Build arm template in VSTS fails with error about 'artifactsLocation'

Question

Normally when i deploy through visual studio _artifactsLocation shows when editing the parameters so what should this be in VSTS and how do I set it?

2018-02-21T08:49:46.1918199Z ##[error]Deployment template validation failed: 'The value for the template parameter '_artifactsLocation' at line '1' and column '182' is not provided. Please see https://aka.ms/arm-deploy/#parameter-file for usage details.'. 2018-02-21T08:49:46.1919769Z ##[error]Task failed while creating or updating the template deployment.

Answer 1

You can specify it in parameters file, then specify the file path in Template parameters input box of Azure Resource Group Deployment task if you are using.

Also, the parameters can be override by specifying in Override template parameters input box of Azure Resource Group Deployment task.

If you are calling script through Azure PowerShell task, you can specify it in the arguments: -ArtifactStagingDirectory, related issue: The value for the template parameter '_artifactsLocation' is not provided

Answer 2

This sounds like you are using the Azure Resource Group deployment template from VS to deploy via VSTS.

It uses MSDeploy as part of the ARM template deployment to deploy your service.

The Powershell script that is generated by the VS project template uploads a ZIP-file containing your service to Blob storage, and puts the URL and other information into _artifactsLocation and other ARM template parameters.

Instead of doing that, you can remove the artifacts related parameters and the MSDeploy resource from the ARM template. Then the template ONLY contains infrastructure related resources.

After this, add a "Deploy to App Service" step in the VSTS Release pipeline after the ARM template deployment. That can then be used to deploy your service code.