After installing and configuring the Azure DevOps (VSTS) plugin, you can launch sandbox/production environments from your Azure DevOps (VSTS). For brevity, the term "sandbox" denotes sandbox or production environment.

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.

In this article:

•  Preparing the Azure DevOps Build 
•  Launching a Sandbox
• Ending a Sandbox from your Pipeline

Preparing the Azure DevOps Build 

1. Open your visualstudio.com project.
2. In the Build and release page, create a new build or edit an existing build. 
3. Create a New Task in one of your build agent’s jobs.
4. In the New Task form search for CloudshellColony.
   

   The following tasks are displayed:

   • CloudShell Colony End Sandbox (ends a sandbox with CloudShellColony).
   • CloudShell Colony Start Sandbox (starts a sandbox with CloudShell Colony).

   NOTE: If you do not see above tasks, it means that the plugin was not successfully installed.

Launching a Sandbox

1. Add the CloudShell Colony Start Sandbox task to your pipeline.
2. Open the task settings and enter the following parameters:
   1. Service Connection – Enter "Colony." This is the name of the connection that you entered when you created the Colony service connection during the plugin configuration.
   2. Timeout - Set the timeout for this step, if your sandbox will not be ready when the timeout is reached, CloudShell Colony will abort the deployment.
   3. Space name - Enter a name for your CloudShell Colony space.
   4. Blueprint name - Enter the name of the blueprint you would like to use for creating this sandbox. 

      NOTE: To specify one of CloudShell Colony’s sample blueprints, use a [sample] prefix, i.e: [sample]Java Spring Website AWS EU (Ireland) or [sample]Java Spring Website Azure (West US).

   5. Sandbox name - Enter a name for the sandbox
   6. 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
   7. 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
3. Expand the Output Variable section and in the Reference name field, enter "Colony." CloudShell Colony uses this variable to return the following sandbox details:
   • Colony.Sandbox_Id –  The identifier of the created sandbox. You will use this identifier to end your sandbox when needed.
   • Colony.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

1. Add the CloudShell Colony End Sandbox task to your pipeline.
2. Open the task's settings and enter the following parameters:
   1. Service Connection – Enter "Colony." This is the name of the connection that you entered when you created the Colony service connection during the plugin configuration.
   2. Space name - Enter the name of your CloudShell Colony space.
   3. Sandbox ID - Enter the ID of the sandbox you want to end. Use $(Colony.Sandbox_Id) to dynamically get the sandbox Id from the CloudShell Colony object that was returned from a Start Sandbox task.