To configure an agent, click on the name of that agent or the View link in any of the tables on the Agent Overview page. Most of the information shown will be configured at installation time, but you can edit the agent any time after installation. The Properties tab on the agent configuration screen allows you to view or set custom variables on the agent. The custom properties can indicate where build or testing tools are installed. In the Locked Properties section, you can review the system and environment variables (often used in agent filters).
Once configured, access to the agent can be restricted using the AnthillPro security features. Once security is set, only users with the appropriate roles and permissions will be able to use the agent for running builds, deployments, etc. See Setting Up Security.
See also About AnthillPro Agents.
You must have administrative permissions. See Setting Up Security.
If an AnthillPro Agent has not been installed, see Installing AnthillPro before continuing.
Go to Agents > Agent. Once the agents are installed, ensure that they all are online.
If the agent to be configured is offline (see Agent Settings), run start_ah3agent.cmd found in the agent's
\bin directory to start the agent.
At least one Environment must be active in order to configure the agent. By default, each agent is available to the Build-Farm; however, the agent does not have to participate in this environment.
Go to Agents > Agent.
Select the View icon of agent to be configured under the Available Agents menu.
Most of the information on this tab was given during agent installation (See Installing AnthillPro); however, you will need to select the environment(s) this agent is going to participate in, as well as the preferred server if using distributed servers.
Name. Give the Agent a descriptive name. The current name of the agent was given during the installation process. AnthillPro will automatically update the agent if it's name is changed.
Throughput Metric. The throughput metric provides a hint to AnthillPro's load balancer. In a busy build farm, it may be that several machines could handle a request, but each is already running builds.
To determine which machine is best equipped to handle the additional build, the load balancer compares the machine's throughput metric number to the number of jobs that are running on it. So an agent with a metric of 10 will likely get a third job assigned to it before an agent with a metric of 1 gets its second job.
Maximum Number of Jobs. Agents can also be given a maximum number of jobs that they may run. If an agent is running at full capacity, additional job requests are queued until the agent frees up.
Preferred Server. If utilizing distributed servers, select the appropriate server. In most cases, the agent should be connected to the preferred server via a LAN. Otherwise, select "none". See Distributed Servers and Agent Configuration.
Environments. Check the box for the environment or environments this agent is to be in. If the environment you want to add this agent to is not shown, that means the environment has not yet been created. See Environment Management.
An agent can participate in one or more environment. Generally an agent belongs to a single environment, such as Build-Farm or Development Test or QA. But often a single agent is used as a staging sever for several environments, and so it should participant within those environments.
Click Set if setting properties and/or security. Otherwise, click Set then Done.
Select the Properties tab and click Add Property or Add Secure Property button. Either property type may be used, with the only difference being that a Secure Property will obfuscate the property in logs, etc. The process for creating either property type is the same:
Property Name. Give the name of the property to be used. This will be visible to anyone who can access this property.
Property Value. Give the value of the property. If using a secure property, verify the value which will be obfuscated throughout the system.
Custom properties typically indicate where build or testing tools are installed.
Click Add then Save. Click Done twice if not setting security. Otherwise, click the Security tab.
Click Edit and check the appropriate Permissions and User Roles available to this agent. See Setting Up Security.
Click Done twice.