Octopus allows you to embed PowerShell scripts in your packages that are executed automatically during a deployment. This is a great hook that allows you to:
- Run custom executables
- Configure Windows Services
- Configure IIS
- Execute database deployment scripts
- Configure security settings of files and folders
- Tons of other things
Variables defined in the Octopus portal will be automatically passed to your scripts, and since variables can be scoped to an environment or machine, this provides a nice way to parameterize your scripts for different environments.
The Tentacle agent hosts PowerShell in-process, which means there are sometimes differences between how a script will run in normal PowerShell, versus how they run in Octopus. Testing scripts was always difficult - you'd have to package them up, create a release, and deploy the release just to see if a small change to the script worked.
If you are having trouble getting a PowerShell script to run, you can now test the scripts directly using the Tentacle executable, which means they run in exactly the same context as they do in a deployment. You can do this from the command line using:
Tentacle.exe run-script -v Message="Hello world!" -v Repeat=5 -f MyScript.ps1
The -v argument allows you to pass variables (as if they were variables being used in the deployment). The -f argument specifies the script file to run. You can also use -w to set a custom working directory.
Assuming my script looked like this:
foreach ($i in (1..$Repeat))
{
write-host $Message
}
The output would look like:
This feature is available from build 1.0.16.1276. Hopefully it makes testing PowerShell scripts in a Tentacle context easier!
Learn more
- PowerShell and IIS: 20 Practical Examples
- Configuration Management with Octopus and PowerShell DSC
- How to invoke an executable from PowerShell with a dynamic number of parameters
- Tips and tricks for dealing with PowerShell exit codes
- Documentation: Running an Azure PowerShell script step
- Documentation: Custom Scripts
Octopus Deploy is used by thousands of developers across the globe, from small companies to large enterprises. Find out if it meets your deployment automation needs by taking advantage of our free 30-day trial. You can spin up an instance with just a few clicks!
