Publish and download Universal Packages with ADO Pipelines

Hello again 👋🏻 ! So today we will learn about how can we publish and download artefacts from Azure artefacts using the ADO pipeline.

Since we are going to use the ADO pipeline so you must have created at least a free account in azure devops. To get started with ADO Pipelines you can follow this blog here 👈

Introduction to Azure Artifact

• Azure Artifacts is a package management service in Microsoft Azure.

• It supports multiple package types like NuGet, npm, Maven, Python, Universal Pacakge etc.

• Enables versioning, dependency management, and access control.

• Integrates with Azure DevOps tools for automation.

• Acts as a package proxy, caching external packages.

• Provides granular access control, allowing you to manage who can publish and consume packages.

To explore more about azure artifact you can refer to documentation https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/artifacts/?view=azure-devops

✅ Prerequisites :

📝 You need to have an Azure Devops organisation and projects If you dont have already refer to this blog https://saumyapandey.hashnode.dev/automating-terraform-deployments-with-azure-devops-pipeline#heading-create-free-account-for-ado

📝 Create an azure Feed. To create a feed :

• Got to your project . For me its Test-Project

• 

• In the left side Panel click on Artifacts

• 

• After that click on Create Feed button and provide the name of your feed and leave the rest of the setting as it is and click on Create .

• 

Your feed is ready and you can see it near the drop-down at the top. You can also select any feed from here in case you have multiple feeds inside a single project.

Publish Pipeline for Universal Package

Universal Package is a type of package format that provides a flexible and extensible way to store and distribute software components. It can hold any type of file or artifact, making it suitable for packaging a wide range of assets such as executables, binaries, scripts, documentation, and configuration files.

Hence we will try to store terraform configuration files here with different versions.

# Build pipeline
name: "Terraform Build Pipeline for acr"

trigger:
- main

pr: none

parameters:
  - name: ArtifactName
    displayName: 'Artifact Name'
    default: "acr"
    type: string
  - name: ArtifactVersion
    displayName: 'Artifact Version'
    default: 1.0.0

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps: 
- task: UniversalPackages@0
  inputs:
    command: 'publish'
    publishDirectory: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)'
    feedsToUsePublish: 'internal'
    vstsFeedPublish: 'saumyabhushan666/universal-package-terraform'
    vstsFeedPackagePublish: '${{ parameters.ModuleName }}'
    versionOption: 'custom'
    versionPublish: '${{ parameters.ModuleName }}'
    packagePublishDescription: 'acr terraform package'
    verbosity: 'Error'

You can change the arguments according to your need. Here is a small brief of all the arguments

1. publishDirectory: Specify the location of the files that you want to publish. It represents the directory path containing the package files or artifacts.

2. vstsFeedPublish: Specify the project and feed name where you want to publish the package. If you are using an organization-scoped feed, you only need to provide the feed name.

3. vstsFeedPackagePublish: Specifies the name of the package to publish. The package name must be in lowercase and can only include letters, numbers, and dashes.

4. versionOption: Allows you to select a versioning strategy for the package. Options include "major," "minor," "patch," or "custom." This determines how the package version is incremented or specified.

5. versionPublish: This argument is used when the "custom" versioning strategy is selected. It allows you to provide a specific version for the package instead of using the default versioning strategy.

6. packagePublishDescription: Describes the package content. It is an optional field that allows you to add information about the package's contents, purpose, or any relevant details.

Download the package and run it through the ADO pipeline

name: deploy-${{ parameters.artifact }}-${{ parameters.version }}
trigger: none

parameters:

  - name: subscription
    displayName: "Subscription ID"
    type: string

  - name: artifact
    displayName: "Artifact name ( aks | acr | ... )"
    type: string

  - name: version
    displayName: "Artifact version ( major.minor.patch )"
    type: string

  - name: view
    displayName: "ADO Artifacts feed view ( Local | Prerelease | Release )"
    default: "Local"
    type: string

stages:
  - stage: deploy
    jobs:
      - job: deploy
        timeoutInMinutes: 0

        steps:
          - task: AzureKeyVault@2
            displayName: Get common secrets from key-valut
            inputs:
              azureSubscription: "test"
              KeyVaultName: "test-kv"
              SecretsFilter: "appid,appsecret,TenantId"
              RunAsPreJob: false

          - task: DownloadPackage@1
            inputs:
              packageType: "upack"
              feed: 'saumyabhushan666/universal-package-terraform'
              view: "${{ parameters.view }}"
              definition: "${{ parameters.artifact }}"
              version: "${{ parameters.version }}"
              downloadPath: "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)"

          - script: |
              (echo azure_tenant_id = \"$(TenantId)\"
              echo azure_client_id = \"$(appid)\"
              echo azure_client_secret = \"$(appsecret)\"
              echo azure_subscription_id = "\"${{ parameters.subscription }}\""
              ) >> module/terraform.auto.tfvars
            displayName: "Create Azure Credentials file "

          - task: TerraformInstaller@0
            displayName: "Terraform install v1.1.4"
            inputs:
              terraformVersion: "1.1.4"

          - script: |
              terraform  init -upgrade"
            displayName: "Terraform Init"

          - script: |
              terraform fmt
            displayName: "Terraform Format"

          - script: |
              terraform validate
            displayName: "Terraform Validate"

          - script: |
              terraform apply -auto-approve
            displayName: "Terraform Apply"

This is a basic yaml script to download the Terraform universal package and just run it in the ADO pipeline to create your infrastructure.

This is the main script to download the package which has been included in the above yaml script. :

- task: DownloadPackage@1
            inputs:
              packageType: "upack"
              feed: 'saumyabhushan666/universal-package-terraform'
              view: "${{ parameters.view }}"
              definition: "${{ parameters.artifact }}"
              version: "${{ parameters.version }}"
              downloadPath: "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)"

For more details on this, you can refer to the documentation here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/reference/universal-packages-v0?view=azure-pipelines&source=recommendations

That's the end of this blog !! 🎉 If you want me to write more blogs related to the ADO pipeline or if you are facing any issues 👩🏻‍💻 while setting up the pipeline you can comment I will get back to you 🤓.

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