Programmatically updating target Release/Deployment Group pools on AzDO

Question

Is it possible to programmatically update the target Deployment Group or Agent Pool on Azure DevOps Release via the use of variables?

In our use case, we have a multiple pools (eg Dev1 and Dev2). Currently, if we need to change the target pool, we have to update it manually from the dropdown box for every stage within the release:

Ideally, we would like to be able to provide a variable when creating release and it would then update the relevant stages. AzDO does not accept variables on the pools so is there a way to achieve this using REST and have the first stage define the target pools on the relevant stages perhaps? Or is there an alternative?

We also looked at tagging but as we have a large number of servers, it would be time consuming to apply and administer.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, in classic release pipeline, you have to update the Deployment group manually, there is no way to programmatically update it.

You could use multi-stage YAML pipeline, and target VMs in Environment instead of Deployment Group. YAML pipeline is more flexible.