Now I have three TFS build instances on my VM

author Richard Fennell calendar Apr 20, 2011 · 2 min read · Uncategorised  ·
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A while ago I posted on my experiences running multiple instances of 2010 build service on a single VM. Well a couple more experiences as now one of my VM is running 3 instances.

Firstly it seems to work OK, you have to have the right build profile i.e. fairly low load but a need to support many Team Project Collections. This is not a solution for a highly loaded build environment. At Black Marble we run a TPC per client model and tend to have fair few projects on the go at any one time, so need plenty of build controllers. However, in general the builds are small, taking minutes not hours If we have a seriously long running build I would still create a dedicated build service VM.

So what have I learn since the last post

  • Set the agents working directory differently for each agent on the VM. You will probably be OK if you don’t, as the $(BuildAgenId) should differ, but life is easier of you know what is where. So I use $(SystemDriveBuild1, $(SystemDriveBuild2 etc. as opposed to the default $(SystemDriveBuild.

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  • When you create the new service instance using the Sc.exe command line remember to make sure it starts automatically when the operating system is rebooted. Stupid mistake but I keep make it!