Is it possible to use a local build server for a Visual Studio Online account so that with a gated check-in policy, check-ins are only committed when the build server builds successfully? I don't have expertise in this space, so ideally I'm looking for steps to do the setup.
Yes, you can do what you are asking. Simply install TFS Build Server and when you are configuring it give it the URL for your VSO Collection.
Related
I am very new in TFS, need to implement CICD using TFS 2017 and its build and release feature,
when I tried to run build after creating build definition, I got error like no agent found, I googled and found how to configure agent, but I have logical confusion in my mind as below:
How Agent works with TFS 2017?
Where process of CI will be run on Agent or on TFS server?
Where I need to have msbuild ? where my built code will be placed?
What other dependencies would be there on Agent machine?
all question might be silly but as I have worked with Jenkins and Git, i dont have knowledge of Microsoft technologies, and I can't find well documents for the same.
How Agent works with TFS 2017?
In short to build with TFS, you need to Deploy an agent, in the agent machine you need to install the proper build components/SDKs accordingly based on your project.
Create a build definition. Once a build is triggered , the sources will be downloaded from the TFS repository to the agent machine and then build in the agent machine.
Related documents : Agent pools and queues; Build and Release Agents; Build definition options
Where process of CI will be run on Agent or on TFS server?
You can eanble the CI (turn on the Continuous integration trigger) in build definition. See Configure continuous integration for details. Thus the build will automatically be triggered once changes are checked in.
Related documents: A quick introduction to CI/CD ; Build and release
Where I need to have msbuild ? where my built code will be placed?
For vNext build, it's task based build system. You can define your build definition based on the tasks. See Build and release tasks .
e.g.: You can use MSBuild or Visual Studio Build task, you can specify the MSBuild Arguments as needed.
You can use the utility task: Copy and Publish Build Artifacts and Publish Build Artifacts to specify where the built code will be placed. (Artifact Type : Server/File share path)
What other dependencies would be there on Agent machine?
Refer to the answer for the first question.
I've got a VSTS build that is trying to deploy a test agent so I can run some Selenium tests and when I get to the "Deploy TestAgent on" build step, I am getting the following error:
2017-06-22T14:29:05.6157972Z ##[warning]Task 'DownloadTestAgent' for
machine vmtest43xxx.cloudapp.net:5986's Error : System.Exception: The
process cannot access the file 'C:\TestAgent\vstf_testagent.exe'
because it is being used by another process.
Also, if setting up a local build agent is a good workaround for this, I'm all ears, but so far I have had a lot of trouble trying to set up a local test agent. This seems weird since setting up a local build agent was relatively easy up to this point. Any suggestions on how I should set up a local agent? I've been trying to follow instructions from here and here.
Thanks!
It’s easy to setup a local build agent, so try to setup a build agent:
Steps for windows:
Go to Admin page of Agent Pools (https://[account].visualstudio.com/_admin/_AgentPool)
Click Download agent button
Unzip the downloaded file
Run Command Line as Administrator
Run config.cmd
Specify collection url (https://[account].visualstudio.com), Personal Access Token etc
More information, you can refer to: Deploy an agent on Windows.
You can specify Test Agent Location (can be access from build agent machine) for Visual Studio Test Agent Deployment task to save time.
I am trying a few tools by Atlassian and wanted to get the whole CI/CD working. So far, I am able to commit code in Visual Studio and have Bitbucket kick off a build request in Bamboo. However, my builds failed due to MSbuild not being in C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\14.0\Bin - makes sense as the VM does not have Visual Studio installed. What is the best practice to get this working. I know I can install VS on that VM and things should work, but what if I want to be able to terminate that VM and spin off a new one(with VS on it) whenever I need a new environment? Any ideas? Are there any "community" images one can use that would include this?
I know this is old - but just in case someone else chances upon it; you don't need VS installed. Microsoft ships MSBuild as a standalone package (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40760)...
I'm getting the following error on a TFS2013 build:
TF900547: The directory containing the assemblies for the Visual Studio Test Runner is not valid ''.
Looking here, it would seem that the answer to this is to change the test runner from VS test runner to MSTest. However, when I try to edit the Test Run in the build definition, the test runner option is set to Visual Studio Test Runner and greyed out. What determined what is shown in this box, and how can I add MSTest?
I have installed VS2012 agents for handling tests on the server.
I fixed this by installing VS2013 on the build agent
We had the same problem as the OP but, because the TFS server is considered a production box (other departments use it for other things), we were not permitted to install VS2013 on the server. The same applied to any third party tools needed for builds, they were a pain to integrate into the build.
I eventually worked round this by using another dev box to act as a build server for TFS. By installing the Build Server component of TFS on the dev box and setting up a controller and build agents on that box, TFS could pass the responsibility for the actual build to the dev box, on which we could install anything, without compromising the TFS server itself.
While it is not perfect - an extra box and VS2013 license needed - it is by far the easiest way to avoid poluting a production TFS box. Alternatively, nominate a developer's own box and install the build agent there - the environment is ready built, it will simply slow down a little during a build.
Look at section Define Multiple Test Runs of this article. It is very informative and explains different configuration in dept. Hope this helps !!!
I have created a new team build definition. On every checkin, the build happens on a TFS server (another build controller). After the build completes, I want to publish the files. The MSBuild input arguments used are /p:DeployOnBuild=true;PublishProfile=QADeploy. QADeploy is the publishing profile created.
I expect the team build to succeed which happens. But the successful build does not publish or attempt to publish the files to the destination folder. Any ideas why, the publish via publish profile is not triggered?
Weird, but adding the Visual Studio Version resolved the problem:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=QADeploy /p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0
I had the same issue and was pulling my hair out. Check out this Similar Problem, it helped me.
I fixed it via copying both WEB and WEB APPLICATION web build targets from this path on a PC with VS installed into the matching path on the build server:
C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0
(path for VS 2012)
I am not sure if their suggestion of using the full installer for web deploy helps. I tried both suggestions at the same time and it worked there after.
Also it only works on a Web Project