Failed to start build #XXX on agent, disable the agent?

Question

I have a set of Java GUI tests on Windows that sometimes fail to cleanup a file or a window due to a lock. The next time any test starts I get a "Failed to start build #XXX on agent" message. The build then fails very quickly on that agent, which frees the agent to run another build and this results in a lot of builds failing with the same message on the same agent.

Is there a way to disable the agent when the problem occurs and maybe send a notification?

Answer 1

Rather than disabling the agent, you could try cleaning the files which get locked. Try using Swabra (Build Files Cleaner)