Hi,
I’m trying to minimize the number of variable sets and variables that we are maintaining so this led me to wonder if I’m able to set the value of a variable in a variable set on an earlier step of a project so it can be used in latter steps of the same project when a web.config entry is patched. Let’s say this variable MQServer holds the machine name responsible for processing messages and I use it later to update values in web.config. This variable needs one value per environment and the value needed is exactly the machine name with the role of “QueueServer” for that environment. To accomplish, this is what I set out to do:
1). On the project, I referenced the variable set which contains MQServer variable.
2). I created a powershell function which obtains an array of machine names (not ids) that belong to an environment and filter the result when they match a given role and tenant id. This powershell function was saved as a script module which I referenced in the same projecct. In step 1 called “Calculate Prerequisite Variables”, I call this function and I’m able to echo the result of this function so I know it works. I then call Set-OctopusVariable -Name ‘MQServer’ -Value MyMessageMachine. The variable name is intentionally the same name as in the variable set.
The function looks like this:
function Get-OctopusMachineNamesInScope
{
[OutputType([string[]])]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string] $Role
)
$OctopusAPIKey = $OctopusParameters["Octopus:Deployment:ApiKey"]
$OctopusUrl = $OctopusParameters["Octopus.Web.BaseUrl"]
$Header = @{ "X-Octopus-ApiKey" = $OctopusAPIKey }
$Machines = Invoke-Restmethod -Uri $OctopusUrl/api/environments/$EnvironmentId/machines -Headers $header -Method Get
return ($Machines.Items | Where-Object { $_.roles -Contains $Role -and $_.tenantids -contains $TenantId } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name)
}
I was hoping that in step 3 and 4 where I deploy two asp.net webpps, that the patching process works. I have a web.config entry with a key name equal to a variable in the same set as MQServer. In this example, le’ts call it MQPath where the value is composed from #{MQServer}\myqueuename. I purposely seeded MQServer variable in the variable set with the value “ReplaceMe” so I can tell if it’s being replaced or not. Unfortunately, it is not since the value I’m seeing in the web.config is not MyMessageMachine.
Steps 2 and 3 are using a custom step template I created for deploying iis webapps. It uses the built-in “Deploy to IIS” step template with the following features enabled: custom installation directory, custom deployment scripts, configuration variables, configuration transforms, and substitute variables in files. I’ve created parameters to this step template so I can pass the nugetpackageid, the webappname, parent website name, and 3 application pool settings related to timeouts and recycling. Inside the step template, I’m able to calculate the value of a CustomInstallationFolder in the pre-deploy step just in time for me to reference it as #{CustomInstallationFolder} in the Custom Install Directory “Install To” textbox. This part works due to the way features are ordered relative to another.
Since I intend this step template to be generic, is there a way for me to take the value I obtained in step 1 and pass it somehow to steps 2 and 3 either as parameters to their step template or by updating a variable that would be visible to steps 2 and 3? I thought about using output variables but that would couple this step template to the first step and thus, no longer generic.
Thanks in advance.
