The project I am on is using TFS Build in conjunction with Web Deploy to handle the deployments of the web site and service to the servers. We also have a windows service that needs to be deployed to the server as well.
My question is: Is there a way to deploy the Windows Service to the Web Server from the TFS Build server?
The other issue I have is that the service needs to be stopped before it can be deployed. I have tried to modify the Build Configuration file, but could not manage to get it to work.
Thanks.
Options:
If you install TFSBuildagent service on the web server and grant the user which runs the service Admin rights on the web server, then you can create a new build definition just for the deployment/installation. This is fairly simple and straight forward, but this would only work when you have limited number of web servers (who wants to install TFS BUild agent on all 2000 servers) and only work in the non-prod environment. This is how we are doing it for non-prod deployments, I have created a build definition which is just for deployment, which takes care of all the things like stopping services etc.
If the user which runs the TFSBuild Service on the build server have enough rights on the web server then you can use psexec or powershell to run your commands remotely. Read the below links: 1. PSEXEC
Powershell Remote commands
What did you do to stop the service in your build configuration file? Does the user have enough rights?
There is no inbuilt activity/process which can help you run scripts on remote machines in TFS build workflow.
Step 1 for you is to identify how you are going to run scripts on the remote machine, as mentioned above you can either use PSEXEC or Powershell (though running PowerShell on remote computers may be a little more complicated to set up).
Step2, write the actual scripts to do the work, stop services, install MSI etc.
Step3, Edit your current build defintion - create a new custom activity or make use of InvokeProcess activity from within your build definition to invoke the script that you have created in Step 2. InvokeProcess Activity
Related
I recently installed TFS 2015 on a new machine. I want to configure the same machine as our build server but i have massive trouble doing this. I neither can configure the new vNext-system nor can i configure an "old-style" xaml build server. As the build account i want to use the NT AUTHORITY\Network Service. For the xaml configuration i set "Execute service as" to NT AUTHORITY\Network Service and use the same account for the connection to the team foundation server.
But when i add a new controller and want to browse to custom assemblies, i get a "service unavailable" error. So i decided to test without the custom assemblies, added an build agent and created a new build-definition for a simple test project. I added a build to the queue and wait. Nothing happenend (in the build window) until after about 50 seconds an error was shown in the build window: Service Unavailable (Typ VssServiceResponseException).
Same for the new vNext builds. I downloaded the agent.zip from the web-frontend, opened the powershell and started configuring the build-agent. After waiting some minutes, the configuration aborted with.... service unavailable.
So i decided to test something different : instead of using the FQHN, i used localhost and - tataaa - it starts the agent, which is also shown green in the web-frontends agent-tab. So i created a new vNext-Build-Definition and added it to the queue, but it does not start, but shows the message : "waiting for console output from an agent".
So i decided to test it on a different pc : i downloaded the agent to my laptop and installed it, configuring the agent with it's FQHN. Without any problems the agent was started and i was able to start and run a build.
So the question is : Why am i'm not able to configure the build service on the tfs. I guess it has something to do with permissions, but i don't now, what permissions the network service account should have. I also tried it with a local account, but with the same result.
Any hints are very appreciated. Thanks in advance.
BTW: I can ping the FQHN from the command-line.
This is the output, after trying to add a vNext-agent via the powershell.
UPDATE:
I used the the servers IP-address instead of its name and it suddenly worked.
Take XAML build for example, to configure a Team Foundation Build Service, you must be a member of both the Windows Administrators security group on the server on which you are configuring Team Foundation Build Service and the Project Collection Administrators group on TFS.
According to the second paragraph, you can configure build controller and add build agent. Before queuing a build, you need to make sure the build controller and agent are in Ready status, sometimes relevant services are not yet fully available when you newly configure them or restart them.
Also, you may try to remove build service feature, and reconfigure it, to see whether you can solve the issue.
I'm looking at migrating our builds from the old XAML to the new build system, but I have a problem with configuring the build agent to run as a service.
Configuring the agent to run interactively (in my session on the build server) works. The builds are OK but this is not useable as I have to open a session and start the agent.
Configuring the agent to run as a service with the default NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE works. The builds are broken. WiX doesn't like this account and fails during the ICE validation. The drop also fails because this account doesn't have access to the drop folder.
Configuring the agent to run as a service with a domain account fails. The service is not created and I get the following error:
Installing service vsoagent.tfs-server.tfs-build-server-agent1...
Creating EventLog source vsoagent.tfs-server.tfs-build-server-agent1 in log Application...
An exception occurred in the OnAfterInstall event handler of System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
The username and passwords are OK, I get a different "bad username or password" error when typing a bad password. The user was used for the old XAML build system on the same build server and is in the local admin group, so it has authorisations AFAIK.
I was running TFS 2015, I upgraded to 2015 update 1 then forced an agent update in the web interface. After that it works, I can configure the agent to run as a service using a domain account.
Agent.Version is still saying 1.83.2 in the web interface, but the files are actually different in the agent folder. An agent.old folder is left after the upgrade and you can see that VsoAgent.exe and VsoAgentService.exe have a different size and version. Also the agent.old folder has 138 files in 46 folders, but the agent folder has 157 files in 53 folders.
