CODEWITHSUNDEEP
tfstfsbuild
Jonathan
Jonathan

Reputation: 7551

TFS2010 build queue sometimes has multiple InProgress builds and sometimes not - what is the logic?

My fairly-large project uses gated builds, with a heavily-customized process template (XAML). For reasons beyond the scope of this question, our process has a single SharedResourceScope, so multiple builds don't run in parallel (I know you're supposed to do that with an Agent scope, but we switch agents in the middle, so wrapped everything with the SharedResourceScope).

Now, if there are several check-ins in queue, all of them go into "In Progress" state, and all but one wait on the SharedResourceScope. This means that:

I've experimented using DefaultProcessTemplate.XAML, and I see that usually only one build is In Progress (though Occasionally I see 2 builds).

Questions:

  1. When exactly does a build start, and therefore goes into "In progress" mode? What prevents all builds from starting immediately, and blocking on AgentScope / SharedResourceScope?

  2. Is there something I can author in my XAML to prevent all builds to go in progress?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1050

Answers (2)

Jonathan
Jonathan

Reputation: 7551

A build starts when the build controller has capacity to start a new build. Since builds can use 0 to n agents, the controller doesn't wait to get an agent before the build starts. The controller determines its capacity based on the "Maximum number of concurrent builds" setting on the controller properties (in code: MaxConcurrentBuilds). Default setting: "Default to number of agents".

No way in XAML to control this behavior.

Also, there's a bug in TFS2010 regarding this, hotfix: KB2567437

Upvotes: 2

Torbjörn Bergstedt
Torbjörn Bergstedt

Reputation: 3429

Using TFS Build Extensions, you get a number of activities with which you can administer agent control through the process: QueryBuildAgentStatus, IsBuildRunning, SetBuildAgentStatus to name a few that could be useful to you. They're fairly undocumented as of now, so you'll have to experiment to get them running. But there is a help file included in the package that is useful.

As for the "In Progress" mode, I've noticed that this is the status even if a build is waiting for a free agent; check the log of such a build and you'll see. This is quite confusing, and I hope that MS will add a "Queued (but not started)" mode.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions