Running an Azure DevOps Build Agent in Kubernetes

The basics…

Firstly, create a new namespace called “build-agents” to hold the new agents and associated PAT.

kubectl create ns build-agents

If desired, add details about your Docker account if you wish to user your account for unlimited pulls.

kubectl create secret docker-registry dockerhub-account --docker-username=dockerhub-account-name --docker-password=dockerhub-account-password --docker-email= --namespace build-agents

In the above script, dockerhub-account will be the name of the secret in Kubernetes, dockerhub-account-name should be changed to your Docker Hub account name and dockerhub-account-password should be changed to your Docker Hub password or token.

Next create a simple YAML file with the following values:

buildagent-settings.yaml

image:
  pullPolicy: Always
  pullSecrets:
    - dockerhub-account

personalAccessToken: "your-ads-pat"

agent:
  organisationUrl: "https://dev.azure.com/your-org-name/"
  pool: "Default"
  dockerNodes: true

In the above file, you should change your-ads-pat to a Personal Access Token (PAT) you’ve generated which has “Read & manage” agent permissions. You should also change your-org-name to the name of your ADS organisation. If you wish to deploy the agent to a pool other than the “Default” one, you should also update that value. The image section can be completely removed or either of the sub-values if desired. If you’re not running Docker for your container hosting (Kubernetes 1.24+ will no longer support Docker), set dockerNodes to false.

Once you are done, it’s time to install the first agent:

helm repo add jabbermouth https://helm.jabbermouth.co.uk
helm install -n build-agents -f buildagent-settings.yaml linux-agent-1 jabbermouth/AzureDevOpsBuildAgent

To add an additional build agent, simply run the following:

helm install -n build-agents -f buildagent-settings.yaml linux-agent-2 jabbermouth/AzureDevOpsBuildAgent

The container can be found on Docker Hub, the files used to build the container can be found on GitHub and the Helm chart code can also be found on GitHub.