I Had the same issue with the WIX validation. But i did not try to reconfigure the agent (not due to problems,just due to pure laziness), instead i did just change the account to a domain account using the services overview. restarted the machine and everything did work fine.
To narrow down your issue:
1.Try to Configure the agent to run as a service with another domain account on another computer
2.If you need to change the logon account, don't do it from the services snap-in. Instead, From an elevated Command Prompt, run: C:\Agent\Agent\VsoAgent.exe /ChangeWindowsServiceAccount
update
If you upgrade your TFS2015 to TFS2015update1. Do not just use the simple update agent in the web interface. You need download the agent from web and reconfigure it in the cmd.
I understand that there are two ways of installing Jenkins:
1) Running Jenkins behind Apache (Using the War file)
2) Installing Jenkins as a Windows Service(using the windows Installer)
I am in the process of creating a CI, Auto-Deployment and Scheduled Automation runs for my project. So in this case which kind of installation should be better. I just do not want to choose the wrong one and end up recreating jobs to the other kind.
I have few questions:
1) If I choose to install as a Windows service( using the windows installer), do I still have to install an web server like IIS or Apatche for accessing my Jenkins URL, or does Jenkins have something inbuilt in it and I do not have to add an web server for accessing Jenkins?
2)If Jenkins as a Windows Service(using the windows Installer) needs IIS, I have steps in my project in which I have to restart IIS manually to generate NCover reports. In such cases, would Jenkins also be down?
3) Jenkins website states the following: "In situations where you have existing web sites on your server, you may find it useful to run Jenkins (or the servlet container that Jenkins runs in) behind Apache, so that you can bind Jenkins to the part of a bigger website that you may have.".
I would be hosting our application locally using IIS, in that case, should I chose to use the WAR installer instead of the windows installer.
I do not run Jenkin's on Windows but I believe its the same as other platforms...
No if you install Jenkins with the installer you will not need IIS or Apache
See the answer to 1, If you don't use IIS to run Jenkins restarting it won't bring down Jenkins
It sounds like you want to run your existing site under IIS and leave Jenkins running on its own. I think the windows installer for Jenkins will do exactly this.
I have run Jenkins on Windows and Unix environment.
Just wanted to add more to Ben's answer:
Windows if you install as windows service you will not need anything and for this following wiki should be more than enough:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Installing+Jenkins+as+a+Windows+service
To add more to 3rd point:
Normally web sites are hosted behind Apache httpd server. If you are using one then you can configure both IIS web server and Jenkins accordingly.
In my previous company, we was running Jenkins as a service (with the solution proposed by Vinay above).
It worked well and you don't have to install an application server like Apache.
The only thing you have to take care is the user which launch the Windows service.
If your Jenkins server needs to access some ressource on the network, maybe you have to use a LDAP user to launch your service instead of using the "local system account".
My Question: How can I run a deployment script from the TFS 2010 build template on a remote system that has only a MSTest agent running?
I know this can be done by activating the Deployment section in the test settings configuration file, but this is not flexible enough. At night a build runs. When the build is successful, a deployment script is placed at a drop location. The drop location is date, project and build definition specific. These parameters are available in the TFS build template we use.
I do not have Lab Management available, just a physical server. I would rather not spoil the physical server with an additional build agent to only do the deployment. The MSTest agent is apparently capable of running deployment scripts, but how do I use that functionality from the TFS build workflow. For example, can I use the RunDeploymentScript activity without having Lab Management?
PSExec is a great tool for running scripts on remote computers. I use this in Team Deploy that allows you to install MSIs on remote computers from Team Build. You can also run PowerShell on remote computers but it is a little more complicated to set up. Another option is to use MSDeploy. There is a command option that you can run any command on a remote computer. I usually use an InvokeProcess activity to call a PowerShell script on the build server. From the PowerShell script I have called MSDeploy to run a remote PowerShell script on a target server. It sounds bad but worked good.
You can't run the RunDeploymentScript on the target machine. You can use a modified template to deploy to a physical environemnt. Here is a good post on doing this.. The options I mentioned above do not need any agent on it. You can use the ExecuteRemoteTestRun lab management activity without Lab Management to run the MTM Tests with the Test Agent with a Test Controller that is registered to the project collection (Test Manager).
Let me know if you have any questions on any of these options.
I have a build server with many builds for web sites and web services. I'm doing some new code using WCF; my new code runs as a Windows Service.
Ordinarily, when I make changes to a web site, I "check out" the files I need to edit from TFS, make the changes, "check in" the files, and then perform a build. At this point, my new code is up and running on my development build server. Finally, the code is branched to my staging and production servers.
How do I configure a build to deploy my WCF service in this manner? My concern is that I cannot simply deploy the Windows Service and write over the old copy because the service must be stopped first and then restarted. How do I do this?
You can add a set of exec tasks to your build script (*.*proj file) to stop the service before you overwrite it.
See the NET STOP command for stopping a service:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490715.aspx