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Before you can start customizing projects and creating build configurations, you need to configure build agents. Please review the agent-server communication and Prerequisites section before proceeding with agent installation. 

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• Log on as a service (to run as Windows service)
• Start/Stop service (to run as Windows service, necessary for the agent upgrade to work, see also Microsoft KB article)
• Debug programs (required for take process dump functionality)

• Reboot the machine (required for agent reboot functionality) 

• To be able to monitor performance of a build agent run as a Windows service, the user starting the agent must be a member of the Performance Monitor Users group

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A TeamCity agent connects to the TeamCity server via the URL configured as the "serverUrl" agent property. This is called unidirectional agent-to-server connection. If specifically configured, TeamCity agent can use legacy bidirectional communication which also requires establishing a connection from the server to the agents.
To view whether the agent-server communication is unidirectional or bidirectional for a particular agent, navigate to Agents | <Agent Name> | Agent Summary tab, the Details section, Communication Protocol.

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The bidirectional communication is a legacy connection between the agent and the server and it needs to be specifically enabled (see below). When enabled, it requires the agent to connect to the server via HTTP (or HTTPS) and the server to connect to the agent via HTTP.

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1. Install a build agent using any of the following options:
   • Using Windows installer (Windows only)
   • By downloading a zip file and installing manually (any platform)
   • Via the Docker Agent Image option to prepare a Docker container based on the official TeamCity Agent image
2. After installation, configure the agent specifying its name and the address of the TeamCity server in the conf/buildAgent.properties file.
3. Start the agent. If the agent does not seem to run correctly, please check the agent logs.

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1. In the TeamCity Web UI, navigate to the Agents tab.
2. Click the Install Build Agents link and select MS Windows Installer to download the installer.

3. Run On the agent, run the agentInstaller.exe Windows Installer and follow the installation instructions.

   Note
   Please ensure that the user account used to run the agent service has appropriate permissions

Installing via Docker Agent Image

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1. Make sure a JDK (JRE) 1.8.0_161 or later (Java 6-10 are supported, but 1.8.0_161+ is recommended)is properly installed on the agent computer.
2. On the agent computer, make sure the JRE_HOME or JAVA_HOME environment variables are set (pointing to the installed JRE or JDK directory respectively).
3. In the TeamCity Web UI, navigate to the Agents tab.
4. Click the Install Build Agents link and select Zip file distribution to download the archive.
5. Unzip the downloaded file into the desired directory.
6. Navigate to the <installation path>\conf directory, locate the file called buildAgent.dist.properties and rename it to buildAgent.properties.
7. Edit the buildAgent.properties file to specify the TeamCity server URL (usage of https:// is recommended, see the notes) and the name of the agent. Please refer to Build Agent Configuration section for details on agent configuration.

8. Under Linux, you may need to give execution permissions to the bin/agent.sh shell script.

   Info
   On Windows you may also want to install the build agent windows service instead of the manual agent startup.

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To configure the agent to be started automatically, see the corresponding sections:
Windows
Linux : configure daemon process with agent.sh start command to start it and agent.sh stop command to stop it.
macOS

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To run agent automatically on the machine boot under Windows, you can either set up the agent to be run as a Windows service or use another way of the automatic process start.
Using the Windows service approach is the easiest way, but Windows applies some constraints to the processes run this way.
A TeamCity agent works reliably under Windows service provided all the requirements are met, but is often not the case for the build processes configured to be run on the agent.

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Locations of the service accounts profiles:
"Local Service" - C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService
"Network Service" - c:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService
"System"- Has two profiles. One for 32 bit ("C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile") and one for 64 bit ("C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile").

The following instructions can be used to install the Windows service manually (e.g. after .zip agent installation). This procedure should also be performed to create Windows services for the second and following agents on the same machine.

To install the service:

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The user account used to run the build agent service must have enough rights to start/stop the agent service, as described above.

Automatic Agent Start under Linux

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For macOS/Mac OS X, TeamCity provides the ability to load a build agent automatically when a build user logs in. For that, TeamCity uses standard macOS way to start daemon processes - LaunchDaemon plist files.

Login Item approach (recommended)

The recommended way to start build agent on MacOS is as follows:

• Install a build agent on a Mac via buildAgent.zip
• Prepare the conf/buildAgent.properties file (set agent name there, at least)

• Make sure that all files under the buildAgent directory are owned by your_build_user to ensure a proper agent upgrade process.

• Start the build agent via bin/agent.sh start command and make sure it upgrades successfully on the first start. This may require a couple of minutes, see buildAgent/logs/teamcity-agent.log for progress.

