Hi,
I have a VSTS build creating several packages. There seems to be several ways to get thes to my Octopus server.
1 - The ‘Push Package to Octopus’ in the VSTS marketplace.
2 - Octopus Server define a feed.
Question is are these 2 options alternate ways to achieve the same thing? If so which is better?
Also VSTS has steps for Create Octopus Release & Create Octopus Deploy. Similarly…are these duplicating something that could be (or should be) defined on Octopus Server instance rather than in a VSTS build step ?
Thank You
Phil
Hi,
Thanks for getting in touch! Either pushing from the server or defining a feed server in Octopus will both work just as effectively and which one you use is totally up to you and your requirements.
If you were to use the Push package to Octopus in VSTS, we use the Octo.exe command line to push your package to the internal repository. The benefit of this is that it is pre-configured and already working in Octopus, simply push and the packages are ready to use in your projects.
Here is a bit of information on using our built-in repository:
If you have an existing NuGet feed you can easily point Octopus to use it. Having an external NuGet feed will give you more control over how you use it, you are able to index/query an external feed. When you push your packages to the external feed, Octopus will be able to use them for deployment.
Here is a link to some documentation on using an external repository.: http://docs.octopusdeploy.com/display/OD/Package+repositories#Packagerepositories-Usingexternalrepositories
The decision on which one to used will be entirely up to what works best for you.
The Create Octopus Release build step lets you package your built application and push those packages to the Octopus built-in repository straight from VSTS as a part of your build process. The benefit of this is that you can directly link the release from your build using variables such as package number and define the release number automatically.
For a direct link to the extension on the Visual Studio marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=octopusdeploy.octopus-deploy-build-release-tasks
We also strongly recommend the following video on using VSTS to create a release and deploy it. The video can be found on our website at https://octopus.com/videos under Continuous deployment in under 60 minutes with Octopus Deploy in the community videos section.
Let me know if that helps or if you have any further questions. 
Best regards,
Daniel