Building ASP .NET 5 Applications on Linux with TFS 2015, Part 2: Configuring the build agent

In my last post, I explained how to configure your TFS server and agent pools to support Linux build agents.

In this post, I'll be setting up a Linux machine to act as a build agent for an on-premise instance of TFS 2015. The TFS 2015 cross-platform build agent is just a Node JS application, so we have some prerequisites to take care of first.

• First, get a Linux machine! I used an Azure VM running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, so these steps should work against a similar setup.
• Connect to your Linux machine via SSH and log in. If you need an SSH client, PuTTY is awesome and it's all I ever use.
• Install NPM, the Node Package Manager. We'll be using NPM to install the cross-platform build agent. The following command should take care of it:
  sudo apt-get install npmAnswer "yes" to any prompts that come up.
• Now, for whatever reason, a lot of the upcoming steps depend on the command "node" being available. But NodeJS installs as "nodejs". So we have to add an alias for "nodejs" to "node":
  sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node
• Now run the following command to check your version numbers:
  npm -v && node -v

You should see output like this:

This means that you have version 1.3.10 of NPM and 0.10.25 of NodeJS installed. Perfect!

• Now we need to install the cross-platform build agent, which is available on NPM.
  sudo npm install vsoagent-installer -gThat will download the build agent installer. Now make a directory called "build" and switch into that directory, and run the installer:
  mkdir build
cd build
vsoagent-installer


  You should see some text like this:

  Installing agent to /home/ictfs-admin/build
Copying: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/vsoagent-installer/agent /home/ictfs-admin/build
Copying: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/vsoagent-installer/node_modules /home/ictfs-admin/build
making scripts executable
Done.

• This step is only if you are using an app tier server name that is not using a FQDN
  For example, my server is "ic-tfs-at-01". It's not "ic-tfs-at-01.incyclesoftware.com", or "ic-tfs-at-01.local", or anything like that. That "." matters to the cross-platform agent at the moment; it will not allow you to configure the agent unless there's a "." in there. I submitted a bug fix for this, but it hasn't been merged in yet, so you'll have to do this in the interim. :)My solution is basically to remove the check from the configuration.

  Edit "~/build/agent/configuration.js". I use Nano for this, because I'm not old-school enough to understand how to use vi or Emacs.

  sudo nano ~/build/agent/configuration.js

  Find line 153, it should look like this:

  Configurator.prototype.validate = function (settings) {
throwIf(!check.isURL(settings.serverUrl), settings.serverUrl + ' is not a valid URL');
};


  Remove that "throwIf" line and save the file. By the time you read this, they may have merged my fix in. If so, proceed!

• Now we can run the configuration process.
  node agent/vsoagentIt's going to prompt us for some setup information:
  - User name - enter your build service account. If you're using a domain, Specify it as USER@DOMAIN, not DOMAIN\USER. For example, my domain is "azure", and my user is "tfs-build". So I'm going to enter tfs-build@azure here.
  - Password. No explanation necessary.
  - TFS server URL. So, http://yourServerName:8080/tfs
  - Agent name. Enter whatever you want, I leave it default.
  - Agent pool name. If you made a separate agent pool (I made one called 'linux', enter it here.

  It should look something like this:

  Enter alternate username > tfs-build@azure
Enter alternate password >
Enter server url > http://ic-tfs-at-01:8080/tfs
Enter agent name (enter sets IC-TFS-BA-03Lin) >
Enter agent pool name (enter sets default) > linux
successful connect as undefined
Retrieved agent pool: linux (2)
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_SESSION_ID=1
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SHELL=/bin/bash
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CLIENT=67.85.54.145 4186 22
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap USER=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap MAIL=/var/mail/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap PWD=/home/ictfs-admin/build
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap HOME=/home/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LOGNAME=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CONNECTION=67.85.54.145 4186 10.0.2.14 22
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap _=/usr/bin/node
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap OLDPWD=/home/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap ant not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap clang not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap cmake not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap curl=/usr/bin/curl
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap git not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap jake=.
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap java not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap make=/usr/bin/make
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap mdtool not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap mdtool not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap mvn not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap node.js=/usr/bin/node
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap node.js=/usr/bin/nodejs
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap npm=/usr/bin/npm
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap gulp not found
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap python=/usr/bin/python
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap python3=/usr/bin/python3
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap sh=/bin/sh
IC-TFS-BA-03Lin
Creating work folder ...
Creating env file ...
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_SESSION_ID=1
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SHELL=/bin/bash
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CLIENT=67.85.54.145 4186 22
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap USER=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap MAIL=/var/mail/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap PWD=/home/ictfs-admin/build
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap HOME=/home/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LOGNAME=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CONNECTION=67.85.54.145 4186 10.0.2.14 22
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap _=/usr/bin/node
Thu Aug 13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap OLDPWD=/home/ictfs-admin
Saving configuration ...
2015-08-13T14:55:33.451Z: Agent Started.

  To quit the agent, just press Ctrl-C. You can always re-start it by running node agent/vsoagent again.