Azure DevOps - Agents

DevOps agents are the proxy applications that run the jobs, tasks, and steps in pipelines.

The work can be anything from file copies, file edits, to builds and deployments.

Capabilities

Every agent reports on its capabilities automatically (eg: version of MSBuild available)

Tags can be added to agents but our main agents don’t have any specific tags.

Sizing

The recommended amount of agents on a machine is one per CPU core.

Our build machines have 4 each.

Authentication / Identity

The agents all run as TC\TFSTEST user.

The passwords for the accounts are stored in password control sheets.

Paths & Location

Extract locations: C:\DevOpsAgents

Working Locations: D:\AgentsWork

Naming

<Name of Server>A<sequential number incremented of agents on the server>S

EG:
NCRWS530A1S
NCRWS530A2S
NCRWS530A3S
NCRWS530A4S

The ‘A' is for agent and never figured out what the 'S’ stands for.

Example Command

PS > .\config.cmd 
        --unattended 
        --url https://dev.azure.com/transport-canada 
        --auth pat 
        --token <PAT made from an account that can add to the Agent Pool at the time of running the command> 
        --pool 'Self-Hosted DotNET4X' 
        --agent NCRWS530A3S 
        --work D:\AgentsWork\A3S_Work 
        --runAsService 
        --windowsLogonAccount TC\TFSTEST 
        --windowsLogonPassword <TC AD Passowrd for the service account>

Security Applications and Digital Identity (Solutions Centre)