msbuildmsdeploytfs
I'm trying to deploy a web application using MSDeploy, on Team Build in TFS. There are several questions that address the properties that have to be passed in MSBuild in order to call MSDeploy, but I haven't found sufficient documentation for what properties are available. Does someone have a list of available properties?
Here are some questions that I've found, but I haven't been able to find a definitive list of the properties:
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 :-
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)....
After many rounds of changing the parameters, I was able to find a solution and get the build to deploy successfully. The parameters that I ended up using were:
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MSDeployPublish
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=**RemoteAgent**
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=http://my-server-name
/p:username=myusername
/p:password=mypassword
It appears that when using InProc for the MSDeployPublishMethod MSBuild ignores MsDeployServiceUrl and always tries to deploy to the local server. I changed it to RemoteAgent and it 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.
Best Answer
Here's a list I've compiled for my own reference, along with some of the legal values that can be used. Note that these are passed into MSBuild using the
/p:<PropertyName>=<Value>syntax.