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title description ms.topic ms.assetid ms.date monikerRange
Deploy a build and release agent on macOS
Learn how to deploy a macOS agent to build and deploy your iOS application for Azure Pipelines and Team Foundation Server (TFS)
conceptual
3D487E4E-D940-4DA9-BDE1-1F60E74DD6F1
05/06/2024
<= azure-devops

Self-hosted macOS agents

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This article provides guidance for using the 3.x agent software with Azure DevOps Services and current versions of Azure DevOps Server. For a list of Azure DevOps Server versions that support the 3.x agent, see Does Azure DevOps Server support the 3.x agent.

:::moniker-end

To build and deploy Xcode apps or Xamarin.iOS projects, you need at least one macOS agent. This agent can also build and deploy Java and Android apps.

Note

This article describes how to configure a self-hosted agent. If you're using Azure DevOps Services and a Microsoft-hosted agent meets your needs, you can skip setting up a self-hosted macOS agent.

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Check prerequisites

  • Supported operating systems
    • x64
      • macOS 10.15 "Catalina"
      • macOS 11.0 "Big Sur"
      • macOS 12.0 "Monterey"
      • macOS 13.0 "Ventura"
      • macOS 14.0 "Sonoma"
    • ARM64
      • macOS 11.0 "Big Sur"
      • macOS 12.0 "Monterey"
      • macOS 13.0 "Ventura"
      • macOS 14.0 "Sonoma"
  • Git - Git 2.9.0 or higher (latest version recommended - you can easily install with Homebrew)
  • .NET - The agent software runs on .NET 6, but installs its own version of .NET so there is no .NET prerequisite.
  • TFVC - If you're building from a TFVC repo, see TFVC prerequisites.

Prepare permissions

If you're building from a Subversion repo, you must install the Subversion client on the machine.

You should run agent setup manually the first time. After you get a feel for how agents work, or if you want to automate setting up many agents, consider using unattended config.

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Download and configure the agent

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Azure Pipelines

  1. Log on to the machine using the account for which you've prepared permissions as explained in the previous section.

  2. In your web browser, sign in to Azure Pipelines, and navigate to the Agent pools tab:

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  3. Select the Default pool, select the Agents tab, and choose New agent.

  4. On the Get the agent dialog box, click macOS.

  5. Click the Download button.

  6. Follow the instructions on the page.

  7. Clear the extended attribute on the tar file: xattr -c vsts-agent-osx-x64-V.v.v.tar.gz.

  8. Unpack the agent into the directory of your choice. cd to that directory and run ./config.sh. Make sure that the path to the directory contains no spaces because tools and scripts don't always properly escape spaces.

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Server URL

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Azure Pipelines: https://dev.azure.com/{your-organization}

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Azure DevOps Server: https://{your_server}/tfs

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Authentication type

When you register an agent, choose from the following authentication types, and agent setup prompts you for the specific additional information required for each authentication type. For more information, see Self-hosted agent authentication options.

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Run interactively

For guidance on whether to run the agent in interactive mode or as a service, see Agents: Interactive vs. service.

To run the agent interactively:

  1. If you have been running the agent as a service, uninstall the service.

  2. Run the agent.

    ./run.sh

To restart the agent, press Ctrl+C and then run run.sh to restart it.

To use your agent, run a job using the agent's pool. If you didn't choose a different pool, your agent is placed in the Default pool.

Run once

For agents configured to run interactively, you can choose to have the agent accept only one job. To run in this configuration:

./run.sh --once

Agents in this mode accept only one job and then spin down gracefully (useful for running on a service like Azure Container Instances).

Run as a launchd service

We provide the ./svc.sh script for you to run and manage your agent as a launchd LaunchAgent service. This script is generated after you configure the agent. The service has access to the UI to run your UI tests.

Note

If you prefer other approaches, you can use whatever kind of service mechanism you prefer. See Service files.

Tokens

In the following section, these tokens are replaced:

  • {agent-name}

  • {tfs-name}

For example, you have configured an agent (as shown in the previous example) with the name our-osx-agent. In the following examples, {tfs-name} is either:

  • Azure Pipelines: the name of your organization. For example if you connect to https://dev.azure.com/fabrikam, then the service name would be vsts.agent.fabrikam.our-osx-agent

  • TFS: the name of your on-premises TFS AT server. For example if you connect to http://our-server:8080/tfs, then the service name would be vsts.agent.our-server.our-osx-agent

Commands

Change to the agent directory

For example, if you installed in the myagent subfolder of your home directory:

cd ~/myagent$

Install

Command:

./svc.sh install

This command creates a launchd plist that points to ./runsvc.sh. This script sets up the environment (more details in the following section) and starts the agent's host.

