In my last post, I explained how to configure your TFS server and agent pools to support Linux build agents. In this post, I'll be setting up a Linux machine to act as a build agent for an on-premise instance of TFS 2015. The TFS 2015 cross-platform build agent is just a Node JS application, so we have some prerequisites to take care of first.

1. In my last post,I explainedhowtoconfigure yourTFSserverandagentpoolsto supportLinux build
agents.
In thispost,I'll be settingupa Linux machine toact as a buildagentforan on-premise instance of TFS
2015. The TFS 2015 cross-platformbuildagentisjustaNode JSapplication,sowe have some
prerequisitestotake care of first.
 First,geta Linux machine!IusedanAzure VMrunningUbuntu14.04 LTS, so these stepsshould
workagainsta similarsetup.
 Connectto yourLinux machine viaSSHand log in.If you needanSSH client, PuTTYisawesome
and it'sall I everuse.
 Install NPM,the Node Package Manager.We'll be usingNPMto install the cross-platformbuild
agent.The followingcommandshouldtake care of it:
sudoapt-getinstall npmAnswer"yes"toanypromptsthat come up.
 Now, forwhateverreason,alotof the upcomingstepsdependonthe command"node"being
available.ButNodeJSinstallsas"nodejs".Sowe have toaddan aliasfor"nodejs"to"node":
sudoln -s/usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node
 Nowrun the followingcommandtocheckyour versionnumbers:
npm-v && node -v
You shouldsee outputlike this:
1.3.10
v0.10.25
Thismeansthat youhave version1.3.10 of NPMand 0.10.25 of NodeJSinstalled.Perfect!
 Nowwe needtoinstall the cross-platformbuildagent,whichisavailableonNPM.
sudonpm install vsoagent-installer-gThatwill downloadthe buildagentinstaller.Now make adirectory
called"build"andswitchintothatdirectory,andrunthe installer:
mkdirbuild
cd build
vsoagent-installer
You shouldsee some textlike this:
Installingagentto/home/ictfs-admin/build
Copying:/usr/local/lib/node_modules/vsoagent-installer/agent/home/ictfs-admin/build
Copying:/usr/local/lib/node_modules/vsoagent-installer/node_modules /home/ictfs-admin/build
makingscriptsexecutable
Done.
 This step is only if you are using an app tier server namethatis notusing a FQDN
For example,myserveris"ic-tfs-at-01".It'snot "ic-tfs-at-01.incyclesoftware.com",or"ic-tfs-at-01.local",
or anythinglike that.That"." mattersto the cross-platformagentatthe moment;itwill notallow youto
configure the agentunlessthere'sa "." inthere.I submittedabugfix forthis,but ithasn't beenmerged
inyet,so you'll have todo thisin the interim.:)Mysolutionisbasicallytoremove the checkfromthe
configuration.
Edit"~/build/agent/configuration.js".Iuse Nanoforthis,because I'mnot old-school enoughto
understandhowtouse vi or Emacs.
sudonano ~/build/agent/configuration.js
Findline 153, it shouldlooklike this:

2. Configurator.prototype.validate =function (settings) {
throwIf(!check.isURL(settings.serverUrl), settings.serverUrl +' isnot a validURL');
};
Remove that"throwIf"line andsave the file.Bythe time youreadthis,theymayhave mergedmyfix in.
If so, proceed!
 Nowwe can run the configurationprocess.
node agent/vsoagentIt'sgoingtopromptusfor some setupinformation:
- User name - enteryourbuildservice account.If you're usingadomain, Specify it as USER@DOMAIN,
notDOMAINUSER.Forexample,mydomainis"azure",andmyuseris"tfs-build".SoI'mgoingto enter
tfs-build@azure here.
- Password.Noexplanationnecessary.
- TFS serverURL. So,http://yourServerName:8080/tfs
- Agentname.Enterwhateveryouwant,Ileave itdefault.
- Agentpool name.If youmade a separate agentpool (Imade one called'linux',enterithere.
It shouldlook somethinglike this:
Enter alternate username>tfs-build@azure
Enter alternate password >
Enter serverurl > http://ic-tfs-at-01:8080/tfs
Enter agentname (entersetsIC-TFS-BA-03Lin) >
Enter agentpool name (entersetsdefault) >linux
successful connectasundefined
Retrieved agentpool:linux (2)
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_SESSION_ID=1
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SHELL=/bin/bash
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CLIENT=67.85.54.145 4186 22
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap USER=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap MAIL=/var/mail/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap PWD=/home/ictfs-admin/build
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap HOME=/home/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LOGNAME=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CONNECTION=67.85.54.145 4186 10.0.2.14 22
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSOPEN=|/usr/bin/lesspipe %s
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe%s%s
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap _=/usr/bin/node
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap OLDPWD=/home/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) :
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap ant notfound
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap clangnot found
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap cmake not found
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap curl=/usr/bin/curl
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap gitnot found

3. Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap jake=.
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap javanot found
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap make=/usr/bin/make
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap mdtool notfound
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap mdtool notfound
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap mvnnot found
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap node.js=/usr/bin/node
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap node.js=/usr/bin/nodejs
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap npm=/usr/bin/npm
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap gulpnotfound
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap python=/usr/bin/python
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap python3=/usr/bin/python3
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap sh=/bin/sh
IC-TFS-BA-03Lin
Creatingwork folder...
Creatingenv file ...
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_SESSION_ID=1
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SHELL=/bin/bash
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CLIENT=67.85.54.145 4186 22
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap USER=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap MAIL=/var/mail/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap PWD=/home/ictfs-admin/build
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap HOME=/home/ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LOGNAME=ictfs-admin
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap SSH_CONNECTION=67.85.54.145 4186 10.0.2.14 22
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSOPEN=|/usr/bin/lesspipe %s
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe%s%s
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap _=/usr/bin/node
Thu Aug13 2015 14:55:33 GMT+0000 (UTC) : cap OLDPWD=/home/ictfs-admin
Savingconfiguration ...
2015-08-13T14:55:33.451Z: AgentStarted.
To quitthe agent,just pressCtrl-C.Youcan alwaysre-startitby runningnode agent/vsoagentagain.