To circumvent the diskspace or CPU performance limitations with the default Azure Devops Microsoft-hosted agents you can build your own self-hosted agent. Below you find the steps required to build a self-hosted agent using an Azure VM and the Microsoft defined Azure Devops agent Packer definition.
To build a self-hosted Azure Devops agent use this repo: https://github.com/Microsoft/azure-pipelines-image-generation
Generate the Azure Devops agent image:
PS> powershell -command "&{ . .\helpers\GenerateResourcesAndImage.ps1; GenerateResourcesAndImage}"
Create and start the VM using the generated Packer template:
PS> powershell -command "&{ . .\helpers\CreateAzureVMFromPackerTemplate.ps1; CreateAzureVMFromPackerTemplate}"
Optionally change the desired vmSize in helpers\CreateAzureVMFromPackerTemplate.ps1 to get a pre-scaled image (instead of the default size).
The Azure Devops agent has to be installed afterwards, e.g. using a remote desktop connection.
First enable RDP;
- add Network Security Group (NSG) in Azure (under the same Resource Group),
- open RDP: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/troubleshooting/troubleshoot-rdp-nsg-problem
- assign the NSG to the NIC
Configure the Azure Devops agent on the VM following this guide: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-windows?view=azure-devops
Do not use the Default Agent Pool, instead create a new Agent Pool (e.g. Docker), as it might give you trouble assigning builds to it: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/338828/cannot-start-jobs-on-default-agent-pool-could-not.html
Install the agent as service under
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMotherwise Docker will not run: microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks#4449
Finally, configure the correct job pool name (the one containing your self-hosted agent) in azure-pipelines.yml.