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rabbani465's avatar
rabbani465
Copper Contributor
Nov 08, 2023

Regarding automation of Variable Groups using Powershell

Hi,

I am a Junior DevOps Engineer. I have a doubt regarding how to create a automated PowerShell script that will reduce the manual time and deliver the work faster. So, my primary thing is I have a lot of variables and I want to create a variable group and all the variables to that group and using PowerShell script or RestAPI

azure devops

1 Reply

  • Kidd_Ip's avatar
    Kidd_Ip
    MVP
    Mar 18, 2025

    Take this:

     

    Using PowerShell
    1. Install Azure DevOps CLI:

    • Make sure you have the Azure DevOps CLI extension installed:
    az extension add --name azure-devops

    2. Authenticate:

    • Log in to Azure DevOps using a service principal or personal access token (PAT):
    az login --service-principal --username "<SPN_APP_ID>" --password "<SPN_SECRET>" --tenant "<TENANT_ID>"

    3. Create a Variable Group:

    • Use the following command to create a variable group and add variables:
    az pipelines variable-group create --name "<GroupName>" --authorize true --variables key1=value1 key2=value2

    Using REST API
    1. Generate a PAT:

    • Create a personal access token (PAT) in Azure DevOps with the necessary permissions.

    2. Make API Calls:

    • Use the following API endpoint to create a variable group:
    POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups?api-version=6.0-preview.2
    • Include the variable group details in the request body:
    {
  "name": "MyVariableGroup",
  "variables": {
    "key1": {
      "value": "value1",
      "isSecret": false
    },
    "key2": {
      "value": "value2",
      "isSecret": false
    }
  }
}

    3. Automate with PowerShell:

    • Use PowerShell to send the API request:
    $url = "https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups?api-version=6.0-preview.2"
$body = @{
  name = "MyVariableGroup"
  variables = @{
    key1 = @{ value = "value1"; isSecret = $false }
    key2 = @{ value = "value2"; isSecret = $false }
  }
} | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Method Post -Headers @{Authorization = "Bearer <PAT>"} -Body $body -ContentType "application/json"

     

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