Tag: REST API

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Getting the latest VSTS Agent Download URL for your account

This week I have been playing to automatically provision a VSTS Agent on a Linux Machine. One thing i noticed is that in separate VSTS accounts the latest agent is not always the agent your account supports.

There may be little risk but this PowerShell script, that I use in an Inline PowerShell script in a Task during my provisioning release, helps to get the URL for the account your are targeting. Convenient and checked.

The script requires a few parameters;

  • PersonalAccesToken – A PAT for the VSTS account you are targeting
  • VSTSAccount – The https://account.visualstudio.com url
  • AgentType – The REST API calls for the Agent Type requested, this could be one of three values; “linux-x64”, “windows-x64” or “osx-x64”

The script updates a variable, AgentDownloadUrl, that can be used in the pipeline.

View/Download the script here: https://github.com/JasperGilhuis/VSTS-RestAPI/blob/master/Get-LatestAgentDownload.ps1

 

 

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Adding a Team Administrator through the VSTS Rest API

In many projects I come across there is a desire to add a Team Administrator to a VSTS Project. While there is allot of quality documentation, there is no clear route to add a Team Administator to a VSTS Project.

I investigated what calls the VSTS Web UI makes to add a team administrator and constructed a script that does exactly that.

The UI uses a simple method call this method: https://account.visualstudio.com/TeamPermissions/_api/_identity/AddTeamAdmins?__v=5 where it posts a piece of JSON. This basically consists of the Team ID and the user that you want to add.

However to construct this message you need to do several calls to get the required information. It involves getting all the Groups, Users and the users StorageKey to be able to add the administrator.

I created a script containing all the methods and support functions that can be found in my GitHub account here: https://github.com/JasperGilhuis/VSTS-RestAPI

Update 2020-04-01

An easier approach to this would be to use the Azure DevOps CLI. For information about the CLI look here: Azure DevOps CLI

I have created a GitHub Gist as an example! Thanks to David for the StackOverflow post with the example! Thanks for reaching out Geert to my post!

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Automatically retain a VSTS release

In some environments it can be convenient to retain production releases automatically. Richard Zaat and I worked on this together. Our objective was to retain a release automatically after it has been succesfully enrolled to an environment. To achieve this we wanted to utilize the PowerShell task to minimize the effort.

First we created a demo release pipeline containing one environment. The Release does not do anything and does not have any artifacts. To the environment we only added the PowerShell task.

We have configured to have it use the Preview 2.* version but this works for version 1.* too. The script we have is the following;

$baseurl = $env:SYSTEM_TEAMFOUNDATIONSERVERURI
$baseurl += $env:SYSTEM_TEAMPROJECT + "/_apis"
$uri = "$baseurl/release/releases/$($env:Release_ReleaseID)?api-version=3.0-preview.2"

$accesstoken = "Bearer $env:System_AccessToken"

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Method Patch -ContentType "application/json" -Headers @{Authorization = $accesstoken} -Body "{keepforever:true}"

In the script we construct the URL for VSTS Release Management, together with a ‘template’ to call the Release REST API service, passing the current Release ID. It also constructs the Bearer token to be able to call the REST API authenticated. The last line invokes the contructed REST API call. The call sets the ‘KeepForever‘ attribute of the release. This will exempt it from the release retention policies.

In the release definition the “Agent Phase” needs to be configured to “Allow scripts to access OAuth token”. Listed under ‘Additional Options’ section. This will allow the script to use the $env:System_AccessToken.

The last thing to do is to make sure that the agent account has the “Manage Releases” permissions. This can be done very specifically or for all release definitions.

A few links to usefull resources

VSTS Release API overview
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/integrate/api/rm/releases

VSTS Release Retention polocies
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/build/concepts/policies/retention#release

Interacting with VSTS and the Rest API’s
https://roadtoalm.com/2017/05/01/only-trigger-a-release-when-the-build-changed/

Enjoy!

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Just published: VSTS Extension Token Comparer

Today I published a new Visual Studio Marketplace extension named “Token Comparer”. In this post I will quickly highlight its features and its usage. In a future post will do and end-to-end scenario so in which you will learn about the creation process as well as the delivery process. But first let’s see the extension.

What does the Token Comparer do?

The Token Comparer can parse specified source files for usage of Tokens and it can compare these against available variables defined in your Release Definition. It will detect and compare the results. Based on the settings you can choose to fail, warn or continue your release.

The tasks will provide you with a summary that will show the findings. The list states the findings.

VSTS Token Comparer Summary

Configuring the Token Comparer?

In this version I choose to let you define a generic service endpoint to allow safely storing your credentials. Now VSTS has the ability to access an oAuth token this will be changed in a future version.

How to find the Token Comparer Extension

Navigate to your VSTS Team Project. Click the Marketplace icon. Search for “Token Comparer”. Choose to install it to your VSTS account.

Token Comparer

Happy Releasing!