Release Management xcopy deployer failing with JSON error - tfs

The Xcopy deployment method is constantly failing. Here is the error message.
Cannot deserialize the current JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) into type 'System.String[]' because the type requires a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) to deserialize correctly.
Environment
TFS 2015 Update 1 (14.0.24712.0)
RM on the same server as TFS
I am able to get the other tasks like DB backup, File deletion etc working.
Any suggestions?

Sorry for the shotgun approach to answering the issue. I've gotten it for a couple different reasons.
The times I've run into this error have usually been around the deployer not having access to the files.
Make sure that the correct delivery method is set for the server/agent (e.g. Direct UNC access or Delivery over HTTP(s) through Release Management)
Make sure the artifact exists (UNC or Server) and that it is looking for the correct one. Microsoft has stated that there is a regression in the latest release if you have more than one artifact from a TFS build. (Had to get a new .dll from them to fix the problem)
Make sure the correct permissions are in place to give it access
I also had this occur when I had a component that had an encrypted variable and the action/tool behind it did not. I ended up removing all of my encrypted variables.

The problem is resolved after we switched from Server to UNC path for artifacts.

Related

save/load thingsboard configuration

Is it possible to somehow serialize current Thingsboard (let's call it TBoard) configuration, save it and than latter load saved configuration on TBoard startup.
I am specifically interested in loading device profiles, rule chains, and dashboards.
I want to save configuration together with my project in git repository so than latter I could just use docker-compose to start multiple services from project (let's call them sensors) and single TBoard instance with saved configuration which will be used for collecting telemetry from sensors and drawing dashboards.
Another reason for saving configuration is what happens if for some reason TBoard container crashes or somehow get corrupted so it can't be started again, would I have to click on the things again in order to create all device profiles, dashboards, configure rule chains ... etc etc ... ?
Regarding this line
I am specifically interested in loading device profiles, rule chains, and dashboards. I want to save configuration together with my project in git repository
I have just recently implemented version control for my Thingsboard deployment. The way i am doing it is with the python REST client.
I have written functions to export all dashboards/data converters/integrations/rule chains/widgets into json files which I save into a github repository.
I have also written the reverse script to push the stored files to a fresh environment, essentially "flashing" it. Surprisingly, this works perfectly.
I have an idea to publish this as a package, but it's something I've never done before so I'm unsure if I will get to it.
Just letting you know that it is definitely possible to get source control operational via the API.

Azure DevOps secure file guids

In my ADO build pipline, I have a secure file download step. When we branch versions, we use powershell to do the heavy lifting with cloning build definitions and updating settings/info in the cloned pipeline.
One issue I've run into is that the Secure File Download step doesn't accept variables, and in the UI you can only select names of files that already exist, so we've had to manually update it after every new branch we create.
I've grabbed the definition task step in powershell (as $step) and was hoping I could set the $step.inputs.fileInputs to a variable I assign to something like cert-$newVersion, however it currently is set to a guid.
Does anyone know if it possible to get the guid of secure files in ADO via the API or have a solution?
Does anyone know if it possible to get the guid of secure files in ADO via the API or have a solution?
Yes. This API exists.
You could try to use the following Rest API:
Get https://dev.azure.com/{OrganizationName}/{ProjectName}/_apis/distributedtask/securefiles?api-version=6.1-preview.1
Result:
You could get the secure file GUID based on the file name.

hudson: way to get the user value who initiated the build?

Is there a way to get the hudson job initiated user name.
Is it possible to get using script shell, py etc.
Lets assume I have the build # which was initiated. I know how to get the latest build info using api but would like to get a user details for a specific job.
Do you think, this will work for hudson? :)
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Build+User+Vars+Plugin
Thanks in advance
That plugin will not work with Hudson, unless you download a very old version of the plugin. I'm not sure how many people are still using Hudson and haven't upgraded to Jenkins.
Anyway, when a user manually triggers a build, this is called a "user cause"; there are other types of cause, e.g. SCM trigger.
You can use the JSON or XML API to get the causes for a build, for example:
https://ci.jenkins-ci.org/job/remoting/lastSuccessfulBuild/api/xml?xpath=//action/cause/userId
In this case, this returns the username that caused the build to run.
Though note that there may be multiple causes for a build, and potentially other cause types that use the userId field.
This works in Jenkins, but it should also work in Hudson, but I haven't tested it.

Changing path in an config file stored in TFS

We have a solution stored in TFS that deploys to SharePoint. As part of the solution we have a config file that has a path to a specific site. The problem is this path changes dependent on the users dev machine e.g
<site>devmachine1/somesite</site>
<site>devmachine2/somesite</site>
This can obviously be updated to work locally after a check out however when the file gets checked back in it will be incorrect on the next users machine if they do a Get. Is there a way that the file can be excluded or a script can be run to update the path when checked back in or out?
The best option I'd to rationalist all of the developer workstations.
I would do this by adding an identical entry to the hosts file that hard coded the name of the Sharepoint, allowing you to have the same config file work on every dev machine.
Make it dynamic by having a pre build instruction that adds the host, that way any developer can get and build.
You can use a custom check-in policy to update back the file when is checked-in. See here

TFS: checkout from one server, checkin to another

I've got a need to checkout an entire source tree out of one server and check it into another server. I'm attempting to script this into a final builder script, but am running into some snags. I'm able to check everything out, but when I attempt to check it into the new server it tells me there are no pending changes. Obviously I'm missing something if this is even possible.
Anyone done something similar to this or know of a way I might accomplish this?
One more thing, if the src is empty on server 2 would I have to manually add the files before I can update them?
I would guess that the reason that TFS is saying no pending changes is that you haven't checked out the files from Server 2. This could get kind of ugly using a single directory, so I would recommend trying this:
Get (latest or specific version) from server 1 to
C:\Server1Files...
Get and Check out for edit everything from server 2 to
C:\Server2Files...
Copy from C:\Server1iles1\ to C:\Server2Files
Check in from C:\Server2Files
I think TFS is going to complain if you try to use a single directory here, as it would see the same directory mapped to two different workspaces (even though they're on different instances of TFS).

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