How do I force a build to start in TFS?

Question

I checked in some code and my build was added to the build queue. I can't go home until the build passes.

There is nobody in front of me, but it's been well over half an hour since my checkin and my build hasn't started (plus it's a half an hour to build the 49 large projects against the build environment). I've been at work since morning and just want to go home before midnight (it's past 8:30 already). My checkin's just sitting their in queue, not being fired off.

How do I force the build to start in an empty build machine if there is nobody in front of me in queue and nothing else going on?

edit: This is what I get for breaking my own rule of never checking in after 3pm unless it's a mandate.

Answer 1

Open the Team Explorer pane and navigate to your team project. Expand the 'Builds' node and find the build definition that you need to build. You should then be able to right-click it an choose 'Queue new build..'. (This does require a separate permission, and you may not have that permission).

This will then bring up the confirmation dialog where you can specify the shelveset to build (if its a gated build).

If the Builds screen shows that there are queued builds, and none running - it could be that there are no available Build Agents or they are marked offline. See Manage Your Build System for more information about how to check the status of your build agents.