Start

Command:

./svc.sh start

Output:

starting vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}
status vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}:

/Users/{your-name}/Library/LaunchAgents/vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}.plist

Started:
13472 0 vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}

The left number is the pid if the service is running. If second number is not zero, then a problem occurred.

Status

Command:

./svc.sh status

Output:

status vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}:

/Users/{your-name}/Library/LaunchAgents/vsts.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}.testsvc.plist

Started:
13472 0 vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}

The left number is the pid if the service is running. If second number is not zero, then a problem occurred.

Stop

Command:

./svc.sh stop

Output:

stopping vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}
status vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}:

/Users/{your-name}/Library/LaunchAgents/vsts.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}.testsvc.plist

Stopped

Uninstall

You should stop before you uninstall.

Command:

./svc.sh uninstall

Automatic login and lock

Normally, the agent service runs only after the user logs in. If you want the agent service to automatically start when the machine restarts, you can configure the machine to automatically login and lock on startup. See Set your Mac to automatically login during startup - Apple Support.

Note

For more information, see the Terminally Geeky: use automatic login more securely blog. The .plist file mentioned in that blog may no longer be available at the source, but a copy can be found here: Lifehacker - Make OS X load your desktop before you log in.

Update environment variables

When you configure the service, it takes a snapshot of some useful environment variables for your current logon user such as PATH, LANG, JAVA_HOME, ANT_HOME, and MYSQL_PATH. If you need to update the variables (for example, after installing some new software):

./env.sh
./svc.sh stop
./svc.sh start

The snapshot of the environment variables is stored in .env file under agent root directory, you can also change that file directly to apply environment variable changes.

Run instructions before the service starts

You can also run your own instructions and commands to run when the service starts. For example, you could set up the environment or call scripts.

  1. Edit runsvc.sh.

  2. Replace the following line with your instructions:

    # insert anything to setup env when running as a service

Service Files

When you install the service, some service files are put in place.

.plist service file

A .plist service file is created:

~/Library/LaunchAgents/vsts.agent.{tfs-name}.{agent-name}.plist

For example:

~/Library/LaunchAgents/vsts.agent.fabrikam.our-osx-agent.plist

./svc.sh install generates this file from this template: ./bin/vsts.agent.plist.template

.service file

./svc.sh start finds the service by reading the .service file, which contains the path to the plist service file described above.

Alternative service mechanisms

We provide the ./svc.sh script as a convenient way for you to run and manage your agent as a launchd LaunchAgent service. But you can use whatever kind of service mechanism you prefer.

You can use the template described above as to facilitate generating other kinds of service files. For example, you modify the template to generate a service that runs as a launch daemon if you don't need UI tests and don't want to configure automatic log on and lock. See Apple Developer Library: Creating Launch Daemons and Agents.

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FAQ

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Where can I learn more about how the launchd service works?

Apple Developer Library: Creating Launch Daemons and Agents

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How do I run the agent with self-signed certificate?

Run the agent with self-signed certificate

How do I run the agent behind a web proxy?

Run the agent behind a web proxy

How do I restart the agent

If you are running the agent interactively, see the restart instructions in Run interactively. If you are running the agent as a service, follow the steps to Stop and then Start the agent.

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TFVC prerequisites

If you'll be using TFVC, you'll also need the Oracle Java JDK 1.6 or higher. (The Oracle JRE and OpenJDK aren't sufficient for this purpose.)

TEE plugin is used for TFVC functionality. It has an EULA, which you must to accept during configuration if you plan to work with TFVC.

Since the TEE plugin is no longer maintained and contains some out-of-date Java dependencies, starting from Agent 2.198.0 it's no longer included in the agent distribution. However, the TEE plugin is downloaded during checkout task execution if you're checking out a TFVC repo. The TEE plugin is removed after the job execution.

Note

Note: You may notice your checkout task taking a long time to start working because of this download mechanism.

If the agent is running behind a proxy or a firewall, you must accept to ensure access to the following site: https://vstsagenttools.blob.core.windows.net/. The TEE plugin is downloaded from this address.

If you're using a self-hosted agent and facing issues with TEE downloading, you may install TEE manually:

  1. Set DISABLE_TEE_PLUGIN_REMOVAL environment or pipeline variable to true. This variable prevents the agent from removing the TEE plugin after TFVC repository checkout.
  2. Download TEE-CLC version 14.135.0 manually from Team Explorer Everywhere GitHub releases.
  3. Extract the contents of TEE-CLC-14.135.0 folder to <agent_directory>/externals/tee.