Configure the tutorial system

To run the tutorial project, you must configure an agent, install the required plug-ins, and create an artifact set.

Before you begin the tutorial, make sure that you completed the Prerequisites.
To complete the tutorial, you must have an agent that is running on a target computer. An agent is a lightweight process that runs on a target computer and does the actual work of building the project. This target computer can be a virtual image, or a physical computer, including the one where the server is installed. You must have access to this computer and be able to install the agent on it.

To prepare the tutorial system:

  1. Prepare a computer for use as the target system.
  2. Install the plug-ins used in the tutorial.
    The tutorial uses the following plug-ins: Git, Maven, and JUnit. The Maven plug-in is installed with the product. Download and install the Git and JUnit plug-ins. Plug-ins can be downloaded from the Build plug-in site: https://developer.ibm.com/urbancode/plugins/ibm-urbancode-build/. For information about installing plug-ins, see Installing plug-ins.
  3. For performance reasons, agents are generally not installed on the same computer where the Build server is located. For the tutorial, installing the agent on the computer where the server is located is fine.
  4. Configure the agent.
    Your agent must be included in the list of configured agents on the Agents page with a status of Online.
  5. Create an agent pool and add the installed agent to it.
  6. Install the open source tools Git and Maven on the computer where the Build agent is located.
    Add the home directory for each tool to the PATH variable on the target system. Add the MAVEN_HOME variable to the PATH variable.
  7. Ensure that the artifact set included with the product, maven, is available. If it is not installed, create the artifact set by completing these steps:
    1. From the Build dashboard, click System, then click Artifact Sets.
    2. In the Artifact Sets page, click Create New Artifact Set.
    3. In the New Artifact Set dialog box, in the Name field, type maven.
    4. Click Save.
  8. Optional: Configure Java™.
    The agent that runs the tutorial project must be configured to use a Java JDK instance, and not a JRE. If the agent is configured to use a JRE (identified by the agent's java.home property), reconfigure the agent to point to a JDK. Alternately, you can add the JDK_HOME property to the installed.properties file, which is in the agent_installation/conf/agent directory. In addition, the tutorial's Maven Build step must reference that property with the JAVA_HOME setting.
Your Build environment is ready to being the tutorial.
The tutorial project is also available in a file that you can download and import. To import the tutorial project, follow these steps:
  1. Navigate your browser to the file repository URL:http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rationalsdp/documentation/product_doc/UrbanCode/uBuild/.
  2. Download the file named DemoProject1.xml.
  3. On the Build Project page, click Import, and then select the downloaded file.
    Note: Make sure that you install the plug-ins described earlier in this topic before you import the file.
  4. In the Import window, click Import. The server imports the project. The server does not import plug-ins when it imports a project, so you still need to install the plug-ins described earlier in this topic.

Lesson checkpoint

The server and agent are configured for the tutorial, and the files that represent artifacts are ready to use. If you installed the agent on a remote system, you must know the credentials that are required to access the remote system.