Installing agents from the command line

Installing an agent from the command line involves running a batch file or shell script and specifying information about how the agent connects to the server.

For production environments, create a user account that is dedicated to running the agent on the computer where the agent is installed.

For simple evaluations, the administrative user can run the agent on the computer where the server is located. But if you plan to run deployments on several computers, install a separate agent on each system. If, for example, your testing environment consists of three systems, install an agent on each one. Follow the same procedure for each environment the application uses.

To install an agent on an z/OS system, see Installing agents on z/OS.

Each agent requires the appropriate rights to communicate with the IBM® DevOps Build (Build) server.

At a minimum, each agent must have permission to do these tasks:

  • Create a cache. By default, the cache is in the home directory of the user that runs the agent. The cache can be moved or disabled.
  • Open a TCP connection. The agent uses a TCP connection to communicate with the server's JMS port.
  • Open an HTTP or HTTPS connection. The agent must be able to connect to the Build user interface to download artifacts from the CodeStation repository.
  • Access the file system. Many agents need read-write permissions to items on the file system.
  1. Download and extract the agent installer to the computer on which you want to install the agent:
    • To download the installer from the server, click the Help button at the top right of the page, and then click Tools. Then click Build Agent and download and extract the file.
    • To find the installer on the server with the command line, go to the following location and copy the file to the target system: installation_folder/opt/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/tools/agentinstaller/ibm-devops-build-agent.zip
  2. After you download and expand the installation package, open the installer directory.
  3. From this directory, run install-agent.bat (Windows™) or install-agent.sh (UNIX™ or Linux™).
    Note: If you install the agent as a Windows service, the user account must have the following privileges:
    • SE_INCREASE_QUOTA_NAME "Adjust memory quotas for a process"
    • SE_ASSIGNPRIMARYTOKEN_NAME "Replace a process level token"
    • SE_INTERACTIVE_LOGON_NAME "Logon locally"
    The Build agent installer is displayed and prompts you to provide the following information. You can accept the default values displayed in brackets by pressing Enter. If two options are given, such as Y/n, the uppercase option is the default value.
    Enter the directory where agent should be installed.
    For example, enter C:\Program Files\IBM\DevOpsBuild\agent (Windows) or /opt/IBM/DevOpsBuild/agent (UNIX). If the directory does not exist, enter Y to instruct the installer to create it. If you enter an existing directory, the program gives you the option to upgrade the agent.
    Please enter the home directory of the JRE/JDK used to run the agent.
    If Java™ is already installed, Build suggests the Java location as the default value. To accept the default value, press Enter. Otherwise override the default value and enter the correct path.
    Enter the host name or address of the server the agent will connect to.
    The default value is localhost.
    Enter the agent communication port for the server
    The default value is 7919.
    Does the server agent communication use mutual authentication with SSL?
    The default value is N.

    If you use SSL, turn it on for the server too or the agent cannot connect to the server. This also applies if you are using mutual authentication. If you change the port numbers for agent communication, you must provide them while you install the agents.

    Enter the name for this agent.
    Enter a unique name. The server uses this name to identify this agent. Names are limited to 256 characters and cannot be changed.
    Do you want to install the Agent as Windows service?
    (Windows only). The default value is N. When installed as a service, Build captures only the value for the PATH variable. Values that are captured during installation are always used, even if you change them later. For recent Windows versions, you must run the command as Administrator.
Start the agent as described in Accessing DevOps Build. If the agent is running correctly, Build recognizes it automatically. Before you can use an agent, it must be configured. See Configuring agents.