• Create a command file $HOME/start_build_agent.command which contains one line: 

  Code Block
  language bash
  /path/to/buildAgent/bin/agent.sh start

• Add this command file into Login Items via UI or use the following command from the Terminal app:

  Code Block
  language bash
  osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make login item at end with properties {path:"/Users/your_build_user/start_teamcity_agent.command", hidden:false}'

• Configure your Mac system to automatically login as a build user, as described here

• Reboot

• On the system startup, the build user should automatically log in, and the build agent should start from the Terminal app (you can close it after that).

LaunchAgent approach

To configure an automatic build agent startup via LaunchAgent, follow these steps:

• Install

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• Install a build agent on a Mac via buildAgent.zip
• Prepare the conf/buildAgent.properties file (set agent name there, at least)

• Make sure that all files under the buildAgent directory are owned by your_build_user to ensure a proper agent upgrade process.

• Load the build agent via command:

  Code Block
  title Run these commands under your_build_user account language bash
  mkdir buildAgent/logs # Directory should be created under your_build_user user sh buildAgent/bin/mac.launchd.sh load

  You have to wait several minutes for the build agent to auto-upgrade from the TeamCity server. You can watch the process in the logs:

  Code Block
  language bash
  tail -f buildAgent/logs/teamcity-agent.log

• When the build agent is upgraded and successfully connects to TeamCity server, stop it:

  Code Block
  language bash
  sh buildAgent/bin/mac.launchd.sh unload

Configure automatic build agent start

• After buildAgent upgrade from the TeamCity server, copy the buildAgent/bin/jetbrains.teamcity.BuildAgent.plist file to $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/ directory.

• Configure your Mac system to automatically login as a build user, as described here

• Reboot

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• • Install the second build agent in a different directory

  • In conf/buildAgent.properties, you should specify an unique name for the build agent

  • Start and upgrade second agent via bin/agent.sh script
  • In bin/jetbrains.teamcity.BuildAgent.plist file, you should specify unique "Label" parameter (which is jetbrains.teamcity.BuildAgent by default)
  • When copying jetbrains.teamcity.BuildAgent.plist file to LaunchAgents, you should give it a different name
     

  • a different name and port

  • In the $HOME/start_build_agent.command (see details above), add a line to start the second build agent 

Stopping the Build Agent

To stop the agent manually, run the <Agent home>\agent script with a stop parameter.

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If the agent runs with a console attached, you may also press Ctrl+C in the console to stop the agent (if a build is running, it will be canceled).

Configuring Java

A TeamCity build agent is a Java application and it requires JDK version 6 or later -10 to work. Oracle Java SE JDK OpenJDK 8 (e.g. by AdoptOpenJDK) 1.8.0_161 or later, 32-bit is recommended. Java download page Oracle Java 8 is also supported.

A build agent contains two processes:

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If a build agent uses a Java version older than Java 8 (e.g. Java 6 or 7), you will see the corresponding warning on the agent's page and a health item in the web UI.  

It is recommended to use latest Java 8, 32 bit version. OpenJDK 8 (e.g. by AdoptOpenJDK) 1.8.0_161 or later, 32-bit is recommended. Oracle Java 8 is also supported.

To update Java on agents, do one of the following:

• Upgrade the Java automaticallySwitch to using newer Java: if the appropriate Java version of the same bitness as the current one is detected on the agent, the agent page provides an action to upgrade the switch to using that Java automatically. Upon the action invocation, the agent process is restarted (once the agent becomes idle, i.e. finishes the current build if there is one) using the new javaJava.

  hidden-data
  Upon the action invocation, the path to the detected Java is saved into the conf/teamcity-agent.jvm file, the agent process is restarted (once the agent becomes idle, i.e. finishes the current build if there is one) and uses the new java from the file.

• (Windows) Since the build agent .exe installation comes bundled with the required Java, you can just manually reinstall the agent using the .exe installer obtained from the TeamCity server | Agents page.
• Install a required Java on the agent into one of the standard locations, and restart the agent - the agent should then detect it and provide an action to use a newer Java in the web UI (see above).
• Install a required Java on the agent and configure the agent to use it.

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If you use Windows installer to install additional agents and want to run the agent as a service, you will need to perform manual steps as installing second agent as a service on the same machine is not supported by the installer: the existing service is overwritten (see also a feature request).
In order to install the second agent, it is recommended to install the second agent manually (using .zip agent distribution). You can use Windows agent installer and do not opt for service installation, but you will lose uninstall option for the initially installed agent this way.
After the second agent is installed, register a new service for it as mentioned in the section above.

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