Integrate Torque into your Azure DevOps pipeline and use the available build steps to create a sandbox from any blueprint, start your tests and end the sandbox when finished.
Installing the Azure DevOps Plugin
Step 1: Installing
Open the Torque Plugin page in Visual Studio's Marketplace.
Click Get it free.
Log in to VisualStudio.com and select the organization that will use this plugin.
Click Install.
NOTE: If you are not the organization’s admin, you may send a request to the admin to install the plugin for you.
Click New service connection, select Torque and click Next.
Server Url should already be filled, as illustrated in the above image.
Specify the Torque Long Token
In Torque, open the Settings page and click Integrations.
Under the Azure DevOps icon click Connect and then click New Token.
Copy the Torque-generated token.
Return to Azure DevOps Web UI and paste the token into this field.
Click Verify and make sure the connection succeeds.
in the Service Connection Name field, enter "Torque connection".
Click Verify and save.
Launching a Sandbox from your Azure DevOps Pipeline
After installing and configuring the Azure DevOps plugin, you can launch sandboxes from your Azure DevOps Pipeline.
Use the available build steps to create a sandbox from any blueprint, retrieve its details, start your tests and end the sandbox when it's no longer needed.
Preparing the Azure DevOps Build
Open your visualstudio.com project.
In the Build and release page, create a new build or edit an existing build.
Create a New Task in one of your build agent’s jobs.
In the New Task form search for Torque.
The following tasks are displayed:
Torque End Sandbox (ends a sandbox with Torque).
Torque Start Sandbox (starts a sandbox with Torque).
NOTE: If you do not see above tasks, it means that the plugin was not successfully installed.
Launching a Sandbox
Add the Torque Start Sandbox task to your pipeline.
Open the task settings and enter the following parameters:
Service Connection – Enter "Torque". This is the name of the connection that you entered when you created the Torque service connection during the plugin configuration.
Timeout- Set the timeout for this step, if your sandbox will not be ready when the timeout is reached, Torque will abort the deployment.
Space name - enter a name for your Torque space.
Blueprint name - Enter the name of the blueprint you would like to use for creating this sandbox.
NOTE: To specify one of Torque’s sample blueprints, use a [sample] prefix.
Sandbox name - Enter a name for the sandbox
Artifacts - If this blueprint has artifacts, you may specify them in a comma separated list of artifact names and their values. e.g., artifact1 name=value1, artifact2 name=value2
Inputs - If this blueprint has inputs, you may specify them in a comma separated list of input names and their values. e.g., input1 name=value1, input2 name=value2
Expand the Output Variable section and in the Reference name field, enter "Torque". Torque uses this variable to return the following sandbox details:
Torque.Sandbox_Id– the identifier of the created sandbox. You will use this identifier to end your sandbox when needed.
Torque.Sandbox_Details– All the sandbox details including instances' IP addresses, ports and other infrastructure details required to properly run your tests. You may query this parameter to get the required information.
Ending a Sandbox from your Pipeline
Add the Torque End Sandbox task to your pipeline.
Open the task's settings and enter the following parameters:
Service Connection – Enter "Torque". This is the name of the connection that you entered when you created the Torque service connection during the plugin configuration.
Space name- Enter the name of your Torque space.
Sandbox ID- Enter the ID of the sandbox you want to end. Use $(Torque.Sandbox_Id) to dynamically get the sandbox Id from the Torque object that was returned from a Start Sandbox task.
