AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment fails to find template using pattern when executed in Deployment Job

Question

I have been experimenting with Azure Logic Apps and wanted to figure out a way to codify the deployment process so that I could setup a CI/CD pipeline with secrets and all the good stuff.

So I set out with a yml file with multiple ways to deploy the same Logic App.

1. Hardcoding the values of the input params to the task like Connected Service, Subscription, Resource Group etc. in a step inside a regular job.
2. Doing the same thing but inside a Deployment job.
3. Use Pipeline variables to extract these values and repeat as 1 and 2.
4. 1 and 2 again but this time using Pipeline Variables that are marked as Secrets so on and so forth.

However, everytime I run the AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3 inside a deployment job, it fails to find the ARM template file.

• Why is the deployment job unable to find the ARM Template using the pattern that works when the it is not run as a deployment job?
• Do deployment jobs not have access to the build directory?
• How do I help the deployment job to find the file? Should I be giving it a link to the template file instead of a pattern?

Everytime I search for the AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment task docs, I get the docs page of AzureResourceGroupDeployment task which is very similar but not the same https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/deploy/azure-resource-group-deployment?view=azure-devops#troubleshooting

As I was about to post this question, I did more searching online and came across the original docs of the AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment which states that if the file is part of a repository then one must specify the path to the ARM template using the help of system variables.

csmFile: "$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)/**/LogicApp.json"
csmParametersFile: "$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)/**/LogicApp.parameters.json"

I can confirm that this did not work either.

What could I be missing?

stages:
- stage: 'HardcodedJobStage'
  displayName: 'HardcodedJobStage'
  jobs:
  - job: 'HardcodedJob'
    displayName: HardcodedJob
    pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-latest
      workspace:
        clean: all
    steps:
    - task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3
      inputs:
          deploymentScope: 'Resource Group'
          ConnectedServiceName: 'Subscription (e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d)'
          subscriptionName: 'e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d'
          action: 'Create Or Update Resource Group'
          resourceGroupName: 'AzureLogicApp'
          location: 'UK South'
          templateLocation: 'Linked artifact'
          csmFile: '**/LogicApp.json'
          csmParametersFile: '**/LogicApp.parameters.json'
          deploymentMode: 'Incremental'

- stage: 'HardCodedDeployJobStage'
  displayName: 'HardCodedDeployJobStage'
  jobs:
  - deployment: 'HardCodedDeployJob'
    displayName: HardCodedDeployJob
    pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-latest
      workspace:
        clean: all
    environment: development
    strategy:
     runOnce:
       deploy:
         steps:
         - task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3
           inputs:
              deploymentScope: 'Resource Group'
              ConnectedServiceName: 'Subscription (e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d)'
              subscriptionName: 'e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d'
              action: 'Create Or Update Resource Group'
              resourceGroupName: 'AzureLogicApp'
              location: 'UK South'
              templateLocation: 'Linked artifact'
              csmFile: '**/LogicApp.json'
              csmParametersFile: '**/LogicApp.parameters.json'
              deploymentMode: 'Incremental'

Answer 1

Assuming your yml pipeline is defined in the same git repository as the LogicApp json files, you could use csmFile as an absolute path with the 'root' being the git repo root folder. For example, if your logicapp files are in /app/logicapp/LogicApp.json, and your yml pipeline is in the same git repo but maybe in /pipelines/pipeline.yml, you could then set csmFile's value to app/logicapp/LogicApp.json (and same for csmParametersFile).

Answer 2

The problem here was that I had to publish the templates as artifacts and share it between the stages.

So I copied the ARM template json files to a folder using CopyFiles task and then used the PublishPipelineArtifact task to publish the contents as a pipeline artifact. This can then be referenced later by the following stage by using the DownloadPipelineArtifact task.

Now my YAML looks something like:

stages:
- stage: 'HardcodedJobStage'
  displayName: 'HardcodedJobStage'
  jobs:
  - job: 'HardcodedJob'
    displayName: HardcodedJob
    pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-latest
      workspace:
        clean: all
    steps:
    - task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3
      inputs:
          deploymentScope: 'Resource Group'
          ConnectedServiceName: 'Subscription (e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d)'
          subscriptionName: 'e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d'
          action: 'Create Or Update Resource Group'
          resourceGroupName: 'AzureLogicApp'
          location: 'UK South'
          templateLocation: 'Linked artifact'
          csmFile: '**/LogicApp.json'
          csmParametersFile: '**/LogicApp.parameters.json'
          deploymentMode: 'Incremental'
    
    - task: CopyFiles@2
      inputs:
        Contents: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/AzureLogicApp/**/*.json
        targetFolder: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)
    
    - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
      inputs:
        targetPath: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)
        artifactName: armtemplate
        
- stage: 'HardCodedDeployJobStage'
  displayName: 'HardCodedDeployJobStage'
  jobs:
  - deployment: 'HardCodedDeployJob'
    displayName: HardCodedDeployJob
    pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-latest
      workspace:
        clean: all
    environment: development
    strategy:
     runOnce:
       deploy:
         steps:
         - task: DownloadPipelineArtifact@2
           inputs:
             artifact: armtemplate

         - task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3
           inputs:
              deploymentScope: 'Resource Group'
              ConnectedServiceName: 'Subscription (e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d)'
              subscriptionName: 'e6d1dg8c-bcd6-4713-b2f1-c9a0375d687d'
              action: 'Create Or Update Resource Group'
              resourceGroupName: 'AzureLogicApp'
              location: 'UK South'
              templateLocation: 'Linked artifact'
             csmFile: $(Pipeline.Workspace)/armtemplate/**/LogicApp.json
             csmParametersFile: $(Pipeline.Workspace)/armtemplate/**/LogicApp.parameters.json
              deploymentMode: 'Incremental'