following.
<PropertyGroup>
<UserName>USERNAME-HERE</UserName>
<Password>PASSWORD-HERE
</PropertyGroup>
About where can you find documentation, like I said before there is not much out there yet. But since the entire Web Publishing Pipeline is captured in MSBuild targets and tasks you can learn alot on your own if you are familiar with MSBuild. If you take a look at the .csproj(or .vbproj) files for web projects created with Visual Studio 2010 you'll notice a statement like the following:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
This imports the file located at
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets, and this file in turn imports
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets
So in order to learn this topic in detail right now you have to inspect those files and learn for yourself.
I'm going to be working on something that will be covering these technologies in detail, but it won't be out for quite a while, and I still have a lot to figure out myself about this stuff.
Can you try out the username/password deal and let me know if it worked for you?
I had a similar problem and the solution was to have the following parameter:
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent
Here are all of the parameters I used.
/p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish /p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent /p:MsDeployServiceUrl=http://my-server-name /p:username=myusername /p:password=mypassword
NOTE: I'm not using DeployIisAppPath because I'm building a solution and trying to build three web applications at once. Also I think your MsDeployServiceUrl should be just http://staging.example.com
It appears that when using InProc (which may be the default) for the MSDeployPublishMethod MSBuild ignores MsDeployServiceUrl and always tries to deploy to the local server. I changed it to RemoteAgent and all three of my web applications deployed successfully. I did notice that the Package file is nolonger contained in the MyWebApplication_Package folder, but that isn't a big deal to me.
Note that you can also set DeployTarget=Package -- this will prepare the package but not deploy it right away. For more info see this blog post.
For me the problem was that Web Deployment Agent Service was not started.
A simple net start msdepsvc fixed it. You could also set startup mode to Automatic on this service.
The arguments I'm using are:
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent
/p:MSDeployServiceUrl=stagingserver
/p:DeployIisAppPath=test.local
/p:UserName=
You only need to specify the server name, and not the full path (no http needed).
Note that UserName is left empty to work around a bug with NTLM authentication (this way it uses the credentials of the TFS build agent for the deployment). see the accepted answer here
Here's how I got it to work. This was with Webdeploy 2.0. I am deploying on the same domain from our build machine to a dev webserver machine windows server 2008 r2. The account I am using to deploy is a service account on the domain that has administrator permissions on both machines. My solution includes a couple of unit test projects, an mvc3 project, and a couple of libraries under the solution. If you don't install MVC3 on the server you are deploying to look at http://www.iwantmymvc.com/2011-03-23-bin-deploy-aspnet-mvc-3-visual-studio for guidance.
/p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish /p:DeployIisAppPath="Default Web Site/YourpplicationNameHere" /p:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://devserver02:8172/msdeploy.axd /p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True /p:UserName=yourDomain\buildaccount /p:Password=password
The item I struggled with at first were the quotes around "Default Web Site/YourpplicationNameHere" That gives the partial error:
MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified.
This happens when there are no quotes around Default Web Site/YourApplicationNameHere
The next error I got was because of the wrong username and password in my credentials for deployment. It gave this error:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets (3588): Web deployment task failed.(Remote agent (URL https://devserver02:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=Default Web Site) could not be contacted. Make sure the remote agent service is installed and started on the target computer.) Make sure the site name, user name, and password are correct. If the issue is not resolved, please contact your local or server administrator. Error details: Remote agent (URL https://devserver02:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=Default Web Site) could not be contacted. Make sure the remote agent service is installed and started on the target computer. An unsupported response was received. The response header 'MSDeploy.Response' was '' but 'v1' was expected. The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.
This was because the username and password I had in /p:UserName=/p:Password=did not include the domain for the user. Even though it the build was running under that user it would not deploy. So I hit the url directly https://devserver02:8172/msdeploy.axd in a browser to make sure it was operation and make sure the username and password worked. This is where I noticed I had to put in the domain/user to get it to work.
I hope this is OK to reply I figured some other poor soul with find these errors and this could help...
If you can deploy your applications with fileCopy, it is easy to customize the TFS workflow to do so.
I've used the CopyDirectory activity, with the help of these articles:
http://www.ewaldhofman.nl/post/2010/11/09/Part-14-Execute-a-PowerShell-script.aspx
and
http://geekswithblogs.net/jakob/archive/2010/09/01/tfs-team-build-2010-how-to-place-the-build-output.aspx
Very simple and straightforward.
I Configured the build service with a user account that has write privileges on the desired share.
Next, I created the CopyDirectory workflow step, configuring the source as BuildDetail.DropLocation + "_PublishedWebsites" and for the destination I created an argument, which I called "DeployPath", that can be filled in the build configuration.
Now I still have to implement a test to check if the build was successful before invoking the CopyDirectory activity. The articles I mentioned show how to do that. They also teach how to invoke a powershell script instead of CopyDirectory.