Bicep meet Azure Pipelines 2

Last time I wrote about how to use the Azure CLI to run Bicep within the context of an Azure Pipeline. The solution was relatively straightforward, and involved using az deployment group create in a task. There's an easier way.

The easier way

The target reader of the previous post was someone who was already using AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3 in an Azure Pipeline to deploy an ARM template. Rather than replacing your existing AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3 tasks, all you need do is insert a prior bash step that compiles the Bicep to ARM, which your existing template can then process. It looks like this:

- bash: az bicep build --file infra/app-service/azuredeploy.bicep
  displayName: 'Compile Bicep to ARM'

This will take your Bicep template of azuredeploy.bicep, transpile it into an ARM template named azuredeploy.json which a subsequent AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3 task can process. Since this is just exercising the Azure CLI, using bash is not required; powershell etc would also be fine; it's just required that the Azure CLI is available in a pipeline.

In fact this simple task could even be a one-liner if you didn't fancy using the displayName. (Though I say keep it; optimising for readability is generally a good shout.) A full pipeline could look like this:

- bash: az bicep build --file infra/app-service/azuredeploy.bicep
  displayName: 'Compile Bicep to ARM'

- task: AzureResourceManagerTemplateDeployment@3
  displayName: 'Deploy Hello Azure ARM'
  inputs:
    azureResourceManagerConnection: '$(azureSubscription)'
    action: Create Or Update Resource Group
    resourceGroupName: '$(resourceGroupName)'
    location: 'North Europe'
    templateLocation: Linked artifact
    csmFile: 'infra/app-service/azuredeploy.json' # created by bash script
    csmParametersFile: 'infra/app-service/azuredeploy.parameters.json'
    deploymentMode: Incremental
    deploymentOutputs: resourceGroupDeploymentOutputs
    overrideParameters: -applicationName $(Build.Repository.Name)

- pwsh: |
    $outputs = ConvertFrom-Json '$(resourceGroupDeploymentOutputs)'
    foreach ($output in $outputs.PSObject.Properties) {
        Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=RGDO_$($output.Name)]$($output.Value.value)"
    }
  displayName: 'Turn ARM outputs into variables'

And when it's run, it may result in something along these lines:

So if you want to get using Bicep right now with minimal effort, this an on ramp that could work for you! Props to Jamie McCrindle for suggesting this.