--- title: "Building ASP .NET 5 Applications on Linux with TFS 2015, Part 2: Configuring the build agent" description: 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. --- [InCycle Software's Application Modernization and DevOps Blog ](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com) # [Building ASP .NET 5 Applications on Linux with TFS 2015, Part 2: Configuring the build agent](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/2015/08/building-asp-net-5-applications-on-linux-with-tfs-2015-part-2-configuring-the-build-agent/) Written by [Daniel Mann](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/author/daniel-mann) | Aug 14, 2015 8:00:52 AM In my [last post](https://blogs.incyclesoftware.com/?p=8895), 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. You should see output like this: `1.3.10 v0.10.25` 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 -g`That 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/vsoagent`It'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. 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