How do I deploy service fabric application from VSTS release pipeline?

When the Connect-ServiceFabricCluster function is called (from Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1) a local $clusterConnection variable is set after the call to Connect-ServiceFabricCluster. You can see that using Get-Variable.

Unfortunately there is logic in some of the SDK scripts that expect that variable to be set but because they run in a different scope, that local variable isn't available.

It works in Visual Studio because the Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 script is called using dot source notation, which puts the $clusterConnection variable in the current scope.

I'm not sure if there is a way to use dot sourcing when running a script though the release pipeline but you could, as a workaround, make the $clusterConnection variable global right after it's been set via the Connect-ServiceFabricCluster call. Edit your Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 script and add the following line after the connection logic (~line 169):

$global:clusterConnection = $clusterConnection  

By the way, you might want to consider setting up custom build/release tasks that deploy a Service Fabric application, rather than using the various Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1 scripts.

There now exists a built-in VSTS task for deploying a Service Fabric app so you no longer need to bother with executing the PowerShell script on your own. Task documentation page is at https://www.visualstudio.com/docs/build/steps/deploy/service-fabric-deploy. The original CI article has also been updated which provides details on how to set everything up: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/service-fabric-set-up-continuous-integration/.