sqlpackage.exe publish fails with no error - sql-server

Question

I have the below powershell script which runs from jenkins against windows server 2019 slave:
$sqlpackagepublish = Start-Process -FilePath sqlpackage.exe -ArgumentList '/Action:Publish','/SourceFile:"Database Services\bin\Release\Database Services.dacpac"',"/TargetConnectionString:""Data Source=${Env};Integrated Security=True;Persist Security Info=False;Pooling=False;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Connect Timeout=60;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=False;Initial catalog=${Target}""","/p:BlockOnPossibleDataLoss=${Data_loss}" -wait -PassThru -Credential $Cred -RedirectStandardOutput sqlstdout.txt -RedirectStandardError sqlstderr.txt
$sqlpackagepublish.WaitForExit()
$sqlpackagepublish
if ($sqlpackagepublish.ExitCode -eq 0) {
Get-Content sqlstdout.txt
}
else {
echo "An error occurred"
Get-Content sqlstderr.txt
exit $sqlpackagepublish.ExitCode
}
But the deploy fails with no error in sqlstderr.txt and no info in jenkins log. any idea how I can debug it?
Update
based on the suggested answer below, I've tried both approaches:
1.
Remove a -PassThru parameter and read files' content.
So I changed my code the the below:
$sqlpackagepublish = Start-Process -FilePath sqlpackage.exe -ArgumentList '/Action:Publish','/SourceFile:"Database Services\bin\Release\Database Services.dacpac"',"/TargetConnectionString:""Data Source=${Env};Integrated Security=True;Persist Security Info=False;Pooling=False;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Connect Timeout=60;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=False;Initial catalog=${Target}""","/p:BlockOnPossibleDataLoss=${Data_loss}" -wait -Credential $Cred
$sqlpackagepublish.WaitForExit()
$sqlpackagepublish
But now I'm getting:
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
+ $sqlpackagepublish.WaitForExit()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
robust .NET'y way
In my original question, I had these lines:
$Username = $args[0]
$Password = $args[1]
$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $Password -Force
$Cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $Username,$pass
$sqlpackagepublish = Start-Process -FilePath sqlpackage.exe -ArgumentList {args} -wait -PassThru -Credential $Cred
I didn't understand how to add it to your code

Answer 1

This is how Start-Process command was basically created. -PassThru switch redirects the output to an object ($sqlpackagepublish in this case).
More on Start-Process here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/start-process?view=powershell-5.1
There are few solutions.
Remove a -PassThru parameter and read files' content as you are doing it right now
Do it harder, but more robust .NET'y way:
function Start-ProcessExecution
{
param (
[string] $exe,
[string] $arguments,
[string] $user,
[string] $password
)
$startInfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo;
$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText $password -Force
$startInfo.UserName = "$user";
$startInfo.Password = "$pass";
$startInfo.FileName = $exe;
$startInfo.Arguments = $arguments;
$startInfo.UseShellExecute = $false;
$startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true;
$startInfo.RedirectStandardError = $true;
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process;
$process.StartInfo = $startInfo;
$process.Start() | Out-Null;
$output = $process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
$err = $process.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
$process.WaitForExit();
$obj = [PSCustomObject]#{
ExitCode = $process.ExitCode
StdOut = $output
StdErr = $err
}
return $obj;
}
$exe = "sqlpackage.exe"
$arguments = [string]::Join(" ", "/Action:Publish", `
'/SourceFile:"Database Services\bin\Release\Database Services.dacpac"', `
'/TargetConnectionString:"Data Source=${Env};Integrated Security=True;Persist Security Info=False;Pooling=False;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Connect Timeout=60;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=False;Initial catalog=${Target}"', `
'/p:BlockOnPossibleDataLoss=${Data_loss}')
$result = (Start-ProcessExecution -exe $exe -arguments $arguments -user $args[0] -password $args[1])
$ec = $result.ExitCode;
if ($ec -eq 0) {
Write-Host "STDOUT:`n$($result.StdOut)";
}
else {
Write-Host "STDERR:`n$($result.StdErr)";
}
Wrapper is basically there to better readability and is constructed to prevent the deadlock on reading huge outputs after the WaitForExit() has been called.