[BUG]: AzureCLI@2 task ignores existing optimizations on hosted agent

[jessehouwing]

Task name

AzureCLI

Task version

2

Environment type (Please select at least one environment where you face this issue)

• Self-Hosted
• Microsoft Hosted
• VMSS Pool
• Container

Azure DevOps Server type

dev.azure.com (formerly visualstudio.com)

Operation system

Windows-latest

Task log

n/a

Relevant log output

Setting AZURE_CONFIG_DIR env variable to: D:\a\_temp\.azclitask

Aditional info

The Azure Pipelines Hosted Agent images take extra care making sure that azure-cli is configured, pre-compiled, all required additional packages have been installed and the command index has been built.

By redirecting the AZURE_CONFIG_DIR to the agent's temp directory, all of that goes to waste and the performance difference is quite high. On the Windows Hosted Agents the time to run a simple command is about 1 extra minute than is needed.

Setting the useGlobalConfig: true prevents the overriding of the azure configuration directory.

I'm proposing that when:

1. the task runs on the hosted agent
2. the AZURE_CONFIG_DIR environment variable is already set

Then:

• AzureCLI@2 will not reset the AZURE_CONFIG_DIR variable

OR:

• AzureCLI@2 will log a warning if useGlobalConfig isn't explicitly set to false to indicate the perf improvement that's possible by introducing this setting.

The method that would be changed:

azure-pipelines-tasks/Tasks/AzureCLIV2/azureclitask.ts

Lines 181 to 193 in 16dcae9

	private static setConfigDirectory(): void {
	if (tl.getBoolInput("useGlobalConfig")) {
	return;
	}
	if (!!tl.getVariable('Agent.TempDirectory')) {
	var azCliConfigPath = path.join(tl.getVariable('Agent.TempDirectory'), ".azclitask");
	console.log(tl.loc('SettingAzureConfigDir', azCliConfigPath));
	process.env['AZURE_CONFIG_DIR'] = azCliConfigPath;
	} else {
	console.warn(tl.loc('GlobalCliConfigAgentVersionWarning'));
	}
	}

⚠️ Warning: this might be a breaking change if people are mixing useGlobalConfig with both true and false on the hosted agent, in the same job. hence my alternative of logging the suggestion.

[jessehouwing]

Something like:

 private static setConfigDirectory(): void { 
     if (tl.getBoolInput("useGlobalConfig") || !!tl.getVariable("agent.cloudid")) { 
         return; 
     } 
  
     if (!!tl.getVariable('Agent.TempDirectory')) { 
         var azCliConfigPath = path.join(tl.getVariable('Agent.TempDirectory'), ".azclitask"); 
         console.log(tl.loc('SettingAzureConfigDir', azCliConfigPath)); 
         process.env['AZURE_CONFIG_DIR'] = azCliConfigPath; 
     } else { 
         console.warn(tl.loc('GlobalCliConfigAgentVersionWarning')); 
     } 
 }

or

 private static setConfigDirectory(): void { 
     if (tl.getBoolInput("useGlobalConfig")) { 
         return; 
     } 
  
     if (!!tl.getVariable('Agent.TempDirectory')) { 
         if (!!tl.getVariable("agent.cloudid"))
         {
             console.log("Consider setting 'useGlobalConfig: true' for significantly higher performance");
         }
         var azCliConfigPath = path.join(tl.getVariable('Agent.TempDirectory'), ".azclitask"); 
         console.log(tl.loc('SettingAzureConfigDir', azCliConfigPath)); 
         process.env['AZURE_CONFIG_DIR'] = azCliConfigPath; 
     } else { 
         console.warn(tl.loc('GlobalCliConfigAgentVersionWarning')); 
     } 
 }

[jessehouwing]

without useGlobalConfig:true:

with useGlobalConfig:true:

[jessehouwing]

@geekzter 👆

[github-actions]

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