Windows Machine File Copy - DevOps task and IP address

Question

I am building a Release Pipeline on Azure DevOps. Part of my release is to copy a bunch of files to the Azure VM. As far as I understand, the target machine needs to have PowerShell 5986 port open.

I have a VM with port 5986 open (I verified that by invoking remotely some commands on this VM with "PowerShell on Target Machines" task). I added "Windows Machine File Copy" task and filled fields: - Source - Machines - Admin Login - Password - Destination Folder

In "Machines" field, I put IP of the target machine.

As a result of running the release, I'm getting an error:

Failed to Create PSDrive with Destination: '\\11.11.11.11\C$\TargetDirectory', ErrorMessage: 'The network path was not found' The network path was not found

I also tried to put IP address with a port, in this form: 11.11.11.11:5986

Then, I got this error:

Cannot convert value "\23.97.151.221:5986" to type "System.Uri". Error: "Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed."

Documentation (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/deploy/windows-machine-file-copy?view=azure-devops) says that IP address with a port is allowed.

What's the issue here?

Answer 1

I was getting the exact same error while doing these:

• Initially in my release pipeline, I had an agent job and I created a Windows machine file copy task under the job and filled in all details correctly. I set the Machines field with the public IP address of my target server (a Windows azure VM) and I always got this error you reported.

• I tried to use the Azure file copy task instead but I was faced with another problem (error message: Unable to get FQDN for all resources in ResourceGroup: {resourceGroupName}) which I couldn't get to fix after a lot of efforts.

This is the solution that worked for me:

• Instead of running an agent job, I ran a Deployment Group Job. With deployment groups, I didn't need an IP address to connect to my VM. Setting up a deployment group for your Azure VM is very simple and well explained here

• I created a Windows Machine File Copy task under the Deployment Group job I added. I filled same details for the task except that instead of the IP address of the Windows VM, I entered the computer name in the Machines field and the file copy task ran successfully!

I hope this helps