Manage Your Build System

After you have configured your build system to meet your needs, you can monitor and manage it in several ways. Before you read this topic, you should first read Understanding a Team Foundation Build System.

In this Topic

• Required Permissions

• Manage a Build Machine

• Manage a Build Controller or Build Agent

  • Disable or Enable a Build Controller or Build Agent

  • Restart a Build Controller or Build Agent

  • Modify the Properties of a Build Controller or Build Agent

  • Delete a Build Controller or Build Agent

Required Permissions

To perform the procedures in this topic, your Manage Build Resources permission must be set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Manage a Build Machine

A build machine is a computer on which you have installed and configured Team Foundation Build Service. You can host a build controller and one or more build agents on a build machine.

To manage a build machine

1. Log on to the build machine that you want to configure.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, and then click Team Foundation Administration Console.

   The Team Foundation Administration Console appears.

3. In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then click the Team Foundation Build node.

   Information about the build machine appears in the content pane. If the message BuildService configured for… does not appear, see Configure a Build Machine.

When you click the Team Foundation Build node, information about the build machine appears in the content pane, including the name of its endpoint and the account under which Team Foundation Build Service is running. You can use the Team Foundation Build node to manage your build machine. The following table lists and explains some of the actions you can take.

For information about actions that you can take to configure a build machine, see Configure a Build Machine.

Manage a Build Controller or Build Agent

Disable or Enable a Build Controller or Build Agent

You can disable and enable build controllers and build agents. This capability can help you tune or temporarily modify the way your build system works.

For example, you suspect that a build machine may be running too many build agents because builds are being processed too slowly. You can disable some build agents and assess how this affects performance. You can then later re-enable one or more build agents as necessary.

To disable or enable a build controller or build agent from a client machine

1. In Visual Studio, on the Build menu, click Manage Build Controllers.

   The Manage Build Controllers dialog box appears.

2. Click the build controller or build agent that you want to disable or enable, and then click Properties.

   The Build Controller Properties or Build Agent Properties dialog box appears.

3. Clear or select either the Build Controller service is enabled or the Build Agent service is enabled check box.

To disable or enable a build controller or build agent from the build machine

1. Log on to the build machine that hosts the build controller or build agent that you want to modify.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, and then click Team Foundation Administration Console.

   The Team Foundation Administration Console appears.

3. In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then click the Team Foundation Build node.

4. Immediately under the name of the build controller or the build agent, click either the Disable link or the Enable link.

Restart a Build Controller or Build Agent

You can restart build controllers and build agents. When you restart a build agent, the build that it is processing is aborted. When you restart a build controller, all its running builds are aborted, including builds that its build agents are processing.

This capability can help you troubleshoot some problems. For example, if you are monitoring a running build and you determine that a build is stalled (or has been running for longer than expected) during steps that a:

• build agent performs (such as compilation or running tests), you can restart the build agent.

• build controller performs (such as labeling files in version control), then you can restart the build controller.

To restart a build controller or build agent

1. Log on to the build machine that hosts the build controller or build agent that you want to modify.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, and then click Team Foundation Administration Console.

   The Team Foundation Administration Console appears.

3. In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then click the Team Foundation Build node.

4. Immediately under the name of the build controller or the build agent, click Restart.

Modify the Properties of a Build Controller or Build Agent

You can use the Build Controller Properties dialog box or the Build Agent Properties dialog box to manage build controllers and build agents. You can display these dialog boxes on a client computer that is running Visual Studio or on the build machine by using the Team Foundation Administration Console.

To display the properties dialog box on a client machine

1. In Visual Studio, open the Build menu, and then click Manage Build Controllers.

   The Manage Build Controllers dialog box appears.

2. Click the build controller or build agent that you want to modify, and then click Properties.

   The Build Controller Properties or Build Agent Properties dialog box appears.

To display the properties dialog box on the build machine

1. Log on to the build machine that hosts the build controller or build agent that you want to modify.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, and then click Team Foundation Administration Console.

   The Team Foundation Administration Console appears.

3. In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then click the Team Foundation Build node.

4. Immediately under the name of the build controller or the build agent, click Properties.

   The Build Controller Properties or Build Agent Properties dialog box appears.

In the Build Controller Properties and Build Agent Properties dialog boxes, you can view or change the display name and the description, in addition to other properties that affect how the build controller or build agent functions. For more information, see one of the following topics:

• Create and Work with Build Agents

• Create and Work with a Build Controller

Remove a Build Controller or Build Agent

When you no longer need a build controller or build agent, you can remove it.

To remove a build controller or build agent from a client machine

1. In Visual Studio, open the Build menu, and then click Manage Build Controllers.

   The Manage Build Controllers dialog box appears.

2. Click the build controller or build agent that you want to remove, and then click Remove.

To remove a build controller or build agent from a build machine

1. Log on to the build machine that hosts the build controller or build agent that you want to remove.

2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, and then click Team Foundation Administration Console.

   The Team Foundation Administration Console appears.

3. In the tree pane, expand the name of the server, and then click the Team Foundation Build node.

   Immediately under the name of the build controller or the build agent that you want to remove, click Remove.

See Also

Tasks

Monitor Progress of a Running Build

Concepts

Understanding a Team Foundation Build System

Configure Your Build System