Making one task to run on particular container without effecting the sequence of order of preivous task - container agent

Question

we are using agent which is container to run our pipeline.

We have main template and there is stage template and inside stage template there is a task template where in side this task template last one is vstest task template. of course it happens which is last task

this particular task (vstask) needs to run on different agent/container, is that possible, with out disturbing the order of all previous tasks.

If yes how?

Answer 1

Hi Diptesh Kumar

Yes, you can run the VSTest task on a different agent/container without disturbing the order of previous tasks by using container jobs in Azure DevOps.

Use the container property in YAML to specify a different container for the VSTest task.

trigger:
  - master
pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
jobs:
  - job: BuildAndDeploy
    container: my-default-container
    steps:
      - script: echo "Running previous tasks in default container"
      - task: AzurePowerShell@5
        inputs:
          azureSubscription: 'xxxx'
          ScriptType: 'FilePath'
          ScriptPath: 'test.ps1'
          pwsh: true
  - job: RunVSTest
    dependsOn: BuildAndDeploy  # Ensures previous tasks complete first
    container: my-vstest-container
    steps:
      - script: echo "Running VSTest in a different container"
      - task: VSTest@2
        inputs:
          testSelector: 'testAssemblies'
          testAssemblyVer2: '**\*test.dll'

Hope this helps!

Please Let me know if you have any queries.

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Answer 2

Hello Diptesh , Welcome to MS Q&A

In Azure DevOps, you cannot change the agent or container for a single task within a job—the agent/container is defined at the job level, and all tasks in that job run on the same agent/container.

However, you can achieve your goal by splitting your tasks into separate jobs within the same stage or across stages. Each job can specify its own agent pool or container. You can use dependsOn to ensure the order is preserved.

Example Solution

Suppose you have a sequence of tasks, and only the last one (VSTest) needs a different container:

stages:
- stage: BuildAndTest
  jobs:
    - job: BuildAndOtherTasks
      container: my-default-container
      steps:
        - script: echo "Task 1"
        - script: echo "Task 2"
        # ... other tasks

    - job: VSTestJob
      dependsOn: BuildAndOtherTasks
      container: my-vstest-container
      steps:
        - task: VSTest@2
          inputs:
            # vstest inputs here

Key Points:

• Each job can have its own container or pool.
• Use dependsOn to ensure VSTestJob runs after BuildAndOtherTasks.
• This preserves the order and allows the last task to run in a different environment.

Summary: You must split the tasks into separate jobs to use a different agent/container for the last task. This is the only supported way in Azure DevOps YAML pipelines.

Please check and let us know if any further ques

Kindly accept answer if it helps

Thanks
Deepanshu

Answer 3

Hi Durga,

is it possible without using job?

because task we are planning to use container image separately is in the task template which is in stage template.

Answer 4

Hi Diptesh Kumar

Yes, it is possible to run the VSTest task on a different container without using a separate job by specifying the container image directly within the task template inside the stage template.

steps:
  - task: VSTest@2
    displayName: "Run Tests in Separate Container"
    container: my-vstest-container
    inputs:
      testSelector: 'testAssemblies'
      testAssemblyVer2: '**\*test.dll'

This isolates the VsTest task to run in a completely different container without disturbing the build tasks. Hope this helps!

Please Let me know if you have any queries.

If you found the information helpful, please click "Upvote" on the post to let us know and consider accepting the answer as the token of appreciation. Thank You.